ESPN Louisville has announced the hiring of a new General Manager. Ken Selvaggi will take over the brand and stay in Louisville after leaving WAVE-TV late last year.

Selvaggi will be joining the group’s management team alongside Vice President Drew Deener and Program Director Andy Sweeney. ESPN Louisville owns ESPN 680/105.7, and 93.9 The Ville.

Chad Boeger, President of ESPN Louisville said of the company’s new addition, “Ken brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to ESPN Louisville. He is a strong leader in the media industry. We are thrilled to have him join our staff as we launch our broadcast partnership with the University of Louisville.”

Union Broadcasting’s new GM joins the cluster after previously working with WAVE-TV (Louisville) where he served as Vice-President/General Manager for more than a decade. During his tenure at WAVE, the station was awarded the Kentucky Broadcasters Association Station of the Year in 2019 and 2020, an Emmy for Overall Excellence in 2017 and Edward R. Murrow awards for Overall Excellence in 2014 and 2019.

Selvaggi’s career spans more than 40 years in broadcasting with stints as General Manager at WSFA-TV in Montgomery, Alabama and KSNT-TV in Topeka, Kansas. He also brings experience as a former News Director at three West Virginia television stations with his longest tenure being ten years at WSAZ-TV in Huntington/Charleston.

Additionally, he worked as a special projects producer at WHAS-TV in Louisville, a news and sports producer at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and as the news director for an NPR station in Pittsburgh.

The television veteran is happy to embrace the position. “I am excited to join the ESPN Louisville team of great professionals who do compelling work to serve the community. We have outstanding content for listeners on multiple platforms and will be expanding our local offerings even more in the coming months that will serve our audience and business partners well.”

This season will mark the 40th for Joe Smith, the longtime radio host for Indiana University. After this season’s football campaign, it will be his last.

The pre-game, halftime and post-game voice of Indiana Hoosiers football and basketball has announced he will be stepping away from his post following the final football game of this upcoming season.

“Joe Smith has been an integral and versatile member of the IU Radio Network broadcast team for the better part of 40 years,” Don Fischer, Indiana’s play-by-play man said. “At one time or another, Joe has served as the broadcast engineer, football spotter, statistician, and our pre-game, halftime, and post-game host through those four decades.”

Smith quipped that it’d be difficult to keep him from being alongside Fischer for his own milestone. “I would not miss Don’s 50th season for anything in the world. Don is a true friend and to share the booth with him one final year, well, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Smith plans to remain on as host of the football post-game show, while mentoring his eventual replacement. He also serves as Sports Director at Sarkes Tarzian talk WGCL Bloomington (1370).

Retirement has been a popular topic recently with collegiate vocal institutions. Mick Hubert, the voice of the Florida Gators announced last week he is retiring following the baseball team’s season. Gene Deckerhoff also announced he will wrap his career soon. The voice of the Florida State Seminoles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers will finish with the Bucs 2022 season.

In 1998, Smith was named Indiana Sportscaster of the Year. He was honored 2003 with an induction into the Indiana Sportswriters/Sportscasters Hall of Fame. Last August he was the latest inductee into the Monroe County (Bloomington) Sports Hall of Fame.

Smith continued, “IU has meant so much to me and my family, and I can’t wait to watch [football] Coach Allen build the Hoosiers back into a Top-25 program. I also want to thank [VP/Director of Intercollegiate Athletics] Scott Dolson for his support and for allowing me to close out my IU career on this incredible high note.”

The mass shooting that took place on Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas captured the attention of the nation.

Remarks from Texas Gov. Greg Abbot in the aftermath of the tragedy got the attention of Danny Parkins and Matt Spiegel on 670 The Score in Chicago.

Gov. Abbot brought up the fact that Chicago has a gun violence problem even though gun laws in the city are among the strictest in the country.

Parkins took issue with the Texas governor trying to score political points by dunking on Chicago in a moment of tragedy.

“You don’t care about Chicago, you are using Chicago as a red herring, as a slur,” Parkins said. “And if we want to talk about Chicago, we can talk about Chicago with facts…What about Chicago? Kiss my ass, Greg Abbot. I can’t stand it, man. It’s so insulting.”

What about Chicago is often a talking point from one side of the gun control issue that suggests despite having such tough laws on firearm ownership, thousands of people each year in the city end up shooting victims. Therefore gun control laws don’t work to prevent mass shootings.

Parkins used that phrase for good last year, putting on the What About Chicago Radiothon. The station fundraiser in 2021 raised more that $660,000 for Athletes for Justice and Austin Harvest.

Parkins explained Wednesday that the problems in the Windy City are multi-faceted. Yes, gun violence issues exist, but Parkins said “it is a problem that many, many, many, many people care deeply about and are trying to solve, but it’s a separate problem.”