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Eli Zaret (born March 17, 1950) is an American sports broadcaster and journalist based in
Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
. Zaret was a radio and television sports reporter and author who worked in both Detroit and New York from 1974 until 2004. After leaving the news portion of his career, he joined the NBA
Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), East ...
broadcast team in 2005 as a sideline reporter and video creator. In 2018 he created a podcast called "No Filter Sports" with fellow sports reporter Bob Page and former star pitcher
Denny McLain Dennis Dale McLain (born March 29, 1944) is an American former professional baseball player. He played for ten seasons in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher, most prominently as a member of the Detroit Tigers. In 1968, McLain becam ...
, baseball's last and only living 30-game winner. Zaret was Detroit's first sportscaster on FM radio, beginning his career in 1974 at radio station
WABX WABX is a radio station in Evansville, Indiana, owned by Duey Wright, through licensee Midwest Communications, Inc. The station, which broadcasts at 107.5 FM, has aired a classic rock format since 1997. Former WABX From 1960 to 1984, WABX ( ...
-FM. When FM radios became standard equipment in cars in 1977, his career took off. He then worked at two more Detroit stations, WJZZ-FM (1975–1978) and in November 1978 went to rock station WRIF-FM. WRIF quickly shot to #1 in the ratings as the combination of availability in cars and that album-oriented rock became the favored choice of the baby boomer generation. While continuing as an FM sportscaster, Zaret parlayed that success to television, hired by local NBC affiliate
WDIV-TV WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio facili ...
in November 1980 as a weekend sports anchor and reporter. WDIV held the broadcast rights for the Detroit Tigers, and in 1982 Zaret hosted the first local half-hour baseball pregame show in America, "Tigers'82." In 1986, he was hired away by
WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, WABC-TV maintains studios in the Hudson Square neighborhood ...
in New York as the station's lead sports anchor. In 1988, Zaret returned to Detroit, becoming sports director and lead sports anchor at
WJBK-TV WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities ...
while also returning to radio at WCSX-FM. In 1990 he was paired with McLain for the "Eli and Denny" show on WJBK-TV. McLain, after a stint in prison in Florida had returned to Detroit as a radio talk show host at WXYT-AM. Their show was a ratings success and lasted until 1994 when McLain again ran afoul of the law. Zaret then created "The Sports Zone" for WJBK, a Sunday night wrap-up show. In 1995, Zaret had grown weary of changes in local news coverage and left to create his own programs. After a 1-year stint at all sports WDFN-AM, he created "The Lockeroom" in 1997 with former Tigers and Dodgers baseball star Kirk Gibson and college football analyst and former NFL quarterback Gary Danielson. In its 7-year run, the show was featured on several broadcast and cable television stations as well as WXYT-AM, now an all sports station. In 2005, Zaret began a 6-year run with the Pistons.


Early life

Zaret was born in
Nutley, New Jersey Nutley is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 30,143, an increase of 1,773 (+6.2%) from the 2010 United ...
Martinez, Michael
"Scouting; Detroit Import"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', January 18, 1986. Accessed June 21, 2020. "That's the word from Detroit, where it was confirmed yesterday by the broadcaster's agent, Rick Brode; the broadcaster's current station, WDIV-TV, and the broadcaster himself: Eli Zaret, a 35-year-old native of Nutley, N.J., who brings to the job a deep, raspy voice and a prior reputation as an anti-establishment radio commentator at several Detroit rock music stations."
and also lived in
Huntington, New York Huntington is one of ten Administrative divisions of New York#Town, towns in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York (state), New York, United States. The town's population was 204,127 at the time of the 2020 census, making it the 11 ...
and
Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...
where he graduated from High School in 1968. He studied speech communications at the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1972. When a college professor, Dr. Edgar Willis, told him that his gravelly voice would be a distraction to radio audiences, Zaret concentrated on other aspects of radio and television. When at a party in 1974, John Petrie, the program director at WABX-FM heard him speaking in animated fashion about sports and invited him for an audition and subsequently, a job doing sports commentaries. Unavailable in cars without a special converter, FM radio was a medium for music enthusiasts, garnering ad revenues representing a mere fraction of AM radio. That would dramatically change and have a powerfully positive effect on his career. Despite having no television experience, Zaret's popularity on radio and with fellow baby boomers led to his hiring at WDIV at age 30.


Other media, honors and awards

Zaret won five Michigan Emmy Awards for his television work and numerous radio honors for commentary and reporting. He wrote three books, "84, Last of the Great Tigers" in 2004. He followed that in 2005 with "Blue Collar Blueprint, how the Pistons constructed their championship formula." In 2006 he wrote McLain's biography, "I Told You I wasn't Perfect" which reached #3 on the ESPN best-seller list. He created "Eli Zaret Advertising" in 2003, writing hundreds of radio and television commercials. In 2014 he created "Rules of the Game" sponsored by Ford that ran for 3 years in Detroit Tiger radio broadcasts. In 2019 he established the "No Filter Sports" podcast. In 2025 he was awarded a Lifetime Membership Award by the Detroit Sports Media Association.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaret, Eli 1950 births Living people American television sports anchors Detroit Pistons announcers Detroit Tigers announcers New York (state) television reporters Television personalities from Detroit People from Nutley, New Jersey People from Huntington, New York Writers from Springfield, Massachusetts University of Michigan alumni