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On an early-season bus trip in February, coach Ray Birmingham and the UNM baseball team put Robert Portnoy, the radio play-by-play announcer who was beginning his new job calling Lobo games, through an initiation test.
As Portnoy puts it, Birmingham went on the bus’s loudspeaker and had Portnoy sing a song in front of the players and coaching staff. Portnoy chose a Kiss ballad and belted out a couple of verses a cappella. Laughter ensued, primarily because Portnoy admits he butchered the song.
Portnoy said he and Birmingham had already established rapport, but going through the initiation test helped develop a relationship with the rest of the program.
“The fact that coach Birmingham sort of included me in that kind of initiation ritual, and (how) all the guys were really cool about it and accepted me as they accepted any other teammate, I thought that was pretty great,” Portnoy said. “That really tells you what the Lobo family is about.”
Starting July 1, Portnoy’s responsibilities in the UNM family will extend beyond the baseball press box as he will be the radio voice of the Lobos across the board. He will be on the call for UNM football, men’s basketball and baseball games, and will host all radio and television coaches’ shows.
Portnoy replaces Scott Galetti, whose contract expires this month.
Learfield Sports, which holds the multimedia rights for UNM athletics, announced the move April 12. The AM station 770 KKOB will continue to broadcast football and basketball games in the Albuquerque area, Portnoy said Tuesday, while baseball games remain on ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM, an FM station.
“Robert will be a great addition to our football and men’s basketball radio broadcasts,” UNM Athletic Director Paul Krebs said in a statement. “He is doing a fantastic job with Lobo baseball.”
A 13-year radio broadcaster, Portnoy arrived in Albuquerque in 2006 to call play-by-play for the Albuquerque Isotopes, the city’s Triple-A baseball club and Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate. He’s called high school football and basketball games for the ProView Networks, an online broadcaster. The New Mexico Broadcasters Association recognized Portnoy for his work in 2008.
Since becoming the UNM baseball broadcaster, Portnoy joined The TEAM as a contributor and fill-in host for “The Locker Room with Bob Brown.” The TEAM president Joe O’Neill said Portnoy’s involvement with his station will now be limited to the baseball season, but he lauded Portnoy’s abilities and work ethic.
“(He’s) incredibly talented, but that doesn’t come overnight,” O’Neill said. “He’s spent a decade and a half crafting his art. … He does it from a sports fan’s perspective because Robert is, no doubt about it, a sports fan.”
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Portnoy said he has also called Double-A and Single-A baseball and worked in Alabama, North Carolina and Indianapolis before coming to Albuquerque. Though he has devoted considerable time calling baseball, Portnoy said he considers himself a fan of all sports.
“You want to know what my favorite sport is? My favorite sport is whichever one is in season,” Portnoy said. “That’s really the case. That’s how much I love them all, and that’s really true.”
Each sport has its own unique pace and challenges for a broadcaster, Portnoy said. In baseball, for example, he said the game’s slower pace allows for more storytelling and allow excitement to build.
Football allows for more downtime in between plays, giving more opportunity for commentary. Portnoy said the right color commentator can be the star of the show, especially if it’s a former player or coach who can provide a critique of the previous play and anticipate what’s to come.
Basketball’s speed, meanwhile, can make it difficult to work color commentary into the broadcast since the play-by-play tends to tell the story, Portnoy said. During the hoops season, Portnoy will work alongside analyst Scott Didrickson and “leave as much space as I possibly can for Scott to give his insights because he’s fantastic,” he said.
Portnoy said he’s particularly eager to join the Lobo men’s basketball broadcast at a time when the Lobos feature new head coach Craig Neal.
“I know there’s going to be a great deal of continuity being an associate head coach under coach (Steve) Alford the whole time Steve was here,” Portnoy said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun to see the program in his mind’s eye and in his image.”
Portnoy said he has only attended a few spring football practices and it’s too early for him to gauge the Lobos from an X’s and O’s standpoint. Based on the 2012 results and what he’s heard from people around the program, Portnoy feels the Lobos are on the right track with head coach Bob Davie at the helm.
“Everyone is on the same page, and it shows,” Portnoy said. “In his first year, it was a marked difference from that group that won three games in three seasons.”
Portnoy said the Lobo fans make this an ideal scenario for any broadcaster.
“I’m very excited to make the transition and be able to call Lobo football and basketball with the way that this town embraces those programs and its teams, and how much they care,” he added. “That’s what a broadcaster dreams of.”
