Chuck Swirsky (born January 30, 1954) is an American–Canadian radio sports announcer. He is the

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

voice of the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

(NBA). Swirsky's association with Chicago sports started in 1979 with his WCFL AM 1000 talk show, which debuted on August 27 of that year. Outside Chicago, Swirsky called play-by-play for both

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

basketball and football and was formerly the play-by-play voice of the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games a ...

. Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Swirsky grew up in

Bellevue, Washington Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area and has variously been characterized as ...

, and is a graduate of

Interlake High School Interlake High School (IHS) is a public secondary school in Bellevue, Washington, one of the four traditional high schools in the Bellevue School District. Its mascot is a Saint Bernard named Bernie, and the school's sports teams are known as th ...

Broadcasting and career

Starting in 1979, Swirsky hosted a nightly

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on ...

show on WCFL (AM 1000) where he talked Chicago sports with callers. Swirsky then moved to WLUP (The Loop), where he provided afternoon sports updates and hosted a Sunday

show from 9 to 11pm through 1981. In 1980 Swirsky was named the

public address

announcer An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience of a broadcast media programme or live event. Television and other media Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaking, usually providing narration ...

, serving until 1983. Swirsky next joined WGN

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

in 1981 and remained through the mid-1990s. Swirsky hosted various sports talk shows and provided sports updates. While he was with WGN, he also did

for DePaul games alongside former coach

Ray Meyer Raymond Joseph Meyer (December 18, 1913 – March 17, 2006) was an American men's collegiate basketball coach from Chicago, Illinois. He was well known for coaching at DePaul University from 1942 to 1984, compiling a 724–354 record. Meye ...

and also did Chicago Bears pre-game and post-game coverage. He also made frequent appearances on the Bob Collins radio show discussing Chicago sports, with Collins dubbing him "The Swirsk". During Swirsky's time at WGN, a man dressed as Max Headroom who hijacked a broadcast of ''Doctor Who'' made a mocking reference to Swirsky, calling him "a frickin' liberal". Bruce Wolf frequently parodied Swirsky with a fictional character, "Chet Chitchat", a blended caricature of Chicago sportscasters Chet Coppock and Swirsky. During his time at WGN Radio, Swirsky filled in as a sports anchor occasionally at WGN-TV. An

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

Christian, Swirsky in the early 1990s began hosting the hour-long radio talk show ''Sports Spectrum'', produced by Radio Bible Class (now RBC Ministries). Swirsky left WGN for

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, where he did play-by-play for

basketball in the mid-1990s. He was also sports director for WJR radio. Rob Pelinka was among his Michigan

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

s. Swirsky next moved to Toronto to become the play-by-play voice of the Toronto Raptors during the

1998–99 NBA season The 1998–99 NBA season was the 53rd season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Due to a lockout, the season did not start until February 5, 1999, after a new six-year Collective Bargaining Agreement was reached between the NBA and the ...

, first on the radio, then for television beginning in 2001. On March 23, 2007, Swirsky was honored by the Raptors when they gave out 18,000

bobblehead A bobblehead, also known by common silly nicknames such as nodder, wobbler, or wacky wobbler, is a type of small collectible action figure. Its head is often oversized compared to its body. Instead of a solid connection, its head is connected t ...

s with his likeness. He was known for his famous "Salami & Cheese" phrase, which was used to advertise Raptors game packs during the 2007–08 season. Another catch phrase was "Onions, Baby, Onions," uttered when a player made a three-point shot, and later used to advertise Raptors NBA TV HD. Swirsky became a Canadian citizen on January 14, 2008. During the middle of his tenure in Toronto, Swirsky also hosted a

show on CJCL (The Fan 590) called ''The Chuck Swirsky Show''. Swirsky took listeners' calls and provided sports news. On May 6, 2008, Swirsky left the organization for personal reasons related to his family. The show ended on July 31, 2008, and Swirsky's vacated position was filled by Matt Devlin. Swirsky has since returned to Chicago to carry out the radio play-by-play for the Chicago Bulls on its flagship station

WMVP WMVP (1000 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, carrying a sports format. Owned by Good Karma Brands, the station serves the Chicago metro area as the market affiliate of ESPN Radio, the flagship station of the Chica ...

, which is the same station as Swirsky's first employer, WCFL. He has also called Chicago White Sox games in 2015 as a fill-in for then play-by-play broadcaster, Ken "Hawk" Harrelson. On September 7, 2016, Swirsky was inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame. In May 2018, he was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the WGN Radio Walk of Fame.

References

External links

Chuck Checks In
(daily

weblog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

from Chuck Swirsky on Bulls.com)
Chuck Swirsky's personally written bio from NBA.com's "Broadcaster of the Week"
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Swirsky, Chuck 1954 births American bloggers American expatriate basketball people in Canada American emigrants to Canada American radio sports announcers Canadian radio sportscasters Canadian sports talk radio hosts Canadian television sportscasters Chicago Bears announcers Chicago Bulls announcers Chicago White Sox announcers College basketball announcers in the United States Living people Major League Baseball broadcasters Michigan Wolverines football announcers National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers Naturalized citizens of Canada Ohio University alumni Sportspeople from Bellevue, Washington Sportspeople from Norfolk, Virginia Sportspeople from Toronto Toronto Raptors announcers 21st-century American non-fiction writers