Tar Heel Sports Network

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Tar Heel Sports Network

Type	Radio network
Country	United States
Availability	AM/FM through network affiliates Sirius XM Internet streaming
Broadcast area	North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia
Owner	Learfield Communications, Inc.
Official website	List of affiliates

The Tar Heel Sports Network is a radio network in the United States dedicated to broadcasting live events and programming relating to North Carolina Tar Heels athletics. It is operated by Tar Heel Sports Properties, a property of LEARFIELD, which manages the multimedia rights for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The network's flagship station is WPTF in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The network consists mainly of local radio affiliates within North Carolina, southern Virginia, and northern South Carolina, and also includes Sirius XM satellite radio, and streaming platforms including GoHeels.com, The Varsity Network and TuneIn.

The network began in the early 1960s when WSOC in Charlotte made the first attempt to create a radio network for Tar Heel men's basketball outside the Triangle.

In 1965, WSOC owner Cox Broadcasting sold the network to Village Broadcasting, owner of WCHL in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. WCHL became the flagship station. Village Broadcasting gradually evolved into VilCom, and sold the network in the late 1990s.

Bill Currie, known as "The Mouth of the South" was instrumental in developing the original statewide network in the 1960s and was the network's first play-by-play announcer until departing to KDKA-TV in 1971.^[1][2]

The network's long-time "Voice of the Tar Heels" for football and men's basketball games was Woody Durham from 1971 until his retirement in 2011.^[3]

Mick Mixon partnered with Durham as the color analyst from 1989-2005 for both football and basketball before departing to take the job as the play-by-play announcer for the Carolina Panthers.^[4]

Jones Angell succeeded Durham in the booth as "the Voice of the Tar Heels" for both football and basketball beginning with the 2011 football season after working with the network in various roles for the previous 11 years, including baseball play-by-play from 2004-2011.^[5]

Brian Simmons performed football analyst duties through the 2023 season before joining the UNC football staff as a Senior Advisor to the Head Coach/Pro Liaison.^[6] Analyst duties during the 2024 season are shared between Bryn Renner and Joe Jauch, both former Tar Heel players.^[7] Lee Pace handles football sideline reporting.

Eric Montross was the basketball analyst starting in 2005^[8] through the 2022-23 season. Shortly after the season, it was announced that he had recently been diagnosed with cancer.^[9] After announcing that he would sit out the 2023-24 season to focus on his health, Montross died on December 17 at age 52.^[10] Game analysis duties during the 2023-24 season were handled by a rotation of former players including Pete Chilcutt, Marcus Ginyard, Tyler Hansbrough and Zeller.

Adam Lucas contributes basketball pregame commentary and conducts postgame interviews. Dave Nathan anchors pregame, halftime and postgame coverage for football and basketball, and also handles the basketball play-by-play when late season football schedule conflicts prevent Angell from being available. Nathan also calls play-by-play for the Diamond Heels in baseball, sharing the booth with Kyle Straub. Matt Krause calls the action for women's basketball.

Angell and Lucas also co-host a twice-weekly podcast, Carolina Insider, that is a production of the network and LEARFIELD.

UNC head coaches Mack Brown (football), Hubert Davis (men's basketball), Courtney Banghart (women's basketball) and Scott Forbes (baseball) host programs on the network during their respective team's season.

Other notable on-air color analysts and contributors over the history of the network include Phil Ford, Stephen Gates, Jerod Haase, Jim Heavner, Henry Hinton, Bob Holliday, Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice, Freddie Kiger, Lee Kinard, Ken Mack, Draggan Mihailovich, Bob Quincy and Rick Steinbacher.^[11]

The state's most powerful AM station, WBT in Charlotte, has been an affiliate of the network since 1971, except for 1991 to 1995 and 2006 to 2012. WBT is a 50,000-watt clear-channel station that reaches parts of 22 states at night, bringing the Tar Heels' broadcasts to most of the eastern half of North America. According to longtime WBT station manager Cullie Tarleton, putting the Tar Heels on WBT was largely the idea of longtime coach Dean Smith, who wanted to tell recruits from New England that their parents would be able to listen to the games.^[12] Beginning in 2006, WFNZ served as the network's Charlotte outlet.^[13] However, its weaker nighttime signal forced the Tar Heels to contract first with WRFX (2006-2011) and WNOW-FM (2011-2012) to simulcast football games that kicked off after 5 p.m., as well as all basketball games. The Tar Heels returned to WBT beginning with the 2012 football season.

North Carolina's second-most-powerful AM station, WPTF, joined the network in 2021.^[14] As part of the deal, WPTF became the network's new flagship, though WCHL remains as an affiliate station.^[15] WPTF had long been the flagship of rival NC State for more than 40 years until 2007.^[16][17]