Here is the official announcement via Tar Heel Blue.
Jones Angell, host and color analyst for the Tar Heel Sports Network the past six years, will call radio play-by-play for University of North Carolina football and men’s basketball broadcasts beginning in the 2011-12 season. Learfield Sports general manager Gary Sobba and UNC director of athletics Dick Baddour made the announcement today.
“We are delighted to announce that Jones Angell will be calling the play-by-play for Carolina football and men’s basketball games,” says Baddour. “He beat out a talented group of candidates from across the nation. What stood out to us was his preparation, attention to detail, easy listening style and knowledge of the history of Carolina athletics. He understands that he is following in the footsteps of someone our fans love dearly, but I believe strongly that Jones will make his own mark on Tar Heel athletics.”
Angell, 32, a native of Jacksonville, N.C., has worked in a number of roles at the network for the past 11 years,including calling play-by-play for Carolina baseball the past eight seasons, which included five trips to the College World Series.
Angell moves into the play-by-play chair after the retirement of Hall of Fame broadcaster Woody Durham, who stepped down in April after 40 seasons as the Voice of the Tar Heels.
Not much comment other than to say I think he earned the slot. Angell is a North Carolina native and UNC graduate. He has paid his dues working with the Tar Heel Sports Network for several years now. The reality of the situation is once Mick Mixon and Wes Durham were out of the running, the odds in favor of Angell jumped dramatically. I imagine in this economy some of this decision is money driven but some of it loyalty driven in giving a guy who did his part a shot at the big chair(and please no Bill Guthridge comparisons please,) Plus, at 32 years old, Angell has plenty of time to grow into the job. His work during the baseball broadcasts have been outstanding. Following behind a legend is a tough gig and the key for Angell will be forging his own style to win the fans over. There is no doubt he will be different and I think a little less homer and more straight announcer than perhaps Woody was. The best think for fans to remember is Angell will never replace Woody but he can be very good in his own right.
So congratulations to Jones Angell, we look forward to the new era of the Tar Heel Sports Network starting this fall.
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seems like a good guy, but his unflinching sycophancy and absolutely uncritical eye has been grating on me for most of his career.
I’ll give him a chance, but I hope he doesn’t turn into our Bob Harris.
i was pretty certain he would get the job….
it isnt his fault, but there just arent that many interesting voices/styles in broadcasting anymore. most of the younger guys sound pretty interchangeable.
Angell will do a very solid job, i think. congrats to him.
Water is wet. Jones has been on standby for years in case Woody stepped down or did too many in-game promos that his head or lungs exploded.
I remember Jones tripping over what he was saying a lot, talking so fast he couldn’t recover, like a verbal version of getting called for traveling after taking stutter steps to regain his balance. Sometimes his words got to be blub-blub-blub indistinguishable. But he has probably advanced a lot in a few years, and it takes many years of voice abuse to get that rich, mellow sound that long-time announcers have.
The few non-Woody games (especially the B-games in the ACC tournament) he called several years ago were not bad. One year he had a hoarse voice and just kept broadcasting, so that showed how bad he wanted the gig. Except I had to listen to it
Right now, though, there are so many in-game promos that it’s a whole different world, and I doubt we’ll ever see a Woody again who can carve out a distinctive style. The broadcast was like The Price Is Right a few years ago, and I shudder to think what it is now.
Have they sponsored substitutions yet? (“Now entering the game is the Aaron’s guard substitution, Dexter Strickland, brought to you by Aaron’s rent-to-own. Joining him at the table is the Alan’s Jewelry and Pawn power forward substitute. Don’t let them ‘mall’ you this Christmas, go to Alan’s for all your hot jewelry and watches.”)
OOPS! Question: What happens when they have one play-by-play guy and a basketball road game + football home game? One luxury of Woody and Jones is they could have a split-squad announcing team.
(This hasn’t come up in ages because Mick could do football play-by-play.)
He has a bad radio voice, but whoever they got wouldn’t have been able to really replace Woody anyways (can’t be done). Congrats.
I want to say I could sort of tell he was auditioning for the job during baseball season. He and Adam Lucas were much more “professional” (i.e., less like Conan and Andy at times) than they have been in previous seasons. But, that could have just been me.
Congrats to Jones! He’s a good guy and has earned the opportunity IMO.
However, let’s be careful and not play the whole “Carolina Family” angle with the hire. Frankly, there’s no such thing (kind of like the “Carolina Way” as we’re learning now), and I for one hope that he fares better than UNC’s last basketball and football coaches, who were members of the “Family” as well. /went there
wait what about roy is bad
Any word on who will do baseball games? Jones and Adam do such a good job with baseball.