Dragons supplement media relations

DAYTON, Ohio -- The Dayton Dragons today announced the addition of Bill Spaulding as media relations and broadcasting assistant for the 2013 season. He will work with Dragons Director of media relations and broadcasting, Tom Nichols, in game broadcasts on the Dragons flagship radio station, WONE 980 AM. Games can also be heard via the internet at www.daytondragons.com online.

Spaulding was the winner of the 2012 Sportscasters Talent Agency of America (STAA) Jim Nantz Award as the nation's most outstanding collegiate sports broadcaster. STAA's panel of judges selects 20 sportscasting All-Americans each year, and presents the Jim Nantz Award to the student selected as the top broadcaster.

Spaulding is a product of the highly acclaimed Syracuse University S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Syracuse University has featured an impressive list of sportscasting talent including Bob Costas, Mike Tirico, Marv Albert, Sean McDonough and Ian Eagle.

As a student at Syracuse, Spaulding currently serves as sports director at WAER Radio in Syracuse. In 2011, he became the first underclassman selected as the station's sports director since 1986. Spaulding provides play-by-play for Syracuse University football, basketball and lacrosse on WAER, in addition to his other duties with the station.

Spaulding has extensive experience in baseball. He spent the 2012 season with the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs as a radio/media relations intern. In 2011, he served as the voice of the Wareham Gatemen in the Cape Cod League. He was the voice of the Geneva Red Wings of the New York Collegiate Baseball League in 2010.

The Dragons are pleased to add Spaulding to an impressive list of young broadcasters who have served as the No. 2 announcer with Dayton since the team's inception in 2000. He becomes the fourth Syracuse product to join the Dragons, following Alex Vispoli (2009), Mike Couzens (2011) and Andrew Africk (2012). Vispoli is now the voice of the Double-A Frisco Rough Riders, Couzens is the current voice of the Fort Wayne TinCaps of the Midwest League and Africk is the voice of High Point University women's basketball and a studio host for IMG broadcasting (pregame and postgame host on Big East Conference broadcasts).

Additionally, Owen Serey advanced from the Dragons No. 2 slot to become the voice of the South Bend Silver Hawks in the Midwest League, and spent three seasons in that role. Nick Anastos served as the Dragons broadcast assistant in 2010, and now works as a sportscaster with WGAM Radio in greater Boston. Two previous announcers who worked as Dragons No. 2 broadcasters, Mike Benton and Nick Brunker, are now working in the East Coast Hockey League. Benton has been the voice of the Stockton Thunder since that team's inception, while Brunker is in his third season as the voice of the Cincinnati Cyclones.

Nichols returns for his sixth season with the Dragons as director of broadcasting, and his 26th year in professional baseball, in 2013. He will handle play-by-play for all Dragons television broadcasts on WHIO Digital Channel 7.2 and all remaining home and road radio broadcasts.