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The Fabulous Sports Babe was a semi-fictional character who hosted various Americansports radio broadcasts. The program, hosted byTampa Bay area residentNanci Donnellan, wassyndicated across the United States on bothESPN Radio andESPN2, from 1994 until 2001. She is noteworthy for being one of the few female broadcasters in sports radio, and was one of the first female sports radio call-in hosts in America.[1]
She first appeared on the radio onWEEI Boston andWLOM Cape Cod. In 1983, she joined Tampa Bay radio stationWNSI (1380) and later on atWPLP (570) hosting her own sports show at night, The Nanci Donnellan Show. From 1991 to 1994, she was the weekday afternoon sports talk show host onKJR 950 AM in Seattle before joining ESPN Radio.
In 1994,ESPN Radio picked up Donnellan's show, and madeThe Fabulous Sports Babe the network's first nationally syndicated weekday programs (prior to this, ESPN Radio only operated on weekends). She also helped launchESPN2, by having her show simulcast on the channel during the afternoon and late night. Her show was heard in more than 500 cities in theUnited States andCanada and over 35 countries around the world.
Donnellan left ESPN in 1997 amid acrimonious network response to her autobiography, joiningABC Radio Networks (at the time still independent of ESPN Radio even though both were still owned byThe Walt Disney Company) for a brief time. She then waged a successful battle against breast cancer. Donnellan returned home to the Tampa Bay area where she eventually signed on with the relatively newSports Fan Radio Network that year. Donnellan used the studios ofWQYK 1010 AM inSt. Pete to produce her show when it was on the Sports Fan Radio Network. She was one of the cornerstones of the network's programming. However, in 2001, shortly beforeSuper Bowl XXXV, Donnellan was fired due to the network's financial troubles (Sports Fan parent company Winstar eventually declared bankruptcy in 2003). As a result, the Sports Fan Network ceased operation. Donnellan's self-imposed hiatus would last four years as she recovered from breast cancer surgery and treatment, which in turn was followed by a double knee replacement, both byproducts of her obesity (at the time, the 5-foot-2-inch tall Donnellan weighed over 300 pounds); Donnellan would later lose over half her body weight in an effort to restore her health. Donnellan had made enough money from her time at ESPN and her book advance to not have to work for several years.[1]
The Babe returned to radio in 2006 and 2007, making special guest host appearances for on-air personalities in the Tampa Bay Sports Radio Market forWDAE andWHBO, KJR Seattle, WQAM Miami, WDFN Detroit and several fill in stops including several weeks at CBS Free FM in New York City. During her on-air appearances The Babe returned to form and kept the conversations focused on sports and deferred any questions about her personal life by saying "I'm just hanging out, recovering from cancer." She still refers to callers who contact her on cell phones as "a rich guy on a cell phone."
She first appeared on January 8 and 9, 2007, filling in for Scot Brantley onWHBO; Brantley was in Arizona covering the2007 BCS National Championship Game, in which theFlorida Gators had just defeated theOhio State Buckeyes. She again substituted for Brantley on February 27, and two days later (March 1), filled in forSteve Duemig onWDAE, and continued to fill in on sports and news/talk stations around the country.
On April 10, 2008, Donnellan hosted a one-day stint onWRBZ inRaleigh, North Carolina; Donnellan guest-hosted to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the station switching to the sports radio format; Donnellan's syndicated show was among the first programs aired on the station. The next day, Donnellan returned to radio full-time, and became the co-host, along with Brantley, ofBrantley and the Babe on WHBO. The program aired duringdrive time and could be heard throughInternet radio on the station's website. Brantley was laid off from WHBO in January 2009, giving The Babe her own show.
Donnellan suffered a moderate stroke on January 22, 2012; she would eventually recover with no lingering side effects, but the stroke cost her her position on WHBO.[1] On August 1, 2012, The Babe returned as the overnight host atWHFS-FM (the former WSJT),CBS Radio's new FM sports station. The move came ahead of CBS's launch ofCBS Sports Radio in January 2013. Donnellan later moved to a daytime time slot. WHFS-FM canceled all of its programs, including hers, as part of an ownership and format change in December 2014.
Her website returned in a blog-style format, supplanting the message it had since 2001, "Gone Fishing." She stopped updating the site in September 2014. She maintains aTwitter account sporadically.
In 2018,The Fabulous Sports Babe was inducted into theNational Radio Hall of Fame.[2]
Nanci Donnellan was born on June 7, 1948, atNewton-Wellesley Hospital inNewton, Massachusetts. Her father abandoned her as a toddler, and her mother and stepfather frequently moved around as a child, preventing her from establishing long-term friendships; she has also hinted that her family disapproved of her going into the radio business, and she did so partially out of spite. She graduated fromClover Park High School inLakewood, Washington, in 1966. She attended, but did not graduate from, theUniversity of Tampa andNortheastern University.
Donnellan has made a point of keeping her on-air persona of "the Fabulous Sports Babe" and her real-life wholly separate; she seldom speaks of her personal life out of fear that it would be a distraction (particularly her romantic life, only to admit that she has one, and that although she has notcome out herself, she is sympathetic toLGBT causes).Grantland.com attempted to interview Donnellan, but she only offered brief, repeated and irritated responses to every question she was asked.[1]
Donnellan currently resides at herSt. Pete Beach, Florida, home inPinellas County. She was a season-ticket holder for theTampa Bay Rays and can be seen atTropicana Field from time to time.[3]
With Neal Karlen, she wrote a 1996 book,The Babe in Boyland, in which she discussed men, women, football, goalies, strikes, and clueless sports executives in a unique style.[4][5]