About

For legendary broadcasters, it always seems that broadcasters bios begin with the clich�d phrase, “It all started in small studio at 1,000 watts station in�” In Ken Broo’s case, it actually started in a big town, Newark, N.J., just outside of the New York City, when Ken began listening to WABC-AM and his hero, Dan Ingram, during afternoon drive time while he was suppose to be doing his homework. A huge sports fan, Ken’s hero worship extended to the Marvelous Marty Glickman, Warner Wolf (who he replaced years later in Washington, D.C.) and Marv Albert.

Ken’s infatuation with broadcasting led him to the “Harvard on the Hocking River,” Ohio University, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Communications. While at Ohio, Ken did play-by-play/color for Bobcat football, basketball and hockey, and was the evening sports anchor for WOUB-TV.

Ken’s first “legitimate” broadcasting job was at WKFI-AM in Wilmington, Ohio. From there, it was onto WKST-AM in New Castle, Pennsylvania and then WSAI-AM in Cincinnati.

Oklahoma Television

Television soon came calling and Ken was off to the great Southwest and Oklahoma City. At KWTV-TV, he got his first taste of big time college football. At one point in his tenure, Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson, John Cooper, Nolan Richardson and Lou Holtz were all coaches in the coverage area of Ken’s stations.

At KOTV-TV in Tulsa, Ken landed his first Monday through Friday sports anchor job. Ken’s bright, brash and irreverent style was something entirely new for the market. In fact, one year during his six year tenure, he was voted the “best’ and “worst” sports anchor in Tulsa by readers of the Tulsa Tribune newspaper.

Ken was able to sharpen his play-by-play talents as the radio ‘voice’ of the Tulsa University Basketball team, as well as color analyst on the Tulsa Ice Oilers Hockey games.

But the best part about working at KOTV-TV was talking nightly with the number one personality in the Tulsa market: King Lionel, the puppet alter ego of the station’s talented weatherman, Lee Woodward.

WTSP-TV – Tampa, Florida

Wanting to cover more professional sports, Ken set his sight on WTSP-TV, Tampa, Florida. Joining WTSP-TV as a weekend sports anchor and moving up to main sports anchor, Ken quickly became a popular nightly sports fix for his “Booms” and “Where Are the Big Ones Biting Manana?”

Ken also joined the NFL’s Tampa Buccaneers’ broadcast team as an analyst.

Cincinnati Television and Radio

Next it was on to WLWT-TV, Cincinnati, Ohio, home of the Cincinnati Reds and Jerry Springer. As the main sports anchor, Ken helped with production of the “Pete and Johnny Show” or “Johnny and Pete Show” depending on your perspective, featuring baseball greats, Pete Rose and Johnny Bench.

After three years, Ken got an offer to “move across the street” to WKRC-TV, as the lead sports anchor.

It was there Ken got another ‘big break’, when he was named the radio voice of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Ken also joined the Bud Sports Production team becoming “The King of Junk Sports,” on ESPN television handling commentary for Mickey Thompson Racing, Tractor Pulls, Professional Horseshoe Throwing, Lumber Jack Contests, Bud Sports Daredevils and Professional Horse Jumping.

WUSA-TV – Washington, D.C.

Ken’s chance to move up to the “big time” came in 1996, when he was named the primary sports anchor at WUSA-TV.

Ken’s radio skills were again called on for his role as color commentator on University of Maryland Terrapin football radio broadcasts. He also called play-by-play for Jefferson-Pilot Sports on their ACC basketball network, broadcast on television stations throughout the southeast.

And if your music tastes ran to the alternative side, you heard Ken weekday mornings doing sports on Washington’s legendary 99.1 WHFS-FM. Introducing the Mighty Mighty Bosstones to an RFK stadium crowd of 60,000 screaming fans one of his best memories while working for the station.

Cincinnati Media

In 2000, Ken left WUSA-TV rejoining WLWT-TV to come full circle. Ken helped reinvigorate the wildly popular high school football program, The Blitz.

His latest project is the irreverent Sunday night, Sports Rock, offering a new approach to sports commentary with sports greats and a wide cast of characters.

If that’s not enough to keep him busy, Ken is also heard weekends on what he likes to refer to as “The 50,000 watt Mother Flamer Thrower 700 WLW, talking sports with some of the biggest names in the game and the greatest fans in the world, Cincinnati fans.

Awards

But like the Ginzu knife commercial, “Wait there is more!.” Ken has been the recipient of many awards for his sports work over the years including:

• Six Emmys for Best Sports Report, Anchor or Feature
• 1998-99 DC Area Sportscaster of the Year
• UPI National Sports Story of the Year
• Florida Sportscaster of Year Awards (3X winner)

 

Ken currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife and two children, where you can find him podcasting on this web site, collecting 45-rpm records, polishing his jukeboxes and watching a lot of sports on television.