A second NBC Sports Bay Area host has left the station this year, leaving the local sports network with only two full-time hosts on staff.
“It’s hard to put into words what these four and a half years have meant to me,” Ramirez wrote on a note he shared. “I had the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream, working alongside some of the most talented people in sports media, and calling the Bay Area home.”
Ramirez was initially seen on NBC Sports Bay Area broadcasts in a remote role during the 2021 Giants season, and the Venezuelan was brought on full-time in 2022 as both a host and analyst (and occasional bilingual reporter/interviewer, too). But Ramirez quickly filled in across the Bay Area network’s various telecasts, working everything from the Athletics, Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors to San Francisco 49ers.
While he was initially hired to help cover the Giants, Ramirez transitioned to becoming the primary host for the network’s 49ers pregame and postgame shows in the past several years. The 49ers are the only local team that NBC Sports Bay Area does not have the broadcast rights for, but the station still does a significant amount of weekly programming covering them. Ramirez had been the primary host for those shows.
Ramirez follows Laura Britt out the door. Britt announced her departure in the spring and had her final show in May. With both of those hosts gone, NBC Sports Bay Area only appears to have two full-time hosts remaining: Bonta Hill, the primary host for Warriors games, and Kylen Mills, who handles Giants duties. It leaves the station without a clear and obvious choice for the host of its 49ers coverage.
In response to an SFGATE inquiry, NBC Sports spokesperson Brian Potter confirmed that Hill and Mills are the station’s only two full-time hosts “as of now.” He didn’t specify whether the station planned to add more full-time hosts going forward. As for 49ers coverage, Potter told SFGATE, “We plan to announce details on 49ers coverage in the coming weeks, including talent.”
In addition to his NBC Sports Bay Area work, Ramirez hosted studio coverage of the Olympics for Telemundo, NBC’s Spanish-language network, and has done Spanish-language play-by-play work for Major League Soccer on Apple TV. Ramirez has also filled in on KNBR in recent years, both as an on-air host of the late-night call-in show and on the 49ers’ English-language radio broadcast last year after Greg Papa announced his cancer diagnosis.
In his statement, Ramirez indicated he will be leaving the Bay Area entirely and announce “a new chapter” for his career “very soon.”