Born Elias Leo Gold in Brooklyn, New York, Gold grew up in a city saturated with radio stations, an environment he credits with shaping his ambitions from childhood. By the eighth grade he knew he wanted to be a sportscaster. He began his professional career in 1972 as a weekend sports reporter for the Mutual Broadcasting System, learning the craft at WOR and WNEW in New York before relocating south.
His first specialty was ice hockey, where he announced games for leagues ranging from the Eastern to the National Hockey League. In the NHL he called games for the 1979–80 St. Louis Blues on KDNL-TV and served as radio play-by-play announcer for the Nashville Predators during the 2006–07 season. He later returned to pro hockey in 2017–18 with the expansion Birmingham Bulls in the Southern Professional Hockey League.
Gold joined NASCAR's Motor Racing Network in 1976, beginning as a turn announcer working turns 1 and 2 at the 1976 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He described the assignment as essentially an on-the-air audition, and it launched a forty-year association with MRN. Over the years he held roles as co-anchor, turn announcer, and pit reporter before becoming most closely identified as the host of NASCAR Live, the weekly MRN program heard on terrestrial radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio from 1984 to 2016.
From 1996 to 2000, Gold was the lead announcer for TNN's Winston Cup Series television coverage, sharing the booth with analysts including Buddy Baker, Dick Berggren, Chad Little, and Phil Parsons. He also contributed to NASCAR coverage on ESPN, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, and SETN. In 2016 he resigned from MRN and all NASCAR duties.
Beginning with the 1988 football season, Gold became the radio broadcaster for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football and basketball teams. He hosted the coaches' programs The Tide and Hey Coach, and was the first play-by-play announcer for the UAB Blazers basketball team. He was named the Southern League's Broadcaster of the Year in 1983 while calling Birmingham Barons baseball and was voted Alabama Sportscaster of the Year four times by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, as well as earning the honor from the Associated Press and United Press International.
On February 21, 2024, it was announced that Gold would not return as Alabama's radio broadcaster for the 2024 football season, ending a run of more than thirty-five years.
Gold served as TNN's voice of the Arena Football League beginning in 2000, calling play-by-play for three seasons on that network. When the AFL moved to NBC Sports in 2003 he continued in the same role and also covered AFL games for Fox Sports Net and Comcast Sports. He returned to arena football in 2024 to broadcast Nashville Kats games.
Gold was named the 2019 winner of the Chris Schenkel Award by the National Football Foundation, which recognizes broadcasters with long careers tied to a specific institution. He is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
Gold has resided in Birmingham, Alabama, where he created the city's first local sports call-in show, Calling All Sports on WERC, which ran for twenty years. He is part owner of Nino's Italian Restaurant in Pelham, Alabama.