Minnesota Wild TV, radio broadcasts will feature new announcers this season
Anthony LaPanta and Bob Kurtz are still the mainstay voices of Minnesota Wild hockey on TV and radio, respectively, but there will be a bevy of fresh voices this season.
The Wild announced Tuesday that KFAN host and voice of Vikings radio/Canterbury Park announcer, Paul Allen, will be among the road play-by-play voices filling in for Kurtz.
Kurtz is reducing the number of road games this season, so Allen, Jim Erickson, Kevin Falness and Joe O'Donnell will handle the play-calling duties when Kurtz is off.
Sounds like fun once #Vikings season concludes. Thx @mnwild for asking. We’ll make it fun. #ShotScored https://t.co/MoSM6AmJSI
— Paul Allen (@PAOnTheMic) September 10, 2019
Erickson is the voice of St. Cloud State hockey in addition to being a radio host at Bob FM in the Twin Cities. Falness is the regular studio host of Wild hockey on the radio, and O'Donnell is the play-by-play for the Wild's affiliate in the American Hockey League, the Iowa Wild.
Tom Reid will remain as the full-time radio analyst.
On Fox Sports North, LaPanta will be joined by a bevy of color commentators, including longtime broadcast partner Mike Greenlay, Lou Nanne, Ryan Carter and Wes Walz.
Nanne, Carter and Walz all previously played professionally in Minnesota, with Nanne a star for the North Stars and Carter and Walz with the Wild.
The Wild opens the season Oct. 3 at Nashville, with the home opener set for Oct. 12 against Pittsburgh.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.