Dale Carter resigned as Kansas City Chiefs public address announcer on September 11, 2025, three days before the team’s home opener against Philadelphia.
The man behind the iconic “It’s. Third. Down.” call walked away after 16 years when his employer told him another announcer would handle the call that defined his time at Arrowhead Stadium.
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The Red Line
On September 9, 65 TPT Productions contacted Carter with news from “up high” in the organization. They wanted the secondary PA announcer, who handles pregame activities and commercial reads during games, to start doing third-down calls “to shake things up.”
“That was my red line,” Carter wrote on Facebook the day after announcing his departure.
The pressure had been building since the 2024 playoffs. Production staff told Carter someone at a high level had heard another stadium announcer “really amp it up on 3rd down” and wanted him to experiment. He tried different approaches despite disagreeing. Fans at late 2024 games noticed the changes.
But handing over the call completely? That crossed a boundary.
For over a decade, Carter’s elongated third-down announcement had defined Chiefs home games. The NFL had actually warned him about “cheerleading” early in his tenure, which prompted him to develop the suspense-building call that made him “the 3rd down guy” to thousands of fans.
Sixteen Years Without Missing a Game
Carter started announcing at Arrowhead in 2009, when Patrick Mahomes was 13 years old.
The Country Radio Hall of Fame member, who hosts mornings on 94.1 KFKF, called himself the “Audio Propagandist” for Kansas City, working within league rules to help the team. He worked six AFC Championship games at home, including five consecutive appearances, and never missed a single game. Every Thanksgiving. Every Christmas. Even a whirlwind 48-hour round trip to London.
“Game day is an eight-plus-hour commitment, a lot more than the three-hour game,” Carter explained in his resignation post. “I never did it for the money. I did it because it was fun.”
Seventy-Two Hours to Replace Him
The Chiefs contacted Nate Rohr on Thursday, September 11.
Rohr works as sports director at KLIN radio in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he’s spent 10 years as the PA announcer for Nebraska football at Memorial Stadium. His friendship with Brad Young, the Chiefs’ Director of Live and Gameday Production, helped. Young had called him once before in 2018 when the team needed a fill-in for their home opener against San Francisco.
“They said they’d get back to me as to whether or not they would need me,” Rohr told US Weekly. “They got back to me later on Thursday and said, ‘Hey, we need you.'”
The Athletic reported Carter’s departure on September 12, quoting his detailed Facebook explanation about the third-down dispute. KCUR covered both his resignation and his upcoming run for Jackson County Legislature.
Rohr discovered one major difference between college and NFL announcing on his first day. League rules require all PA announcements to stop 20 seconds before the snap. College allows announcers to continue until the center touches the ball, giving them more time to build energy on third-down situations.
Carter endorsed his replacement publicly the following Sunday: “I just saw that my friend Nate Rohr will succeed me as stadium voice of the Chiefs. Great choice!”
Chiefs Kingdom Reacts
Chiefs supporters made their displeasure clear on social media.
“Why change something iconic and loved by all the fans as part of the arrowhead experience?” one supporter posted on X.
Another aimed directly at owner Clark Hunt: “Hunt is an idiot. Gifted this 15 to 20 year run and he’s fumbling it like no other.”
The timing couldn’t have been worse for Kansas City. They’d just lost Super Bowl LIX to Philadelphia in February. Then dropped their season opener 27-21 against the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil. The home opener without Carter’s voice? A 20-17 loss to the Eagles that put them at 0-2 for the first time since 2014.
Fans attending the September 14 game posted they could barely hear the new announcer. The third-down calls lacked the energy that had defined Arrowhead for over a decade.
What’s Next for Carter
His schedule remains packed. Beyond his morning radio show, Carter hosts “Dale Carter’s America,” a podcast examining current events from what he describes as a middle-ground perspective. More significantly, he’s running for the 5th District seat on the Jackson County Legislature in 2026, challenging current holder Jeanie Lauer.
He also continues announcing high school football in Blue Springs, a role he maintained throughout his Chiefs tenure.
The Chiefs issued a brief statement: “We appreciate Dale’s dedication and professionalism as the in-stadium voice at GEHA Field at Arrowhead over the past 16 seasons.”
The Voice of an Era
For anyone who attended games at Arrowhead between 2009 and 2025, third down meant one thing: Dale Carter’s voice cutting through 76,000 screaming fans.
That distinctive call became as recognizable as the stadium’s deafening crowd noise itself. Dan Meers, who performed as KC Wolf for 35 years, retired earlier in 2025. Both departures ended tenures that stretched back before Kansas City’s recent championship era.
Sports fans looking for more breaking NFL coverage can track the league’s biggest stories as they develop. Carter’s 16-year run at Arrowhead ended over the very call that became his trademark.
