CLEVELAND — This is a story that I'm pleased to get to write.
On Monday, the National Sports Media Association announced its nominations for their 2019 awards. At the state level, 3News sports anchor and the radio play-by-play voice of the Cleveland Browns, Jim Donovan, is one of three finalists for Ohio Sportscaster of the Year.
Jimmy was nominated alongside the voice of the Cincinnati Bengals, Dan Hoard, as well as Jim Day, who serves as the television pregame and postgame show host for the Cincinnati Reds.
Voting will take place from December 1 through December 31 by members of the National Sports Media Association. Winners will be announced during the second week of January, then honored at a June awards celebration in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Amazingly enough, in his 35 years of sportscasting in Northeast Ohio, Jimmy has never won the award. However, prior to coming to WKYC Studios in 1985, he won Vermont Sportscaster of the Year for WVMT for three consecutive years.
Despite the absence (for the moment) of an Ohio Sportscaster of the Year award, Jim Donovan has received plenty of recognition for his excellence in broadcasting. He is a three-time Emmy Award winner, and has been inducted into the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Press Club Journalism Hall of Fame. In 2016, Jimmy received the Cleveland Sports Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award.
I mentioned the award nomination to Jimmy during Tuesday's edition of Donovan & Dino.