The radio broadcast booth will feature Mike Grimm calling play-by-play, alongside Gopher great and long-time analyst Darrell Thompson and sideline reporter and KFAN personality Justin Gaard. Kevin Falness will host the pre-game show, and Corbu Stathes will host the halftime and post-game shows and provide scoreboard updates throughout the broadcasts.

Grimm enters his first year as the radio voice of Golden Gopher football, having served as play-by-play voice of Gopher basketball since 2006 and as pre-game, halftime and post-game show host for Golden Gopher football since 2006. He co-hosts the “Gopher Football Weekly with Jerry Kill Radio Show”, the “Gopher Basketball Weekly with Tubby Smith Radio Show” and produces and anchors “The Golden Gopher Daily Update”. He is a two-time winner of the Minnesota Sportscaster of the Year Award (2009, 2010), as presented by The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He also won the same award in Iowa in 1999. In addition to his Gopher duties, Grimm is the Minnesota News Network sports director.

Thompson, Gophers’ all-time leading rusher, scored 40 rushing touchdowns, which remains a University of Minnesota career record. Thompson holds numerous Gopher records and was a two-time, First-Team All-Big Ten selection, earning those honors following the 1987 and 1989 seasons. He was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 1986 and drafted in 1990 by the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, where he played five years. He has been an analyst on Gopher radio broadcasts since 1998.

Gaard, an Edina, Minn. native who attended the University of Minnesota, is the former co-host of “Gopher Fan Line” on KFAN. He currently serves as producer of “Bumper to Bumper with Dan Barreiro” on KFAN, which airs weekdays from 3-6:30 p.m.

Falness has worked in the radio business for 19 years, joining the Minnesota Wild broadcast team in 2000. He has served as the studio host and executive producer of Wild broadcasts since the team’s inaugural season. Before that, he worked with Denver’s KKFN Radio covering all sports including the University of Colorado, Colorado State and Air Force Academy football.

Stathes begins his fifth year of association with the Gopher Radio Network and has been the voice of Golden Gopher women’s basketball since the 2007-08 season. Stathes also has done work on the Big Ten Network, the Minnesota News Network and the Minnesota Sports Broadcast Network.

Additionally, the Gopher Radio Network has expanded as KFAN 100.3 FM and Twin Cities Talk AM 1130 will be the flagship stations for football broadcasts in the Twin Cities. In addition to carrying the football broadcasts, KFAN also will air a full hour of programming leading into the Gopher Radio Network pre-game show and an hour of post-game coverage following the network’s post-game show. Gopher Sports Properties (GSP) oversees every aspect of Gopher Radio Network Presented by Alarm Force, and a complete list of affiliates is noted below with those new to the network identified as well.

In addition to the over-the-air network, there are many other ways fans can access Gopher football broadcasts. Free internet audio streaming of game broadcasts and coaches radio shows will be available on GopherSports.com at http://www.gophersports.com/allaccess/gopherallaccess.html, and via mobile phone, allowing fans the opportunity to listen to broadcasts virtually anywhere.

“We’re looking forward to the new season of Golden Gopher Football on the Gopher Radio Network,” Minnesota Director of Athletics Joel Maturi said. “We believe we’ve put together a radio team who will do an outstanding job of bringing the games to our fans all over the world. We’re also excited about our new flagship station KFAN and our expanded radio network.”

Gopher Sports Properties is a property of Learfield Sports, which manages rights for more than 50 collegiate institutions, associations and conferences including seven Big Ten Conference member institutions – Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin. Aside from the campus-level rights relationships Learfield Sports has with these schools, the company also manages the Big Ten’s sponsorship rights and develops its corporate partnerships. The company also titles the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup in conjunction with NADA and USA Today. For more, visit learfieldsports.com.

Golf entry fee for the event is $150, and includes lunch, green fee & golf cart, practice facility with range balls, personalized cart signs, tournament scoring, hole contests, heavy appetizers, a sleeve of golf balls and a Gopher baseball apparel item.

Registration and group photos will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., along with lunch, which will be at the clubhouse from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. The shotgun start for the tournament will begin at 12:30 p.m., with four-person team scrambles. Social hour will run from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 6 p.m. and awards program, which will start at 7 p.m. For more information contact Lee Swenson at 612-625-0869 or send an email to swens060@umn.edu.

Dan Morgan Brochure

Golfers should arrive at Stone Ridge by 11 a.m., for registration and tee assignments, with a shotgun start at 12:30 p.m. The golf competition will be a five-person team best-ball scramble. Following golf will be a social hour (cash bar) and dinner buffet. Awards and prizes will be presented throughout the evening. The program will also include brief comments by head coach Don Lucia and others.

For more information, please contact any of the following individuals:

Mark Bahr: 612-624-6889
Jean Edhlund: 612-486-9581
Patti Bjorklund: 612-625-2886
E-mail: blueline@umn.edu

By David Lieberman, USA TODAY

Radio stations are receiving a surprisingly strong signal from audiences and the financial markets this year, even as they face intensifying competition from satellite and Web-based audio services including Sirius XM Satellite Radio XM and Pandora.

 An average of 241.6 million people 12 and older listened to conventional radio stations each week last year, an increase of 2.1 million over 2009 — and up 4.9% vs. 2005, according to an annual study that media and marketing research company Arbitron released Monday.

 ”Radio is much stronger than the general perception of it has been,” says Carol Hanley, Arbitron’s executive VP of sales and marketing.

 The report follows the announcement this month of the biggest radio deal in years: Cumulus Media, the No. 2 station owner, agreed to buy No. 3 Citadel Media for cash and stock that values Citadel at $2.4 billion.

 Cumulus will have 572 stations if federal antitrust officials approve the union. That would trail industry leader Clear Channel, with more than 850 stations.

The industry still faces challenges. From 2000 through 2010, teens and young adults cut their radio-listening time in half as they became infatuated with the Internet, cellphones and video games, Edison Research reported.

For the entire USA Today article, click below. 

[Read More...]

By Diego Vasquez
Jan 18, 2011

Advertisers like to target college sports fans because they tend to be affluent and educated. But advertisers’ options aren’t limited to big-money sports like football and basketball.

College hockey games also draw an attractive audience for advertisers. More than three-quarters are under age 55, and nearly two-thirds make at least $50,000 a year.
 
With relatively low ticket prices and lots of weekend games, college hockey is a family-friendly sport, allowing advertisers to get in front of kids and parents alike.
 
Many games are also televised regionally, giving advertisers reach beyond fans in the arena.
 
To find out how to get your client at college hockey games, read on.
 
This is one in a Media Life series on buying out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.

[Read More...]

Above is a slideshow of some photos from the holiday Mariucci Classic that Gopher Men’s Hockey hosted around New Year’s.  The Gophers are currently tied for 6th place, and hope to make a run to the top of the conference during the second half of the season. We hope your 2011 is off to a great start!

It was a GREAT weekend for Gopher Football.  The Football team beat arch-rival Iowa in the battle  for the Floyd of Rosedale trophy!  What a great way to end the year.  There are also some great photos from the Men’s Hockey games vs. Michigan and Michigan State in the College Hockey Showcase, and from Men’s Basketball vs. Virginia in the Big Ten – ACC Challenge.  If there is a photo you would like to see, please let your GSP contact know.  Go Gophers!

The Gopher Football team suffered another tough loss last Saturday at the hands of top-10 team Ohio State.  We were still able to gather some good photos from the game.  If you have any questions, please contact us.  The Gophers hope to get things on the right track at Michigan State on Saturday.

Photos from Gopher Football vs. Penn State

Photos from Gopher Hockey vs. St. Cloud State