STATESBORO – The Georgia Southern Sports Network and Learfield IMG College, the Eagles’ multimedia rightsholder, announced Thursday that Foundry Broadcasting will be growing its partnership and continue to serve as the flagship for Georgia Southern football, men’s basketball and baseball through June 2023.
Foundry Broadcasting inherited the flagship designation when it purchased the group of four local stations in February 2019. Eagle Athletics will continue to be heard locally in Statesboro on 94.9 The Eagle. In addition to Georgia Southern games, The Eagle also will carry weekly in-season coaches’ shows Inside Georgia Southern Football with Chad Lunsford and Inside Georgia Southern Basketball with Brian Burg and Anita Howard.
“We at Foundry Broadcasting and Eagle 94.9 are excited about this new chapter in our relationship,” said Bryan Steele, owner of Foundry Broadcasting. “We’re looking forward to building on our already strong foundation, and we are proud to be the Eagles’ flagship station.”
The history runs deep between the airwaves of Georgia Southern Athletics and the stations in the Foundry Broadcasting family – dating back to 1967, when Georgia Southern basketball could be heard on WWNS (a station now owed by Foundry Broadcasting) with the original “Voice of the Eagles” Dave Nitz on the call. When Georgia Southern became the first collegiate network in the country to carry every baseball game in 1973, fans could hear former “Voice of the Eagles” Nate Hirsch on WWNS & WMCD (both now owned by Foundry Broadcasting). At the beginning of the modern era of Georgia Southern football in 1982, fans also heard Nate Hirsch’s call of Erk Russell’s Eagles on the dial at WMCD.
“Having an outstanding partnership with a local affiliate like Foundry Broadcasting is essential,” said Chris Davis, Deputy Athletics Director at Georgia Southern. “I’m incredibly excited to see how the partnership reaches Eagle Nation and helps elevate the Georgia Southern brand.”
“We’re thrilled to extend the relationship with Foundry Broadcasting, and we believe this is beneficial to the Georgia Southern Sports Network as well as all of Eagle Nation,” said Mike Petrini, general manager for Georgia Southern Sports Properties, Learfield IMG College’s locally based team.
The Georgia Southern Sports Network returns its full crew for the 2020-2021 athletics season. Danny Reed enters his fifth full season as the “Voice of the Eagles” after joining the network as the football sideline reporter in 2015 and assuming full play-by-play duties beginning with men’s basketball that season. Terry Harvin, a three-time national championship punter for the Eagles in 1986, 1989 and 1990, enters his 15th season as color analyst dating back to 2006, while Russ Brown reports from the sidelines. A member of the broadcast crew since 2010, Brown made his way to the sidelines beginning in 2016. Frank Sulkowski returns for his 10th season as co-host of the Eagle Tailgate Show, which airs two hours prior to kickoff, while Colin Lacy begins his ninth season as network producer while also serving as pre-game, halftime and post-game co-host.