Keith Raad Joins Dragons Radio Team
Dayton, Ohio-The Dayton Dragons today announced the addition of Keith Raad as Media Relations and Broadcasting assistant for the 2015 season. He will work with Dragons Director of Media Relations and Broadcasting Tom Nichols on game broadcasts on the Dragons flagship radio station, WONE 980 AM. Games can also be heard via the internet at daytondragons.com and wone.com.
Raad worked with the Dragons as a broadcast/media relations intern throughout the 2013 season. He spent the 2014 baseball season as the lead announcer for the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League in New York. He is a native of Valley Stream, New York. He has extensive NCAA broadcast experience in baseball, basketball, football, softball, volleyball, and soccer. He also served as the station manager for the student radio station, WUDR, and has experience as a writer for the student newspaper at the college level.
Raad was honored by the Long Island Catholic High School Journalism awards as the "Outstanding Student Journalist" at Chaminade High School in New York.
The Dragons are pleased to add Raad to an impressive list of young broadcasters who have served as the #2 announcer with the team since the Dragons inception in 2000. Several Dragons #2 announcers have gone directly from Dayton to primary announcing positions with other Minor League Baseball clubs.
- Mike Couzens (2011 Dragons) is an ESPN Television basketball and football play-by-play announcer. He spent three seasons as the voice of the Fort Wayne TinCaps in the Midwest League before moving full-time to ESPN in 2014.
- Alex Vispoli (2009 Dragons) currently serves as the voice of the Class-AA Frisco Rough Riders, where he will begin his fourth season in 2015. Vispoli moved from Dayton to become the voice of the Winston-Salem Dash in 2010 and remained there for two seasons before advancing to Frisco.
- Owen Serey advanced from the Dragons #2 slot in 2008 to become the voice of the South Bend Silver Hawks in the Midwest League and spent three seasons in that role.
- Nick Anastos (2010 Dragons) currently serves as a sportscaster for WGAM Radio in greater Boston.
- Bill Spaulding (2013 Dragons) is the play-by-play announcer for Harvard University on the Ivy League Digital Network. He also broadcasts various sports for Boston College, Northeastern University, and Providence College. Bill was selected as the #1 college broadcaster in the nation by STAA in 2012.
- Brendan Gulick (2014 Dragons) is the play-by-play voice of women's basketball and baseball for the University of Cincinnati.
Two previous announcers who worked as Dragons # 2 broadcasters, Mike Benton (2004 Dragons) and Nick Brunker (2005 Dragons) are now working in the East Coast Hockey League. Benton is the voice of the Alaska Aces after working with the Stockton Thunder for eight seasons. Brunker is in his fifth season as the voice of the Cincinnati Cyclones.
Mike Vander Woude, the lead voice of the Dragons from 2000-'07, has returned to work a limited schedule of Dragons broadcasts in 2013-'14 and will be back in that role again this season. Vander Woude spent five seasons as the voice of the Class-AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (now known as the RailRiders) after leaving the Dragons.
The Dayton Dragons are the Midwest League affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. The Dragons have been recognized for their active streak of 1,051 consecutive sold-out dates, the highest total in North American sports history. The Dragons have finished first in full-season attendance for teams below the Triple-A level for nine straight years and ranked sixth among all Minor League Baseball clubs in 2014.
Nichols returns for his eighth season with the Dragons as Director of Broadcasting and 28th year in professional baseball in 2015. He will handle play-by-play for the 25 Dragons television broadcasts on WHIO Digital Channel 7.2 and the remaining 115 home and road radio broadcasts on WONE and daytondragons.com.
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