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Former Chief Gammon joins radio broadcast team

As you may know, Chiefs radio broadcasts will feature a new sideline reporter this fall — former Chief Kendall Gammon.

Gammon will replace KCFX’s Bob Gretz, who had been doing pregame and postgame Chiefs shows as well as sideline reporting for the past 18 years.

The addition of Gammon was announced in a news release by Cumulus Media Partners, which owns KCFX, the Chiefs flagship station. But the news release made no mention of Gretz, though Gretz was no longer listed on KCFX’s Web site as a member of the Chiefs radio team.

Donna Baker, market manager for Cumulus, did not return phone calls. Baker said in the release, “We just made the NFL’s best broadcast team of Mitch Holthus and Len Dawson even better with the addition of Kendall Gammon.”

Pete Moris, Chiefs associate director of public relations, said the broadcast moves were not made by the Chiefs.

“This was strictly a business decision by KCFX,” Moris said. “We certainly appreciate the contributions that Bob has made the past 18 years. It’s certainly always hard to say good-bye to people.

“But at the same time everyone is excited to welcome Kendal Gammon to the broadcast team.”

Moris said, however, that Gretz would remain a contributor to the Chiefs’ Web site as a columnist, at least for now.

Gretz, who did not return calls Friday, perhaps had one of his strongest seasons on the radio team last year — hustling to bring injury updates, shedding any notions of homerism and dutifully pointing out the numerous poor performances on the field during a dreadful 4-12 season.

Dawson said by phone that the broadcast moves caught him by surprise.

“I had no idea this was happening,” Dawson said. “I thought (Gretz) did a heckuva job, with the 3 1/2 -hour pregame show, the postgame show, all of that. I don’t know the reasons behind (the moves).”

Whitlock on Costas

Star columnist Jason Whitlock is scheduled to be on a live panel on HBO’s “Costas Now” with Bob Costas at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Whitlock will be part of segment five, which will be a discussion on race. Also part of the live panel will be former NFL star Cris Carter.

Worst No. 1s

The Baltimore Sun came up with its list of worst No. 1 picks for each franchise of all time:

•For the Chiefs, it was Todd Blackledge, quarterback, 1983 (No. 7 overall). “Chiefs passed up both Jim Kelly and Dan Marino in the famed quarterback draft.”

•For Tampa Bay, it was Bo Jackson, running back, 1986 (No. 1 overall). “The Bucs made Jackson the top pick in the draft but overlooked a little thing now called signability. Bo sat out the season to play baseball. Tampa Bay got stiffed and, in the next draft, the Raiders took him in the seventh round.”

To reach Jeffrey Flanagan, call 816-234-4492 and leave a message or send e-mail to jflanagan@kcstar.com