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Justin Kutcher From FOX Sports

Justin Kutcher is a play-by-play announcer for FOX Sports, calling a variety of sports for the network including college football, college basketball, Major League Baseball, NFL and soccer. He partnered with former U.S. Women’s National team player and two-time Olympic gold medalist Aly Wagner to call games at the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ in Canada during the summer of 2015.

Before joining FOX Sports in August 2012 for the network’s coverage of college football and MLB, he spent four years at ESPN, working as a play-by-play announcer for several sports including football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, hockey and soccer. He also worked as an ESPN studio anchor and host for several different events.

During his time at the network, Kutcher called everything from high school football and basketball to the BIG EAST Basketball Tournament and NBA regular-season games. He also was one of the primary voices for ESPN’s college baseball coverage, broadcasting the Regionals and Super Regionals, as well as the softball Super Regionals for three years. In addition, he was the voice of the Under Armour High School All-America Football Game for three years and called the NCAA Men’s Volleyball National Championships.

Kutcher previously worked for Big Ten Network, CBS Sports Network (formerly CBS College Sports) and NCAA Productions as both a play-by-play announcer and studio host. Additionally, he was a regular contributor on MLB.com, where he hosted “Daily Rewind,” a nightly highlight show. At the same time, he served as the primary anchor for MLB.com’s “Post Season Live” program during the 2008 Postseason. In August 2008, Kutcher hosted a nightly nationally syndicated Olympic recap show for Westwood One Radio.

The versatile broadcaster spent three years broadcasting minor league baseball at the Double-A and Triple-A levels before he was hired on-air at CSTV in 2006. He also called the World Softball Championships (an Olympic qualifying event) in 2006 from Beijing, China, for the International Softball Federation. From 2000 to 2006, he freelanced as a statistician for FOX Sports, working the playoffs and World Series as a special assistant to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, and spent time broadcasting Minor League Soccer for the Portland Timbers. He held an internship for MSG Network in New York during the summer of 2000.

Duration:: 26m
Broadcast on:: 26 Apr 2016
Audio Format:: other

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VGW Group, Fort Worth, prohibited by law. 18+ Terms and conditions apply. Hey, tarot on iHeartRadio. Unplugged in totally uncut with a play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports, a man that calls a variety of sports for the network, including college football, basketball, major league baseball, the NFL, and soccer. Inside the iHeartRadio studio, we welcome Justin Kutcher. Do you like a rock star? Do you get the tour of the country? Not the same money, but yeah. But the show, though, has got to be, I mean, those large trucks and stuff like that that you put on a show. I mean, it's like, I can't imagine what you guys do in prepping for something like that. You know, honestly, for me, it's not as bad as I think for the guys in the truck. They, I mean, they help support us so much so that it makes our job easy. Don't you look at yourself as being a modern-day storyteller? Just get a win. It doesn't matter how you do it. Just get a win. I mean, at this time, you're ugly, when pretty, it don't matter. Yeah, yeah. Extend the series, see what you can do. You extend it long enough, you hope a tomb comes back, and I mean, whatever you can do, just do it. All the attention's on stuff right now, though. No doubt. Man, what, what happens? I mean, do you think he's going to heal? I think he will. Yeah. I think, I think, uh, I think he'll heal, will they be around in a position where they can use him is, is the issue. And then, and then when he comes back, you know, game shape, right? What's his shooting? You got all these different factors coming in, but it would be a real shame if they went 73 and nine and didn't have a chance because of that injury. Yeah. Yeah. But they give you something to talk about. I love Steph. I love the lawyers. I mean, I grew up a Jordan fan, and this guy is the most exciting player since Jordan. And for any basketball fan not to have the chance to watch him right now, it's suck. Yeah. How much show prep do you have to get into? Or is it big? It's got to be spur of the moment. You've got to have it up here more than down here. Good question. Um, you do a lot of show prep, but it's, it's different. Like, I can't tell you, like how many hours a week I put in for one game, because I'm always watching. I'm on my phone. I'm on Twitter. I'm reading online, not just about my game, but about the sports in general, and not just about the, that singular sport, but all sports, because I'm a sports nut. So, as far as that off the top of your head, my mind is really weird, where I see something, and it reminds me of a game from 1994 or five. And I spent, you know, able to spout it off. And the good thing is I've got a stats guy right next to me. So there are some things where I know off the top of my head. But since I'm on national TV, sometimes I'm like, let me just double check. I'm like, hey, just, can you just look up what he was in that game, looks it up, and then I can go with it. That's going to be total relationship. Oh, I mean, yeah, it's, it is. I mean, I pick out my stats guys. And one, I want to make sure they're good, you know, but two, I also want to make sure that they're good people. Do they travel with you? Yeah. Okay. That'd be interesting. Each town, you have to sit down like there's like a panel of 12. For basketball oftentimes, you do. For basketball, they kind of, sometimes I travel my own guy by other times. And for those games, I just, I use them just for purely numbers. But for baseball, for football, I can have them look stuff up. So do you think baseball should adopt a new rule that when the batter hits it, they can either go to third or first and you don't know? I'm a purist. Do you not think that would make the game fun? I think you confuse cricket and baseball at the same time. But no, I love, I love the game of baseball. I know people find it boring. I think it's, I think it's the most interesting game out there. Very scientific. It's, there's just so much strategy. Like, I never played chess. I never learned how to play chess. But I envision chess being somewhat like baseball where when you know the intricacies of baseball and you know how each pitch matters, it's not just a guy throwing the ball to the catcher. He's actually picking out a spot. He's figuring out what pitch to throw and not just for that pitch, but for the next pitch to set the batter up. And when there's all this stuff going on, that's what I think makes the game so great. And then if this person gets on, what's the next person going to do? What do you do and how do you set things up? And that's what I love about it. Do you think they sit there and go, if I throw it into the catcher's mitt here, he's going to put it out in left field, which then gets the ball closer to second base so we can get this double play going on. Can they break it down that far? To left field, I don't know, but I could tell you that they can say if I execute this pitch right now, I expect to get a guy to roll over the ball, ground out to one side of the infield and get to. There's no doubt about that. So what are we going to do about as we grow into this age of podcasting, which I still call broadcasting, the one of the things that I speak a lot about when I go to the campuses is that we've got to figure out a way to where last night's win with the Hornets isn't tomorrow's old news. What do you think is a broadcaster that so that, you know what I mean? We're in this age now where people are finding these shows and they're late. And so as we build it, we have to keep that foundation. I think it's an issue with us as a society, as a whole. Everybody wants stuff now, now, now, now. And so even like, you know, shows, you're going into like three-minute clips. What can I clip off and put on Twitter or put on Instagram or whatever it is, and our attention span has become so poor. I guess you have to make an adjustment, but I also wish that we would take a focus and try to expand our attention zone, not cater to people because they want things in three minutes, but actually make them sit there, watch, and think. And I don't think that, you know, the Hornets winning last night is old news today. I think the Hornets, you know, you can break it down different ways. You can still show highlights. I think it's still exciting, especially if you're a Hornets fan, if you're a kid. But I think things, I realize things are changing, but I also think things are cyclical. And obviously with technology, it's not. But I still think that sports is one thing where it's not old news. There's at least a 24-hour period. And I know highlight shows are kind of going by the wayside. Maybe it's because I'm a sports purist. I still want to see my highlights. And maybe go more in depth on those highlights. Maybe give me three minutes, three and a half minutes for highlights, so you can tell the entire story of that game as opposed to giving me 30 seconds of the highlights and focusing on one part. Show me how the game began. Show me a couple of great plays, whatever it might be. If there were a ton of great plays or a ton of big moments, make sure you focus on those and make sure you show those. And that highlight might turn into five minutes. But because that right there is a story. And if you can do that, you've got like a mini movie or mini show. And that's the way that I would want to see it. So you're a dot collector. Meaning that you know that the listener, the viewer, and the client, they're all together. And we've got to make sure that this bond happens. Yeah, there's got to be a connection. And I think with sports, what you have are fans. And if you're a fan of the sport, if you're a fan of the team, you're going to want to watch. And if you can, if you can get that person in, I don't, I think people, because of sports center, they got to cut up in the in the cliches or these, you know, sayings. And they want to be funny. Funny happens. You can't force funny. And so when you're trying too hard, people see it. And people today try too hard. But if you just do the highlights and something happens and something pops into your head and it's a quick, witty comment, people will pay attention. And I just think that with that kind of stuff, if you if you show this, the story of the game, people will want to want to watch. Because I know for me, like, I can't watch every game. But I used to be able to watch, you know, a sports center show or a highlight show and find out what happened. Now I go online and I have to look at individual clips to do it. I don't want to watch individual clips. Give me three and a half minutes. I'll be really, really happy. And I just think that we have to look at the broader picture of why is our attention span gone from a 30 minute show to a 30 second clip. I don't get it. Has fantasy sports interfered with real sports? Oh, no doubt. It's interfered and it's helped. You know, why is football so popular? Well, football so popular because of gambling. I mean, it's the perfect sport for gambling. And fantasy sports, how is it intersected with real life sports? Well, people don't care about anything besides their fantasy numbers. So defense, look at all the rule changes in football. Look at how you protect the quarterback. The quarterback cannot be touched essentially. Why? Because they know they're the guys who drive the fantasy numbers. They get the ball of the receivers. They get the ball of tight ends, you know, hand the ball off the running back. You got to make sure this guy is healthy. Otherwise, everyone's fantasy teams goes, you know, to hell. And so yeah, it's definitely changed. And that's why I don't play fantasy. Because for me, playing fantasy, there's a reason it's called fantasy. It's not reality. It doesn't teach you how to be a real fan of the game. And I think what you're seeing is almost like general managers taking the same approach as fantasy managers take. Well, we need scoring. We need scoring. We need this, this, this. And they get away from what actually wins. And that's defense. And if you look at teams that win, they play an entire game. They don't play a fantasy game. Don't you see another Pete Rose moment happening here with gambling? Well, yeah, could they not set it up that way? Well, I mean, you see it in sports, I mean, point shaving or in tennis, you know, you know, gambling in that sense. You would you would like to think that the players are smart enough. The reason why I don't know if I'd see the gambling is because the money is so big. Pete Rose never made the money these guys make. These guys make more in a week than Pete Rose made in a year. And so they don't need that. Now, I know guys gamble on other sports, you know, they just don't gamble on their own. And the reason why they gamble on the other sports is because they're competitive. And they play fantasy. I mean, you look at the Tigers and Max Scherzer, who's now in the Nationals, he used to like they used to have their fantasy football draft. He was the commissioner and they'd go at it and they would talk trash throughout the offseason. And it's one way to actually keep the team close together, which I think that part of it's good. And I have no idea how much they played for. I don't know what the entry entrance fee was, but I hope we don't see another Pete Rose. I really don't. And I never actually thought about it, to be honest with you. Don't you like the way that that that teams are now businesses that they that they really do try to keep them together like a business during the offseason and stuff? Because you'll see the Panthers together in movie theaters. They're all together. That's the team. Breaking news coming in from Bet365, where every nail biting over time win, breakaway, pick six, three point shot, underdog win, buzzer beater, shoot out, walk off, and absolutely every play in between is amazing. From football to basketball and hockey to baseball, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Gambling problem? Call or text 1-800-Gambler. 21 plus only must be physically located in Colorado. Looking for excitement? Chumba Casino is here. Play anytime, play anywhere. Play on the train, play at the store, play at home, play when you're bored. Play today for your chance to win and get daily bonuses when you log in. So what are you waiting for? Don't delay. Chumba Casino is free to play. Experience social gameplay like never before. Go to Chumba Casino right now to play hundreds of games, including online slots, Bingo, Slingo, and more. Live the Chumba Life at ChumbaCasino.com. BTW Group. No purchase necessary. Avoid prohibited by law. See terms and conditions, 18 plus. That is someone on the team getting them together, because a lot of guys go their separate ways, and what's changed now is the camaraderie is not the same. Because you've got all these guys making millions and millions of dollars. They don't need other people. They can do their own thing, but they also have people outside influences trying to latch on. So you've lost that sense of, you know, team. And in baseball, I mean, there are times where you see clicks, like four guys will go for dinner, and this and that. And then you see they have really good teams, and it's 23 guys, or 25 guys are going for dinner. And you realize there's something different. And I think with this Panthers team, there might have been something different. And look, Charlotte's an awesome place to live. So these guys can stay here year round and have a life and train together and hang out together. But you go to a cold, you know, weather climate, and they may not want to stay there in the off season. They may want to go someplace else or tax reasons. They might want to go somewhere else. And so you don't have that same thing. So I think when you see those teams that are doing stuff in the off season, as well as in season, those are the teams that have something special. So have you ever had a New York Yankees moment? Yeah, I had two games last year. Did you? Yeah. I knew I knew one. Wow. So that had to be awesome. Yeah, it was it was pretty cool. And the coolest part, honestly, was seeing the reaction of my family. Really? Yeah. I still haven't called a game at the stadium. And it's it won't be the same because the new stadium is not like the old stadium. I don't like the new stadium at all. But my brother, who's older, I used to idolize him. He was he even posted on Facebook, like he wrote something on Facebook. And I said to my parents, I'm like, that was the nicest thing he's ever said to me or about me. And my dad was like, honestly, just I don't know if you were the president of the United States, if I could have been more proud. And he was like, it was like all my dreams. Like, I always dreamed of playing third base for the Yankees. And he's like, and now you were there doing the game. And it was like, it was like that. And I mean, my dad was was on cloud nine for like two weeks. And for me, for some reason, I'm able to differentiate or just associate my fandom from my job. And my job takes priority. And so when I was doing it, I'm like, all right, you know, it's cool to the Yankees, but it's another game. And but to see the reaction of people, that was that was the coolest part. And then unfortunately, the second game I had was a game in Atlanta where the fan died falling over the railing. Wow. And when when A-Rod came up to pinch it and I saw it happen. And so that was that was an experience I hope I never have happened again. How do you deal with that? Like with that as a broadcaster, because I mean, I was there when Ronald Reagan was shot, we were in the radio station when the towers went down. And you know, that's you go into this completely different mode of broadcaster. Is it the same thing for you, too? You just know what you're supposed to do and the focus has changed. Well, I'll be honest, they were announcing A-Rod coming up. And out of the corner of my eye, I see this thing fall. And then I see the the wire on top of the the netting just shaking vigorously. And so I stood up and looked over and I see this guy just face down on the ground. And I, human reaction, I said, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, a fan just fell from the upper deck. Oh my gosh, they're not to stop the game. And then don't stop the game. Right. And so now you're going like, and my producers and my headsets saying stay with the game, stay with the game. I'm really sorry you just saw that stay with the game. And I, I didn't have that switch right away because I'm like, this guy is dead. I mean, I knew he was dead. And my analyst, he started talking. And when he started talking, I kind of got back into it. But after every pitch, I would look up and see what he's doing and see what's going on. They're giving him CPR, their chest compressions and, and all this. And my producer kept on saying stay with the game, stay with the game. And the one thing I've said to my bosses and other people is that I would have wanted to stay with the game, but keep that news going. And because I had said that this guy had just fallen, let the viewers know, update them. I wouldn't say they're, they're performing CPR. I wouldn't say, you know, anything of that nature. But I would say, you know, there, there are EMT down there, they're, you know, and they're attending to him. And we will keep you updated as this goes on. Just because I feel like you said 9/11, Reagan, you know, what happens is all of a sudden, your broadcast changes and you have to report the news. That's it. Yeah. And, and so to me, there's, there's that human element where if I'm watching the game and someone says, some guy just fell from the upper deck. But what happened? What's what's going on? You can't leave me hanging like that. Yep. And that was the one thing I would have done differently. And, and I said to them, and I wish, I really wish I would have done it. I know my producer is trying to help me out. And he was getting, you know, spoken to from L.A. Hey, stay with the game. That was the one thing I wish I could have done differently. That reminds you of the moment when, when John Lennon passed away and Howard Cosell wouldn't report it right away. They had to talk him into reporting the news. And it was a, it was a news moment. And, but we didn't have the internet back then where we're, as you, with your game, if you would have said that he fell, I would have been all over that internet immediately. Then, then you lose me as a viewer. Yeah. And the crazy part was nobody saw it. I mean, you know, they didn't stop the game. The, the players weren't aware of it. Now the, the guy fell in the family section. Like the players, wives, kids, everyone was right there. Um, but our cameras didn't catch it. And think about how many cameras we have for a game. Now, one person saw it and I saw it. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's a moment. And so if I didn't say anything, people at home would have had no idea. People at home, if they weren't listening to the radio, because he fell right in front of the radio booth, they weren't listening to the radio, but they would have read in the newspaper that somebody fell from the upper deck and died. But they would never have known. So what do you think the lesson learned from this is some, somewhere along your career that you're going to have that it's going to come back. You know, you're going to be out there doing something and you're, except this time you're going to get to report the news. That's it. It's, look, we're all humans. And I think people are so afraid in today's society of, of being PC, of, of, you know, of a lawsuit, of, of doing something. You pay us money for a reason. You have to trust that we're going to make the right decision. And we're all humans. And so that's a human story right there. I mean, somebody just fell from the upper deck. If you're doing a game and somebody gets shot or whatever it might be. A, you want to make sure everybody's okay, but you also want to let them know. And again, I would not have gotten, gotten into specifics. But I think you have to let them know that, hey, like they are tending to them. They just removed them from the stadium. As soon as we've got word, we will let you know. And that's all you can do. And there's not, they can go to social media. They can go to their phones. They can try to see other stuff. They're not going to get much more. I would never say like, put it this way. On a piece of paper, I wrote to my stats guy. I said, he's dead. Oh, man. And he looked at me and he goes, yeah. And I would never say that on the air without getting confirmation first. And I think maybe that's what they're afraid of, that you're going to make that egregious error. You can't do that. But I think you have to, you have to have that trust in us if you're paying us this money to make the right decisions. And maybe some people can't do it. But some people can. Because like I said to you before, I know it's sounds stupid to say this, but I'm able to disassociate myself from the fan and know that my job is the most important thing. And the same thing is true. Like when I said on the air, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I didn't say, oh my God, you know, I didn't say, holy, you know, I said, oh my gosh, because for some reason when I'm doing the game and there's a mic in front of me and, and I know I'm the guy, something changes in me. It's the reason why I haven't dropped an F bomb so far, knock on wood. You know, I love saying the F word, but I don't say it on the air. So what do you do then when the Cubs are in the World Series, and there's a guy down the third baseline, reaches out there and steals that ball. What word comes out of your mouth again? Oh my gosh. Yeah, I don't believe it. You know, I mean, can this really be happening again? You know, it's, it's, it's one of those things. I mean, you know what everybody else is saying, right? Let's say you're the Red Sox broadcaster on the radio and Aaron Boone hits the home run in game seven of three. What are you saying? Are you staring like Aaron bleeping Boone? You know, are you just like, are you dropping your head to the desk thinking like God, I can't believe this happened again. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's those things. You got to capture the moment and you got to have the excitement. And that's what I think. Like I always say, I'm a fan. Like, I love sports. So when stuff happens, I, I react the way that you would react at home watching the game. I mean, in the World Cup last year, in the semifinals, there was an own goal. England scored an own goal and they lost to, to Japan. And on the own goal, if I were doing the game, I mean, I was watching, I said, Oh no! Like, that would have been my call. Yeah. Because that's the way I look at it. You know, and, and if, if you're not a fan, I don't know why you'd be doing this. So yeah, I would, I would know not to, to say, Oh, but, but at the same time, I would definitely, you'd, you'd hear it in my voice. Absolutely. How did somebody follow you? You could follow me on Twitter at Justin Kutcher. And if you're saying Kutcher, yeah, Ashton screwed me. Same spelling. He says Kutcher. And the funny story behind that is I met his brother, Michael, last year at a charity event in Minnesota. And my buddy who knows both of us says, Michael Kutcher, meet Justin Kutcher, Justin Kutcher, Michael Kutcher. And we start talking, he goes, wait, how do you spell your name? I go the same way you spell your name. He goes, how do you pronounce it? I go, Kutcher, he goes, no, you're saying it wrong. I don't know, you're saying it wrong. And he goes, so where, where does it from? I go, well, the name is, is from Poland. He's like, oh, I know how about you. He goes, well, we're from the Czech Republic. He goes, but it wasn't Kutcher. I go, wait, whoa, whoa. It's not even your name and you're still screwing me. So we've had a good laugh about the entire night. We'd see each other. He's like, Hey, what's up, coach? I'm like, what's up, coach? And so it's going like that. But yeah, that's the best laugh. Hello, man. Thanks for coming. Thank you. I appreciate it. News coming in from Bet365, where every nail biting overtime win, breakaway, pick six, three-point shot, underdog win, buzzer beater, shoot out, walk off, and absolutely every play in between is amazing. From football to basketball and hockey to baseball, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Gambling problem? Call or text 1-800-Gambler. 21+ only must be physically located in Colorado. How to have fun. Anytime. Anywhere. Step 1. Go to chambocassino.com. Chambocassino.com. Got it. Step 2. Collect your welcome bonus. Come to Papa welcome bonus. Step 3. Play hundreds of casino-style games for free. That's a lot of games. All for free? Step 4. Unleash your excitement. Whoo-hoo! Chambocassino has been delivering thrills for over a decade, so claim your free welcome bonus now and live the Chambalife. Visit chambocassino.com.