Len Berman, a fixture in NYC sports broadcasting over the past 30 years (and veteran of 6 years at Boston’s WBZ before that), is leaving WNBC sometime in the next several weeks, telling Newsday’s Neil Best, “I feel I have other talents besides just reading sports news”. Presumably,counting money is one of those talents, as Berman was said to be earning an eye-popping $1 million per year.
As an avid viewer of Berman’s evening sportscasts in the mid ’70’s and ’80’s, I’m reminded there was a time before “SportsCenter” shaped a nation’s sporting sensibilities. Despite having just a few minutes per telecast to work with, Berman’s efforts from that era in some small way helped to shape the climate we have today, even if the combined forces of 24 hour sports news and You Tube have essentially rendered a feature such as WNBC’s “Spanning The Globe” redundant.