Eli Gold

Gold called New York home until he was twenty-three. He lost his father when he was very young; he said, "Regretfully, I didn’t know him that well." Gold says that growing up in New York impacted his broadcasting career because there were over 200 radio stations in the area. He worked at WOR and WNEW, where he learned the business.

His high school was not the usual high school that most kids go to, instead he went from 7am until 10:41am, then would go to work. In the eighth grade, he knew he wanted to be a sportscaster. He began his career in 1972 working as a weekend sports reporter with the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Gold's first specialty was announcing ice hockey for the Eastern, North American, Southern, American, Central, and the National Hockey Leagues. In the NHL, Gold announced games for the 1979–80St. Louis Blues on KDNL-TV, and was the radio play-by-play announcer for the Nashville Predators during the 2006–07 NHL season. Gold made a return to pro hockey during the 2017–18 season, broadcasting games for the expansion Birmingham Bulls in the Southern Professional Hockey League.

في عام 1976، انضم غولد إلى شبكة سباقات السيارات التابعة لـ NASCAR، والتي تبث سباقات NASCAR عبر أكثر من 600 محطة. شغل غولد العديد من الوظائف المختلفة في الشبكة، بما في ذلك مذيع مشارك، ومعلق على المنعطفات، ومراسل منطقة الصيانة. كانت أولى وظائفه مع الشبكة هي التعليق على المنعطفين الأول والثاني لسباق World 600 عام 1976 على حلبة شارلوت موتور سبيدواي ، فيما وصفه بأنه "تجربة أداء على الهواء". ^{[ 1 ]} بعد السباق، سأل بارني هول عما إذا كان يعتقد "أنهم سيعيدونني". ^{[ 1 ]} فأجابه هول بأنه يعتقد ذلك. "لقد كان أداؤك جيدًا، وأنا متأكد من أنك ستعود مرة أخرى". ^{[ 1 ]} على الرغم من أنه لم يعد يعمل في غرفة التعليق أو التعليق على المنعطفات، إلا أنه عاد للعمل في كل بث لسلسلة سباقات سبرينت كاب على شبكة MRN في موسم 2015، حيث قدم برنامج ما قبل السباق وبرنامج ما بعد السباق. ^{[ 2 ]}

من عام 1984 إلى عام 2016، كان غولد مقدم برنامج "NASCAR Live"، وهو برنامج أسبوعي يُبث في جميع أنحاء الولايات المتحدة على الراديو الأرضي، وMRN.com، وراديو Sirius XM NASCAR .

من عام 1996 إلى عام 2000، كان غولد المعلق الرئيسي لتغطية شبكة TNN لسلسلة سباقات وينستون كاب، حيث شارك في التعليق مع محللين مثل بادي بيكر ، وديك بيرغرين ، وتشاد ليتل، وفيل بارسونز . كما عمل مع شبكات ESPN و CBS Sports و NBC Sports و SETN في جميع تغطياتها لسباقات ناسكار.

بحسب سائق ناسكار كيني والاس ، الذي يقدم أيضًا برامج ذات طابع ناسكار على قناة سبيد ومحطة راديو سانت لويس KMOX-AM ، فإن غولد "يُعد أحد أكثر الأصوات شهرة في ناسكار وفي جميع البث الرياضي". ^{[ 3 ]}

في عام 2016، استقال غولد من شركة MRN ومن جميع مهامه في سباقات ناسكار. وأشارت التقارير المنشورة إلى حادثة وقعت في أبريل من ذلك العام لم يتم الكشف عنها. ^{[ 4 ]}

ابتداءً من موسم كرة القدم عام 1988، أصبح غولد المذيع الإذاعي لفريقي كرة القدم وكرة السلة بجامعة ألاباما. وقدّم برنامجي "ذا تايد" و"هاي كوتش"، اللذين استضافا مدربي فريقي كرة السلة وكرة القدم للتحدث مع غولد.

إلى جانب فريق ألاباما كريمسون تايد، تم استدعاء غولد من قبل شبكة سي بي إس سبورتس للبث المباشر لمباريات كرة السلة الجامعية في برنامج إقليمي، والذي تضمن جامعتي جورجيا وكارولاينا الجنوبية.

Gold was the first play-by-play announcer for the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) Blazers basketball team for six years. Gold would serve at times as the play-by-play announcer for the Blazers in the absence of Gary Sanders. He also spent four years as the broadcaster for the Birmingham Barons baseball team. While he was working with the baseball team, he was named the Southern League's Broadcaster of the Year in 1983. He was also voted Alabama Sportscaster of the Year four times by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriter Association.

Gold moved to Birmingham, Alabama to call games for the Birmingham Bulls hockey team of the World Hockey Association. He created Birmingham's first local sports call-in show, Calling All Sports on WERC, which became a staple of Birmingham sports radio for 20 years. He eventually rose to the position of sports director for what was then that market's ABC affiliate, WBRC, where he anchored evening news sports segments and hosted Sports Talk with Eli, a weekly call-in show. From 2002 to 2004 he hosted a daily sports talk show also called Calling All Sports on WJOX-AM in Birmingham.

Gold has also performed announcing duties for the Birmingham BaronsAAbaseball team and the UAB Blazers men's basketball team. He has been voted Alabama Sportscaster of the Year four times by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He has also won the same honor from the Associated Press and United Press International.

On August 30, 2011, Gold returned to the daily radio airwaves as co-host of a morning drive time (6am-9am CT) sports call-in show with former Auburn quarterback Stan White on WZNN in Birmingham.

It was announced on February 21, 2024, that Gold would not be returning as the radio broadcaster for the University of Alabama for the 2024 football season.

At the beginning of the 2000 season, Gold became TNN's voice of the original Arena Football League. He did the play-by-play announcing for the 3 years that the AFL was on the TNN network. When AFL moved to NBC Sports in 2003, Gold was hired to become the play-by-play announcer for the AFL. Gold also did AFL announcing for FOX Sports Net and Comcast Sports. He returned to calling arena football games for the Nashville Kats in 2024 when they were in the since-failed relaunch of the Arena Football League. (The Kats have since joined Arena Football One in 2025.)

Beginning in the fall of 2003, Gold became a member of the SportsUSA Radio's Network coverage of the NFL. Gold handles the play-by-play for one NFL game a week. He also broadcasts all-star games and post-season college football bowl games for SportsUSA Radio.

In August 2021, Gold was announced to be the primary play-by-play voice of the Birmingham Squadron of the NBA G-League.^[5][6]

On August 3, 2022, Gold confirmed he would be missing the start of the 2022 season to focus on his health. During his leave of absence, the play-by-play commentator for the Alabama Crimson Tide has been Chris Stewart, who is the current play-by-play announcer for Alabama's men's basketball.^[7]

Gold initially stated that he was not facing a serious illness and that he was merely addressing his declining ability to move around, which he attributed to orthopedic complications. Gold also reported having lost over 100 pounds.^[8] In January 2023, Gold announced he had been diagnosed with cancer, although he said that it was a "treatable" form of the disease and that he was making progress in his recovery.^[9]

Gold currently resides in Birmingham, as well as Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina with his wife Claudette and daughter Elise. Gold is also a part owner of Nino's Italian Restaurant, which is located in Pelham, Alabama. He also has a wing sauce named after him at Baumhowers Wings restaurant, which is owned by former Alabama defensive lineman Bob Baumhower. Gold is Jewish;^[10] he once told an interviewer that he was thrilled that a "Jewish kid from Brooklyn with zero athletic talent would make it into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame."^[11]