American author, media host and columnist
Curt Smith
(born March 20, 1951, in
Caledonia, New York
) is an
American
author
, media host and
columnist
. In addition to work as a newspaper reporter, Smith was a political speechwriter until 1992 and a host of radio and television programs until 2002. He has written 17 books, including
Voices of the Game
, which covers the history of baseball broadcasting. Smith is a newspaper columnist in upstate New York and holds an academic appointment at the
University of Rochester
.
Biography
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]
Smith is a 1973 graduate of
State University of New York at Geneseo
. He worked as a
Gannett
Company reporter, a speechwriter to former
Texas
Governor
John Connally
, and an editor at the
Saturday Evening Post
. In 1989 he joined the
George H. W. Bush
Administration as a speechwriter. After Bush's defeat in 1992 Smith lectured at the
Smithsonian Institution
and then turned to radio and television. From 1994 to 1996 he hosted the
Midday Milwaukee
talk show on radio station
WISN
. He also hosted
WROC-TV
’s
Perfectly Clear
program from 2000 to 2002 and a 1997?2002 series on the Fox Empire Sports Network.
Currently Smith hosts the weekly
Perspectives
series on
Rochester, New York's
NPR
affiliate
WXXI
. The show deals with politics, pop culture, sports, and other topics. Smith also hosts the twice-weekly
Talking Point
show on Rochester's
CBS
affiliate WROC, where he spars with co-hosts on political and other issues.
Smith is the author of eleven books:
Voices of Summer
,
What Baseball Means to Me
,
Voices of The Game
,
Storied Stadiums
,
Windows on the White House
,
Our House
,
Of Mikes and Men
,
Long Time Gone
,
A Fine Sense of the Ridiculous
,
America's Dizzy Dean
and
The Storytellers
. Perhaps his best known book is
Voices of The Game
, which recounts the history of baseball broadcasting from
KDKA's
first
Pittsburgh Pirates
broadcast in 1921 to today's enormous media coverage of the game. A three-part documentary was also made based on the book and has aired on
ESPN
.
[1]
[2]
His writing style has been highly praised by pundits like
Bob Costas
, but he has also been criticized for overly florid and sometimes tangled
prose
.
Smith lives in Rochester with his wife Sarah and their two children. He writes columns for the Messenger-Post newspapers in upstate
New York
and is a senior lecturer at the
University of Rochester
.
References
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External links
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]