WHAS-TV’s broadcasts of University of Louisville football and basketball games got a little more local.
Drew Deener hosts a local morning sports talk show on WKRD-AM 790 and had a short stint as the station’s co-director of sports in 2004. He went to St. X and Transy, and spent much of his professional career in sports in Lexington. He’ll be joined by Doug James for football and Bob Valvano in basketball in TV games not picked up by national networks.
He replaces Ari Wolfe, who got the job in 2005. Wolfe, who lives in Philadelphia and has no local ties, won an Emmy Award for his U of L play-by-play work.
Good to see WHAS making the move to localize the broadcast with Deener. Wolfe is a pro, but never seemed to fit in here.
10 responses so far ↓
1 Mark H (Not Hebert) // Jul 9, 2009 at 11:27 am
I have sat next to Mr. Wolfe on several flights into town and found him to be a great guy and very professional. That said, he has always seemed like an outsider.
Reverting back to the small town tendencies, Louisville likes to have broadcasters with local ties that can “relate” to fans. I have never heard Deener do play by play, but I look forward to the coverage. Ari always seemed a bit too vanilla.
2 ToddSmith // Jul 9, 2009 at 11:56 am
Now if we could only get rid of Valvano. I can’t stand to listen to that blowhard.
3 Willy // Jul 9, 2009 at 12:33 pm
ToddSmith- I agree. Valvano is just full of himself. I am glad he is not on local daily radio any longer.
4 Cantinflas // Jul 9, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Way-to-go, U of L. Provincialism VS Professionalism. At long last the Louisville area mystery of “what high school did you go to?” becomes clear! Add to that the recent report of the lack of college graduates sticking around Louisville – and you can begin to understand that this city would be something…if it could.
5 Mark H (Not Hebert) // Jul 9, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Like I have said before, Louisville is a conglomeration of several small towns (South End, East End, West End, Fern Creek/Jeffersontown, and the Highlands), masquerading as a larger city than it really is culturally. Unfortunately you get the small town hang-ups with the comfort a small town brings.
Maybe Deener can delivery a little more Brohm Family Turkey Bowl footage to the broadcast….
My only objection to Ari was that he was a little bland and didn’t help or play off Doug James to bring more color to the games. Like him or hate him, Valvano at least has an opinion.
6 Mark H (Not Hebert) // Jul 9, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Cantinflas; as far as the college graduates moving out of town, the problem is that socially they grow up in a small town atmosphere and feel confined because they rarely venture out of the area of Louisville they were born. They feel trapped and restricted to the 50,000-75,000 people that live in the area they do.
You wouldn’t blame a kid for not wanting to move back to Elizabethtown, Richmond, or Paducah when they graduate. To a kid who grew up in Fern Creek, was his or her social experience all that different? I know that I knew and hung out with very few people outside of the immediate area of Louisville I grew up.
This is always going to be a problem with young professionals coming immediately back to Louisville. They just want to get out and only later do they appreciate the things the totality of the city offers.
7 Now get rid of James and Valvano... // Jul 9, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Both those guys have had their chance and they need to be swept out with the rest. Neither do anything but yap, yap, yap, yap…of course no one will be watching UL fb games this year, so maybe it doesn’t matter.
8 Carter Burger // Jul 9, 2009 at 2:58 pm
I’m with you Cantinflas. I’m guessing they got Deener for about a third of what they were paying Wolfe. In broadcasting, the bottom line means everything, talent be damned.
9 Steve Bittenbender // Jul 9, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Is it WHAS that hires the announcers or U of L?
10 keatssycamore // Jul 9, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Ari is simply horrible with Valvano. All the incessant yukking it up about things completely unrelated to the game or team is “professionalism”? I guess I’ll take the provincialism ’cause it can’t possibly be any more annoying than Ari Wolfe calling basketball.
Seriously, an Emmy? That guy won an Emmy? I suppose that tells me the value of a local Emmy award.
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