Dave Johnson, WTOP-FM’s sports director, is keeping up his double-duty routine. But instead of doing Wizards games or heading out on the road with D.C. United, he is on another continent.
Johnson is doing play-by-play of World Cup games from Germany for D.C.-based XM Radio. The days are long, and yes, he may be giving you the Nationals score on the 15s every morning, but around noon you can bet he is on XM Radio applying his signature call of soccer.
XM Radio’s exclusive coverage of World Cup has thus far been nothing short of awesome.
They are a soccer fan’s dream, taking calls starting at 6 a.m. Bill McDermott anchors “FIFA World Cup This Morning” and does a great job interacting with listeners and setting up the day’s storylines.
Many names in the XM crew are familiar to Washington area soccer fans. Manny Lagos, Sean Wheelock, Dave Ungrady, Christopher Sullivan, Phil Schoen, Dwight Burgess and Jeff Agoos all have MLS and local broadcast experience, giving fans a decided U.S. flavor to the broadcasts.
That was not the case in the past when many of the color analysts were former English stars. They were colorful and talented, but it is good to hear Americans who know the game well enough to serve as quality broadcasters.
Also, all the XM games are being called live from the game site in Germany. XM also has the exclusive Spanish language radio rights and the legendary Andres Cantor – GOAAAALLL!!! – anchors World Cup coverage for XM Deportivo. Known for his passion for and encyclopedicknowledge of soccer, Cantor broadcast from the 1990, 1994, 1998, and 2002 FIFA World Cups.
So XM has rapidly become the go-to place for radio soccer fans aching for years to have an outlet in the United States to talk about their sport.
Now they have it. Let’s hope that XM keeps things going after the World Cup.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer.
