Last week, 700 WLW announced that Thom Brennaman — who made a name for himself as a television sports play-by-play announcer at outlets like FOX Sports and for teams like the Cincinnati Reds — would replace Mike McConnell in morning drive at the iHeartMedia Cincinnati station.
The move raised eyebrows, as Brennaman had been largely out of the public eye after being captured using a homophobic slur in a hot-mic moment in 2020. But even more than that, Thom Brennaman has almost exclusively been a sports media figure, and the move to news/talk maybe didn’t feel like a natural one to the average observer.
But he admitted that the opening in morning drive at the venerable Cincinnati news/talk brand was a perfect storm too good to pass up.
“To a lot of people that sounds cliche, but when you don’t have a job for four years, if you can get a job in your hometown at a place that is such an iconic name and brand of WLW it’s incredibly exciting,” said Brennaman. “And thank God for it.”
Brennaman shared that he was keenly aware that his return to a full-time position in the media world would be reliant upon someone understanding the baggage he came with. But nearly five years after his viral hot-mic moment, the right opportunity came up at the right time, allowing him to jump at the chance of signing on with 700 WLW.
“The old saying is that beggars can’t be choosers. I mean it’s not like I’ve had people beating down the door to hire me the last four years,” said Brennaman. “I knew all along it was gonna take somebody who was not going to be afraid to take a chance. It wouldn’t be easy. I totally understood the standpoint that There might be 10 other guys out there every bit as good as Thom Brennaman. And with the other guys, we don’t have to deal with the baggage that came along with it from what I said, almost 5 years ago off the air. This is a full-time job and it’s not something that I’ve had in years. And I can’t think of any other place on the planet I’d rather be doing it.”
Thom Brennaman isn’t joining 700 WLW with a lack of knowledge of the brand. The 61-year-old has been affiliated with the station — in one way or another — for 51 years. His father, Marty, is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame for his work as the radio voice of the Cincinnati Reds, of which WLW serves as the flagship.
Additionally, he said one of his first jobs after graduating from Ohio University was working as a morning sports anchor at the station while longtime host Jim Scott helmed the daypart.
Thom Brennaman had stayed in touch with Joe Fredrick, who leads up the national sales effort at 700 WLW, in recent years. He said Fredrick had “always kept pushing” station management to give the former FOX Sports announcer an opportunity on the station. After iHeartMedia Region President DJ Hodge and Program Director Scott Reinhart gave Brennaman the chance to fill in on various programs, he continued to run with the opportunity.
With a history working for Major League Baseball teams like the Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Cincinnati Reds in addition to calling NFL, MLB, and college football broadcasts for FOX Sports, hosting a morning drive show on a news/talk station like 700 WLW is wildly different from anything else Thom Brennaman has ever d one in his career.
And he knows that.
“It’s a 180 from anything I’ve ever done before. I mean a complete 180,” the new WLW morning host reiterated. “My wife Polly said to me when we were talking the other night, my entire career, most of the time — whether it was baseball, basketball, or football — it was always telling people good night. And now it’s telling people good morning. I’ve always worked nights. I’ve always worked weekends. Now, I’m working where the alarm goes off at 3:11 in the morning. And it’s a different world.
“It’s a lifestyle change, without a doubt. That was a big part of the decision. This is the kind of job, at the end of the day, you can’s say no to it. You just can’t. It’s the biggest job in town. It doesn’t mean that I’m the biggest game in town, I’m not insinuating that. I just mean at that timeslot, at that station, the numbers are staggering.”
Thom Brennaman was more than complementary of those at The CW — where he will continue to announce college football and basketball broadcasts after taking the job in morning drive at 700 WLW — and iHeartMedia for allowing him a second chance.
Furthermore, he said that striking out on a new adventure isn’t anything out of the ordinary for the longtime media figure. It’s been a recipe for success earlier in his career, and hopes the same payoff awaits him in morning drive at the iHeartMedia Cincinnati news/talk brand.
“I’ve been really, really fortunate in being a part of something new a couple of times of significance. I had an opportunity to stay with the Chicago Cubs when I was doing the games back at the end of the 1995 season. And along came the Diamondbacks opportunity two years before the team started playing, and to be a part of the franchise or a network from day one,” Brennaman reminisced. “When we were in Arizona, I was fortunate enough to be hired as one of the six original play-by-play guys at FOX. Nobody had ever heard of FOX. Didn’t know what FOX was. You could’ve called a DOG and it had the significance of FOX. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s true.
“Then spinning off of that, when FOX went into a partnership with the Big Ten Network, I literally did the first game ever on the Big Ten Network when Appalachian State beat Michigan. I just think there’s something so exciting about something new. Look at my dad. He spent 47 years with the same team and there is something fascinating and incredible about being able to do that. But there’s also something fascinating and incredible to either start a new venture entirely or to start with a company that’s a brand-new venture.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
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