Idaho Press
Courtesy Idaho Press Tribune
(May 7, 2008) While Paul J. Schneider’s removal as the voice of the Boise State Broncos is still a hot topic, the search for a new one is moving along.
Peak Broadcasting, which won the Boise State broadcasting rights for football and men’s basketball in April, has sifted through 200 possible play-by-play announcers.
“We’ve knocked it down to about 50,” Peak general manager Kevin Godwin said. “We’re hoping to make a decision by the end of the month.”
To help with the search, Peak was aided by Sportscasters Talent Agency of America in Mission Viejo, Calif.
STAA president Jon Chelesnik said he personally receiver nearly 200 applications, then weeded out about 100, which he passed on to Godwin. About 100 resumes and samples were sent to straight to Godwin’s office.
The application deadline to STAA was Monday, and the final applications sent through mail were delivered to Godwin on Thursday.“We got former NFL play-by-play guys to ones that are just about to graduate,” Chelesnik said.
Besides the Boise State radio search, STAA is also assisting the University of Virginia with hiring a new football/basketball play-by-play announcer.
“With both, the radio company provided us guidelines they wanted, and we weeded them out for them,” Chelesnik said.
With whomever Peak selects as its choice, Boise State has final approval on the selection.
Boise State awarded Peak Broadcasting the rights to broadcast football and men’s basketball through the 2010 seasons last month. The flagship station will be KIDO 580 AM. Schneider had been the Broncos’ play-by-play man for 35 years, while KBOI 670 AM had held the Boise State rights for 37 years.
“We celebrated for about a day, then the work really started,” Godwin said.
After making the selection of who will take over play-by-play duties, the process of who will join the new voice in the booth will come soon after.
“We’re just focusing on play-by-play right now,” Godwin said. “But as we get closer to making the decision, we can think about who will do color. There’s also a good chance whoever we select to do play-by-play can assist in that.”