Sportscaster Len Berman flourishes in sports talk industry

Long Island Business News, Oct 18, 2002 by Claude Solnik

When Len Berman finishes his sports segment on WNBC-4's "Live at Five," he doesn't get time for much of a break. He moves on to do the 6 p.m. news and then the 11 p.m. news.

He also calls in periodically during the day to do sports commentary on Sporting News Radio and checks in for "Spanning the Globe" segments on NBC's "Today Show."

If Berman sounds busy, he is, but then he's in an industry that is snapping up more air time and more attention.

Berman, who commutes to work from Sands Point, is among a group of sportscasters who themselves have become brand names, as much as the teams they cover.

And media companies are seeking to build them into brands, similar to the way team owners turn their teams and players into brand names.

"Len Berman's an important part of our localization efforts," said Mark Gentkow, Sports News Radio's vice president of programming. "The respect he commands from our New York audience is tremendous."

While athletes get a huge amount of attention, sportscasters typically are known as "the voice" of a team.

But like Howard Cosell a generation ago, Berman is not just a brand, but a business in a sports talk industry that is growing rapidly. And it's attractive to television stations because commentary and conversation is really cheap compared to the cost of carrying a game.

That combination of demand and economy led Fox-5 New York in August added 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. broadcasts. WCBS-2 recently added a 4:30 p.m. broadcast.

On radio, ESPN recently launched ESPN Radio in New York, heating up the sports talk turf wars where Berman is an all-star.

Berman, who commands 10 minutes of air time a day, also has built his brand quietly by broadcasting major sporting events ranging from The Super Bowl to the World Series. And he's snagged six local Emmy awards so far.

"He's perhaps one of the most polished professionals in the sports field in both TV and radio," said Jack Mandel, a marketing professor at Nassau Community College who brought Berman to speak for the school's "professor for a day" program.

Berman (no relation to ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman) grew up in Astoria, Queens, played junior high softball, went to Stuyvesant High School and then to Syracuse University. At Syracuse, he began broadcasting sports reports and basketball games.

He got into the news business initially as an intern at a TV news broadcast in Dayton, Ohio, where he later became a news reporter.

Berman was hired by NBC to do sports in Boston and soon began on broadcasts of New England Patriots and Boston Celtics games. He returned home to New York with NBC 17 years ago.

"When I first got to Channel 4, I'd give every basketball and baseball score," said Berman, noting coverage now goes deeper in part because the Internet and cable TV churn out scores. "I have to make choices every night."

Berman's seen NBC vastly expand the scope of its coverage - including a major misstep when it joined with Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation to create the XFL.

"NBC lost football," Berman said. "It was all a marketing tool to get younger viewers."

He's often asked why there isn't more coverage of soccer, which some see as the next big sport and a potentially huge source of revenue.

"Every kid plays soccer and yet no-one shows up for soccer games," said Berman, noting that it all comes down to numbers of spectators. "It's mass media."