Jeff Joniak figured his odds of being named the Bears’ new play-by-play voice were longer than the Bears winning the Super Bowl.
Not only had he never called an NFL game, his last regular play-by-play gig came during his college days at Iowa State.
“I thought my chances were 500-1,” Joniak said.
The long shot came in Wednesday when WBBM-AM 780 named Joniak as the replacement for Gary Bender. The WBBM sports director will join Hub Arkush and Tom Thayer in the booth.
Joniak also will follow in the footsteps of longtime Bears’ voices Jack Brickhouse and Wayne Larrivee.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” said Joniak, a graduate of Hersey High School and a broadcaster since 1985.
When he was asked to apply for the job, Joniak’s only true game tape consisted of a fill-in play-by-play job he did for a Northern Illinois game last year. It must have been quite a tape.
According to station director Drew Hayes, Joniak’s lack of play-by-play experience wasn’t a deterrent. It was offset by his work ethic and the chemistry that he had developed with Arkush and Thayer as the anchor for WBBM’s pregame and postgame coverage.
“The chemistry with the guys gave him a leg up,” Hayes said. “Nobody works harder than Jeff. He’s a great broadcaster and there’s no reason why he can’t learn how to be a great announcer.”
Joniak is confident he can do the job. He has had the play-by-play bug for several years and had been thinking about looking elsewhere for a position if one didn’t open up in Chicago.
“If I thought I was going to fail and embarrass myself, the Bears, WBBM, I never would have done it,” Joniak said. “I feel I can do this. Hard work doesn’t guarantee success, but it does give yourself momentum to get there.”
The other big plus for Joniak is his Chicago ties. WBBM wanted the new Bears voice to be a regular contributor to the station. Bender commuted weekly from Colorado and was criticized for not being connected to the team or the city.
“He has been involved with Bears games for five years,” Hayes said. “He has a knowledge how the broadcast goes. He knows we want those games to crackle.”
Said Joniak: “I’m a familiar voice with a fresh perspective.”
