Jim Donovan, the longtime radio announcer for the Cleveland Browns, announced that he would be taking a medical leave of absence to undergo treatment for leukemia. Donovan made the announcement following the Browns’ season-opening win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 10.
Sports media veteran Chris Rose (currently of NFL Network, Jomboy Media, and more) has filled in on radio play-by-play, but so have others, including Andrew Siciliano, also of NFL Network.
Paul Keels, the radio voice of the Ohio State Buckeyes, will be the next in line to fill in as the Browns’ radio voice in Week 9, a team’s spokesperson confirmed to the Akron Beacon Journal.
Keels will pull double duty this weekend, as the longtime voice of the Ohio State Buckeyes will be calling the Ohio State-Rutgers game on Saturday in Piscataway, New Jersey, and the Browns-Cardinals game on Sunday in Cleveland.
A veteran broadcaster who was inducted into the Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2007, Keels has experience announcing professional football. He served as the play-by-play announcer for the Cincinnati Bengals in 1996 and has been the voice of the Ohio State Buckeyes since 1998.
Keels currently is the current play-by-play announcer for both Ohio State’s football and men’s basketball teams for WBNS Radio and the Ohio State Sports Network.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.