Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Hogs’ radio team to tune in at home
FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas basketball radio announcers Chuck Barrett and Matt Zimmerman will call the Razorbacks’ first road game tonight from home.
While the Razorbacks open SEC play against Auburn in Auburn Arena, play- byplay man Barrett and color analyst Zimmerman will be at a studio in Walton Arena.
SEC athletic directors voted to disallow visiting radio crews at conference games because of covid-19 safety protocols. Several
SEC schools aren’t able to set up a spot in their arenas for visiting radio crews, who are not part of teams’ traveling parties that undergo constant testing, to be adequately distanced from fans. So the decision was made by athletic directors that if visiting crews couldn’t attend some games, they wouldn’t be allowed at any to maintain a consistent SEC policy.
“It’s going to be different, and you’re going to have to take yourself there in your mind as a broadcaster,” Barrett said. “But in terms of
v calling the game, it’s not going to be as different as people think.”
Barrett said when the Arkansas football team has played Texas A&M at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, he’s called the game while watching the giant video screen that hangs from the roof because the radio booth is in the end zone.
The radio booths at Auburn’s Jordan- Hare Stadium also were moved to the end zone, and Barrett said he called this season’s Arkansas-Auburn game while watching a monitor.
“They set it up where the monitor showed the game in real time [with no delay], and I called the entire game off that monitor,” Barrett said.
Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek said the decision to not allow visiting radio crews at basketball games followed a recommendation made by the SEC’s medical task force.
Yurachek said the reasoning behind the recommendation included teams needing to have fewer people on charter flights for social-distancing purposes as well as concerns radio crews couldn’t stay in the team bubbles.
“And ESPN has proven you can do television broadcasts from afar,” Yurachek said. “Most of the ESPN talent has been in their homes broadcasting the football and basketball games to date. We thought the radio crews could do the same on the road.”
Barrett and Zimmerman, a former Arkansas assistant coach, will watch tonight’s ESPN2 telecast to call the game.
Zimmerman said he’ll miss visiting with former coaches who are now radio analysts, including John Brady (LSU), Sonny Smith (Auburn) and Richard Williamson (Mississippi State).
“I always look forward to seeing them,” Zimmerman said. “But they’re not coming here, and we’re not going there.”
Zimmerman said he’ll also miss traveling with the Razorbacks.
“You experience so much traveling with a team on the road,” he said. “I love being on that team bus when you’re pulling into the game at Auburn, you’re pulling into Rupp Arena with the Razorbacks, you’re pulling into Mizzou Arena to go fight those guys. You feel like you’re really representing your state with the team when you’re all together on the road.”
Yurachek said he knows Barrett and Zimmerman are disappointed not to be at the road games.
“They enjoy traveling, they enjoy being a part of the game, and they feel like they can do a better job of calling the game and painting the picture for people listening on the radio if they are actually there,” Yurachek said. “And I don’t disagree with them on that.
“But I think in this time of covid, they can still do a really good job of calling the game on the radio by doing so on the monitor here at Bud Walton Arena watching the television broadcast.”
Barrett said last summer he listened to many Major League Baseball games on the radio when he knew the broadcasters weren’t at the stadiums.
“There are lots of games that people have listened to on the radio that have been done remotely, and they don’t realize it,” Barrett said. “It’ll be different for us to do that with Razorback basketball, but I think it’s going to be OK.
“We’ll make it work and we’ll still have a quality broadcast for the fans.”
“You feel like you’re really representing your state with the team when you’re all together on the road.”
University of Arkansas men’s basketball radio broadcaster Matt Zimmerman