The NFL on Westwood One Sports is the branding for Cumulus Broadcasting subsidiary Westwood One's radio coverage of the National Football League. These games are distributed throughout the United States and Canada (the latter through TSN Radio). The broadcasts were previously branded with the CBS Radio and (for one season) Dial Global marques; CBS Radio was the original Westwood One's parent company and Dial Global purchased the company in 2011. Dial Global has since reverted its name to Westwood One after merging with Cumulus Media Networks.
Westwood One's package consists of every primetime regular season NFL broadcast (Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football), the opening game of the season, all NFL International Series games, any NFL game airing on Thanksgiving Day, any late season Saturday NFL broadcasts, the Pro Bowl and all playoff games (including the Super Bowl). The network also carries the annual NFL Hall of Fame Game. Additionally, in some cases, the network also carries any postponed game broadcast nationally (as this was the case for the 2020 season, due to impacts from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic).
History of NFL games on Westwood One's predecessors
While major networks such as Westwood One, CBS, NBC, and Mutual held exclusive rights to most national broadcasts of the NFL throughout the league's history, Dial Global's predecessor, Jones Radio Networks, had carried several years' worth of Sunday afternoon games nationwide. Beginning in 2002, Jones carried game broadcasts from the Sports USA Radio Network. After Dial Global's massive acquisition spree of other networks began in 2008, Jones came under the Dial Global banner and Sports USA ended its relationship with the network. In 2009, Dial Global instead switched to Compass Media Networks for its Sunday afternoon NFL coverage.
Relationship to CBS
Westwood One had a long-standing relationship with CBS Radio. CBS' parent company owned the network for approximately ten years (1998–2008) and, through the CBS Radio Network, maintained control of the production of certain programming, including NFL games, an arrangement that continued following Westwood One's acquisition by Dial Global through the end of the 2011 NFL season. CBS had likely been carrying NFL games since at least 1935, when George A. Richards, owner of WJR and the Detroit Lions, switched WJR's affiliation from NBC Blue to CBS; Richards had negotiated with NBC the previous season to carry the Lions' Thanksgiving contest that year and likely carried those games over to CBS when he switched WJR's network.
As such, there was often synergy between the NFL on Westwood One and its former sister outlet, the NFL on CBS.
The theme music for The NFL on Westwood One from 2003 until the end of the 2012 season was "Posthumus Zone" by E.S. Posthumus, the same theme music used for the NFL on CBS television coverage (Westwood One's sports coverage had always used the appropriate CBS television theme for their sport where applicable). For the 2013 season onwards, a new radio-specific score was commissioned by the network.
Some personnel is shared between the two units; for instance, certain CBS play-by-play announcers (e.g. Don Criqui, Dick Enberg and Ian Eagle) call select Sunday afternoon games throughout the first several weeks of the season on CBS and then switch to Thursday and Saturday night games on Westwood One. Boomer Esiason, who is an analyst for CBS' The NFL Today, called color commentary on Westwood One's Monday Night Football (and would often advertise the latter on the former, as "the Monday night game on Westwood One"); conversely, Steve Tasker, a color commentator for CBS's Sunday afternoon coverage, served as an analyst on The NFL on Westwood One shows.
The coverage carried the CBS Radio Sports tag (both with and without "Westwood One") for many years before switching to Westwood One. The Mutual Broadcasting System, purchased by Westwood One in 1985, also aired NFL coverage for many years beginning in 1940, while NBC Radio, purchased by Westwood One in 1987, had exclusive NFL coverage in 1985–86. Westwood One now acknowledges the NBC Radio broadcasts as part of the entire history of the network's football coverage.