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Van Earl Wright is an American sportscaster with over 20 years of national and local experience.

A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Wright is known for a homespun delivery which reflects his Southern roots. His signature greeting is "Hel-looooo, everybody."^[1]

Until the summer of 2007, he was part of the rotation of hosts on FSN Final Score, on Fox Sports Net. During his stint, at FSN, he was most notable for his staunch support and adulation of Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers. Wright is a former anchor at both CNN Headline News and CNN/Sports Illustrated, which put together reflects the longest tenure of his career. He also co-hosted Fox Sports Radio's Morning Extravaganza.^[1]

Even though he was never shown on-air, Wright's voice became legendary during Headline News' sports segments during the 1980s at 19 and 49 minutes after the hour, especially for his elongated pronunciation of 'Los An-ge-leees'. Late in his tenure, he also routinely read his dry mandated sign-off ("I'm Van Earl Wright, CNN Headline Sports") with a series of increasingly bizarre inflections. His segment got noted on-air by Larry King and Al Michaels, among others. In one CNN Headline Sports segment he said the following about former overweight major league pitcher Sid Fernandez, "Sick....and I mean SICK Sid Fernandez"!

Wright loved to cover baseball. Some of his most notable "one liners" were: "DEE--EEP. Over the wall in RIGHT field." And on a shot back over 2nd base, with a dead-pan tone: "Right. Back. Up The Middle."

Wright also worked in Beaumont, Texas as a weekend sports anchor on KBMT, and later in Detroit both as a sports anchor on WDIV, the local NBC television affiliate, and also as the host of a short-lived midday show on all-sports radio station WDFN-AM.

Wright provided the announcer's voice for Crystal Dynamics' Sega Saturn baseball video game 3D Baseball and 3DO basketball game Slam 'n Jam 95.

Wright also provided the voice overs for World Championship Wrestling in the 90's during segments promoting upcoming live events.

On February 22, 2007 Wright participated on a special broadcasters' edition of Pros vs. Joes on Spike TV with Derrin Horton and Sal Masakela. The "pros" they faced were former NBA center Rik Smits, tennis pro Robby Ginepri, former MLB relief pitcher Rob Dibble and former NFL wide receiver Andre Rison.

Wright has had a few appearances on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide playing himself alongside Willie Gault as sports broadcasters and most recently was featured in the series finale.

In January 2008, Wright became the voice of the new American Gladiators on NBC, which was hosted by Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali.

References[link]

Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world that are either owned or partially owned by News Corporation.^[1] The name originates from News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group based in the United States, which in turn was derived from the name of the Fox Film Corporation. The Fox Sports name has since been used in News Corporation's other sports media assets around the world.

Channels and divisions[link]

International[link]

• Fox Sports International, an international sports programming and production entity of the Fox International Channels Group, which distributes sports programming to various countries.
• Fox Sports Latinoamérica, is a Spanish cable television network broadcasting to various Latin American countries.

• • Fox Sports North: Venezuela, America Central and Rep. Dominicana
  • Fox Sports East: México
  • Fox Sports South: Colombia, Perú, Bolivia and Ecuador.
  • Fox Sports West: Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay
  • Fox Sports Premium: Chile
  • Fox Sports Basic: Chile
  • Fox Sports+: All latin american countries

Australia[link]

• Fox Sports (Australia), a group of sports channels owned by the Premier Media Group, which is in turn a joint venture between News Corporation and the Australian company Consolidated Media Holdings.
• Fox Sports News is a cable and satellite channel that continuously televises sports news 19 hours per day.
• Fox Footy Channel is a reinstated channel that operated from 2002 to 2006 that primarily featured the Australian Football League.

Brazil[link]

• Fox Sports (Brazil) is a Brazilian sports channel launched on February 5, 2012.

Canada[link]

• Fox Sports World Canada is a specialty channel primarily featuring soccer and other events around the world.

Turkey[link]

• Fox Sports Türkiye is a former sports channel that was distributed by the Turkish provider Digiturk.

United States[link]

• Fox Sports (United States), the sports division of the Fox Broadcasting Company, one of commercial television broadcast networks.
• Fox Sports Radio is a national sports talk radio network.
• Fox College Sports is a sports channel devoted to college sports.
• Fox Deportes, formerly Fox Sports en Español, presents sports programming in Spanish.
• Fox Soccer, formerly Fox Sports World and Fox Soccer Channel, is a television specialty channel devoted to soccer.
• Fox Sports Net is a collection of cable TV regional sports networks broadcasting across the United States. These regional channels include:
  • Fox Sports Arizona
  • Fox Sports Bay Area, another name for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area
  • Fox Sports Carolinas also SportSouth
  • Fox Sports Detroit also Fox Sports Detroit Plus
  • Fox Sports Florida also Sun Sports
  • Fox Sports Houston
  • Fox Sports Indiana
  • Fox Sports Kansas City
  • Fox Sports Midwest
  • Fox Sports North
  • Fox Sports Ohio
  • Fox Sports Oklahoma
  • Fox Sports Pittsburgh, another name for Root Sports Pittsburgh
  • Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, another name for Root Sports Rocky Mountain
  • Fox Sports San Diego
  • Fox Sports South also SportSouth
  • Fox Sports Southwest
  • Fox Sports Tennessee also SportSouth
  • Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket
  • Fox Sports Wisconsin
• Speed is a network for motor sports.

Other media[link]

News Corporation has also used the Fox Sports name in its other sports media assets. Foxsports.com, a web site operated by News Corp. Digital Media, provides sports news online. The Fox Sports College Hoops '99 basketball video game is published by their Fox Interactive division.

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009)

Christopher Patrick "Chris" Myers (b 28 March 1959) ^[1]) is an American sportscaster.

Biography[link]

This section requires expansion with: early life.

With more than 20 years in broadcasting, Chris Myers has covered premiere events, including the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, NCAA Final Four, The Masters and U.S. Open (golf), Triple Crown, the Olympics and the Daytona 500.

Chris Myers, a native of Miami and a Southern California resident, garnered his first major break in broadcasting as a 16-year-old high school student when he hosted his own show on Miami’s WKAT-AM radio, interviewing such sports heavy hitters as Muhammad Ali and Don Shula.^{[citation needed]} Myers graduated from Chaminade High School, Hollywood, Florida, May, 1977. He joined Fox Sports Net as an anchor in December 1998 where he hosted the National Sports Report, among other hosting duties. Prior to joining FOX, Myers spent nine years at ESPN reporting and anchoring SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight, as well as hosting “Up Close” from 1994 to 1998, which included the first live interview with O.J. Simpson after his acquittal. With more than 20 years in broadcasting, Myers has covered all of the sports world’s premiere events, including the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, NCAA Final Four, The Masters and U.S. Open golf, Triple Crown, the Olympics and the Daytona 500.^{[citation needed]} In 1990, Myers received an Emmy Award in the Sports Features category as an anchor/reporter.

He has also hosted shows and events on the Discovery Channel, Tennis Channel, and the Military Channel. He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live numerous times.

Myers also serves as the play-by-play commentator for Tampa Bay Buccaneers preseason games that air locally on WTSP-TV, after having the same role for WFLA-TV from 2003-2010. Myers was also named as the host in 2010, for Showtime's weekly series Inside NASCAR.

Myers conducted the last public interview with the late John Wooden in April 2010 on CMI (Chris Myers Interview) Radio Show. The legendary ninety-nine year-old coach told Myers he did not fear death saying "The next life will be even better, and this one hasn't been too bad."

ESPN[link]

Prior to joining FSN, Myers spent ten years at ESPN hosting SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, and other various shows including the interview program Up Close, where Myers was honored as one of TV's best interviewers. He also received an emmy for his work.

As host of Up Close, Myers was the first to conduct a live interview with O.J. Simpson after both his criminal trial and civil lawsuit.^{[citation needed]}

Myers earned acclaim for his live reporting during the San Francisco Earthquake that took place during the world series. Myers was also the only on scene reporter who stayed on the air through the night broadcasting from Atlanta during the Centennial Olympic Park bombing.^{[citation needed]}

Fox Sports[link]

In 1998, Myers joined Fox Sports Net where he was one of the original anchors of The National Sports Report and the weekly sports magazine program Goin' Deep. In 2005, he debuted The Chris Myers Interview on FSN. In 2000, Myers joined Fox Sports Radio where he currently hosts his own interview show, CMI, which can be heard on over 200 affiliates.

Myers is also currently the studio host for NASCAR coverage on Fox, and a reporter for the NFL on Fox and Major League Baseball on Fox. Myers was also a reporter for Bowl Championship Series coverage on Fox.

Myers presented the New Orleans Saints with their first ever NFC championship trophy after narrowly defeating the Minnesota Vikings 31-28 on January 24, 2010.

During a Detroit Lions and New Orleans Saints game, on September 13, 2009, Myers made a remark while talking about linebacker Larry Foote's decision to leave the perennially strong Pittsburgh Steelers to play for Detroit, he said, "That's like going from dating Beyoncé to Whoopi Goldberg!"^[2][3][4][5] Frank Caliendo later impersonated Myers on the NFL pre-game show.

Myers also visited the American armed forces in Qatar on behalf of FOX Sports and gave a live broadcast with the armed forces that was shown on the fox pre-game show before the New Orleans Saints played the Dallas Cowboys on November 25, Thanksgiving Day. In 2012 Chris Myers will join Gus Johnson, Charles Davis, and Tim Brewster on Fox College Football.

On a May 17, 2010 appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, Myers made comments regarding the May 2010 Tennessee floods that were interpreted by some as disparaging toward the city of New Orleans and the victims of Hurricane Katrina: "We have disasters issues when people pull together and help themselves and I thought the people in Tennessee, unlike -- I'm not going to name names -- when a natural disaster hits people weren't standing on a rooftop trying to blame the government, okay. They helped each other out through this. And Mike Helton, president of NASCAR, Tony Stewart, among some drivers went from the race over to the middle Tennessee area where still a lot of hardworking, tax-paying, legal American citizens have been affected by the floods and are trying to rebuild their lives and they are helping out. And I think that other people around the country, of course the music industry in and around Nashville helping, without making a big deal out of it and I think that's a good thing." ^[6]

On May 20, 2010, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu wrote a letter to FOX Sports "demanding an apology."^[7] On the same day, Myers issued an official apology for his comments, calling them "inappropriate and insensitive."^[8]

Personal life[link]

He currently resides in Hollywood, California with wife Sue and their son, Alex.

On February 16, 2012, Myers' 19 year old son, Christopher, died in a car crash. The accident took place in Thousand Oaks near the Myers' residence.^[9][10]While on bereavement leave, John Roberts took over for him for the 2012 Daytona 500, which was postponed to Monday night and ran into early morning Tuesday due to a two-hour long red flag. Myers returned to the Hollywood Hotel at the Subway Fresh Fit 500.

References[link]