Radio gears up for the Super Bowl

Story by Inside Radio

It’ll be a mash-up of marketing, music and sports for Sunday’s Super Bowl. More than 700 stations in 175 countries will broadcast WestwoodOne’s coverage of Super Bowl XLVIII this weekend, including the American Forces Radio Network. For the 27th consecutive year, and the 41st time since the Super Bowl began, the network will carry what’s become a mash-up of marketing and the biggest sporting event in the U.S.

Westwood One will go on the air with its pre-game coverage at 12pm ET on Sunday with a mix of sports talk, expert analysis and a bit of fun — it’ll broadcast from a tailgate party at the neighboring Izod Center. Once again this year the network will add a musical soundtrack to its coverage with Hollywood Records alt-rockers Redlight Kings using a live performance to launch the day’s coverage. Their song, “Born To Rise,” will also be mixed with highlights and sound bites from the 49ers and Seahawks.

Kevin Harlan will handle play-by-play duties for the Super Bowl for the fourth straight year with Boomer Esiason, serving as the color analyst — his 14th consecutive year with the network. Mark Malone and Hall of Famer James Lofton will once again report from the sidelines. Jim Gray will anchor the pregame and halftime coverage, with appearances by both Arizona wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and New England quarterback Tom Brady. Scott Graham and Hall of Famer Rod Woodson will also contribute to the coverage. Also of note: Howard Deneroff is the executive producer of WestwoodOne Sports, and this marks his 25th Super Bowl with the network. Larry Costigan is the coordinating producer.

Spanish-language game rights belong to ESPN Deportes, which will kick-off its coverage at 3pm on Sunday. Play-by-play duties go to Kenneth Garay, who’ll work alongside color analyst Sebastian Christensen with Marcelo Sandrin reporting from the field.

Not holding the Super Bowl play-by-play rights doesn’t mean other networks are ignoring the big game. ESPN Radio says it will air 115 hours of programming, encompassing 11 live studio shows this week in New York including coverage from New York flagship “ESPN NY 98.7” WEPN-FM. Several of the shows are also being broadcast on ESPN cable networks like ESPN2 and ESPNU. It’s a similar story for Fox Sports Radio which will mark its 14th year at the Super Bowl by broadcasting from several locations throughout New York City.

CBS Sports Radio says it will air more than 75 hours of programming from the Super Bowl site, basing most of its talk shows from the big game’s media center. “With the Super Bowl, the premier sporting event in our country, happening right in our back yard, there was no doubt that CBS Sports Radio would go wall-to-wall covering all of the pre-game stories, news, and interviews,” CBS Sports Radio director of programming Eric Spitz says. Local hosts from CBS-owned sports stations in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Boston, Washington and Tampa will also be on hand to cover the pre-game action.

Hometown sports outlet WFAN is also adding a musical element, presenting a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert on Saturday. “If you look at the relationship between musicians and athletes, they are all commingled as part of that pop-culture phenomenon, and they all want to hang out with each other,” CBS Radio EVP of programming Chris Oliviero tells the New York Times.