Memorial Stadium announcer Nate Rohr talks about his new job with the Chiefs in the midst of grief

Memorial Stadium public address announcer Nate Rohr will be a lot busier this fall. He received a call from a friend with the Kansas City Chiefs, offering him the same role at Arrowhead Stadium. Nebraska Public Media’s Aaron Bonderson spoke with Rohr about the balancing act of working both pro and college football games this fall.

Aaron Bonderson: First off, can you help me understand how all this got started? Getting the job to announce games for the Chiefs.

Nate Rohr: So the Chiefs’ prior public address announcer, Dale Carter, had been with them for 16 years, and somewhat last year during the playoffs, but especially leading into this season, they had asked him to be a little more active on third down to try and rile up the crowd. They had heard it really work at other stadiums, and he was kind of at a point where this would zap some of the fun from it for him, and so he resigned. And all of that happened Thursday. Brad (Young) (Chiefs’ director of live game productions) reached out on Thursday and said ‘Hey, we've got a situation here. Might you be available on Sunday?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And he explained to me what was going on, and I was excited that I'd get the chance to be the primary public address announcer. So we pretty well settled it on Thursday. And Sunday, I was down there announcing the game.

Bonderson: With going from Lincoln to Kansas City, what's that going to be like?

Rohr: Well, and keep in mind that I actually live in Omaha. I commute every day down here to Lincoln from Omaha to work for KLIN radio, so I guess I'm kind of used to spending a lot of time on the road. But last week was a back-to-back game weekend where I had the Nebraska game on Saturday, and I was just getting up early, driving down to Lincoln and getting down there about 8 a.m. for the 11 a.m. kick and worked the game. And then I drove back after the game, and then got up fairly early on Sunday morning, drove down to Arrowhead to Kansas City. I was down there probably 9:30-ish, and then I worked the game and drove back to where I got home, between 11-11:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Bonderson: Just to give the listeners an idea, what is different about PA announcing an NFL game versus college?

Rohr: Part of the reason why they were looking for me, and I think part of the reason why they selected me, was to be more active on third downs. Well, in the NFL, you have to stop everything on the public address system, whether it's music or the public address announcer, with 20 seconds to go on the play clock. And depending on when the ball is spotted and what happened in the play before, sometimes that play clock starts at :5, so in a lot of situations, there wasn't much time to draw out third downs and really make it a big deal because of that restriction. At the college level, you have until the center comes up on the ball to snap it before you have to cut everything on the PA system.

Bonderson: Is there anything else you wanted to add about, working Husker games and Chiefs games, sometimes in the same weekend?

Rohr: Well, it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of work. I'm grateful to my wife, Ellie, and my mother in law, Susan Shunk, for keeping the home fires burning, so to speak. All this is happening as my grandfather passed away. My grandfather passed away Thursday night. My grandfather was 90. He wasn't in great health, and he's been on hospice care. And I got a text from my mother Thursday afternoon saying ‘Hey, it looks like it's coming to the end here.’ And so I was able to go down and see him one more time Thursday afternoon. He passed away Thursday night. It's been a really tumultuous week. I'll say that.

Bonderson: I'm so sorry to hear that. Did your grandfather follow the Chiefs and the Huskers?

Rohr: Yes, he was a huge sports fan. It's kind of where I got it. He was a bigger sports fan than my father. My grandfather's a huge Nebraska fan. It was one of his last big highlights, last fun days out in 2018, when the athletic department arranged for him to come up to the Nebraska-Minnesota game. He and my grandmother were able to hear me PA announce at Memorial Stadium. It was actually Scott's first home win, or his first win period. He was a huge Husker fan. He followed the Chiefs. He watched the Chiefs and rooted for them, but he was a bigger Husker fan than Chiefs fan.

Bonderson: Thank you for your time, Nate.

Rohr: Hey, thanks for having me.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview was edited for time and clarity.