Gil Santos

Gil Santos is the longtime radio play-by-play announcer for the New England Patriots of the National Football League, and morning sports reporter for WBZ radio in Boston. He retired from WBZ on January 30, 2009. Santos was inducted into the WBZ Radio Hall of Fame on July 9, 2009. He continues to call games for the Patriots Radio Network, whose flagship is WBZ-FM (which is branded as "The Sports Hub").

He has called Patriots games continuously since 1966, except for a stretch between 1980 and 1990. His 30 years of service makes him the longest-serving current announcer in the NFL, tied with Merrill Reese of the Philadelphia Eagles; he is also the last team play-by-play announcer from the American Football League era still broadcasting. Since 1990, his partner in the booth has been former Patriots kicker Gino Cappelletti, except for the opening eight games of the Patriots' 2001 season when Cappelletti was hospitalized with an illness and former Patriots player Peter Brock substituted for Cappelletti.

In addition to the work at WBZ, Santos has called games for the Boston Celtics, Boston Breakers, Providence Friars basketball, Penn State Nittany Lions football, and Boston College Eagles football. He was born in Acushnet, Massachusetts and grew up in neighboring Fairhaven. From 1959 to 1971, when he joined WBZ full-time, Santos worked at WBSM and WNBH in New Bedford, and WSAR and WALE in Fall River. On January 10, 2009, the Boston Herald announced that Gil Santos was planning to retire from WBZ by the end of January. He remained the Patriots play-by-play announcer.

Milestones

On September 26, 2010, the Patriots defeated the Buffalo Bills 38-30; it marked the 700th Patriots game, encompassing preseason, regular season, playoffs, and the Super Bowl, that Santos broadcast.

References

Preceded by Bob Starr	New England Patriots Play by Play announcer 1972-1979	Succeeded by John Carlson
Preceded by Dale Arnold	New England Patriots Play by Play announcer 1991-Present	Succeeded by Current
Preceded by Roger Twibell	Boston Celtics Television Play by Play announcer 1981-1989	Succeeded by Mike Crispino
Preceded by Bob Lobel	Boston College Eagles football Play by Play 1987-1991	Succeeded by Dale Arnold