Bill Shanks is an American sports broadcaster and writer.
Shanks lives inMacon, Georgia. Shanks, originally fromWaycross, Georgia, is a graduate of theUniversity of Georgia.[1] Shanks was a television sports anchor atWBSG in Brunswick, Georgia andWGXA in Macon, Georgia.[2] Shanks also had a sports production company and produced and hosted weekly television shows with theAtlanta Braves, theAtlanta Hawks, and theAtlantic Sun Conference.[1]
Bill Shanks hosts "The Bill Shanks Show" onWXKO Middle Georgia's ESPN in Macon.[2] Shanks is also a columnist for TheAthens Banner-Herald and hosts a weekly high school football show called The End Zone onWMGT-TV 41 NBC. Shanks has covered theAtlanta Braves for Fox Sports South.com and Scout.com. In 2006 Shanks was one of the co-hosts of the Braves Wrap-Up Show on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network. Shanks' show covers topics like theUniversity of Georgia and Head CoachMark Richt, who "lost him" in 2008.
Shanks started his daily radio show in March 2007 onWIFN 105.5 The Fan in Macon. The show was canceled on February 9, 2009.[3] Six weeks later, on March 23, 2009, Shanks' show was back on the air on the Clear Channel (now iHeartRadio) affiliate.[4]
After 7 years at iHeartRadio, he moved his show to his own station which is affiliated with ESPN Radio starting on June 1, 2016.
Shanks has provided Braves' reports on radio stations inAthens, Georgia onWRFC, in Spartanburg, SC on WSPG and in Florence, AL on WYTK.
Shanks wrote a book calledScout's Honor: The Bravest Way to Build a Winning Team. He interviewed people for nine months and afterwards took six months to write the book.[1] It is both Shanks' answer toMoneyball and the story of how the Braves became the successful organization that they are today.[1] It tells howJohn Schuerholz rose through the ranks and tells the tales of individual Braves prospects, fromJeff Francoeur,Brian McCann,Adam LaRoche,John Smoltz, andAdam Wainwright. Some have questioned Shanks' objectivity in regards to John Schuerholz.[5] Baseball writerJon Heyman described Shanks' close relationship with John Schuerholz being "so close to John Schuerholz he’s practically his ghost writer.[5]
David Leonhardt ofThe New York Times described Shanks as "openly contemptuous of the Lewis book".[6] John Conniff ofScout.com criticized the book for "fail[ing] to develop any type of coherent argument, structure, or evidence to support his contention or to more importantly explain the reasons for the Braves success".[7] TheSun-Sentinel's Mike Berardino praised the book for "present[ing] a fascinating and long-overdue look at Atlanta's baseball dynasty".[8]
On May 3, 2016 Shanks authored a controversial column in theMacon Telegraph advocating the return ofChief Noc-A-Homa as the Braves mascot[9] Shanks also called for a return of the teepee in the bleachers.[9] The article immediately received criticism and the Macon Telegraph deleted the article within a few hours.[10] The Telegraph’s sports editor claimed onTwitter that the piece was pulled because Shanks "had a better idea for a column."[10]
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