Oct. 25, 2010

STANFORD, Calif.- As the Stanford men's basketball season gets underway, there will be changes ahead in the radio broadcast booth on XTRA Sports 860 AM, as announced today by Cardinal Sports LLC, which manages all aspects of the Cardinal Sports Network as Stanford Athletics' exclusive marketing and multimedia partner.

John Platz, former Stanford basketball player and team radio analyst for 21 years, has been tabbed to handle all radio play-by-play duties. Additionally, Platz will be joined by new color analyst, Drew Shiller, a three-year letterwinner on the Stanford men's basketball team from 2008-10.

"Naturally, I am thrilled to be moving over to the play-by-play role," said Platz, who lettered as a reserve guard on Stanford teams from 1982-84. "As I consistently have said since my playing days, to be part of such a terrific program in any role is a great privilege, and as the radio voice I intend to convey the richness of Stanford Basketball in every broadcast."

Platz succeeds David Flemming, who continues to serve as Stanford's football play-by-play announcer, and who is stepping away from basketball broadcasting duties to dedicate more time to his family.

Platz, who also handles the sideline reporting duties on the Stanford football radio broadcast team, has held a variety of other Stanford sports broadcasting roles over the past two decades, including a two-year stint as the lead play-by-play voice of Stanford's back-to-back NCAA champion baseball teams during the 1988 and 1989 seasons. Platz, who earned both his undergraduate (B.A. 1984) and graduate (J.D./M.B.A., 1989) degrees from Stanford, is also a longtime Bay Area attorney and currently serves as Senior Counsel at Cisco Systems in San Jose.

Shiller, a part-time starter and three-time Pac-10 All-Academic honoree during his playing career (2007-2010), averaged 7.5 points per game as a senior last year, shooting 39 percent from three-point range and 89 percent from the free throw line. The Burlingame, Calif., native and former three-sport standout at Burlingame High School was awarded an M.A. in Communications at Stanford's 119th Commencement this past June after receiving his B.A in Communications from Stanford in June 2009. Over the course of the last year, Shiller has also served as a play-by-play announcer for various Stanford Athletics webcasts in baseball and softball.

"I'm very excited to be able to continue my association with Stanford Basketball in this new role," said Shiller. "John and I talked a lot during my playing career, and I see this as a natural extension of those conversations. I'm looking forward to giving listeners an informative and entertaining perspective on college basketball from the color analyst's chair."

Stanford's first radio broadcast of the 2010-11 campaign is slated for Monday, Nov. 15, when the Cardinal hosts San Diego in its season opener.

Cardinal Sports LLC is a property of Learfield Sports, which manages multimedia rights for more than 50 collegiate institutions and associations including fellow Pac-10 Conference member, Oregon State. The company also titles the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup with NACDA and USA Today and manages marketing partnerships for the Black Coaches & Administrators (BCA). For more information about the company, its history and complete collegiate portfolio, visit learfieldsports.com.