Doug Birdsong - Radio and TV Coordinator & Marketing Specialist - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Doug Birdsong

Title:
Radio and TV Coordinator & Marketing Specialist
Email:
Phone:
570-577-3062

Doug Birdsong is in his 22nd season as the “Voice of the Bison” in 2021-22. A 1987 Marshall University graduate who called play-by-play for college and high school athletics for 17 years before coming to Lewisburg, Birdsong was named Radio/TV Coordinator and Marketing Specialist at Bucknell in July of 2000.

Birdsong's most familiar role is as the enthusiastic play-by-play voice of the Bison football and men's basketball teams. He also helps produce the robust Bison Vision streaming package, with dozens of games each year distributed through the Patriot League's streaming partnership with ESPN+.

Birdsong has broadcast a number of NCAA Tournament contests during his tenure at Bucknell, and his call of the final seconds of the men’s basketball team’s 2005 upset of Kansas was repeated on a number of national outlets. He has also called NCAA action in women’s basketball, baseball, men’s lacrosse, and men’s and women’s soccer.

When Birdsong arrived at Bucknell he became just the second full-time “Voice of the Bison,” replacing Bob Behler, who held the position for more than 13 years before leaving to go to the University of Massachusetts.

Birdsong came to Bucknell from AVC Communications in Cambridge, Ohio, where, as the Sports Director, he managed the play-by-play crews on five radio stations for 11 years. He called play-by-play for Muskingum College football, men’s and women’s basketball, softball, and volleyball, and also handled the same duties plus baseball for area high schools. Birdsong was also responsible for writing and producing 11 daily sportscasts focusing on the six area high schools and Muskingum College.

Prior to his experience at AVC, Birdsong worked at WTCR in Huntington, W.Va., after graduating from Marshall. While he was a student at Marshall, he worked for WMUL as its Sports Director and called football, basketball, and baseball for the Thundering Herd. In addition, Birdsong produced and hosted a weekly one-hour sports talk show.

He has won numerous awards, including citations from the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters for “Best Local Sporting Event Coverage” two years in a row. Birdsong has also won four Outstanding Sports Operation for Play-by-Play citations from the Associated Press in Ohio, and two from the Associated Press in West Virginia. In 1999, he was chosen as the Eastern Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Media Person of the Year.