This will never happen again.
With the old media shrinking, and high staff turnover, it’s extremely unlikely that the Society of Professional Journalists will have another opportunity to honor a generation of sports journalists.
Nine broadcast and print sports journalists — with a combined 300 years covering local professional, college, high school and other amateur sports — were inducted into the Greater Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame Monday.
It was a memorable night, a laugh-filled event for the ages, as the nine were gently roasted and toasted at the Bally Sports Club room at Great American Ball Park Monday night.
They were all friendly competitors or former colleagues for four decades: TV sports anchors/reporters Dennis Janson, John Popovich, Ken Broo, Betsy Ross and George Vogel; WKRC-TV executive sports producer Kevin Barnett; radio sportscaster Wayne Box Miller; columnist Paul Daugherty; and the late Enquirer baseball beat writer John Fay.
Read their bios in my June story, "Nine sports journalists headed into Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame."
Broo hired Vogel and Barnett as interns. Janson and Popovich were Cincinnati’s best TV sports tandem at WCPO-TV for three decades. Ross did her first sports reporting for Popovich while also anchoring WCPO-TV newscasts. Fay worked a couple years at wcpo.com.
Here are my highlights of the night:
Janson asked Popovich to introduce him Monday, and “Popo” recalled how Janson seemed to know everyone in Cincinnati. “You walk into a bar with DJ and it was like Norm from Cheers.”
Janson, former sports anchor for WKRC-TV and WCPO-TV, told the crowd that growing up in Price Hill he “wanted to be an Air Force pilot, or a police officer, and I considered the priesthood,” to which master of ceremonies Courtis Fuller noted, “We have some breaking news! Dennis Janson wanted to be a priest!”
Janson also reminded the audience that “the difference between you and I” is the difference between “inducted” and “indicted.”
Daugherty, former Cincinnati Post and Enquirer columnist who still writes The Morning Line blog, said he considered being a bartender before embarking on a writing career. He thanked Janson and Popovich for their kindness when he moved to Cincinnati after leaving Newsday in 1988. “The first two people I met were DJ and Popo, and they couldn’t have been any nicer to me.”
Miller recounted his long circuitous journey to the Bengals Countdown To Kickoff pregame show by way of sales jobs for the Enquirer and New York Times; radio gigs at WIZF-FM, WDBZ-AM , WLWT-TV’s Sunday night Sports Rock; and being a sports agent for Eric Davis and several Bengals. Then he added a surprise to his resume — his Cincinnati radio debut was on WCIN-AM hosting the Midnight Happy Hour with Champagne Wayne.
Vogel, who retired in 2023 after 43 years at WLWT, where he worked with Ross and Broo, was the first of several who took shots at meteorologists who appear to have unlimited time in newscasts while sports gets cut to two minutes on heavy news days. Noting that honorees were asked to keep remarks to two minutes, Vogel said: “Two minutes? That’s a sportscast! Well, today maybe not! If I were the weather guy, I’d be up here all night.”
Former WKRC-TV sports anchor Gary Miller introduced Barnett, Channel 12’s longtime executive sports producer, by saying that “his whole goal is to make you look good.” Barnett’s former roommate, basketball coach Chris Mack, also appeared on a video.
Barnett said he was touched that his St. Bernard childhood friends filled a table at the dinner. ”A lot of people don’t know who I am, and I’m 100 percent totally OK with that. It’s been a dream. It’s been a great one. And I don’t want it to end.”
Matthew Broo, an assistant Hamilton County prosecutor, introduced his father Ken by noting his career stops included Tulsa, Okla., and doing Bengals play-by-play on WKRC-AM in the early 1990s when David Klingler quarterbacked the team to 20 losses.
Ken Broo used his time to talk about his Hall of Fame classmates. He praised trailblazer Ross, who interrupted her Cincinnati TV career to anchor on ESPNews. “Every woman in sports journalism owes a debt of gratitude to Betsy Ross.” (When Ross spoke, she cited Cammy Dierking, who was local TV’s first full-time woman sports reporter.)
Broo also complimented Popovich, his former Channel 9 coworker, as “the best storyteller in television, and I don’t care if you worked in New York or Los Angeles.” Broo also noted that he bunked with Tom McKee, retired WCPO-TV reporter and the SPJ board member who organized Monday’s dinner, when they were both Ohio University interns at Channel 9 in 1973.
Broo was the only sports anchor honored Monday who had worked at three TV stations (WCPO-TV, WKRC-TV and twice at WLWT-TV). He described TV sports as “for three minutes you’re on. Then seven minutes of commercials. Then they give 20 minutes to the weather guy.”
Fay, who died last year at age 66, was introduced by Michael Perry, the E.W. Scripps vice president and former Enquirer sports editor, and a video by retired Reds Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman. Jen Gruber, Fay’s niece, noted his “generosity and selflessness” accepting his award.
Popovich chose WCPO-TV news anchor Tanya O’Rourke for his introduction. She talked about how he wrote stories to very-carefully chosen images on the screen, “using words as an art form.”
“Popo” said he started his career in TV news because Ohio University had too many talented aspiring sportscasters, including Broo. And he was elated — not dejected — to be passed over as Channel 9’s main sports anchor when the station hired Janson from WKRC-TV in 1984. Popovich wanted to tell stories, not be stuck on the anchor desk. He praised Janson for his tenacity breaking sports news, adding that “he kicked my butt on Johnny Bench’s retirement” announcement in 1983.
Popovich was hired by legendary WCPO-TV news director Al Schottelkotte in 1979. Schottelkotte, who was part of the inaugural Hall of Fame group in 1990, offered Popo an extra $50 bucks a week in 1980 when Genesee Beer was going to sponsor a new Sunday night sports show, Sports Of All Sorts. Schottelkotte said they’d do the show for 13 weeks, the sponsor’s original commitment. It’s still on the air 44 years later.
He also recalled an incredulous conversation with Schottelkotte, when the city’s No. 1 news anchor asked if he used the name “Popovich” on the air instead of a fake, stage name. “And I’m talking to a guy named Schottelkotte!”
Among the Greater Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame members are TV anchors Peter Grant, Nick Clooney, Clyde Gray, Carol Williams, Rob Braun, John Lomax and Schottelkotte; reporters Lafcadio Hearn, Gerald White, Allan White, Ben Kaufman, Al Salvato, Polly Campbell, Allen Howard, Deborah Dixon, Chic Poppe and John R. Clark; cartoonists Jim Borgman and Jerry Dowling; sportscaster Red Barber; and sportswriters Hal McCoy, Earl Lawson and Pat Harmon.
