User:Voiceofthecolonials/Sandbox

Chris Shovlin
Chris Shovlin is a popular radio personality on Pittsburgh's 1320 WJAS-AM, one of the top nostalgia radio stations in America. Until December 2008, Chris was the News and Sports Anchor on the WJAS Morning Show hosted by Jack Bogut (and previously by Jack Wheeler) since 1991. Chris will soon become the host of the WJAS Afternoon Show (beginning in Spring 2009). Chris is the Director of Marketing & Promotion at 1320 WJAS and its sister stations, WISH 99.7 (WSHH-FM) and Money Talk 1360 WMNY-AM. Shovlin was the morning sports anchor on WISH 99.7 for seven years. He is also the play-by-play voice of the Robert Morris University Colonials Football and Basketball teams and of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds professional soccer team on WPIT-AM, and the chief TV play-by-play voice of WPIAL High School Football and Basketball on Comcast in Pittsburgh. Chris won his third Pittsburgh March of Dimes A.I.R. (Achievement In Radio) Award for Best Sports Play-By-Play. This latest one is for RMU Basketball's upset at Boston College in 2008. He called that game with Jim Duzyk. Shovlin has two other AIR Awards; one for Pittsburgh Riverhounds Pro Soccer (2003) with Steve Bell and the other for RMU Football (1998) with Jeff Waller. Additionally, Shovlin calls Pittsburgh Passion Womens' Pro Football games on FSN Pittsburgh (Fox Sports Network TV). Chris was inducted into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame in 2006, becoming only the second broadcaster to be so honored. The first was Chuck Wilson. Both Wilson and Shovlin were among the top broadcasters to have worked at WBVP-AM in Beaver Falls, PA. He is the Vice President of the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School Board of Directors. Chris is a graduate of Westminster College and Midland High School, both in Western Pennsylvania.

Chris spent the first 16 years of his career as one of Beaver Valley’s favorite radio personalities, teaming with Bill Fontana to call play-by-play sports and with Jim Merkel the Morning Show on WMBA-AM (1976-1979), then on WBVP-AM and WWKS-FM (1979-1992). In Beaver Falls, Chris anchored the station’s award winning newscasts, and with Jay Knafel called the Valley’s most significant high school and college games over parts of three decades. He revolutionized the way local news and sports were presented by adopting an innovative ‘network delivery’ style that enhanced the sound of WBVP, and he led the station to Pirates spring training and introduced locker room coverage of the Bucs and Steelers. In 1981 Chris was appointed co-host of the 16 station “Gunner Network Sports Talk Show” with the legendary Bob Prince, and he served as an interim instructor in the Geneva College speech department in 1982. All the while, Chris was working his way up the ranks, from announcer to Vice President and General Manager – the pinnacle position at WBVP and KISS 106.7. Chris left the station in 1992 to become the Western Development Director for Pennsylvania Special Olympics. Since 1987, Chris has served as the play by play voice at Robert Morris University and has broadcast more than 650 Colonial basketball games, including four trips to the NCAA Tournament and one visit to the NIT, and he has called play by play for every RMU football game ever played. In 2002 and 2003, Chris also handled the play by play for several University of Pittsburgh Basketball Radio Network broadcasts. As voice of professional soccer’s Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Chris teamed with US Soccer Hall of Fame player Paul Child on Fox Sports Radio 970, and he has also called TV play by play on the A League Game of the Week. Chris has televised some of the biggest WPIAL football and basketball games on WBGN-TV and served as play by play announcer on the Comcast High School Football and Basketball Games of the Week, along with Guy Junker, John Miller, Mike White, Meg Bulger, and Jim Elias. The 2004 WPIAL Championship Basketball Game (Jeannette vs. Beaver Falls) won a Telly Award for the Comcast crew. Ohio State's quarterback, Terrell Pryor, starred in that game while playing high school hoops.