Last Sunday, Fox ran a promotion of the upcoming Fox Sports Network coverage of the Big East conference’s college basketball games, but it didn’t focus on the league’s top teams or players. It instead featured the two men who would be behind the mic for those games: play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson and color commentator Bill Raftery, who for the first time will work together for an entire season. They have gained a loyal following for their passionate calls and signature lines, particularly during the NCAA tournament on CBS. Now the sports networks themselves finally notice what a tremendous asset the Johnson-Raftery team can be to their coverage.
It’s quite a breakthrough moment in sports media when TV networks respond to sports fans by creating an announcing team that most of us have only dreamed of seeing. As I developed admiration for Johnson and Raftery, I began to watch games simply because one of them was announcing.
Watching the NCAA tournament growing up, I lamented that CBS’s hierarchy, characteristic of just about any network, would forever prevent Johnson and Raftery from calling games together. Raftery had been paired with veteran Verne Lundquist, who comprised the second team in the pecking order. Johnson was flanked by Len Elmore, and they were the C-team. Since the much-younger Johnson could never eclipse the well-established Lundquist, it seemed that the most excitable combination would remain elusive. And when Johnson departed CBS for Fox two years ago, this possibility was once and for all doomed.
But Fox, debuting its Big East basketball coverage this season, must market the package to hoops fans, and it can do so without facing the constraints of the seniority-based hierarchy that determines the broadcasting line-up at long-established programs like CBS’ coverage of the NCAA tourney or NFL on Fox. Johnson and Raftery served as the voices for EA Sports’ “NCAA Basketball 10” video game, and so in one sense their pairing this season suggests how their popularity among younger fans effectively influenced television executives. Fox has even picked Johnson as lead announcer for the 2014 World Cup.
Johnson has built a reputation for his enthusiasm — or, more accurately, his screaming — in the last few minutes of a game. He brings the arena’s intensity and emotion to the living room. Johnson defies the conventions of his job, seeming to lose his composure and letting his voice get out of control.
The sports broadcasting establishment tends to be filled with men whose instantly recognizable voices are distinctly calm and professional: think Al Michaels, Dick Enberg, Joe Buck or Jim Nantz. But Johnson’s fast rise to national prominence is a sign that, however unorthodox, he is beginning to win over the very executives who would appear most likely to protect the traditional style of broadcasting. Raftery is known to emit loud bursts of excitement during particularly crucial moments of the game, and you can always expect him to interject during the instant replay that immediately precedes a late commercial break. When, for example, a player sinks a go-ahead three-pointer, Raftery will shout “onions!” at the very moment that CBS begins playing its theme music. That tagline has become such a big part of Raftery’s persona that after one three-pointer by Gerry McNamara, his play-by-play man stole their airtime from him: “Bill, as you would, say, onions!”
What is going to happen, then, when Gus and Raftery finally team up? We will inevitably see them competing for airtime. As a precedent, look at their time in the book together in a 2006 game between Gonzaga University and Oklahoma State University. After Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison drained a go-ahead jumper in the closing seconds, Johnson yelled, “Woooahh!” Raftery then had to interrupt his partner to make sure he could insert his “onions” call. And then during the replay once Johnson paused for breath, Raftery made time for a second “onions.”