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This page curates KETR's news stories related to Texas A&M University-Commerce.

East Texas Sportscaster Named Voice of the Lions

Charles S. “Charlie” Chitwood  of Jefferson, Texas was named KETR’s new play-by-play voice for  Texas A&M University-Commerce Lions football on Friday and will be on the air Sept. 1 when the Lions open their 2012 season at home against Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Chitwood’s hire completes 88.9 KETR’s on-air lineup for the coming football season as he joins veteran color commentator Brock Calloway in the booth for every Lions’ game.

“This is a great opportunity for me to share my passion for sports with the Lion Nation,” Chitwood said. “There were several factors that just seemed to align perfectly here and I can’t wait to get to work with KETR’s staff, Brock and all the Lion coaches and athletes. There are so many compelling stories on any given game-day — what I look forward to as much as the games is developing relationships with the coaches, the players and Lion fans while describing the action on the field.”

Entering his 20th season behind the mic for Jefferson High football in Marion County, Chitwood has more than 1,000 high school, college and professional game broadcasts under his belt since 1993. At the collegiate level, he was most recently the play-by-play voice of East Texas Baptist University’s Tigers (2000-2010) where he started work when the school restored football in 2000. He also broadcast men’s and women’s basketball games there as well as the university’s post-season baseball and softball appearances. His last broadcast for the Marshall, Texas school was the Lady Tigers’ walk-off, national championship-winning softball game at the 2010 NCAA-Division III Softball World Series in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

From 2001 through 2007, Chitwood was also the play-by-play “Voice of America” at Mexico’s annual Aztec Bowl, broadcasting live via the Internet at various host sites around that nation. The futbol Norte-Americano contest pitted a squad of NCAA-Division III senior standouts against Mexico’s collegiate national champions and other university all-stars.

“It was great to work with so many coaches and SID’s in putting together information on the Team USA players and then get all those guys on the air during week-of-game previews,” Chitwood said. “The American Football Coaches Association put together 45-50 senior players from as many schools each year and got ‘em down there for one week of practice and then the game — there are more than a few great stories from those weeks every year. It was a great cultural exchange for the guys that was played out through the great sport of college football.”

Chitwood, a member of the American Sportscasters Association, has also broadcast minor league baseball and arena football in Shreveport and in Tyler, was recipient of the inaugural American Southwest Conference “Outstanding Media Service Award” in 2003. A year later he served on a Texas Association of Broadcasters’ play-by-play panel with Eric Nadel of the Texas Rangers, Mark Followill of the Dallas Mavericks and Roger Emrich of the Texas State Network.

A Dallas native, Charlie and his wife Juanita live outside her hometown of Jefferson where both have been active in community and church activities for many years.

Jerrod Knight oversees station programming, news and sports operations, individual and corporate development efforts, business and budget planning and execution, and technical operations.
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