With Bill Hillgrove out, AT&T SportsNet's Rob King prepares to step in to Steelers broadcast

Longtime Steelers radio play-by-play voice Bill Hillgrove will not call the last two games of the regular season. He is having back surgery.

It’s unclear if he will be able to call playoff games if the Steelers make it that far.

So Rob King of AT&T SportsNet will be filling in on WDVE and the rest of the Steelers Radio Network until Hillgrove can return. He’ll join the usual broadcast crew of Tunch Ilkin in the booth and Craig Wolfley and Missi Matthews on the sidelines.

King will be taking a temporary leave from his pregame duties with me on the WDVE Steelers pregame show and will be replaced by former NFL scout and ESPN Radio Pittsburgh/SNR host Matt Williamson.

Before my co-host abandoned me, uh, I mean, started preparing for this tremendous opportunity this week, King joined me for Friday’s podcast.

Hillgrove hasn’t missed a game since taking over for Jack Fleming as the voice of the Steelers in 1994. King knows it’ll be strange for the audience to hear a different voice on the microphone during the play-by-play. So we talked about his approach to handling that dynamic during Hillgrove’s absence.

This is King’s first attempt at calling an NFL game. But he has done major college games, including some for West Virginia on television. We discuss whether he thinks the difference will feel like much of a change.

One advantage King has is that he has worked with Ilkin and Wolfley. He and Wolfley paired up on a number of WPIAL broadcasts together. He was partnered with Ilkin on “SportsBeat” in the past. So he can find a comfort zone on the Steelers broadcast.

I ask King if nerves will be an issue. Of course, I try to convince him that they should be and that he should be terrified.

Let’s see if that worked.

Then we get into some discussion about the game, the nuances between calling games on TV versus the radio, and the amount of prep work involved.

LISTEN: Rob King discusses filling in for Bill Hillgrove on Steelers broadcast