John Chandler lands dream job at WEWS WVII sportscaster heads home to Cleveland

John Chandler will soon be moving from the River City to the City of Bridges.

It’s essentially a dream job for Chandler, who has been the assistant sports director at Bangor television station and ABC affiliate WVII (Channel 7) since arriving in Bangor 13 months ago.

The lifelong, diehard fan of the Cleveland Indians and Browns will become a sports reporter for WEWS (Ch. 5) in Cleveland. It’s the same station his uncle, Nev Chandler, worked at for 20 years.

Nev Chandler, a former Ohio sportscaster of the year, was also the radio voice of the Indians along with former Indians’ great Herb Score for five years. He also called Browns games until he died from cancer in 1994.

This will be a return in other ways for John Chandler as he was a producer at WEWS early in his career. Like WVII, WEWS is also an ABC affiliate.

The Boston University graduate has four years of experience as a reporter in Boston and Maine covering pro, college, and high school sports.

It’s also a big jump for Chandler in terms of TV market size as he’s going from the 155th-ranked market to the 15th largest nationally.

WVII sports director Nate Long said Chandler will remain at WVII for “the next two weeks” and perhaps a bit longer.

“Yeah, I guess it’s a unique opportunity for him because his uncle worked there for so many years and that’s where he grew up,” said Long. “From what I understand, he’ll be a weekday reporter.”

Long didn’t have any specific timetable in mind to find Chandler’s replacement.

“I would think the sooner we can find someone to take his spot, the better, but at least we won’t be losing him at a real busy time of the year,” Long said.

That’s a far cry from the time period when Chandler first joined WVII. Before Chandler’s arrival, Long was a one-man sports department at the busiest time of the year: late winter during the high school basketball tournament and the college/high school sports playoff season.

Chandler, who had the day off Monday, was unavailable for comment.

NESN turns two at Emmys

New England Sports Network won two Emmy Awards at the 25th National Academy of Television Art and Sciences New England Emmy awards presentation earlier this month at the Boston Seaport Hotel.

The regional television sports service was honored for most outstanding set design (designer-set director Kevin Pierce for NESN Studios 2001) and most outstanding sports series (host Charlie Moore and videographer Eric Scharmer for Charlie Moore Outdoors: Charlie and Ted’s Big Adventure).

NESN was nominated for 11 Emmy awards in seven different categories this year. This is the eighth consecutive year NESN has won at least one New England Emmy. Overall, NESN has won 11 in the last five years.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or aneff@bangordailynews.net.