While McCarren is a former Packer, when Mike McCarthy's team did something wrong against the Patriots, he let his listeners know. Much like Patriots play-by-play broadcaster Bob Socci, the description is right down the middle. Listening to Larrivee and McCarren do a broadcast, one is taken by the down-the-middle tone of their broadcast. "Those people listen to us when we're at home or wherever," he said. In fact, several Packers fans walked in front of the broadcast booth to wish Wayne and The Rock all the best. While Gillette Stadium was filled predominantly with Patriots' supporters in red, white and blue, there were plenty of fans in green and gold wearing their cheeseheads. The Packers are a national team, as are the Patriots. We have found also now that with satellite radio, people can listen to us all over the world. "It's the most heavily-listened to sports on radio. "The thing about our broadcast is radio is very important to Packers fans in Wisconsin," he said. Larrivee said that Packers fans are very loyal to their broadcasts. Larrivee's in-game broadcast actually starts 10 minutes before kickoff, with the pregame program before. Most of the affiliates are in Wisconsin, but there are five in Michigan's upper peninsula, one in Illinois and one in South Dakota. Milwaukee radio station WTMJ has broadcast the Packers since 1929. Next to Larrivee is someone to feed the broadcasters statistics. The spotter helps the play-by-play broadcaster identify ball carriers and tacklers. Moll stands in between, handing Larrivee numerous cards with short ads or announcements to read, and he also acts as the spotter. The Packers' radio booth is considerably "lower tech" than what NBC has.ĭuring the game, McCarren stands on the far side of what Larrivee calls one of the best broadcast locations in the NFL. Michaels' spotting boards are computer-created, and he has them in printed out copies and on a computer screen. So while Larrivee, McCarren and director of broadcasting Carl Moll, set up shop in their room, Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth are one door down. On this Sunday night, the Packers' broadcast booth sits next to the TV booth at Gillette Stadium. "I do so much of it on computer, but I have a tendency to remind myself of a note if I've written it down on a piece of paper," he said. Larrivee uses handwriting and goes automated as well. Generations of play-by-play announcers did their spotting charts by hand in multiple ink colors. By Wednesday night my charts are done, and now it's a matter of trying to figure out where all the information is that I put down during the week, so I can find it on Sunday." By Wednesday, the official stats come out. I take notes when I watch the tapes, and then I start incorporating that onto these charts. These are the charts I'm going to use during the game, the spotting charts," Larrivee said. Preparation for the broadcast takes up much of the early part of his week. That's how I memorize the names and numbers. "On Monday, I pull the rosters together, information together and start looking at tape. The exclamation point in his Packers career came in 2010, when Aaron Rodgers guided Green Bay to a 31-25 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.įor Wayne Larrivee, a typical work week starts generally the day after the Packers play on Sundays. It's what I dreamed of doing," Larrivee said before the Pats and Packers took to the Gillette Stadium turf. CBS and Turner broadcasting did three separate Final Four and championship game broadcasts - one with the CBS crew and one with broadcasters from the areas where the Final Four teams were located. Two years ago, Larrivee did the "homer" broadcast when Wisconsin lost to Duke in the 2015 national championship game. He has also worked for Westwood One, broadcasting NCAA basketball on the radio, and has more recently done TV work for the Big Ten Network. While in Chicago, Larrivee was the TV broadcaster for the Bulls from 1991-2008. It has been a fairly dreamy career for Larrivee, whose resume is pretty packed.īefore being named the Packers play-by-play broadcaster, he spent 14 seasons as the radio voice of the Chicago Bears and was the voice of the Kansas City Chiefs for seven seasons before that. Larrivee grew up in Lee as a Packers fan, so joining Green Bay's broadcast crew was a dream come true. "I never know how it goes when I do the games," said Larrivee, quickly adding that, "you know, it's funny, they feel better when the team wins and not so good when they lose." He has been part of the Packers broadcast crew since 1995. "The Rock" later went on to be a TV sportscaster in Wisconsin. McCarren played center for the Packers from 1973-84. Larrivee and his long-time partner Larry McCarren were on top of the game from the opening kickoff to the final gun. New England scored 14 fourth-quarter points to beat Green Bay 31-17. 4 Sunday night game against the Patriots.
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