 The logo for Awful Announcing | |
| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Owner | Ben Koo |
| Created by | Brian Powell |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Launched | 2006 |
| Current status | Active |
Awful Announcing (AA) is an American sports news website and blog. [1] Founded in 2006 by Brian Powell, the website focuses on sports media personalities, particularly broadcast announcers and television sportscasters.
A graduate of James Madison University (JMU), Brian Powell founded Awful Announcing in May 2006. [2] Early in its history, Awful Announcing was a prominent outlet in the sports blogosphere. [3] Powell noted that Spencer Tillman was an early critic of his blog. [3] Bloguin Network acquired Awful Announcing in 2010; later in 2015, Comeback Media was spun out of Bloguin, becoming AA's parent company. [2] Ben Koo is the current owner of Awful Announcing. [4]
The website reports on news relating to sports announcing, broadcasting, and related media industry spaces. [5] [6] AA also conducts interviews with sports media executives. [7] Their sharing of announcing audio has been cited to increase awareness of situations, such as when they wrote about West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins using a homophobic slur in a radio interview in 2023. [8]
AA's reporting has been cited by sports media websites such as ESPN and Fox Sports, [9] [10] as well as general news outlets like Forbes . [11] ESPN has also issued statements via Awful Announcing. [10]
Some sports announcers have commented on Awful Announcing. The book Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN (2011) quoted both Rece Davis and Bob Ley. [12] Davis stated that sports announcers who "fall into reading" blogs like Awful Announcing and get upset or try to explaint their mistakes pointed out by such blogs on-air "probably aren't doing [their] job as effectively as [they] ought to be". Meanwhile, Ley stated that he sometimes checks sports blogs like AA, as well as The Big Lead and Deadspin , likening visiting the blogs to "shopping in a discount store". [12] Other sports media personalities have referenced Awful Announcing in their own writing, such as Bill Simmons in his Book of Basketball (2009) and Jemele Hill in her memoir, Uphill (2022). [13] [14]