CBS/Turner having trouble finding announcers for its local Final Four telecasts

When CBS/Turner announced there would be team-centric telecasts for the NCAA Final Four, it was thought that the networks would hire or simulcast the radio announcers and go from there. However, as the games are fast approaching, we learn that the radio voices of the local teams are not jumping on board. In some cases, the local radio rightsholders have given a flat out “no” answer to CBS/Turner.

Instead of pulling the local radio feeds and building a telecast around it, CBS/Turner want to use a local voice for its TNT and truTV team-centric telecasts which will compliment the traditional national telecast on TBS. So with Florida and Wisconsin already in the Final Four, CBS/Turner will utilize an announcer familiar with both schools for their productions.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir reports that despite the potential for national exposure and a huge audience, the radio voices like UConn’s Joe D’Ambrosio or Kentucky’s Tom Leach are reluctant to leave their loyal audiences at this point. And Wisconsin’s radio voice Matt Lepay tells the Times:

“Anytime network television reaches out, your knee-jerk reaction is to say, ‘Where do I sign?’ But we’ve been with Wisconsin on radio all season long. Why change up now?”

In addition, Sandomir writes that IMG College and Learfield Sports which own the rights to over 150 colleges across the country including some in the NCAA Tournament have also told CBS/Turner that its announcers would not be available for the national telecasts.

It leaves CBS/Turner in the lurch and having to scramble just less than a week until the Final Four. It may have to depend on announcers who have worked on local or regional network TV to fill out their roster.

If CBS/Turner can’t fill the positions, it could always tap two men who have plenty of experience calling the NCAA Tournament, but have yet to call a Final Four together. Why not give us a Uncle Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery feed on either TNT or truTV? And while Raft has called the Final Four on radio for Westwood One for many years now, it would be great to have him on TV. Maybe next year.

[New York Times]