Yahoo Movies ESPN's Chris Berman will be one of Red Sox 'conversational' WEEI radio broadcasters
The reigning champion Boston Red Sox are back at it in Florida and to prepare for its own preseason warm-ups, the radio station that calls the team’s games announced its starting lineup for 2019.
WEEI in Boston will use a play-by-play broadcasting-by-committee approach this season with a long list of “all-star talent,” announced by parent company Intercom on Thursday.
Among those is longtime ESPN broadcaster Chris Berman.
Berman among those broadcasting games
Berman, who used to call the Home Run Derby during all-star week, will call a “select” number of games this year, WEEI parent company Intercom announced in its press release.
WEEI’s Alex Reimer reported in his media column that Berman will call the series against the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park at the end of May. Berman, a Connecticut native, has taken a larger role at ESPN recently though a “full-fledged comeback has not taken place,” noted the New York Post.
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WEEI and Entercom announced it will rely heavily on the rotating group of Sean McDonough, Josh Lewin and Mario Impemba alongside Red Sox Hall of Famer Joe Castiglioine, who is in his 37th season.
McDonough will call about 30 games while Lewin and Impemba will each call about 55, per WEEI’s Reimer. There will occasionally be three-man booths.
McDonough is a play-by-play announcer for ESPN’s college broadcasts and called the Red Sox on TV from 1988 to 2004. Lewin most recently worked for WOR in New York covering the New York Mets. And Impemba spent the last 17 years calling play-by-play on TV for the Detroit Tigers.
There are a few others who will join in calling “select games.” Those are Lou Merloni, Dale Arnold and Tom Caron, all hosts or personalities for WEEI; and Dave O’Brien, who calls the Red Sox for NESN.
A ‘conversational’ broadcast
The station took considerable heat this winter when it was reported the station was looking into a format change. Chad Fin of The Boston Globe cited rumors that WEEI wanted to drop the conventional broadcast and make “the call of the game sound more like a talk show.” Awful Announcing picked up on the news.
“Talk show” had people thinking, understandably, of a “First Take” or “Around the Horn” style where hosts argue and begin to yell at each other, even if there’s nothing to yell about.
Entercom, which denied it after the report, made no mention of “talk show” in its release and Reimer semi-addressed it with a quote by Castiglione.
“We’ll have conversation. They’re all good baseball people. It should flow well. We like to have good conversation –– and tell stories and have background information on players to try and personalize them. That makes the fans feel like they know these people versus ‘here’s a guy who’s hitting .302 with 20 home runs.’”
Conversational and friendly chatter? Sounds like a perfect side to baseball. Talk show? We could all do without, thanks.
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