RICK WATSON
Rick Watson is at the forefront of the Radford Sports Radio Network as the "Voice of the Highlanders.” He has served as the athletic department's director of radio broadcasting for 23 years and returns for his 24th season as the play-by-play voice for all men's basketball games.
Watson also spent four years as the director of sales and sponsorship along with broadcasting. Watson has since transitioned into a more focused role with all athletic department broadcasting operations and content. Watson also serves as the athletic department’s host and emcee for all major donor functions, Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and the annual student awards banquet.
Watson was on the call as Radford made its runs through the 2009 and 2018 Big South Men’s Basketball Tournaments, describing the action of his alma mater's second and third appearances in the NCAA Tournament. Watson serves as the on-air talent for all ESPN Plus home telecasts for Radford athletics.
Watson spent the summer of 2018 as the “Voice of the Pulaski Yankees” for all 34 home games for the short season minor league rookie affiliate club. He continued as the voice for the Pulaski minor league team through June 2020.
A 1991 graduate of Radford's School of Communications, Watson is also the host of “Big Dog Sports Talk”, a very successful sports radio call-in show in the New River Valley from 2001 through 2010 and again from 2020 through the present. He was the Sports Programming Director at the Cumulus Radio Station cluster for 10 years.
Watson currently resides in Riner, Virginia with his three children, Stephanie, Ryan and Benjamin.
TOM PURVIS
Tom enters his fifth season as the voice of Radford women’s basketball, and his tenth season overall of doing play-by-play for women’s hoops at the Division I level. Prior to coming to Radford, Tom was the voice of Idaho women’s basketball for five seasons. Tom has been fortunate enough to call a game in the NCAA tournament three times in his six seasons of calling games, including last year with Radford.
Before beginning his play-by-play journey, Tom was a sports director at ABC/Fox Montana and a sports producer for KUTV prior to that. In his free time, Tom stays busy working as a freelance video editor and spending time with his wife Alex and three kids - Eli, Juliette and Asher.
