MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters (PAB) will induct RMU men's basketball and football play-by-play announcer Chris Shovlin into its Hall of Fame in a ceremony on April 26 at the Harrisburg Hilton.
"The Voice of the Colonials" has served RMU for 37 years, calling over 1,100 basketball games and nearly every football game since that sport's inception in 1994. Shovlin has voiced each of RMU's last six trips to the NCAA Tournament (1989, 1990, 1992, 2009, 2010, 2015) as well as RMU's trips to the NIT (2008, 2013, 2014) and the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (2012, 2019). In 2010, he was on the call for RMU's inaugural trip to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs at North Dakota State.
In 1998, Shovlin was honored with an Achievement in Radio (A.I.R.) Award with former football partner Jeff Waller for their call of RMU's victory over Georgetown in the 1997 ECAC Classic, and in 2008 he earned his third A.I.R. award with partner Jim Duzyk for their call of RMU's men's basketball victory at Boston College during the 2007-08 season.
He previously served as the TV and radio voice of both the Pittsburgh Passion (women's professional football) and Pittsburgh Riverhounds (professional soccer), where he won his second A.I.R award in 2003 with RMU alum Steve Bell. For nearly two decades, he was the chief play-by-play announcer for the Comcast High School Football Game of the Week and the Xfinity WPIAL High School Basketball Championships. Shovlin also called high school games on WBGN-TV in Pittsburgh and statewide on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) and served as a studio panelist on its championship preview shows. In the early 2000's, he stepped in for Bill Hillgrove on the University of Pittsburgh Radio Network when Hillgrove had Steeler and Pitt Football conflicts that precluded him from calling Panther basketball games.
From 1992 through 2015, Shovlin was a favorite news and sports anchor, show host and DJ at WISH 99.7 FM and 1320 WJAS-AM in Pittsburgh. Prior to that, Shovlin was at WBVP-AM and WWKS-FM where he rose to become Vice President & General Manager, the first Beaver Valley native to do so in the stations' history, while also serving in a variety of on-air roles.
From the late 1970's through the early 1990's, Chris was recognized as the voice of news and sports in Beaver County. He began his career while still at Westminster College in 1974 where he called Titan football, basketball and baseball on campus radio station WKPS-FM that were simulcast on WKST-AM in New Castle. He was a part-time DJ and baseball broadcaster at WBZY-AM, also in New Castle, starting in 1976 before accepting a full-time position at WMBA-AM in Ambridge prior to arriving in Beaver Falls in 1979. In the early 1980's, Shovlin co-hosted the weekly Gunner Network Sports Talk Show over 16 stations across Western Pennsylvania with legendary Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince, while also serving as an adjunct instructor teaching Newscasting and Sportscasting at Geneva College in Beaver Falls.
Outside of his duties at RMU, Shovlin is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center and a member of, and spokesperson for, the Organizing Committee of the Midland Innovation and Technology Charter School. He served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, all in his hometown of Midland, Pa.
Chris has been inducted into the Pittsburgh Basketball Club Hall of Fame, the Robert Morris University Athletics Hall of Fame and the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame. Currently, he serves on the Executive Committee of the WPIAL Hall of Fame and is the emcee of its annual induction dinner.
Chris is a graduate of Midland's Lincoln High School and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Drama from Westminster. He and his wife, Odette, reside in Brighton Township (Beaver), Pennsylvania. They have two adult daughters, Kylie and Krista.
