Chris Long (sports anchor)

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Chris Long (born John Christopher Long in Washington, DC on December 8, 1973) is the Sports Director at Waterman Broadcasting Corporation's NBC2 WBBH-TV, the NBC affiliate in Naples/Fort Myers, Florida. He has held this position since November 1, 2006. Long previously worked as NBC2's Weekend Sports Anchor and prior to that a Sports Photographer and Reporter. He anchors locally-focused sportscasts during NBC2 News at Six and NBC2 News at Eleven each weeknight alongside news anchors Craig Wolf, Jessica Stillwell and Kellie Burns, and meteorologist Robert Van Winkle.

Before NBC2, Long was the Weekend Sports Anchor at KDLH-TV, the CBS affiliate in Duluth, Minnesota. He worked at KDLH from April 1, 1997 until March 9, 2005, an unusually long tenure for a sports anchor in such a small television market. Ripsaw magazine twice named Long the town's top sports anchor. Long, along with most KDLH employees was released when the station was purchased [1] by Malara Broadcast Group. The news department was virtually eliminated in a merger with Duluth's KBJR-TV.

Long also hosted Perkins PortSports, a local sports-talk radio show along with Bruce Ciskie Saturday mornings on WDSM-AM All-Sports 710. The show began in Fall 1998 and was the longest continually-running sports talk radio show in the market when the show was cancelled during a format switch for WDSM. He also served as the college hockey senior editor for Hockey Insider, a startup website now defunct.

Long's broadcasting career began at KOMU-TV, the University of Missouri owned NBC affiliate in Columbia/Jefferson City, Missouri. He earned a Bachelor's degree from the prestigious Missouri School of Journalism, graduating in May 1996 with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. Long also played on the college's lacrosse and ice hockey teams and was a charter member of the school's Chapter of Alpha Kappa Lambda Fraternity.

Long worked as an Intern at KGTV-TV, the ABC affiliate in San Diego, California. At KGTV, he learned from the sports team of Bill Griffith and Billy Ray Smith. While in San Diego, Long also earned his first paycheck in sports journalism serving as a freelance field producer for ESPN's acclaimed Outside The Lines show for a segment on the growth and impact of local sports talk radio.

Growing up in Darnestown, Maryland, just outside the Washington DC suburb of Gaithersburg, Long graduated from Quince Orchard High School in 1991. He played on the school's football and lacrosse teams, and was named one of two All-American High School Mascots for 1991 by the Universal Cheerleading Association. Long attended his freshman year at Georgetown Prep in North Bethesda, Maryland.

Long is single and lives in South Fort Myers, Florida, where he writes in his own Wikipedia entry.

[edit] References and Notes

Chris Long on the set of NBC2's Gridiron 2Night weekly High School Football show (October 2006)

• Chris Long biography at nbc-2.com - Chris Long's official biography at WBBH's website
• Old biography at KDLH's website - Archive of biography on KDLH's website (17 Mar 2004)

[edit] External Links

• http://www.nbc-2.com
• http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1K1-11610a0000050384.html
• http://web.archive.org/web/20000118132941/hockeyinsider.com/staff.shtml
• http://www.aklmizzou.com
• http://www.qohs.org