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Bruce Dunn Headshot

ESPN Associate Director for College Football and Basketball Got Start at WOUB


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Bruce Dunn graduated in 1982

ATHENS, OH – Anyone who watches college football or basketball on ESPN is familiar with Bruce Dunn’s work. That’s because the former WOUB student writes and manages everything the announcers read when it comes to ads and sponsorships during games.

“As the associate director for college football and basketball at ESPN, I am responsible for sponsors/advertiser’s commercials, graphic billboards and voiceover reads to air during a broadcast in the allotted time slots sold within a specific sporting event,” said Dunn.

Dunn loves what he does and says he knows he wouldn’t be where he is today without WOUB.

“Every single job I’ve ever been hired to do has come from connection through WOUB and Ohio University,” said Dunn. “I can’t think of a single job that didn’t happen that way!”

Dunn grew up in Brooklyn, New York and came to Athens in the fall of 1977.

“I had a background in performing arts, theater and music and was looking to use those skills and study communications,” said Dunn. “I learned that Ohio University was one of the best colleges in the country for communications, so that is where I went to school.”

Dunn quickly got involved at WOUB and started working as an audio engineer for the radio station. He also served as the control room technical engineer who would read news copy given to him by the news director. Dunn was one of the few African Americans working at WOUB at the time.

“Coming into the Appalachian Mountains of Ohio was a culture shock,” said Dunn. “There were only four African Americans working at WOUB at the time, but I had no issues at WOUB or on campus at all.”

Dunn worked his way up through the ranks at WOUB, eventually getting behind the camera.

“I always wanted to be a cameraman, and WOUB gave me the opportunity to learn camera. I was like a kid in a candy store,” said Dunn. “The well-rounded training from WOUB has helped me do all the things I have done to this day.”

Dunn graduated in 1982 and was hired immediately at WKID in Hollywood, Florida as a production and operations manager as well as a producer/director. He worked there for several years. Eventually the station became WSVC Telemundo.

After WKID, Dunn was hired by ABC Sports as a production assistant assigned to The Pro Bowlers Tour, NASCAR, PGA and LPGA Tour, IMSA Racing, CART Racing, Wide World of Sports events, Boxing and the Winter Olympics in Calgary. In 1992, he was hired as a graphics manager by NBC for the Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain and stayed on for the games in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia. Dunn also held jobs as the head of production and executive producer for the Penn State Sports Network, graphics coordinator at BET and associate vice president and general manager of WDSC Public TV. In addition to his role at ESPN, Dunn is now also a digital video technology teacher at Seabreeze High School in Daytona Beach.

“I am very proud of all of the things I have been able to do during my career,” said Dunn. “The experience at WOUB was everything. It was the foundation of everything I am currently doing today.”