Biography

Broadcasting career

After graduating in 1982 from Cincinnati's Anderson High School Thom attended Ohio University, where he was president of the Beta Kappa Chapter of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He entered college uncertain of whether to follow in his father's footsteps and become a broadcaster. While at Ohio he joined station WATH, developing his own love for radio. After graduating in 1986, Brennaman worked as a sports reporter/anchor for WLWT-TV, the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati. During this same period, he worked as the television play-by-play announcer for the Cincinnati Reds alongside Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench. In the early 1990s he did Chicago Cubs broadcasts, alternating with Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Caray between television and radio. In 1994 he was hired by Fox Sports to call the network's National Football League and Major League Baseball telecasts. He served as the first television voice for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and left after the 2006 season to join his father Marty in Cincinnati.

In 2006, Brennaman was named as Fox's lead play-by-play announcer for the Bowl Championship Series. In addition to calling the BCS National Championship Game, Brennaman called the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. On both broadcasts, Brennaman worked with former University of Wisconsin-Madison head coach Barry Alvarez (only in 2007), and former University of Tennessee defensive back and current broadcaster Charles Davis. Brennaman also called the 2008 Sugar Bowl and the 2009 Orange Bowl.

Additionally, the Big Ten Network named Brennaman as their lead play-by-play announcer for college football games for two seasons beginning in September 2007. He would return to calling NFL games for Fox in 2009, working primarily with Brian Billick but also filling in as lead announcer while Joe Buck did the MLB playoffs. Prior to that, Brennaman had been the voice of the Cotton Bowl Classic on Fox from 2000 to 2006.

Brennaman, along with Brian Billick, Laura Okmin, and Chris Myers called the 2012 NFC Divisional Playoff matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and the Atlanta Falcons instead of Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa. This was Brennaman's first time calling an NFL playoff game, although Brennaman and Billick called the 2011 Pro Bowl along with Terry Bradshaw and sideline reporters Tony Siragusa and Jay Glazer.

Move to the Cincinnati Reds

On October 3, 2006, Cincinnati Reds owner Robert Castellini hired Brennaman through the 2010 season to announce 45 Reds games on FS Ohio television and 45 games on the Cincinnati Reds Radio Network, flagship station being 700 WLW. His father's contract with the Reds was set to expire after the 2010 season. Currently, both Thom and Marty continue to broadcast for the Cincinnati Reds.

National baseball work

Brennaman was a part of Fox Sports' #2 baseball broadcast team from the beginning of Fox's involvement in Major League Baseball in 1996 until 2015. He has teamed with Bob Brenly, Steve Lyons, Joe Girardi, and Eric Karros. In this capacity, he called play-by-play for numerous postseason games from 1996 until 2006. From 2007 to 2013, the #2 team was not given any postseason assignments due to Fox not holding the rights to any concurrent postseason series. In 2014, Brennaman and Karros began to split the #2 role with Matt Vasgersian and John Smoltz. In 2015, Fox hired Joe Davis (full-time) and Aaron Goldsmith (full-time). So, Fox replaced Brennaman on the #2 crew with Kenny Albert (who will work with Brennaman's partner for several years, Eric Karros), ending his 19 year run there. Brennaman will still work MLB games for Fox moving forward, but only as a fill-in.

Other ventures

Brennaman has also contributed voice-over work for several video games, including Microsoft Baseball 2001, All-Star Baseball 2002, and All-Star Baseball 2003-2005 for Gamecube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. He has also done college basketball announcing for CBS Radio and Fox Sports Net cable. He is also a spokesman for CBTS, a Cincinnati Bell company, in television commercials. He also called basketball games for the Cincinnati Bearcats and has done the same for Fox College Hoops.

Broadcasting partners

• Jeff Brantley
• Eric Karros
• Tom Verducci
• Chris Welsh
• Charles Davis
• Tim Green
• Anthony Munoz
• Ron Pitts
• Barry Alvarez
• Chris Myers
• Charissa Thompson
• Brian Billick
• Troy Aikman
• Pam Oliver
• CJ Nitkowski
• Steve Stone
• Ron Santo
• Bob Brenly
• Harold Reynolds
• Mark Grace
• David Diehl
• Laura Okmin
• Harold Reynolds
• Tony Siragusa

[ Source: Wikipedia ]