Kevin Harlan’s broadcast journey

If you ever have an opportunity to go to Kevin Harlan at his century-old house in Mission Hills, Kansas, ask the well-known sports activities broadcaster when you can see the gathering of weekly calendar books on the primary flooring of his home, simply off the lounge. Or possibly check out the older ones on the second flooring, tucked away inside a file cupboard in a storage room. What you may uncover on the pages of those 8-by-5 ​​leather-based journals is the story of Harlan’s 40-year work life.

Harlan is a author by nature, and his Arcadia burgundy-colored weekly planners include the secrets and techniques of how he has managed his work assignments for 3 nationwide employers — CBS Sports, Amazon Prime Video and Westwood One Sports — in addition to his earlier employer (Turner Sports), numerous business appearances and tasks resembling offering a voice for the NBA 2K online game franchise (since 2005).

“I can tell you that Annie [Harlan’s wife] and I first met on March 7, 1987,” Harlan said. “We had our first date on March 10, we were engaged in June and married that Christmas. I knew the moment I saw her. That was my first year broadcasting the University of Missouri.

“I keep all of my travel notes in the calendar books, things like what flights I’m on and what airline routes I like to take. Because there are so many games with different employers, if I don’t stay on schedule, well, I don’t like that feeling.”

You might guess that Harlan would have a personal assistant, given his various assignments for three employers, but your guess would be incorrect. He researches all of his flight information himself, then books his itinerary with the help of the travel departments at each of his employers.

“I keep all of my travel notes in the calendar books, things like what flights I’m on and what airline routes I like to take. Because there are so many games with different employers, if I don’t stay on schedule, well, I don’t like that feeling.”

— Kevin Harlan

Harlan makes sure to have up-to-date information on backup flights (and sometimes backups for the backups) because he never wants to miss an assignment. During his career, there were stretches when he did five games in six days for three employers, so he had to become skilled at travel that works best for his body and mind.

For instance, when Harlan calls a West Coast-based NFL game for CBS on a Sunday, he will fly to either Chicago, Detroit or Houston afterward and stay overnight in one of those cities so he can get an early flight the next morning to make his Westwood One game. (Being at a major Midwestern hub gives him more flight options, as well as a chance to get some sleep — he prefers not to fly red-eye flights.) Harlan is easily one of the most well-traveled sportscasters of his era.

“Here’s a quick thing that just happened a couple of months ago,” Harlan mentioned. “I was at the Green Bay airport and had a Wisconsin-Michigan college basketball game in Ann Arbor the next day [on Jan. 10]. I was going to take a five o’clock nonstop to Detroit the night before the game, but the plan was delayed because it caught fire after it landed in Green Bay. Now it’s six o’ clock at night and I have a noon game in Ann Arbor. There are no flights and I don’t want to fly on the day of the game.

“I asked CBS to get me a rental car, and I drove the seven-and-a-half hours. I arrived in Ann Arbor at 3:30 in the morning, slept until about nine, showered and cleaned up, and got to the arena two hours before typoff. Sure, I would have preferred not to have driven during the night before a big game with Robbie [Hummel] and Raf [Bill Raftery]but CBS was very understanding, the weather wasn’t bad and I got there safely.

“There have been a couple of those over the years that I’ve had to navigate, but it’s worked out by the grace of God.”

Father’s legacy

Think about this: Harlan has been the lead announcer for Westwood One radio’s coverage of “Monday Night Football” since 2010. That means between CBS and Westwood One assignments, he has called more than 35 national NFL games every season over the past 16 years. February marked his 16th-straight Super Bowl, the most in radio or television history as far as consecutive Super Bowls called for a national broadcaster. He is easily in the top-five all time as far as the number of national NFL games called by a single broadcaster.

Harlan said one of the reasons he believes he has successfully worked for multiple employers — he called NBA games for Turner Sports from 1996 to 2025 — is that he never viewed one employer as more important than another. He watched his father, the late Bob Harlan — who served as the Green Bay Packers’ president and CEO, among other positions during his four decades with the franchise — smoothly glide between NFL hierarchy and the devout Green Bay fan base. That ability to navigate with different people rubbed off on Kevin.

Bob entered hospice care in late February and passed away on March 5 at age 89. One of the few NBA games that Kevin had to cancel over his five decades was the Warriors-Rockets game the day Bob passed.

“Kevin probably doesn’t even remember this, but one of the first years he did for us, maybe 15 or 16 years ago, I was with him for a Packers game in Lambeau Field,” said Mike Eaby, Westwood One vice president and executive producer. “I knew he went to highschool in Green Bay, however he did not actually discuss it a lot. After that recreation, he says, ‘Let’s go for a little bit little bit of a stroll.’

“It was just me and Kevin, and we ended up in the plaza outside of Lambeau Field that’s named after his dad. He’s like, ‘Do you know where we are right now?’ I’m like, ‘We’re outside of Lambeau Field.’ He’s like, ‘No, look at this plaque over here.’ It was the Bob Harlan Plaza or something like that. I’m like, ‘Holy shit, Kevin, I didn’t realize this.’ I could tell he was just so proud. “I understood Kevin a little more after that night.”

Equal opportunity employee

Kevin Harlan has had the same agent for decades — CAA’s Michael Glantz, who met Harlan when the sports broadcaster was a young pup calling Kansas City Chiefs games. At the time, Glantz worked for Art Kaminsky, a famed agent who represented Len Dawson, Harlan’s then-partner calling games.

“Michael knows how I like to operate,” Harlan said. “I’m not confrontational. I’m not an enormous demand man. I’m extra shocked that I’m on this place than pushed by ego. I all the time inform him, ‘Michael, I want you to place me in your footwear whenever you’re negotiating with [CBS Sports President and CEO] David [Berson] or [former CBS Sports Chairman] Sean [McManus]or any of those different individuals.”

“He has an authentic level of humility, and part of that earnestness makes him not suffer from an overabundance of cockiness,” mentioned Glantz, who additionally represents Brad Nessler and information purchasers, together with Savannah Guthrie. “It’s funny — I have told him over the years that it’s OK to schmooze with executives and that it’s OK to play the game, but Kevin is simply not going to change. I love the guy for who he is.”

Harlan and Glantz have all the time staggered the phrases of Harlan’s broadcasting offers, in order that he is all the time working for at the least one employer (if no more) when one other contract is up. (His Amazon deal started this 12 months and runs for 3 years; his present CBS contract runs previous that.)

“It’s a triangle and no employer is more important than the other,” Harlan mentioned. “Now they pay differently, clearly, but what has been great — and I got this from my dad — is I try to be as honest with each. I never compromise the other. I would never say to CBS, ‘Hey, I’ve got a game for these guys in this city. Can you assign me there?’ They don’t care and they shouldn’t care. When I’m on your time, I’m your guy, and I am 100% into that employer for that particular broadcast.

“One of the issues I’m most happy with is that I’ve had lengthy runs with each employer. I believe typically in our enterprise, that will get neglected — longevity. To maintain a job at that community stage is a really tough factor to do, not to mention to do it at three completely different locations. I take nice satisfaction in that.”

Harlan joined CBS’s NFL broadcast team in 1998 after four years of broadcasting the NFL on Fox Sports. When it comes to Harlan contractually, CBS is in “first position,” which means that Harlan sets his assignments first with CBS before moving on to his other employers.

“This is important to Kevin, to have the opportunity to call multiple sports for multiple media companies, and we’re supportive of that,” Berson said. “He’s an enormous title and an enormous voice for CBS Sports. Working for Westwood One or Prime Video — or, up to now, Turner Sports — we do not suppose that takes away from the unbelievable work he does for CBS Sports. If something, it most likely helps construct his profile, as extra individuals on extra platforms are uncovered to his unbelievable work. His means to do it underscores his work ethic.

“We see the bigger picture and have such admiration and respect for Kevin that we want to work with him, so that it works for his schedule, for his personal life.”

Jared Stacy, vice chairman of world dwell sports activities manufacturing for Prime Video, mentioned the corporate’s relationship with Harlan started with a protracted Zoom name between Harlan, Stacy and Amina Hussein, the pinnacle of US sports activities on-air expertise and growth at Prime Video. The firm focused Harlan and Ian Eagle as a result of they knew the broadcasters would give them a “foundational element” for Prime Video’s NBA protection.

“We don’t have a one-size-fits-all mentality when it comes to people working on other networks,” Stacy mentioned. “We wanted Kevin Harlan to be on our air talking to NBA fans. One thing that’s helpful is that he’s free and clear, and his focus is the NBA toward the end of the season and into the postseason. We try to work with Kevin on what’s best for him because we want him in the best way, and we don’t want anybody to get overworked.”

‘A very good man’

Harlan, 65, is touring much less lately than he did earlier in his profession. He has 4 children and 7 grandchildren, and he and Annie determined he ought to cease down his schedule early within the NBA season so he could possibly be house extra.

“Now we are at the point of the NBA schedule where I’m ready to crank it up,” Harlan mentioned. “It has been a gift to continue with the NBA and to be part of this new company’s enthusiasm and vigor for the sport.”

Every govt Sports Business Journal spoke with supplied unprompted reward of Harlan as a considerate one who is family-first. Said Hussein: “Two things that always stand out about Kevin — what a good man he is, and the voice.”

Harlan mentioned his greatest problem over his 40 years of broadcasting is not efficiency or journey. It’s the residual guilt that builds having to depart house so usually.

“When I was young and doing this, the family had all sorts of things going on, just chaos; everyone was going 18 different directions, including me,” Harlan mentioned. “Somehow, we were always able to connect the dots. As I’ve gotten older and read more about men who have had a degree of success in their lives, the thing they talk about most is the casualty of not being around their family. Our kids always said they can’t remember me traveling because I was at their events.

“The problem for me has not been preparation, the efficiency of the broadcast or navigating between radio or TV. It has been coping with the guilt of that emotional departure from house. Some guys love the street and may’t wait to depart. But that is not me. I am unable to wait to get again after the sport has concluded.”

FREQUENT FLYER

Over his 5 many years of calling video games within the NFL, NBA and faculty basketball, Kevin Harlan has accrued some eye-popping numbers with regards to frequent flyer applications.

• Annual journey: 150,000 thousand
• American Airlines (lifetime): 2.6 million hundreds
• Delta Air Lines (lifetime): 4 million hundreds
• United Airlines (lifetime): 2.4 million hundreds