"The last 10 years have been pretty good, but he's always getting his numbers checked," Pluto said.
"Just as he's coming out of, he develops melanoma on his earlobe. And that transplant works."īut then came more adversity for Donovan. They found the donor, a guy who was a corrections officer down in rural Virginia. "By 2009, he needs a bone marrow transplant. So, he prevailed," Pluto said.Ī year after beginning his job as the Browns' play-by-play announcer, Donovan was diagnosed with CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia).
He even went out and made a tape of a Notre Dame football game, something real fresh on radio, because he didn't want to be just considered off his TV tapes. Who's going to be the play by play guy? And Jim desperately wanted that job. "So when the team came back in '99, that opened the door wide open. The next year, owner Art Modell announced the team would be moving to Baltimore. Meanwhile, the Browns' radio play-by-play announcer, Nev Chandler, passed away from cancer in 1994. Pluto said Donovan was also asked by NBC to call some NFL games on the weekends. And that got him the job in Cleveland back in 1985 doing the the weekend sportscast." Cloud, Minnesota, doing about 100 events a year, different hockey and basketball and baseball, and living in this guy's basement because he was making no money," Pluto said.ĭonovan then went on to a station in Burlington, Vermont. Pluto said after college, Donovan paid his dues at small TV and radio stations. "And so he played those tapes and they go, 'Those are pretty good.' So they gave him a shot at the Boston University hockey team doing those games on the student station," Pluto said. Then, Donovan used those tapes to try to get jobs when he went to Boston University. And so here's a 12-year-old Jim Donovan sitting next to his father at the old Boston Garden doing, 'Goal go by Phil Esposito!' And it began that way," Pluto said.
"His father had tickets to the Bruins, and he asked if he could go. He realized he needed to record crowd noise to make it authentic. Pluto said that journey began when Donovan was a young hockey fan in Boston, muting the TV and calling Bruins games into a tape cassette recorder.
He'll begin his 24th season as the voice of the Cleveland Browns, tying Gib Shanley as the franchise's longest tenured radio play-by-play announcer.Ĭommentator Terry Pluto recently wrote a series of articles about Donovan's hard-fought journey - both professionally and personally. The partnership between NPR and CPRN, said Barnes, “combines top talent, musical knowledge and fundraising expertise with the superior marketing and expertise of NPR that stations truly value.Longtime Cleveland sports broadcaster Jimmy Donovan marks a milestone this fall. “CPRN offers the best performance pieces from the classical repertoire as well as information about the music, delivered concisely, that helps listeners learn a little more about the music and listen differently to the pieces,” said Brenda Barnes, general manager of KUSC and co-founder of CPRN with Max Wycisk, president of Colorado Public Radio. Boise State Radio in Boise, Idaho Northwest Public Radio in Pullman, Wash.
To help stations during local membership campaigns, CPRN also produces 40 full hours of fund-raising specials three times a year for a total of 120 hours annually.ĬPRN currently airs on five public radio stations or networks: KUSC Los Angeles, Calif. Seven experienced announcers host CPRN’s around-the-clock music service, presenting everything from the most familiar pieces of classical music to lesser-known but thoughtfully chosen works from medieval times to modern. “As public radio stations continue to seek ways to expand and focus their programming, this new alliance with CPRN will help NPR provide more and better service to NPR stations choosing to concentrate on classical music programming,” said Benjamin Roe, NPR’s director of music. The NPR-CPRN partnership will make around-the-clock classical music available to its 732 NPR member stations, 472 of which broadcast classical music.Ĭreated five years ago by Colorado Public Radio and University of Southern California Radio (KUSC), CPRN received $850,000 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1999 to develop the service. NPR has announced a significant new alliance with CPRN (Classical Public Radio Network) to market and distribute the 24-hour classical music service to public radio stations nationally.