Bucs radio voice won't be blacked out for Browns game

The voice of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers knows his voice is even more important this Sunday.

That's because for the first time since 1997, a regular season game at home is not sold out. That means fans won't be able to watch the game on television, and just like the old days, they will have to pull out the radio if they want to know what's happening.

And just like he has done for every Bucs game since 1989, Gene Deckerhoff will be there to call the action as the play-by-play announcer. But he won't do anything different for this blacked-out game.

"If you're a radio announcer, you think that every Bucs' fan is listening to the radio,'' Deckerhoff said. "The last thing on my mind is who's watching TV and who is not.''

The 65-year-old veteran broadcaster will still do the same things he does for every game: spend six to eight hours doing preparation work, then four hours and 20 minutes in a recreational vehicle making the drive from his home in Tallahassee.

"Radio is like creating word pictures,'' he said before boarding a plane this afternoon to fly to Oklahoma to call Saturday's college football clash between the Sooners and Florida State University. "If we create the right word picture, fans will be very happy. I'm pumped up. It's the beginning of a new season, sellout or no sellout.''

Because there are still tickets available, the game will not be shown on live television in the 10-county area that makes up the Tampa Bay market. In the immediate Tampa area, fans instead will have to tune in to 620 AM or 103.5 FM. The game also is available on 1450 AM in Brooksville and 1430 AM in Lakeland.

"We expect there to be a good amount of people listening because it is blacked out,'' said Mike Killabrew, program manager at WDAE, 620 AM. "We have seen in other markets that they had huge increases in share numbers.''

Deckerhoff has called scores of games over the years - be it college football or college basketball at FSU or games for the Buccaneers. He's called FSU basketball since 1974, FSU football since 1979 and the Bucs since 1989.

During his tenure, FSU has outscored the Bucs in touchdowns, 1,573 to 644.

He will call the FSU game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, then catch a plane back to Tallahassee and get home early Sunday. He will get a few hours sleep before piling in the RV for the drive to Tampa.

He likes to get to Raymond James Stadium early enough - usually about 10:40 a.m. - to get a good feel for the flavor of the fans and the weather. Sometimes he wanders down to the field to take photographs.

Deckerhoff said there could be any number of reasons for apathy in the season-opener for a team that won a Super Bowl less than decade before.

"I think there's a lot of interest, but there are a lot of things we have no control over,'' Deckerhoff said. "The economy is rough, the team did not play well last year.''

Kickoff time for the game against the Cleveland Browns is set for 1 p.m.