Hill, who recently started a podcast with colleague Michael Smith, will now co-host NNL with him. Hugh Douglas will remain on the show as a guy who gives opinions. An ESPN spokesman had no comment.

NNL started in September 2011 as a stats show, but after just nine months ESPN decided to scrap that format and turn it into an afternoon debate show. The initial host, Charissa Thompson, moved over to Sportsnation. (She has since left for Fox Sports.)

An ESPN spokesman did note that in its new 2 pm timeslot on ESPN2 – with First Take as a lead-in – ratings in two key demos (men 18-34 and men 18-49) for Numbers Never Lie were up year-to-year.

But, as she prepares for her final broadcast, finding No. 1 was elusive.

“There have been so many,” she said, mentioning interviewing Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and racing go-karts against NASCAR’s Kyle Busch, to developing the station’s “Blitz” Friday night high school football show.

Hernandez will have her final on-air broadcast during the 10 p.m. show Wednesday. She has accepted a position as communications and marketing manager at Gerald R. Ford International Airport. She starts there May 28.

“In this position, I’ve met so many incredible people and covered so many great things,” she said. “But some of my favorite things are the daily, local stories. Telling stories about people you wouldn’t know unless you watched FOX17.”

Hernandez, who is from Muskegon and went to Fruitport High School and Michigan State, joined the station in August, 2008 as a sports anchor/reporter. She had earlier worked as an intern at the station in the summers of 2001-03.

She also worked as weekend sports anchor at WJBF-TV in Augusta, Ga. where she covered The Masters four times.

Hernandez won Michigan Association of Broadcasters award twice, including her work on the Blitz, which was also a nominated for an Emmy.

Hernandez and her husband, Tony, who has been in U.S. Marine Corps for the 13 years, live in Grand Rapids.

FOX17 also has sports anchors in Steve Amorose and Jason Hutton.

Read more at MLive where this story was originally published.

Sampson, 38, signed off from WILX-TV Channel 10 on Sunday after more than a half-decade at the station and 17-plus years on the Lansing-area sports scene.

He served as WILX’s weekend sports anchor since 2006. Before that, he spent two years as a sports producer at Michigan State University, and was a sports reporter at WLNS-TV 6 in Lansing from 1995 until 2000.

Sampson is going to work for East Lansing-based MSUFCU. He is a native of Vermontville and a 1995 graduate of MSU.

He worked for the duration of his tenure at WILX with veteran sports anchor Tim Staudt, occasionally filling in for Staudt as host of his morning sports radio talk show “Staudt on Sports” on WVFN 730 AM.

Read more at MLive where this story was originally published.

105.7′s Norris and Davis morning show ranked fifth in the same demo.

News talker WBAL, AM 1090, which carries sports in the evenings and is the Orioles’ flagship station, placed sixth for the full day.

CBS WJZ-AM, 1300, which carries the CBS Sports Radio network, ranked 46th full day and 50th in mornings.

Towson sports talker WNST, 1570 AM, didn’t rank.

Read more at the Press Box Online where this story was originally published.

“I just soaked in her world,” Spencer says. “It was very enjoyable, but it was a different experience.”

In a way, that describes this entire relationship, which started with a text message, assistant coach to TV reporter: “Thank you.” In a matter of months, it revved from nonexistent to long-distance romance. And with a July wedding in the works, they know only this:

“It’s unconventional,” says Spencer, in his sixth season at Oklahoma Stat. “It’s a blessing.”

And Edwards, a longtime ESPN reporter, adds, “There’s a reason we were brought together.”

Their unlikely story begins in September 2011, with the death of Spencer’s wife. It’s a longer, sadder saga he would just as soon not retell.

Angela Spencer’s passing was sudden but not unexpected — she’d been battling heart disease for more than 10 years and was awaiting a second heart transplant — but she left behind not only a husband, but two sons. And after his wife’s death, Glenn focused on fatherhood and coaching, in that order. Luke, now 18, is a senior at Stillwater (Okla.) High. Abe, 15, is a freshman. It was rough. It’s still difficult.

“Nobody handled it better than he did and his boys did,” says Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy. “But they had to move on.”

No one, including Spencer and Edwards, expected things to move in this direction, or this fast. But somehow, out of tragedy has grown something they believe is special, and not accidental. How did this happen?

“It’s hard to pin down,” Spencer says.

Start with the text message. It was about a year ago. Still grieving, Spencer was finally coming up for air, at least a bit. He had a pile of letters and cards and notes on his desk. Texas coach Mack Brown had written “a tremendous letter,” Spencer says. Baylor defensive coordinator Phil Bennett had, too, and many others had also reached out to Spencer. Now, he was finally working through the stack, writing thank-yous, making calls, sending emails and text messages.

He also wanted to thank Edwards for her work during the Cowboys’ emotional victory at Texas A&M the week after Angela’s death. At the request of a player, the Cowboys players wore stickers with “AS” on their helmets. Though Spencer hadn’t worked that week, he and his sons traveled with the team, and he helped make halftime adjustments that turned a 20-3 deficit into a 30-29 victory. Months later, he watched the TV replay — something he rarely does — and was struck by Edwards’ delicate handling of the situation.

“She did a tremendous job of honoring my wife that day,” he says.

Wanting to thank her, he called Robert Allen, a radio host who has long covered Oklahoma State, looking for Edwards’ phone number. Allen called Edwards, who at first wasn’t sure what to think. But Allen vouched for Spencer in “a big, long email,” Edwards says, in which he wrote, “I can’t speak highly enough about Glenn” — and she gave in.

So Spencer texted his thanks, and Edwards texted back, “No problem. How are the boys?” And a conversation began — slowly at first, every few days by text.

“There was a lot of trepidation,” Edwards says. “On his part, because of what he was coming through and going through. And on my part: ‘Why is this guy texting me?’ “

As they progressed to occasional and then regular, lengthy phone calls, an unexpected friendship developed. “It was like little baby steps,” Edwards says, and both say the solid foundation was essential. Both 49, they share interests — sports, for example, and dogs, and physical fitness. But they soon were talking for hours on end, sharing deeper stuff — “our hearts,” Spencer says — and something more developed.

On the surface, Spencer seems the stereotypical gruff football coach — with a mini-fridge stocked with Red Bull in his office as evidence. (Edwards calls it “poison,” but Spencer says, “I told her if that’s the worst I ever do, we’ll be OK”.) Married before but divorced for 11 years, Edwards wasn’t looking for romance. But when she dug just a little, she got to know a multilayered, considerate man who was devoted to his faith, his family and his job.

“He’s an amazing person,” she says. “He’s a beautiful person inside and out. I admire him for his integrity and the great father he is, how passionate and dedicated he is to his job — there’s a million reasons I love him.”

When Spencer took his sons on a trip last summer to Washington, D.C., he took a chance. Knowing Edwards lives nearby in Maryland, he invited her to dinner. She accepted, and things accelerated after that — though not before they’d both confronted two questions.

They were concerned that Spencer was still dealing with Angela’s death — and that his boys were, too. And both were concerned about potential conflicts with Edwards’ role as a sideline reporter.

“He is such a special person,” Edwards says, “that all of that other stuff kind of dissolved away.”

When it became apparent there was romantic interest, Edwards informed her bosses at ESPN and offered to switch from college football to general reporting. They declined the offer, though it’s likely Edwards won’t do Big 12 games.

Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Glenn Spencer, right, watches his team’s spring practice in Stillwater, Okla., on March 13.

“It’s not gonna change how I do my job,” she says. “I pride myself on being objective and credible. I think I’m well-respected. I don’t think I’ve ever given anyone reason to believe I’ve crossed any lines, and I don’t think that will change.”

They had dinner last November in Oklahoma City — Edwards stopped there on her way to cover a game in Austin — and after the football season, they met several more times in several other cities, a highly coordinated choreography of complicated calendars. In February, at a beachside hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Spencer proposed. By then, it wasn’t really a surprise; he had asked a while earlier about her ring size.

The boys are on board with the idea. They’ve connected with Edwards over sports; she’s attended Luke’s baseball games, including a tournament in March in Arizona, and Spencer says they’re “happy that their dad’s got some happiness.” Spencer is fencing his yard for Edwards’ dog Susie. Though Edwards will maintain her home in Maryland, she’ll live in Stillwater, Okla., during the football season.

But Spencer still marvels, “That somebody like her could come into my life and bring me a lot of joy.”

And Edwards says, “It has kind of been a shock to the system. Neither one of us was looking for it. It just kind of happened. So it is gonna be different, but to me, he’s a blessing.”

Read more at USA Today where this story was originally published.

Janson anchors his last Channel 9 sportscast Wednesday to write columns and stories for the WCPO website starting in June.

During his 45-year broadcasting career, DJ seems to have met everyone or have a story about everyone. I’ve been covering him for more than two decades, and here are some of my favorite moments involving Johnny Bench, Muhammad Ali, Nick Clooney, Cris Collinsworth, Clint Eastwood, Bob Huggins, the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, Jerry Springer and others.. I call them DJ’s Greatest Hits:

TV weatherman: A brief stint as Channel 12’s emergency substitute weatherman in 1973 led to his first full-time TV job — as Channel 12’s entertainment editor. He was 23, and 23 hours short of his UC degree. “I quit college for $75 a week to work for Channel 12,” he says. Wouldn’t you love to see video of him doing weather?

Clint Eastwood: He still has the tape of his 1974 interview with Clint Eastwood, from his entertainment days. It’s in his home office with photos of Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Jon Voight, Kirk Douglas, President Gerald Ford and others he’s interviewed. (He’s partied at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion too.)

Janson, then 24, ended his interview with Eastwood asking the actor-director for a movie job! DJ had just learned Channel 12 was canceling the entertainment beat to hire a “Trouble-Shooter” consumer reporter.

“I knew I was getting bounced, so I’m saying to Clint Eastwood off camera: “This is my last assignment. You don’t have anything happening in Hollywood, do you?’ ” he recalls.

Johnny Bench: DJ broke the news that Johnny Bench was retiring in 1983. He met Bench very early in his career, when DJ worked for WSAI-AM (1969-72). The station ran a contest for a listener to win a date with Bench, and Janson was their chauffeur that night.

Jerry Springer: In his first year at Channel 12, Janson was at Councilman Jerry Springer’s 1973 wedding -– covering it for Channel 12 with a wind-up 16mm movie camera!

Beverly Hills fire: If it wasn’t for a phone call, early on the morning after the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, Dennis Janson might not be the city’s top sports anchor.

On that Memorial Day weekend, DJ was the managing partner of Chapter 13, a bar in Mount Adams. He had been out of broadcasting three years, after stints at Channel 12, WKRC-AM, WSAI-AM and a couple of Dayton stations.

Channel 12 sports anchor Fred Wymore called DJ that Sunday and asked if he remembered how to edit news film. DJ said he could do it.

“OK, then ABC News just hired you. Get over here,” Wymore said.

He spent the day editing film at Channel 12 for ABC’s national TV bulletins about the Northern Kentucky tragedy and discovered how much he missed broadcasting.

Soon he was back in the WKRC-AM newsroom. When a fill-in sports anchor was needed down the hall, he told the Channel 12 news director: “I’ll do it for $50 a show. Basically, I did a live audition Saturday and Sunday at 11. That’s how I got a job doing weekend sports in 1977.”

Nick & Ira Joe: Janson was main sports anchor when Channel 12 anchor Nick Clooney and backward-writing weatherman Ira Joe Fisher ended the 22-year dominance by WCPO-TV’s Al Schottelkotte in the early 1980s. By 1984, the team had been dismantled by agent Conrad Shadlin, who got Fisher a job in New York City and Clooney a position at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. After they left, Janson jumped to Channel 9, starting on air in October 1984.

More scoops: He was first to report that the Bengals’ Cris Collinsworth had signed a contract with the upstart U.S. Football League in 1983. … In 2002, he broke the news that Bob Huggins would not leave the University of Cincinnati for the NBA Los Angeles Clippers. … And when Channel 12 reported the “definitive word” in 2002 that Huggins was leaving UC for West Virginia, the coach called DJ at Channel 9 to say the report was wrong.

Muhammad Ali: Channel 12 anchor Nick Clooney got a tip that Muhammad Ali was getting a haircut in an Evanston barber shop, and sent DJ out for an interview in 1977. Earlier that day, he had interviewed former heavyweight champ Joe Frazier, in town with his band The Knockouts.

Says Janson: “I didn’t know what to say to him, so I said, ‘I saw an old friend of yours today, Joe Frazier.’ And he leaps out of the chair and starts shouting: ‘Joe Frazier! Joe Frazier! This town isn’t big enough for me and Joe Frazier!’

Ali started swinging his arms as if he was going to box DJ. “My heart was in my mouth. And then he just started laughing,” Janson said.

Bengals: One of Janson’s perks at Channel 12 was being the Bengals radio commentator for two seasons (1982-83) on sister station WKRC-AM, before jumping to Channel 9. He did games with Phil Samp, the original Bengals play-by-play announcer, not known for sharing the airwaves with his analyst.

Read more at Cincinnati.com where this story was originally published.

Montesano was the Director of Broadcasting for the NWL’s Eau Claire Express from November of 2005 through April of 2010.

“I’m very excited to be returning to the Northwoods League and to be joining one of the league’s foundation franchises in the Waterloo Bucks,” said Montesano. “Riverfront Stadium was always one of my favorite ballparks to visit and it will be great to call it my home office. I look forward to becoming a part of the team and creating memories this summer.”

Montesano recently finished up his fourth season as the Director of Communications & Radio Broadcaster for the Des Moines Buccaneers of the United States Hockey League. Originally from Utica, New York, Montesano graduated from Marist College. Montesano has a wealth of broadcasting experience in both baseball and minor league hockey with positions in Maine, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

“The Bucks are happy to bring Scott into the fold as the Bucks new radio announcer,” said Bucks general manager Dan Corbin. “I remember Scott as being one of the hardest working announcers in the NWL when he was with Eau Claire and really respected his work. With Opening Day just a couple of weeks away, we look forward to Scott bringing Bucks baseball over the airwaves this summer.”

Scott, his wife Angela, and son Derek reside in Urbandale, Iowa.

“This new job gets me back to baseball while allowing me to continue my hockey position with the Des Moines Buccaneers. Thankfully both employers are happy with this and (more so) my wife and son have green lighted the project. Its the best of both worlds.”

(Visit Scott’s STAA Talent Page).

“We are thrilled to continue our great partnership with IMG and Gamecock Athletics,” said Brent Johnson, Operations Manager for Cumulus Media/Columbia and Network Host for the Gamecock IMG Football Network. “I am personally excited to be part of the broadcast team that gets to cover these amazing teams and to witness the culture change that continues. We are more committed than ever to present Gamecock Nation with the best broadcasts in the SEC. It is an honor to be the official Home of the Gamecocks.”

Under the terms of the agreement, 107.5 The Game will continue to carry all Gamecock football, men’s basketball and baseball games, along with the coaches’ shows. In addition, WNKT will now simulcast USC women’s basketball games when there is not a conflict with another Carolina broadcast. All women’s basketball games will continue to be carried live on NewsTalk 1320 WIS in Columbia.

“We are pleased to announce our extension with 107.5,” said Liz McMillan, General Manager of Gamecock Sports Properties. “They have been outstanding partners with the University and do an excellent job of providing listeners with the best Gamecock coverage throughout the Midlands.”

“We are delighted to continue our relationship with 107.5 as the `Home of the Gamecocks’ in the Midlands,” said South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tanner. “We appreciate the commitment 107.5 has made in its coverage of our athletics programs, including adding women’s basketball games to its schedule. The station’s strong signal blankets the Midlands, giving our fans wall-to-wall coverage of Gamecock Athletics.”

IMG College and Cumulus Broadcasting are completing the fifth year of a five-year agreement that began in 2008 that made WNKT-FM the official flagship of Gamecock Athletics.

Headquartered in Winston Salem, N.C., IMG College is America’s leading collegiate multimedia, marketing and licensing/brand management company, representing more than 200 of the nation’s top collegiate properties including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and many of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country.

Read more at U. of South Carolina where this story was originally published.

He was 82 years old.

Aside from his notable broadcasting calls, Venturi’s biggest accomplishment on the golf course came when he won the 1964 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. Despite scorching heat, he shot 66-70 on the final day of the tournament (which included 36 holes), marking the only major championship of his career.

Venturi was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame just last week, but he was unable to attend the ceremony due to illness. He was inducted under the Lifetime Achievement category.

His broadcast partner, Jim Nantz, paid tribute to Venturi at the ceremony.

“You did it your way, Kenny. There will never be another one like you. Thank you for the ride. You have left a stamp not just on my career, Kenny, but on my soul.”

A San Francisco native, Venturi won 14 PGA tour events before retiring in 1967. He then spent the next 35 years broadcasting golf for CBS.

Read more at CBS Sports where this story was originally published.

CPTV covers several Connecticut colleges, including Hartford, Yale, Central, and Post, in addition to many high schools. The station also broadcasts the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, New Britain Rock Cats baseball, and the Connecticut Soccer League.

A 2012 graduate of Yale, Anderson says the CPTV opportunity offers multiple benefits. “A) I will be able to continue to get reps calling games, and experience is something I consider to be one of the most important factors. B) I will get to do something new – be on TV. My previous experience has all been in radio. TV experience will enhance my resume and expand my skill set.”

The CPTV opportunity came to Anderson as the result of a cold call. “When I called CPTV, the station director picked up the phone. We spoke for a couple minutes and I emailed them my tape and resume; they liked my stuff and wanted to meet me. In the interview we talked about their needs and my goals, and we decided it’s a good fit.”

Anderson’s advice to other sports broadcasting job seekers is to be professional at all times. “How you present yourself speaks volumes about the character you will bring to an organization – how you speak, how you address others, your punctuality, your work ethic, how you prepare for games, your dress, how you work with colleagues, etc. This doesn’t mean don’t enjoy yourself — but do it in a professional way.”

Another important thing Anderson has learned is to stay in touch with industry contacts. “Not only reach out and make initial contact, but then follow up periodically — ask good questions, ask for advice, update them on your progress, ask for referrals. Use your best judgment in deciding when and how to follow up (you can have too much of a good thing!) but always follow up consistently.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity [at CPTV] and I’m fortunate that things have lined up the way they have.”

(Visit Rhett’s STAA Talent Page).