Wes Durham

Dallas Wesley "Wes" Durham (born January 25, 1966 in Greensboro, North Carolina) is an American sportscaster. He is a play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports and ACC Network coverage of college football and basketball. He works telecasts of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) due to his experience broadcasting in the conference.

Durham in 2014

Durham served as the radio play-by-play announcer for the Georgia Tech football and men's basketball teams from the start of the 1995-1996 season through 2010, and continued to announce the basketball games through 2013."[1] He was also Georgia Tech's Director of Broadcasting[2] and is the radio play-by-play announcer for the Atlanta Falcons.[1]

Biography

Early life

Durham's father, Woody Durham, was the "Voice of the Tar Heels" for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for forty years.[3] Growing up in that environment gave Wes the opportunity to see behind the scenes of sports and sports broadcasting.

Wes worked as a disc jockey for a roller rink[1] and for a radio station during high school. Wes Durham attended Apex High School. He then went to Elon College and learned about broadcasting while working as an undergraduate assistant on the Elon Sports Network. After graduating in 1988, he had stints as the radio announcer for the athletic teams at Marshall University and Radford University. He then spent three years at Vanderbilt.

Georgia Tech

Durham came to Georgia Tech in the fall of 1995. In 1997, he was also named Tech's Director of Broadcasting. Durham was normally paired with former Georgia Tech and NFL quarterback Rick Strom in football and Atlanta TV sports reporter Randy Waters on basketball. Particularly known is his statement upon Calvin Johnson's game-winning catch against Clemson in a 2004 game:[4]

He has lived up to the legendary billing... And the legend is born in Calvin Johnson!

After Durham left his role at Georgia Tech in 2013, his duties were taken over by Brandon Gaudin.[5]

Broadcasting

Play-by-play

Beginning with the 2004 NFL season, Durham also took on the radio play-by-play duties for the Atlanta Falcons in addition to his responsibilities at Georgia Tech. In 2011, when Raycom Sports began producing ACC college football games to air on Fox Sports Net (under a sub-license from ESPN), Durham was called upon to be the play-by-play announcer due to his long history working in the ACC. He was teamed with analyst James Bates.

Radio host

In 2018, Durham began hosting ACC This Morning on SiriusXM ACC Radio, with co-host Mark Packer.[6] In March 2019, it was announced that the duo would host a similar program in simulcast with SiriusXM and ESPN's new ACC Network, Packer and Durham.[7]


References
  1. "The Technique: Durham travels from roller rink to gridiron". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  2. "Van Note, Strom Join Durham on Football Broadcasts". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  3. "Golf Styles Atlanta: Dueling Frequencies". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  4. "Wes Durham's call of Calvin Johnson's game-winning catch against Clemson in 2004". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  5. Tierney, Mike (2013-09-04). "Live From Atlanta, An Unusual Hire". The New York Times. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  6. "SiriusXM To Launch Dedicated ACC, Pac-12, and SEC Radio Channels on March 5 for Conference Tourneys". Sports Video Group. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
  7. "ACC Network programming announcement includes a Coach K documentary". Awful Announcing. 2019-03-16. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
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