WKYC'S Jim Donovan Winner of Aeros Media Madness Television Bobblehead Election
(AKRON, OHIO) May 31, 2013 - The Akron Aeros announced today WKYC-TV's Jim Donovan is the winner in the television category of its first Media Madness Bobblehead Election. Donovan is scheduled to make a special appearance at Canal Park on Saturday, June 8 when his bobblehead, sponsored by Distillata, will be given out to the first 1,000 fans before the Aeros host the Portland Sea Dogs at 7:05 p.m.
Donovan has been with WKYC since 1985 and is the station's nightly news and sports anchor. He has been the play-by-play voice of the Cleveland Browns since 1999 and has covered a variety of sporting events over the years, including the World Cup and the Olympics. Donovan also served one season as the play-by-play announcer for the Vermont Reds, the original franchise team that would eventually become Canton-Akron Indians in 1989 and the Akron Aeros in 1997.
"We are very excited Jim Donovan won the television bobblehead election and we can't wait to have him and his giveaway at Canal Park next Saturday," said Christina Shisler, Aeros' director of promotions. "It was a very close vote to the end, but we can only have one winner. It will be fun to see who the fans select in the print and radio categories for the other June Saturday giveaways."
The Media Madness Bobblehead Election started in March when fans were asked to nominate their favorite Northeast Ohio media personality in the categories of print, radio, and television. In April, fans voted from the list of nominees to determine a final top three in each category. The final round of voting started May 1 to determine winners.
The radio winner will be given out Saturday, June 22 and the print winner will be given out Saturday, June 29. Winners will be announced on Friday the week before the scheduled giveaway date. Fans are encouraged to vote for the radio and print finalists by emailing [email protected] until noon on the Friday announcement days. To date, fans have voted close to 1,000 times in the final round and almost 1,500 times overall with the election still running in the radio and print categories.
Twenty-two Northeast Ohio media members received nominations in the television category and the finalists were WEWS-TV's chief meteorologist Mark Johnson, who narrowly lost out to Donovan, and WJW-TV's news anchor Tracy McCool.
As an added bonus on the bobblehead giveaway nights, all remaining Saturday games during 2013 season will have fireworks displays. Together with fireworks displays each Friday, the Aeros have 15 remaining fireworks games. June 8's display will have a "one-hit wonders" theme.
The Aeros are the Double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. In the 2012 season, the Aeros won the Eastern League Championship for the fourth time in team history. The 2013 season is its 17th since moving to Canal Park and becoming the Aeros. For more information, call the Aeros at 330-253-5151 or visit www.akronaeros.com. The Aeros are on Facebook www.facebook.com/TheAkronAeros and Twitter @AkronAeros.