Barrett Foregoes Fury and Sticks to the Script

Michael Pirnique Chuck Barrett keeps his opinion off the air as the Razorbacks' play-by-play announcer.

Name: Charles Monroe Barrett
Birthday: Jan. 29, 1963
Born in: Memphis, Tenn.
High School: Clarksville, Ark.
College: University of Arkansas
Career:
Play-by-play announcer, Arkansas football 2007-
Host of "Sports Rap," 1994-2007
Play-by-play announcer, Arkansas baseball 1992-

He has called University of Arkansas Razorback baseball on the radio for 15 years. He was the host for 13 years of "Sports Rap," a popular and sometimes controversial opinionated radio show. Barrett's show moved into the central Arkansas market in 2000, a "strange time" for Barrett, he says.

Earlier this year, Barrett announced that he was removing the show from the Arkansas Radio Network and was going to go about syndicating the program independently. That move didn't last long, as Barrett soon found himself and KATV, Channel 7, anchorman Scott Inman in contention for the same job, that of the University of Arkansas' and the Arkansas Radio Sports Network's play-by-play radio announcer for football games. Barrett eventually won the job after Arkansas insisted on having an in-house broadcaster as KATV simultaneously withdrew Inman's name for consideration so the anchor could focus on "up-to-date local news."

The brouhaha over who should announce the games that nearly split the state into northwest and central factions has settled down since the summer. Meanwhile, Barrett is still getting used to the new job and the attention it draws.

"It's a different, totally different deal," Barrett said. "Two entirely forms of broadcasting. I like this. It's different not having to do a radio show every day. I felt during the summer like I was on just one big long vacation because I felt like every afternoon I ought to be getting ready to do a radio show. I like it. You know, I was to the point where I was ready to turn the page. I wasn't really sure what it was going to be to, but I'm enjoying this.

"It wasn't all that much fun when all this stuff was going on, but that kind of comes along with the territory. And since then, since the school year's started and the season's began, I've grown accustomed to the fact that that's just how it's going to be. I've never really imagined that the radio guy would be worthy of attention, to be real honest, but that's part of it."

Barrett's "Sports Rap" was driven by a harsher attitude, one that went a bit more toward the edge than his competition on "Drive Time Sports." He wasn't afraid to hang up on callers who had made their point more than once and vehemently disagreed with the fan discontent that led to Freedom of Information requests and lawsuits.

Barrett says that he has been working on getting away from that hardheaded persona.

"I've been conscious of the fact that my role as an opinion-based broadcaster, that time has passed. I try not to get into that now because it's just not part of my job. It's not something that I feel I need to do to do the job that I do. So I'm staying away from that, making a conscious effort to do it," Barrett said. "I still have my thoughts. But I just don't have a radio show and a means to get them out there anymore."