The New Orleans Saints' flagship radio stations are WWL AM 870 and WWL-FM 105.3. WWL 870 is a 50,000 watt clear channel station, the most powerful in New Orleans. [1] [2] The radio network has affiliates in numerous cities around Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.
Mike Hoss (play-by-play), Deuce McAllister (color commentator), and Jeff Nowak (sideline reporter) form the broadcast team. Former Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert hosts the post-game call-in show, "The Point After," and also performs pre-game and halftime commentary. [1]
Veteran sportscaster Al Wester served as the Saints' play-by-play announcer during its first four seasons (1967–1970). Longtime announcer Jim Henderson has led the broadcast team almost continuously since the mid-1980s, his tenure covering the franchise's periods of greatest success. Henderson announced his retirement following the 2017 season. [3] One week later, Wester died at age 93. [4]
Over the years, color commentators have included such notable former Saints players as quarterback Archie Manning, wide receiver Danny Abramowicz, and running backs Jim Taylor, Hokie Gajan, and Deuce McAllister.
Seasons | Flagship station | Play-by-play | Color commentator | Sideline reporter | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1967–1968 | WWL | Al Wester | Maury Magill | [5] [6] | |
1969–1970 | Jim Taylor | [5] [6] | |||
1971–1972 | Bill McColgan | [5] [6] | |||
1973–1975 | John Ferguson | Steve Stonebreaker | [5] [6] | ||
1976 | WGSO | Wayne Mack | Dick Butkus (Weeks 1–8); Archie Manning (Weeks 9–14) | [6] [7] | |
1977–1981 | Danny Abramowicz | [5] [6] | |||
1982–1984 | WWL | Larry Matson | Jim Henderson | [8] | |
1985 | Jim Henderson (Weeks 1–6); Jim Henderson & Archie Manning (Weeks 7–16) | [9] | |||
1986–1989 | Jim Henderson | Archie Manning | [10] [11] | ||
1990 | John Ferguson | [11] [12] | |||
1991 | Larry Matson | [13] | |||
1992 | WQUE | David Garrett | Jim Henderson & Archie Manning | [14] | |
1993 | David Garrett (Weeks 1–11); Jim Henderson (Weeks 12–18) | Jim Henderson & Archie Manning (Weeks 1–11); Archie Manning (Weeks 12–18) | [15] | ||
1994 | Jim Henderson | Archie Manning | [16] | ||
1995–1997 | WWL | [17] [18] | |||
1998–1999 | Stan Brock | Kenny Wilkerson | [19] | ||
2000–2007 | Hokie Gajan | [20] | |||
2008–2009 | Gus Kattengel | ||||
2010–2014 | Kristian Garic | ||||
2015 | Hokie Gajan (Weeks 1–13); Deuce McAllister (Weeks 14–17) | [21] | |||
2016–2017 | Deuce McAllister | [1] | |||
2018–2020 | Zach Strief | Steve Geller | [22] | ||
2021-2022 | Mike Hoss | [23] | |||
2023-present | Jeff Nowak | [24] |
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South Division. Since 1975, the team plays its home games at Caesars Superdome after using Tulane Stadium during its first eight seasons. Founded by John W. Mecom Jr., David Dixon, and the city of New Orleans on November 1, 1966, the Saints joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1967.
Dulymus Jenod "Deuce" McAllister is an American former football running back who played eight seasons for the New Orleans Saints in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ole Miss Rebels and was selected by the Saints in the first round of the 2001 NFL draft. McAllister was selected to two Pro Bowls in his career.
WWL is an AM radio station in New Orleans, Louisiana, owned by Audacy, Inc. WWL and 105.3 WWL-FM simulcast a news/talk format with sports talk at night. The studios are in the 400 Poydras Tower in the New Orleans Central Business District.
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WNOL-TV is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, serving as the market's outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside ABC affiliate WGNO. The two stations share studios at The Galleria in Metairie; WNOL-TV's transmitter is located in Chalmette, Louisiana.
WPXL-TV is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network. It is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, and maintains offices on Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Cleary Avenue in Metairie; its transmitter is located off Paris Road near the Orleans–St. Bernard parish line.
Ronald Edward Virgets was an American writer, commentator, and journalist. A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, he lived there for most of his life.
Zachary David Strief is an American football coach and former offensive tackle who is the offensive line coach for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL).
James Harmon Henderson is a former American sportscaster based in New Orleans. He was the radio voice announcer of the New Orleans Saints and also worked as a football analyst for WVUE-DT from 2012 to 2018. Before that, he worked for WWL-TV from May 8, 1978 to January 31, 2012.
Who dat? is an alternative pronunciation of the question "who's that?"
Bernard Saverio Diliberto, Jr., a.k.a. "Buddy" and/or "Buddy D" was a sports commentator in New Orleans for over 50 years. Buddy earned a Purple Heart for sustaining shrapnel wounds in the Korean War, during which he was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes. He got his start as a sportswriter at The Times-Picayune while attending Loyola University in 1950, eventually becoming the newspaper's daily sports columnist in his last two years of his stint there. His sportscasting career began at WVUE-TV in April 1966, where he remained as its sports director/anchor until he switched to WDSU-TV in March 1981, becoming sports director/anchor at that station for 9 years. WDSU-TV had previously been dominated by sportscaster Wayne Mack in this television market.
Wayne Mack was a broadcast journalist, television entertainer, and sportscaster who served the New Orleans, Louisiana, market from 1958 to 1992.
Larry James Matson is an American broadcaster and sports commentator. In 1974, he was the broadcast voice of the Birmingham Americans of the World Football League. He fulfilled the same duties for the successor Birmingham Vulcans in 1975. In 1977, he moved to New Orleans to serve as play-by-play announcer for Tulane University's ISP Sports Network.
William Stanley Elder Jr. was an anchor and investigative reporter for WWL-TV, the CBS-affiliated television station in New Orleans, from July 1966 to February 2000, nicknamed the "Mike Wallace of Louisiana" because of his hard-hitting stories.
Lloyd Alfred "Hap" Glaudi was lead sportscaster for New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV. He was part of a trio of colorful sportscasters in New Orleans from the beginning of the 1960s extending up until almost 2000. The others were Wayne Mack of the New Orleans NBC affiliate WDSU-TV, and Buddy Diliberto of then New Orleans ABC affiliate WVUE-TV. All three had distinct personas, fitting of New Orleans's unique culture, with Glaudi being known as the "Dean of New Orleans Sportscasters". Photographs of Hap Glaudi appear at the Radio Theatre of New Orleans website.
Dave Garrett is a former American sportscaster. He was the play-by-play announcer for the New Orleans Saints, Dallas Cowboys, and Westwood One radio coverage of the National Football League through 2001.
Jim Hawthorne is a former radio sportscaster. He is best known for having called radio play-by-play for the LSU Tigers sports teams of Louisiana State University for over 36 years, from 1979 to 2016, earning the nickname, "Voice of the Tigers". Before LSU, he called radio play-by-play for his alma-mater Northwestern State and Centenary College, as well as Texas League baseball and in the short-lived World Football League (WFL).