Bill Macatee (born November 17, 1955) is an American sports broadcaster for

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...

and

Tennis Channel Tennis Channel is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Sinclair Television Group subsidiary of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It is devoted to events and other programming related to the game of ...

Early life and career

Macatee was born in

Rome, New York Rome is a city in Oneida County, New York, United States, located in the central part of the state. The population was 32,127 at the 2020 census. Rome is one of two principal cities in the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area, which li ...

, and grew up in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

. He graduated from Burges High School in El Paso. In 1978, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from

Lamar University Lamar University (Lamar or LU) is a public university in Beaumont, Texas. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the fall of 2021, t ...

in Beaumont, Texas. While in college, Macatee worked at

KLTV-TV KLTV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Tyler, Texas, United States, serving East Texas as an affiliate of ABC and Telemundo. K31PR-D (channel 31) is a digital translator, also licensed to Tyler, in full simulcast with the primary ...

in Tyler, Texas as well as KTVV-TV in Austin, Texas. He became Sports Director at

KBMT-TV KBMT (channel 12) is a television station in Beaumont, Texas, United States, affiliated with ABC and NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside low-power MyNetworkTV affiliate KUIL-LD (channel 12.5). Both stations share studios along I-10/US 69/U ...

in Beaumont, Texas where he was hired by Bill Paradoski. Following that he worked at

KMBC-TV KMBC-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside The CW, CW affiliate KCWE (channel 29). Both stations share stud ...

in Kansas City before spending three years at

WFAA-TV WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KMPX (channel 29) ...

in Dallas, Texas. Macatee was hired by NBC Sports in 1982 and worked for NBC News and NBC Sports while based in New York.

NBC Sports

Macatee began his network sports broadcasting career with

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

. where he covered a wide range of events including Wimbledon, the Super Bowl, the Rose Bowl and the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

. He hosted

's ''

Major League Baseball Game of the Week The ''Major League Baseball Game of the Week'' (''GOTW'') is the de facto title for nationally televised coverage of regular season Major League Baseball games. ''The Game of the Week'' has traditionally aired on Saturday afternoons. When the na ...

'' pre-game show for four years as well as numerous events for the network's sports anthology show, ''

NBC Sportsworld ''Sportsworld'' (also known as ''NBC SportsWorld'') is an American sports anthology television program which aired on NBC on Saturday afternoons from 1978 to 1994. Format The program presented a wide variety of lower-profile and offbeat sporting ...

''. Additionally, Macatee served as the sports correspondent for the ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...

'' and sports anchor for ''

NBC News at Sunrise ''NBC News at Sunrise'' is an American early morning television news program that aired on NBC from August 1, 1983 to September 6, 1999. The program featured the top news headlines of the morning, sports and weather reports, and business segment ...

'' and '' Sunday Today''. He also co-anchored the syndicated show '' USA Today on TV''.

USA Network

Macatee joined

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...

as a sportscaster in 1990. From 1991 until 2006, Macatee anchored coverage of the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

and hosted the network's Thursday/Friday coverage of

The Masters The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first ma ...

from Butler Cabin as well as coverage of the Ryder Cup. His other duties included play-by-play for the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and the French Open at Roland Garros.

CBS Sports

Joining CBS Sports in 1995, Macatee served as a tower announcer and handled post-round, network interviews for

and

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

. Macatee also substituted for

Jim Nantz James William Nantz III (born May 17, 1959) is an American sportscaster who has worked on telecasts of the National Football League (NFL), NCAA Division I men's basketball, the NBA and the PGA Tour for CBS Sports since the 1980s. He has ancho ...

during other PGA Tour events and anchored

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

' coverage of the

LPGA Championship The Women's PGA Championship (branded as the KPMG Women's PGA Championship for sponsorship reasons) is a women's professional golf tournament. First held in 1955, it is one of five majors on the LPGA Tour. It is not recognized as a major by the ...

and various Champions Tour events. In 2015, Macatee hosted the Golf Channel series, ''Greatest Rounds''. Macatee co-anchored weekend coverage of the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan for CBS Sports and also served as a studio host for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino, Italy (NBC/USA Network). In tennis, Macatee was the lead CBS play-by-play announcer for the U.S. Open Tennis Championships (taking over from

Dick Enberg Richard Alan Enberg (January 9, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including N ...

in 2012) and other ATP and WTA events. For 16 years (1998 - 2013) Macatee did play-by-play for the

NFL on CBS The ''NFL on CBS'' is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. The network has aired NFL game telecasts sin ...

. He also called NCAA Basketball for CBS Sports including the NCAA Tournament and the NCAA Men's Division II Basketball National Championship Game. Macatee handled network play-by-play in sports as diverse as figure skating, skiing, track-and-field, gymnastics, boxing and even sumo wrestling.

Tennis Channel

Additionally, Macatee served as the main play-by-play voice and studio host for the cable network

, covering the Australian Open, The French Open (French Open Tonight), Wimbledon (Wimbledon Primetime) and the U.S. Open.

Personal life

In 2013, Macatee joined The Vistria Group, a Chicago private equity firm, first serving as a Senior Advisor to the firm and then as Partner. Macatee has been a Director on multiple privately-held company boards, as well as the Advisory Board of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Foundation. Macatee spent two years as an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Southern California, teaching Sports Media at the prestigious

Dodge College of Film and Media Arts Dodge College of Film and Media Arts is one of ten schools constituting Chapman University, located in Orange, California, south of Los Angeles. The school offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, with programs in film production, screenwriting ...

. Macatee served as a Trustee at Lamar University from 2016-2019. He was named Distinguished Alumnus at Lamar University in 2010 and gave the Commencement Address for the university's graduating class in May 2014. In 2018, Macatee was inducted into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also in the El Paso (Tx) Sports Hall of Fame and in 2011 was Grand Marshall of the Sun Bowl Parade. On May 10, 2014, Macatee married Sonya Lee. They reside in Dallas, Texas. He is also father to Caitlin Macatee, an up-and-coming comedian and author.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macatee, Bill American television sports announcers Golf writers and broadcasters Major League Baseball broadcasters 1955 births Living people Tennis commentators Sportspeople from Rome, New York Olympic Games broadcasters Lamar University alumni National Football League announcers American television reporters and correspondents Bowling broadcasters College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Boxing commentators Figure skating commentators Track and field broadcasters