NFL on NBC Radio


From 1985–1986, the NBC Radio Network was the official, national radio provider for National Football League games. The program succeeded the CBS Radio Network's package.

Background

On March 6, 1985, NBC Radio and the National Football League entered into a two-year agreement granting NBC the radio rights to a 37-game package in each of the 1985–1986 seasons. The package included 27 regular season games and 10 postseason games.

Prior to 1985

NBC Radio, as early as 1934, had carried a handful of NFL games; it was particularly associated with carrying the Detroit Lions' annual Thanksgiving contests nationwide since their inception, helping to establish the Lions as a permanent part of the Thanksgiving tradition.
On April 5, 1961, NBC was awarded a two-year contract for radio and television rights to the NFL Championship Game for US$615,000 annually, $300,000 of which was to go directly into the NFL Player Benefit Plan.
From the 1966–1976 seasons, NBC Radio alternated with CBS Radio in coverage of the Super Bowl. After sharing coverage of Super Bowl I, NBC Radio would go on to broadcast only odd numbered Super Bowls. Jim Simpson served as the play-by-play man for all of NBC Radio's broadcasts during this era. Simpson, Jones and Randolph were joined on color commentary by George Ratterman, Pat Summerall, Al DeRogatis, Kyle Rote, and John Brodie.
For their coverage of Super Bowl III at the end of the 1968 season, NBC used Pat Summerall to provide an "NFL prospective" on the coverage. This was due in part to the fact that NBC was at the time, the network television provider of the American Football League. In return, for CBS Radio's coverage of Super Bowls I, II and IV, they used Tom Hedrick, normally the radio voice of the Kansas City Chiefs, to provide an "AFL perspective" for their coverage.

Ratings

In January 1986, NBC Radio figures indicated an audience of 10 million for their coverage Super Bowl XX between the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots.
In 1987, NBC Radio's broadcast of Super Bowl XXI between the New York Giants and Denver Broncos was heard by a record 10.1 million people.

Announcers

Play-by-play

  1. Don Criqui
  2. Mel Proctor
  3. Marty Glickman /Tom Davis

Color commentary

  1. Bob Trumpy
  2. Dave Rowe
  3. Stan White
Bob Trumpy also hosted a national, postgame call-in show called NFL Live. NFL Live would officially become the name of the pregame show for the NFL on NBC television program.
As the lead broadcast team, Criqui and Trumpy were responsible for calling Monday Night Football and the Super Bowl. They performed these duties in tandem with their assignments on television; at the time Trumpy served as Criqui's analyst on Sunday afternoons.

Thanksgiving Day series

1985

  1. Don Criqui/Bob Trumpy
  2. Mel Proctor/Dave Rowe

1986

  1. Don Criqui/Bob Trumpy
  2. Mel Proctor/Dave Rowe

Playoffs

1985–86
Wild Card playoffs
  1. Joe McConnell/Stan White
  2. Don Criqui/Bob Trumpy
    Divisional playoffs
  3. Marty Glickman/Stan White
  4. Mel Proctor/Dave Rowe
  5. Don Criqui/Bob Trumpy
  6. Mel Proctor/Dave Rowe
    Conference Championships
  7. Mel Proctor/Dave Rowe
  8. Don Criqui/Bob Trumpy
    1986–1987
Wild Card playoffs
  1. Don Criqui/Bob Trumpy
  2. Mel Proctor/Dave Rowe
    Divisional playoffs
  3. Tom Davis/Stan White
  4. Mel Proctor/Dave Rowe
  5. Don Criqui/Bob Trumpy
  6. Mel Proctor/Dave Rowe
    Conference Championships
  7. Mel Proctor/Dave Rowe
  8. Don Criqui/Bob Trumpy

Pro Bowl

1986

  1. Don Criqui/Bob Trumpy

1987

  1. Mel Proctor/Bob Trumpy

NBC's later relationship with the NFL

NBC Radio was bought by Westwood One in 1987, shortly after NBC Radio lost NFL rights. Additionally, Westwood One has owned the rights to broadcast NFL games since NBC Radio lost them, and generally broadcast NFL games under the title CBS Radio Sports in conjunction with CBS Radio. Westwood One was acquired by Dial Global in 2011, and following the 2011 postseason Dial Global retired the Westwood One branding. In 2012, Dial Global announced it would be the distributor for NBC Sports Radio programming once the network launched in 2013. Though Dial Global changed its name to back to Westwood One in 2013, the organization distributed NBC Sports Radio programs from 2013 to 2020. Through this period, though NBC Sports Radio aired general discussion of NFL games and news, broadcast coverage of live NFL games continued to be carried solely by the national program NFL on Westwood One Sports and local radio broadcasters. However, Westwood One does presently acknowledge the NBC Radio broadcasts in 1986 as part of the entire history of the network's football coverage.

''NBC NFL Sunday'' (2006 radio program)

NBC Television broadcast at least some NFL games every season from 1965 to 1997, when they lost the rights to carry the American Football Conference package to CBS. In 2006, the NBC television network resumed their National Football League coverage under the NBC Sunday Night Football umbrella. As part of the relaunch of their coverage, NBC became a co-producer of Westwood One's radio pregame/highlight show NFL Sunday, adding the network's name to the coverage and turning it into an abbreviated radio version of Football Night in America. Al Trautwig hosted the show for the first several weeks of the season before being taken off the coverage for unspecified reasons. Chris Carlin subbed for Trautwig for a week before Scott Graham took over the hosting duties and continued to helm the show for the remainder of the season. In addition to the typical NFL Sunday score rundown and a preview of the game ahead, NBC analysts would provide commentary. After the 2006 season, Westwood One returned NFL Sunday to its previous format and ended the co-production arrangement with NBC.