The NFL on Westwood One Sports is the branding for Cumulus Media subsidiary Westwood One's radio coverage of the National Football League (NFL). These games are distributed throughout the United States and Canada (the latter through TSN Radio). The broadcasts were previously branded with the CBS Radio and (for one season) Dial Global marques; CBS Radio was the original Westwood One's parent company and Dial Global purchased the company in 2011. Dial Global has since reverted its name to Westwood One after merging with Cumulus Media Networks.
Westwood One's package consists of every primetime regular season NFL broadcast (Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football), the opening game of the season, all NFL International Series games, any NFL game airing on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, any late season Saturday NFL broadcasts, the Pro Bowl and all playoff games (including the Super Bowl). The network also carries the annual NFL Hall of Fame Game. Additionally, in some cases, the network also carries any postponed game broadcast nationally (as this was the case for the 2020 season, due to impacts from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic).
History of NFL games on Westwood One's predecessors While major networks such as Westwood One, CBS, NBC, and Mutual held exclusive rights to most national broadcasts of the NFL throughout the league's history, Dial Global's predecessor, Jones Radio Networks, had carried several years' worth of Sunday afternoon games nationwide. Beginning in 2002, Jones carried game broadcasts from the Sports USA Radio Network. After Dial Global's massive acquisition spree of other networks began in 2008, Jones came under the Dial Global banner and Sports USA ended its relationship with the network. In 2009, Dial Global instead switched to Compass Media Networks for its Sunday afternoon NFL coverage.
Relationship to CBS Westwood One had a long-standing relationship with CBS Radio. CBS' parent company owned the network for approximately ten years (1998–2008) and, through the CBS Radio Network, maintained control of the production of certain programming, including NFL games, an arrangement that continued following Westwood One's acquisition by Dial Global through the end of the 2011 NFL season. CBS had likely been carrying NFL games since at least 1935, when George A. Richards, owner of WJR and the Detroit Lions, switched WJR's affiliation from NBC Blue to CBS; Richards had negotiated with NBC the previous season to carry the Lions' Thanksgiving contest that year and likely carried those games over to CBS when he switched WJR's network.
As such, there was often synergy between the NFL on Westwood One and its former sister outlet, the NFL on CBS.
The theme music for The NFL on Westwood One from 2003 until the end of the 2012 season was "Posthumus Zone" by E.S. Posthumus, the same theme music used for the NFL on CBS television coverage (Westwood One's sports coverage had always used the appropriate CBS television theme for their sport where applicable). For the 2013 season onwards, a new radio-specific score was commissioned by the network. For Christmas Day games, the song "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" by Darlene Love is used for the opening introductions (alongside the usual clips from games broadcast on the network).
Some personnel is shared between the two units; for instance, certain CBS play-by-play announcers (e.g. Don Criqui, Dick Enberg and Ian Eagle) call select Sunday afternoon games throughout the first several weeks of the season on CBS and then switch to Thursday and Saturday night games on Westwood One. Boomer Esiason, who is an analyst for CBS' The NFL Today, called color commentary on Westwood One's Monday Night Football (and would often advertise the latter on the former, as "the Monday night game on Westwood One"); conversely, Steve Tasker, a color commentator for CBS's Sunday afternoon coverage, served as an analyst on The NFL on Westwood One shows.
The coverage carried the CBS Radio Sports tag (both with and without "Westwood One") for many years before switching to Westwood One. The Mutual Broadcasting System, purchased by Westwood One in 1985, also aired NFL coverage for many years beginning in 1940, while NBC Radio, purchased by Westwood One in 1987, had exclusive NFL coverage in 1985–86. Westwood One now acknowledges the NBC Radio broadcasts as part of the entire history of the network's football coverage.
In December 2008, it was reported that the NFL was considering leaving Westwood One for a rival service (ESPN Radio, Sports USA, and Sporting News Radio being the contenders), or possibly splitting rights for prime-time, Thanksgiving, and postseason games between two or more networks.Ourand, John. NFL mulls rare shift of radio partnership . Sports Business Journal. 22 December 2008. However, on March 12, 2009, it was announced that Westwood One had signed a two-year extension with the NFL. The league then announced on December 22, 2010, that Westwood One's contract has been extended through 2014.
For 2009 and 2010, Westwood One also served as the distributor for the Sports USA network's NFL games after taking over the distribution rights from Dial Global. as such, Westwood One employed Sports USA announcers for certain games covered by the former network, including Thanksgiving Day games, the opening Monday night doubleheader, and Wild Card Weekend.
Sale of Westwood One to Dial Global and Cumulus CBS Corporation sold off Westwood One to The Gores Group in 2007, who in turn sold it to Oaktree Capital Management (under the Dial Global brand) in 2011. Dial Global discontinued use of the Westwood One name during its ownership.
Although Dial Global's broadcasts continued to carry CBS branding and personalities through 2012, it was initially unclear whether or not this would continue in 2013. CBS is currently working with Cumulus Media Networks in distributing its own nationwide sports radio network, while Dial Global is distributing NBC's national sports network. Several of Dial Global's announcers (Kevin Harlan, Boomer Esiason, Dan Fouts, and Ian Eagle) are employed by CBS and Esiason is a contributor to CBS Sports Radio. The situation was mooted in August 2013, just weeks before the 2013 season started, when Cumulus agreed to acquire Dial Global's network assets; Townsquare Media, which had previously been in the same corporate structure as Dial Global, will acquire 53 of Cumulus's stations as part of the trade. Thus, CBS Sports' radio operations will once again be under the same management as the NFL package.
In 2014, Cumulus/Westwood One and the NFL agreed to an extension through the 2017 season.
Cumulus Media, Westwood One's owner, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2017 and began canceling its national broadcast contracts (beginning with that of Imus in the Morning) in January 2018. Cumulus's local sports rights, including affiliations with the Seattle Seahawks outside Seattle, and a long-unpaid debt to the Buffalo Bills, are among those Cumulus seeks to terminate in bankruptcy.“Cumulus Seeks To Cancel WLUP/WKQX LMA Purchase; And Chicago PBP Deals” from Radio Insight (January 19, 2018) At the same time, CBS's local radio operations, while still under the control of CBS's shareholders, were spun off and merged into Entercom (which later became Audacy in 2021). No contract extension has yet been announced as of May 2018; the NFL still recognizes Westwood One as a broadcast partner (for instance, San Diego's KWFN proclaimed that it would carry the package in the fall when it switched to a sports radio format in April 2018), and unlike in 2010, the league has not publicly solicited bids for a radio contract. The network confirmed it would continue carrying the league in 2021, with no statement as to how long the renewal would last.
In March 2022, Westwood One confirmed an extension of the radio rights for an unspecified multi-year length, which adds radio coverage of other NFL events such as the NFL draft and NFL Honors, as well as the expansion of rights to distribute its broadcasts via affiliates' digital platforms and the NFL's app, as well as the opportunity to develop alternative audio broadcasts (in the vein of CBS's Nickelodeon simulcasts and ESPN's Peyton and Eli and Megacast supplements for television) for games.
Coverage overview
Sunday Night Football
Pregame Westwood One's coverage of Sunday Night Football begins with their weekly recap show, NFL Sunday. The show begins at 7:30 p.m every Sunday night on most affiliates and is hosted by Scott Graham. The show consists of highlights and statistics from the previous games of the day as well as a preview of the upcoming Sunday night game live from the stadium.
For the 2006 season, NFL Sunday assumed a different format. The show was produced in conjunction with NBC Sports, used its John Williams-composed Sunday Night Football theme song, and was regarded as more of a radio version of the television network's Football Night in America pregame. Al Trautwig was the initial host of the program, and an analyst from NBC would offer his own take on the game to come. Incidental music for game highlights came from NFL Films’ library.
Trautwig left the show before the season ended for reasons unexplained; Scott Graham would eventually take his place after Chris Carlin substituted for two weeks. (He eventually became permanent host in 2009.)
Play-by-play The play-by-play role for CBS Radio Sports' coverage of Sunday Night Football was originally filled by Jack Buck, who called the initial Sunday night games in 1987. Jim Nantz took over for Buck, who was already calling Monday Night Football for the network, the following season and announced games until 1990 when he was moved to television. Nantz was replaced by Howard David for 1991 and continued through 1995, after which he replaced the retiring Buck on Monday Night Football. Brad Sham was hired away from his job with the Dallas Cowboys to replace David for the 1996 season, and he stayed for that season and the following season before deciding to rejoin the Cowboys. Former NBC television announcer Joel Meyers then took over and stayed until the 2005 season when he was replaced by Sunday doubleheader voice Dave Sims, who had been his primary substitute. Sims remained in this role until the end of the 2012 season, when he traded places with Sunday doubleheader voice Kevin Kugler.
During Week 8 of the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Tom McCarthy substituted for Kugler as the latter was calling games for Fox. During week 11 of the 2019 season, McCarthy again substituted for Kugler, as he called the Monday Night game (Chiefs-Chargers) from Mexico City for the network.
For the 2020 season, after Fox Sports suspended Thom Brennaman for inappropriate comments he made on air in his other job as lead broadcaster for baseball's Cincinnati Reds, the network selected Kugler, who was employed by Fox already through his work on the Big Ten Network, to replace him on their Sunday NFL broadcasts (Kugler remains with the network for select games and as a substitute play-by-play announcer). Westwood One announced that due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, they would utilize different broadcasters from week-to-week depending on where the game was emanating from.
Westwood One elected to go back to having a single lead broadcaster for its Sunday night coverage for 2022; on March 30, 2022, the network announced that Ryan Radtke, who had been serving as the network's lead college football broadcaster and was one of the announcers used in the rotation for 2021, would fill the role.
Color commentary