Leonard Berman is an American television sportscaster and journalist who is based in New York City. He is currently hosting the morning show on WOR-AM along with Michael Riedel. Berman is widely known for his television career with NBC, specifically his work for the network's flagship station WNBC-TV. Berman spent 27 years as the lead sports anchor for WNBC and also worked for NBC Sports covering Major League Baseball and the National Football League. He was employed by WNBC until 2009, and prior to that he worked for WCBS-TV in New York City from April 1979 through August 1982 and WBZ-TV in Boston, where he announced Boston Celtics games on TV with Celtics legend Bob Cousy. He also worked at HBO Sports covering boxing, college basketball and a weekly baseball show "Race for the Pennant" from 1978-1981.
Early life
Despite having a very neutral viewpoint when reporting the sports in New York, he grew up an avid New York Yankees fan. He is also partial to Big East basketball, having graduated from Syracuse University and serving as an adviser to that school and to St. John's University. Berman's Big East connections also include several years of calling the conference's basketball games for ESPN and in syndication for the Big East Network.
Career
At the end of WNBC's 11 p.m. newscast on Wednesday April 22, 2009, following taped messages of good-bye and good luck from Matt Lauer, Al Roker, and Brian Williams, Berman announced that it was his last sportscast. He was given a cake with best wishes from his colleagues, including Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons. On March 1, 2012, Berman hosted a segment on the 10 o'clock news evening sports report on WNYW—Fox 5—in New York City. He presented his top-5 most interesting sports stories of the week prior. Starting in March 2015, Berman has co-hosted a morning radio program from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00am on WOR-AM, the flagship news-talk station for iHeart Radio. Originally, it was "Len and Todd in the Morning"; on October 20, 2017, Berman announced that his broadcast partner on the show, Todd Schnitt, was no longer working at the station, due to not coming to terms on a contract. The show is now called "Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning."
''Spanning the World''
One popular monthly feature Berman is responsible for is Spanning the World, which aired on WNBC-TV's newscasts and The Today Show. Spanning is a reel of odd and interesting sports highlights from the past month, with a recorded introduction and closing by Don Pardo. When the segment begins, the world is torn in two and the sound of a rooster crowing is played. When the segment ends, the world goes back to its "pre-torn" state, with the same rooster sound, and announcer Don Pardo says "Tune in next time for Spanning the World, if there is a next time. I'm Don Pardo." In his last WNBC broadcast, Berman mentioned that the segment would continue on The Today Show. Berman would occasionally do a version of the segment for WNBC titled "Spanning the Week," which would review odd and interesting stories from the past week. A common catchphrase from the segment is "And nobody got hurt!," which would be said by Berman after a clip featuring some sort of accident that might have caused injury.
From 2008 until 2015, Len wrote a blog and daily newsletter at LenBermanSports.com, using the form to continue his type of humor and whimsical sports stories.
Books written by Berman
Berman has written six books: Spanning the World and five kids' books: And Nobody Got Hurt!, The Greatest Moments in Sports, and ''The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time," "Greatest Moments in Sports" Upsets and Underdogs."
