Dallas Wesley "Wes" Durham (born January 25, 1966, in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...

) is an American sportscaster. He is a

play-by-play In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

announcer for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and

ACC Network ACC Network (ACCN) is an American multinational subscription-television channel owned and operated by ESPN Inc. Dedicated to coverage of the Atlantic Coast Conference, it was announced in July 2016 and launched on August 22, 2019. The channel ...

coverage of college football and basketball. Durham served as the radio play-by-play announcer for the

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

men's basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

teams from the start of the 1995-1996 season through 2010, and continued to announce the basketball games through 2013. He was also Georgia Tech's Director of

Broadcasting Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

and is the radio play-by-play announcer for the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

Biography

Early life

Durham's father,

Woody Durham Woody Lombardi Durham (August 8, 1941 – March 7, 2018) was an American play-by-play radio announcer for the North Carolina Tar Heels football and men's basketball programs from 1971 to 2011. Early life Born in Mebane, North Carolina, Durham ...

, was the "Voice of the Tar Heels" for the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

for forty years. Growing up in that environment gave Wes the opportunity to see behind the scenes of sports and sports broadcasting. Wes worked as a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

for a roller rink and for a

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

during high school. Wes Durham attended

Apex High School Apex High School is a public high school in Apex, North Carolina, United States, and is part of the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS). It is on a 4x4 block scheduling system. History Apex High School was selected by WCPSS to receive ...

. He then went to

Elon College Elon University is a private university in Elon, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1889 as Elon College, the university is organized into six schools, most of which offer bachelor's degrees and several of which offer master's degrees or ...

and learned about broadcasting while working as an undergraduate assistant on the Elon Sports Network and local radio station WBAG. After graduating in 1988, he had stints as the radio announcer for the athletic teams at

Marshall University Marshall University is a public university, public research university in Huntington, West Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, chief justice of the Uni ...

and

Radford University Radford University is a public university in Radford, Virginia, United States. It is one of the state's eight doctorate-granting public universities. Founded in 1910, Radford offers curricula for undergraduates in more than 100 fields, graduate ...

. He then spent three years at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

Georgia Tech

Durham came to

in the fall of 1995. In 1997, he was also named Tech's Director of Broadcasting. Durham was paired with former Tech QB Kim King until King died in 2003. Later on Durham worked with Jeff Van Note and Rick Strom during the remainder of his time at GT. Durham was known for making exciting calls while having a lot of charisma. Notable calls were the 1998 and 1999 thrillers between Tech and the Georgia Bulldogs, Calvin Johnson's game winning catch at Clemson in 2004, Will Bynums game winning layup in the Final Four in 2004, and Nesbitt taking back his own fumble against Florida State in 2009. After Durham left his role at Georgia Tech in 2013, his duties were taken over by

Brandon Gaudin Brandon Gaudin (born December 18, 1983) is an American television broadcaster for FanDuel Sports Network South and FanDuel Sports Network Southeast's coverage of the Atlanta Braves baseball. He also does play-by-play for college football and c ...

Broadcasting

Play-by-play

Beginning with the

2004 NFL season The 2004 NFL season was the 85th regular season of the National Football League (NFL). With the New England Patriots as the defending league champions, regular season play was held from September 9, 2004, to January 2, 2005. Hurricanes forced ...

, Durham also took on the radio play-by-play duties for the

in addition to his responsibilities at

. In 2011, when

Raycom Sports Raycom Sports is a Charlotte, North Carolina–based producer of sports television programs owned by Gray Media. It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom Sports established a prominent joint venture wi ...

began producing ACC college football games to air on

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

(under a sub-license from

), Durham was called upon to be the play-by-play announcer due to his long history working in the ACC. He was teamed with analyst James Bates. During his time at Elon, Wes interned at local radio station WBAB in Burlington NC where he was on the broadcast team announcing for WM Williams Bulldogs football.

Radio host

In 2018, Durham began hosting ''ACC This Morning'' on

SiriusXM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merge ...

ACC Radio, with co-host Mark Packer. In March 2019, it was announced that the duo would host a similar program in simulcast with SiriusXM and ESPN's new

, ''Packer and Durham''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durham, Wes American radio sports announcers Atlanta Falcons announcers Elon University alumni Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's basketball announcers Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football announcers NFL announcers 1966 births Living people Radford Highlanders College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers College baseball announcers in the United States Radio personalities from Atlanta