Joe D'Ambrosio (born July 19, 1953, in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

) is an American sports broadcaster and play-by-play announcer.

Career

Known as “the Voice of the Huskies,” D'Ambrosio was the play-by-play announcer for the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

’s football and men's basketball games on

WTIC (AM) WTIC (1080 kHz; "WTIC NewsTalk 1080") is a commercial radio, commercial AM broadcasting, AM radio station in Hartford, Connecticut. It airs a news/talk radio format, format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios and offices are on Exe ...

NewsTalk 1080
www.wtic.com
since 1992. He also broadcasts select UConn baseball, soccer, and women's basketball games. In April 2014, D'Ambrosio called his fourth

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the Division I level ...

with the University of Connecticut. He has been the play-by-play voice for a total of eight NCAA basketball national championships, including his years as the voice of the UConn women's basketball team D'Ambrosio was replaced as the UConn play by play voice after the 2017-2018 season's when the broadcast rights were awarded to ESPN Radio in Hartford. Currently, D'Ambrosio does morning sports on WTIC Radio and co hosts the WTIC Morning Show with Ray Dunaway. In October 2018, he joined WTIC-TV as a part time sports anchor, hosting the Friday Edition of the "Fox 61 Sports Ticket". He also calls UConn men's ice hockey and baseball on Fox 61. D’Ambrosio was heard nationally on

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

as a ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

'' update anchor. He has been affiliated with ESPN radio since 1996, and during his tenure there has hosted shows including '' MLB on ESPN Radio'' and ''Countdown to Kickoff'', and he has covered major sporting events including several

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a college football post-season selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of America ...

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

, and

Major League Baseball All-Star Game The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National ...

s. For more than ten years, he has held the unusual distinction of being employed by the corporations owning ABC (ESPN),

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

(WVIT-TV), and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

(WTIC AM) simultaneously. "Joe D" began his career on WLIS radio in

Old Saybrook, Connecticut Old Saybrook is a New England town, town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, Connecticut, Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 10, ...

, where he worked as a DJ and hosted the popular oldies show "Twilight Time." He was also their sports announcer and started broadcasting for the Huskies for the Connecticut Radio Network while with WLIS. For three seasons (2009 - 2011), D'Ambrosio was a member of the broadcast team of the

New Britain Rock Cats The New Britain Rock Cats were a minor league baseball team that competed in the Eastern League (1938–2020), Eastern League. They were the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox for 12 years, the Minnesota Twins for 20 years and the Colorado ...

, doing both color commentary and play-by-play alongside long-time Rock Cats Director of Broadcasting, Jeff Dooley.

Honors

He has been named Connecticut Sportscaster of the Year nine times by the

National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports P ...

, now known as the National Sports Media Association. In 2003,

Dick Vitale Richard "Dick" John Vitale (; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster. A former head coach in the college and professional ranks, he is well known for his 41-year tenure as a college basketball broadc ...

named D’Ambrosio to his "All-

Cawood Ledford Cawood Ledford (April 24, 1926 – September 5, 2001) was a radio play-by-play announcer for the University of Kentucky basketball and American football, football teams. Ledford's style and professionalism endeared himself to many sports fans in t ...

Team," Vitale's own "Sweet Sixteen" list of the best college play-by-play announcers.

References

External links

Joe D'Ambrosio on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Ambrosio, Joe 1953 births Living people American radio sports announcers American television reporters and correspondents College basketball announcers in the United States Major League Baseball broadcasters UConn Huskies football announcers People from Bloomfield, Connecticut Women's college basketball announcers in the United States People from Hartford, Connecticut University of Connecticut people College hockey announcers in the United States American sports radio personalities