Salisbury's “big three” bring home top honors

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, December 1, 2009

By Pete Prunkl
For The Salisbury Post
Racing enthusiasts love threes. From Dale Earnhardt’s black Chevrolet to the Triple Crown, three is a winning number in racing. In January, Salisbury had its own winning threesome when local residents, Kent Bernhardt, Doug Rice and David Whisenant, brought home five top honors at the 2008 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Awards Banquet.
Three NMPA winners from the same town may be as rare as when A.J. Foyt won Daytona, Indy and Le Mans. “I am not aware of that happening other than in Charlotte,” said Dustin Long, president of NMPA. “With 250 members from across the United States and overseas all eligible for awards, having three NMPA award winners from one area is quite a feat.”
For Doug Rice, his award-winning live event broadcast of the 2008 Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway was a threepeat. He won the identical award in 2005 and 2007. He also tied with Marty Hough for the NMPA Broadcaster of the Year in 2007. At Concord’s Performance Racing Network (PRN), Rice wears three helmets. He is network president and general manager, as well as on-air host of Fast Talk, a race driver interview show, which airs every Monday evening.
Kent Bernhardt took home three NMPA awards for 2008. He won first place for his music and interview montage about the career of H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler. That tribute aired on PRN after Wheeler retired as president and general manager of Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Bernhardt earned another 2008 NMPA first place award for a long feature that combined movies and racing. “After 12 drivers were chosen for The Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship, we dressed up the story by matching each driver with a movie role he might play. Denny Hamlin was Dirty Harry, Clint Bowyer as one of the Young Guns,” said Bernhardt.
Winning two first place awards gave Bernhardt the points needed to be named NMPA 2008 Broadcaster of the Year.
David Whisenant’s story on the life and influence of NASCAR announcer Bill Connell won him first place in the spot news television category. That might surprise some in Salisbury. Whisenant’s regular beat is news for Charlotte’s WBTV, not sports. But the Connell piece was about a colorful personality, someone who excited the fans, not the competitive side of racing, said Whisenant. “The story was a hard sell for my producers. They had no idea who he was.”
Whisenant first encountered the Voice of NASCAR as a fan in high school. “He was as loud as the race cars. He made everything exciting.” Whisenant meshed together the tribute to his idol from old audio clips, photos and interviews. It was a winning combination.
Salisbury’s award-winning trio has something else in common. All began their careers at WSTP, Salisbury’s popular AM radio station. Whisemant was in sales and sports during high school, college and before his tenure at WBTV. For 11 years, Rice was program director, Morning Show host, evening DJ, and play-by-play announcer for Catawba College football. Bernhardt co-anchored the Morning Show with Howard Platt for 13 years. The station drew Bernhardt back last July for another tour on the Morning Show in addition to his work at PRN.
The NMPA winners are not the only notable sportscasters to begin their careers at Salisbury’s hometown station. Bill Connell worked on the FM side of the station for a short time. Marty Brennaman, the longtime voice of the Cincinnati Reds, called American Legion baseball games for WSTP. So did Bob Rathbun, the broadcast voice of Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers and Atlanta Braves. Warner Fusselle, who calls play by play for the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Cyclones, was another WSTP grad. Even current WSTP staffers are sports notables. Longtime WSTP announcer Howard Platt was named North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association in 2004. “We have a list of alums second to none,” boasted WSTP Vice President and General Manager Mike Mangan.
Why do so many prestigious sports announcers have their roots in one small-market station? It all goes back to the station’s first owner Tom Harrell, said David Whisenant. “He stressed excellence. The station had to sound like a big market station.”
Doug Rice believes WSTP broadcasts so many games that it gave a lot of young people the opportunity to call play by play with little experience. “We were learning on the fly. Eventually we got the hang of it. You couldn’t do that in a medium to big market.”
If you did color or play-by-play at WSTP, you were big fish sportscasters swimming in a small, clear, well-managed pond.
Despite its wide-ranging influence on the careers of motorsports broadcasters, WSTP virtually ignores auto racing today. There is only one five-minute daily racing report on the 24/7 news and talk station.
“There are motorsports on other stations in Charlotte and Winston-Salem,” explained Mike Mangan. “We want to bring audiences something not duplicated on other stations.”
In sports, that’s Atlanta Braves and American Legion baseball, not NASCAR.
Rowan County race fans can choose from two radio stations for all of the Performance Radio Network live broadcasts. On FM, it’s WSOC in Charlotte (103.7 FM). They broadcast all PRN Sprint Cup races. On the AM dial, WSJS-Winston-Salem (600 AM) carries all PRN-broadcast races plus PRN talk shows. WSOC-FM also carries live broadcasts, talk and call-in shows on MRN, the Motor Racing Network. For those fans that crave all NASCAR all the time, and are willing to pay for it, Sirius NASCAR radio is on the air 24/7/365.
There is an additional thing Bernhardt, Rice and Whisenant have in common. They know how to tell a racing story with emotion. It’s a winning combination honed by years of experience that works for teaching, preaching and sports broadcasting.
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