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Van Earl Wright


Van Earl Wright is an American sportscaster with over 20 years of national and local experience.

A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Wright is known for a homespun delivery which reflects his Southern roots. His signature greeting is "Hel-looooo, everybody."

Until the summer of 2007, he was part of the rotation of hosts on FSN Final Score, on Fox Sports Net. During his stint, at FSN, he was most notable for his staunch support and adulation of Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers. Wright is a former anchor at both CNN Headline News and CNN/Sports Illustrated, which put together reflects the longest tenure of his career. He also co-hosted Fox Sports Radio's Morning Extravaganza.

Even though he was never shown on-air, Wright's voice became legendary during Headline News' sports segments during the 1980s at 19 and 49 minutes after the hour, especially for his elongated pronunciation of 'Los An-ge-leees'. Late in his tenure, he also routinely read his dry mandated sign-off ("I'm Van Earl Wright, CNN Headline Sports") with a series of increasingly bizarre inflections. His segment got noted on-air by Larry King and Al Michaels, among others.

Wright also worked in Beaumont, Texas as a weekend sports anchor on KBMT, and later in Detroit both as a sports anchor on WDIV, the local NBC television affiliate, and also as the host of a short-lived midday show on all-sports radio station WDFN-AM. Reflecting on his move from CNN to WDIV, he said, "My four years at CNN were great in that I received a lot of exposure not only nationally, but worldwide as well. It definitely helped me develop a style that I am now well known for, but it was also very limiting because the atmosphere there was very conservative. In the end, I realized that if I wanted the opportunity to grow and take on new challenges in broadcasting ... it was going to be somewhere else."


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