Alan Roach is not only the public address announcer for the Minnesota Vikings, but he does that for … [+]
Stevie Wonder was at Ford Field in Detroit rehearsing for his Super Bowl XL performance when the musician heard a booming voice.
“Well, I didn’t know we were going to have God announcing us today,” Wonder said.
That same divine voice from public address announcer Alan Roach will grace Super Bowl LIX.
Wonder was part of the pregame entertainment for the Feb. 5, 2006 contest, and that Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Seattle Seahawks game also represented Roach’s first time as the public address announcer for the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl LIX will be Roach’s 17th Super Bowl.
In addition to serving as the Super Bowl’s annual public address announcer, he does the same for the Minnesota Vikings, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids and the Winter Olympics. (If the Vikings and Avs have home games on the same date, the Vikings take precedence.)
He is the PA guy for tentpole MLB events like the London and Field of Dreams games and the NFL’s international games, draft and formerly the Pro Bowl.
“You hear his voice,” special events producer Bob Becker told NFL Films, “you’re at a special event.”
The year of 2006 was particularly special for Roach. That not only was the year of his first Super Bowl, but it was also the first time he traveled abroad to announce the Winter Olympics, which were in Torino, Italy.
Five days before leaving for the Super Bowl, he recorded announcements for Denver International Airport’s train — which he still voices — for the first time and then left for Italy the day after Super Bowl XL.
“That was a pretty amazing month,” Roach exclusively shared.
Alan Roach serves as the public address announcer for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
He announced the NHL All-Star Game when it was in Minneapolis in February of 2004. The lockout ensued the following season, wiping out the whole year.
Then the NHL’s director of special events moved on to the NFL and wanted Roach to join the shield and announce his first Super Bowl, though that would represent the first professional football game he’d ever announced.
Now he’s a Super Bowl veteran and has his routine down.
Roach arrives at the city hosting the Super Bowl to announce Monday’s Super Bowl Opening Night festivities. His first part of the week is fairly relaxed, but by Thursday and Friday, dress rehearsals take about 10-to-12 hours a day at the stadium as they practice the national anthem, color guard, announcements and other special events.
Having to clearly introduce players, identify who made the play and bark out the down and distance, his voice is his critical tool.
So he takes antibiotics, including azithromycin or Z-Pak, with him on the road just in case he’s feeling ill.
“When I’m starting to get some kind of bug or starting to get a scratch in my throat,” Roach said, “I’m probably oversensitive.”
He also uses a NeilMed Sinus Rinse and neti pot to rinse each nostril at least once every day.
That has kept his voice consistently strong — even if his name has changed.
Roach’s legal and birth name is Kelly Burnham, but when his career began in radio, he needed something more catchy and selected Kelly O’Shea to go along with his “Top of the Mornin’” tagline. Weirdly enough, when he went to Denver, there were competing radio hosts named Steve Kelly and Michael O’Shea. So he started going by Alan Roach in July 1991.
That radio career began in 1982 at KLIZ radio in Brainerd, Minn., and he was on the air in Denver from 1991 to 2015 at KRFX 103.5 FM and then sports station KOA 850 AM.
Alan Roach stands outside the Caesars Superdome, the site of his 17th Super Bowl, during the opening … [+]
His PA work started with the minor league baseball affiliate Colorado Spring Sky Sox in 1990. By 1993 he was doing Colorado Rockies games and then held that position for 14 years.
Seven years after he was the PA announcer for both the Avs and Denver Broncos, he came back home to his native Minnesota to become the Vikings’ PA person when U.S. Bank Stadium opened in 2016.
“He’s real passionate about what he does,” said safety Lewis Cine, who the Vikings drafted in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
When Roach started doing public address announcing, those in that field often just received a meal ticket, a parking pass and about $100.
“It’s pretty hard to make a career out of that,” Roach said. “I now make a living doing nothing but announcing some of the most sought-after sporting events all around the world, and I’m so incredibly blessed.”