Len Kasper, the TV voice of the Chicago Cubs for 16 seasons, will join the White Sox radio booth

The Wrigley Field exodus continues.

After 16 seasons as TV voice of the Chicago Cubs, Len Kasper has signed on to become the radio play-by-play announcer of the crosstown White Sox.

Kasper’s hire is not “Harry Caray from the Sox to the Cubs” huge, but it’s nevertheless a sizable move across baseball and media landscapes at a time when perceptions of the city’s two ball clubs seem to be are in flux.

WMVP-AM 1000, which last month was named the Sox’s new radio flagship, plans to formally announce the addition of Kasper on Friday morning. The Athletic reported his move late Thursday.

Marquee Sports Network, the joint TV venture of the Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group, appears poised to install Fox Sports’ Chris Myers as Kasper’s replacement alongside analyst Jim Deshaies.

Myers, 61, was to be Kasper’s backup on 2020 Cubs games on Marquee until COVID-19 disrupted plans for … everything. He had been brought aboard with the endorsement of actor-fan Bill Murray.

Kasper, who turns 50 next month, will join longtime White Sox analyst Darrin Jackson in the team’s radio booth as replacement for Andy Masur, who was thrust into the play-by-play job after veteran announcer Ed Farmer died last spring.

As if succeeding Farmer weren’t enough, Masur was saddled with doing so in a season when baseball announcers had to call both home and road games from their home stadiums as a health precaution.

Neither circumstance was ideal.

Joining the White Sox radio crew doesn’t just give Kasper the opportunity to ditch his tie and jacket, it allows him to get back to his radio roots.

While many TV announcers take days off when ESPN or Fox picks up games, Kasper has availed himself of the opportunity to contribute to Cubs radio broadcasts with Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer. Kasper also has been part of WSCR-AM 670 1/4 u2032s pregame coverage.

The Athletic also reported Kasper’s desire to call a World Series played a role, an opportunity unavailable to local TV announcers.

The White Sox are returning to the radio station that they won the 2005 World Series on, with John Rooney announcing it — and they’ve got another seasoned voice to call the action.

Kasper’s move is just the latest sign of how much change the Cubs are undergoing.

This offseason already had seen the departures of Cubs baseball boss Theo Epstein and pitcher Jon Lester, as well as non-tender statuses for 2016 World Series alumni Kyle Schwarber and Albert Almora Jr. following the layoff of many behind-the-scenes baseball and business staffers.

Kasper’s hire beefs up a Sox announcing corps that already includes NBC Sports Chicago’s Jason Benetti and Steve Stone, perhaps the best local TV announcer and analyst team in baseball.

Adam Amin, a rising star at Fox Sports and the incoming TV voice of the NBA’s Bulls on NBC Sports Chicago, has talked about using a recording of Kasper’s WGN-Ch. 9 call of Aramis Ramirez’s 2007 walk-off home run against the Brewers as a ring-tone when attending Valparaiso University.

Amin’s alarm every morning was: “The pitch to Aramis. There’s a drive, deep left-center! Cubs win! They win it! Ramirez, two-run shot! Oh, baby! Can you believe it?!?”

Said Amin: “My roommate hated me.”

Kasper was play-by-play man of the Miami Marlins for three seasons before becoming the Cubs’ lead TV announcer in 2005.

A graduate of Marquette University, he earlier had called select Milwaukee Brewers games from 1999-2001. He also for a time was host of pregame and halftime shows for the Green Bay Packers’ radio network.

Now it’s goodbye Cubs blue, and hello black and white.

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