Miami Dolphins hire familiar face as new preseason TV play-by-play voice
The Miami Dolphins have a new preseason television play-by-play announcer and it’s a familiar face: Florida Panthers TV voice and popular longtime South Florida broadcaster Steve Goldstein.
According to a television industry source, the Dolphins and CBS-4 have chosen Goldstein to be the team’s new preseason TV voice, working alongside Dolphins legend Jason Taylor. They will announce the station’s two locally-produced preseason telecasts.
Goldstein has been the voice of the Panthers on Bally Sports Florida (formerly Fox Sports Florida) since 2007, and he has reported on or opined about the Dolphins in a variety of roles over his 27-year career as a South Florida sportscaster.
Those roles have included working previously as a sports-talk host alongside Joe Rose on WQAM-560, serving as the Dolphins’ radio pre-game and post-game host more than a decade ago, anchoring a Fox Sports Sun Dolphins program with deceased former Dolphins tight end Jim Mandich, and handling some sports anchor duties at CBS-4, a job he still holds.
Goldstein, who announced college football while a student at Syracuse, also has anchored CBS Radio Sunday Night Football pregame shows and recently hosted an NFL Combine program for Fox.
Goldstein also anchors newscasts on WFOR and was the hockey play-by-play radio broadcaster at both the 2010 and 2014 Olympic Winter Games for Westwood One, for whom he also calls NHL playoff games. And he has announced tennis matches in recent years for the USTA World Feed, ESPN and The Tennis Channel.
The versatile Goldstein is the only broadcaster in South Florida who anchors TV newscasts and sportscasts and also works as the play-by-play voice of a team.
Goldstein, 51, replaces Dolphins preseason TV voice Dick Stockton, who retired from broadcasting earlier this year.
With the preseason being cut from four games to three games for each team, Goldstein and Taylor will call only two preseason games: at 1 p.m. on Saturday Aug. 14 at Chicago and at 7 p.m. on Aug. 21 at home against Atlanta.
CBS will nationally televise the Dolphins’ third and final preseason game at Cincinnati at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 29. The network said it hasn’t made an announcing assignment for that game, which will be CBS’ only preseason game.
The Dolphins’ preseason TV play-by-play job has been held by several network voices over the years, including Stockton, CBS college football announcer Brad Nessler and former CBS (and current Utah Jazz TV announcer) Craig Bolerjack.
The Dolphins flew in Nessler from Atlanta and Bolerjack from Salt Lake City to call the games, but Stockton in recent years - and now Goldstein - give the Dolphins a preseason TV play-by-play voice who’s based in South Florida.
With the NFL’s 2020 preseason canceled due to COVID-19, the Dolphins’ preseason broadcast booth will look much different than it did in 2019, when Stockton and now-retired Bob Griese worked alongside Taylor, who replaced Nat Moore in the preseason TV booth that year. Moore remains the Dolphins’ senior vice president of special projects and alumni relations.
The Dolphins’ regular-season radio team on WQAM-560 will remain intact, with Jimmy Cefalo, Rose and Taylor.
Cefalo announced recently that he has been diagnosed with a type of demyelinating disease, which, according to WebMD, affects the protective covering of the nerve fibers around the brain, optic nerves and spinal cord.
Cefalo, 64, said he will remain the Dolphins’ radio play-by-play announcer and continue hosting a weekday talk show on WIOD-610 for “as long as I can.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 2:21 PM.
