The Fabulous Sports Babe

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Nanci Donnellan, best known by her title of "The Fabulous Sports Babe," was a sports radio broadcaster syndicated nationally on ESPN radio and the defunct Sports Fan Radio Network in the 1990s until 2001. She also had her ESPN radio show simulcast on ESPN2 television network. Donnellan used Tampa's WQYK-AM 1010's studios to produce her show when it was on the Sports Fan Radio Network. She was noteworthy for being one of the few female broadcasters in sports radio. In 1997, she hosted a syndicated radio sports talk show in the country, which was heard in more than 200 cities in the United States and Canada. She was one of the first female sports radio call-in host in America.

She first appeared on the radio at Tampa Bay radio station WNSI (1380) in 1981, and later on at WPLP (570) hosting her own sports show at night, The Nanci Donnellan Show. From 1991 to 1994, she was the weekday afternoon sports talk show host on KJR 950 AM in Seattle before joining ESPN Radio.

With Neal Karlen, she wrote a book, The Babe in Boyland, in which she discussed men, women, football, goalies, strikes, and clueless sports executives in a unique style. In 2001, her show on the Sports Fan Radio Network was cancelled a week before the Super Bowl, and the network folded a few months later[1].

Nanci currently resides at her Gulfport, Florida home in Pinellas County. She was a season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and can be seen at Tropicana Field from time to time. She recently recovered from a bout with cancer.

The Babe returned to radio in 2007, making single-day special guest host appearances for on-air personalities in the Tampa Bay Sports Radio Market for WDAE and WHBO. During her on air-on appearances The Babe returned to form and kept the conversations focused on sports and deferred any questions about her personal life by saying "I'm just hanging out". She still refers to callers who call in on a cell phone as "rich guy on a cell phone".

Shows she hosted since her 2007 return to guest hosting include:

January 8 and 9, 2007, filling in for Scot Brantley on WHBO while Brantley was in Arizona covering the BCS Championship, in which Florida Gators had just beat the Ohio State Buckeyes the night before.
February 27, 2007, again filling in for Brantley on WHBO.
March 1, 2007, filling in for Steve Duemig on WDAE.
April 10, 2008, as a one-day stint on WRBZ in Raleigh, North Carolina. Donnellan guest hosted to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the station switching to the sports radio format; Donnellan's syndicated show was among the first programs aired on the station.[2] (Audio of appearance)