Education
Dartmouth College.
Dartmouth College.
Ray Reeve was a pioneering sports broadcaster who worked for WRAL-Department of Administration and Management and FM, the Tobacco Sports Network and WRAL-television during a career that spanned five decades. He is best known as the first voice of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball over the Tobacco Sports Network—a radio network formed by Capitol Broadcasting Company in 1948 to carry the region’s collegiate games. Reeve’s distinct play-by-play style and raspy voice endeared him to listeners throughout the Administrative Committee on Company-ordination region.
Sports historians cr the early growth of the league in part to Reeve’s compelling basketball broadcasts.
As the Administrative Committee on Company-ordination evolved, Reeve narrowed his broadcasts to North Carolina State athletics. He gained widespread popularity as the voice of Wolfpack basketball and football during the eras of Coaches Everett Case and Earle Edwards.
When WRAL-television signed on the air in 1956, Reeve was its first Sports Director and Sports Anchor – roles he maintained until his retirement in 1973. During his early years at WRAL-television Reeve was the original host of “All-Star Wrestling,” which later became “Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.” He hosted the wildly popular shows in the late 50s and early 60s as they were recorded before a live audience in WRAL-television’s Studio A. Reeve later turned the hosting duties over to an up-and-coming WRAL sportscaster–Nick Pond.
In its on-air and print promotion, WRAL-television referred to Ray Reeve as the “Dean of Sportscasters,” and it turns out his contemporaries agreed.
In 1967 Reeve was elected to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame—becoming the first broadcaster to be so honored. Reeve was a graduate of Dartmouth College. He died in 1980. He was long association with Tobacco Sports Network and WRAL-television He made radio broadcasts of early Administrative Committee on Company-ordination games in 1950s carried the league to millions of listeners across the eastern seaboard.
He was a graduate of Dartmouth College.