How did Jason Benetti first get behind a microphone as a broadcaster?
Jason Benetti first got behind a microphone because of his mild case of cerebral palsy. Marching with the tuba — his chosen instrument — proved impractical, so after a failed attempt at drum major and then marching in place on the field, his band director at Homewood Flossmoor High School, Bill Jastrow, told him to head upstairs and announce the band's set. That was the moment Benetti first spoke into a microphone.
What started as a practical workaround turned into a defining career trajectory. Benetti went on to develop his voice formally at Syracuse University's student radio station, where he first went on the air in 2003 — a station that had also trained broadcasters like Bob Costas, Marv Albert, and Sean McDonough. The unlikely path from a high school football field to national television is something Benetti shared openly when Peter Sagal interviewed him on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! during the show's 2026 summer highlights episode.
"As somebody with a mild case of cerebral palsy, the marching with the tuba that I selected as my instrument was a horrendous idea."
— Jason Benetti, on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!About Jason Benetti
Jason Benetti
Play-by-play announcer, Sunday Night Baseball · NBC
Jason Benetti grew up in Chicago, where his passion for sports broadcasting took root early — he famously wrote an essay in third grade declaring he wanted to be the announcer for the Chicago White Sox. He has a mild case of cerebral palsy, which shaped his entry into broadcasting in a direct and unexpected way: unable to march effectively with the tuba in his high school band at Homewood Flossmoor High School, he was redirected by band director Bill Jastrow to announce the band's set over a microphone — his very first time in that role.
He went on to study at Syracuse University, where he began broadcasting professionally in 2003 at the school's student radio station — the same institution that produced Bob Costas, Marv Albert, and Sean McDonough. His first on-air lead-in was the NPR News with Carl Castle, giving his career a notable early connection to public radio.
Benetti spent years as the play-by-play voice of the Chicago White Sox before moving to the Detroit Tigers. In 2026, he stepped onto the national stage as the play-by-play announcer for Sunday Night Baseball on NBC — a role that fulfilled the ambition he had sketched out in a third-grade essay decades earlier.
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