When Creighton announced in late June that their radio broadcasts would be moving to 1620 The Zone from their longtime home at AM590, speculation ran wild about what that meant for the broadcasting team — specifically, whether T. Scott Marr, the longtime Voice Of The Jays, and Nick Bahe, the color analyst for the last five years, would be making the move with them.
Half of that equation seemed to be cleared up a couple of weeks ago when 1620 announced that Bahe would be the host of a new daily show from 11am-2pm, seemingly making Bahe’s continuation on game broadcasts merely a formality. Tuesday morning, it was made official along with the announcement of a new PBP voice: John Bishop, co-host of 1620’s successful afternoon show “Unsportsmanlike Conduct”. It’s a move that had been rumored ever since the contract was signed with 1620, as Bishop has been the PBP voice on baseball broadcasts since 2006.
While he’s new to calling college hoops on radio, he’s no stranger to the sport; Bishop was the lead announcer for KOLN’s television broadcasts of state tournament games for 15 years, and also called games for KLIN-AM during his time in Lincoln.
In the press release, Creighton athletic director Bruce Rasmussen commented, “We believe John Bishop and Nick Bahe will be an outstanding broadcast team for our men’s basketball games. We have had a great relationship with John for quite some time and he is very good at what he does.”
Bahe will return for his sixth season as the color analyst on Bluejay Radio, and is slated to call every game for the first time now that his duties will not be split between television and radio. Combined with the time he spent as a player for the Jays, Bahe has been around the program for nearly a decade and has unparalleled insight and access. His stock as an analyst has been rising, earning him TV assignments on MVC-TV broadcasts of non-Creighton games last year. Rasmussen indicated as much in a statement in the press release, stating “We think very highly of Nick and believe he is one of the best young college basketball analysts in the country.”
His new PBP partner agreed. “Nick Bahe has been the color analyst on Bluejay Basketball broadcasts for many years and knows the players, coaches and strategies as well as anyone,” Bishop is quoted in the press release. “He is uniquely qualified to describe and analyze the action on the court.”
The move means an end to T. Scott Marr’s run as play-by-play man after nearly two decades. He’d called Creighton games since 1997, putting him behind the mic for every big moment of both the Dana Altman and Greg McDermott Eras. His most famous call is probably Terrell Taylor’s buzzer beater in double-overtime to defeat Florida in the 2002 NCAA Tournament; as the shot went in, he exclaimed “It’s good! It’s good! Taylor’s shot goes in! The Jays win! The Jays win! Oh baby, the Jays win!” interspersed with inaudible yelling. No one was more enthusiastic after a big win than T. Scott; here’s his call of Antoine Young’s buzzer beater against Long Beach State in 2012.
Bishop will bring his own brand of enthusiasm to the booth, and it’ll be fun hearing his signature “JAYS WIN! JAYS WIN! JAYS WIN!” call after Bluejay baseball wins on basketball games as well. For fans unable to watch on television, it’ll take some getting used to, but his familiarity from those baseball broadcasts will make it less jarring. That’s something 1620’s general manager, Andy Rubeck, noted in the press release. “John Bishop has delivered literally hundreds of radio sports broadcasts. John has also been the voice of Creighton Baseball for a long time, and the fans are familiar with his talents.”
1620 will also produce pre-and-post game shows surrounding the game broadcast, though on-air talent for those programs will be announced at a later date.
