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Heritage Sports Radio Network (HSRN) is pleased to announce that play-by-play announcer Gary Laing has been recognized as the 2021 Delaware Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sports Media Association at a June 27 ceremony in Winston-Salem, NC. Laing was selected from nominees in Delaware during a voting process at the end of 2021.

Gary Laing is a veteran play-by-play announcer, beginning at WBJC-FM in Baltimore, MD in January 1970, calling Community College of Baltimore basketball and Baltimore Eagles semi-pro football. He began working at WDOV, Dover, Delaware in 1973 and became part of the announcing team on Dover High School football for the next thirteen seasons. He continued doing high school games on local radio before joining telecasts on Storer Cable in 1987. Storer was acquired by Comcast and the games were televised by Sports Network Delmarva (SND). Laing continued working high school football, college basketball and other sports for the better part of the next twenty-five seasons before SND was discontinued by Comcast.

Gary began working for Heritage Sports Radio Network in 2011 on assigned games, including the 150th football game between Lehigh University and Lafayette College in 2014. The game played at Yankee Stadium marked the first time two college football teams met on the gridiron for 150 games. He has also covered Army-Navy women’s and men’s basketball for HSRN as part of the network’s Patriot League package, as well as Patriot League women’s tournament games.

HSRN acquired entire season rights to Delaware State University football and basketball beginning in 2018 and Laing has been the voice of the Hornets each year. The play-by-play announcer has a long history with Delaware State, beginning in 1978 at WDOV when he put the first DelState football game on a local radio station. Over the years he continued to broadcast Hornets games on radio and cable television, including the first live telecasts of football and basketball from the campus.

In addition to working as the Hornets play-by-play voice on HSRN, Laing is a graduate of DSU, and is an adjunct professor in the Mass Communications department at the University, teaching Television & Radio Announcing. He also serves as an Advertising Sales Consultant to HSRN, utilizing his 20+ years of media sales experience in radio and cable television. Gary Laing continues to live in Kent County with his wife of nearly 50 years, Beverly. They have three grown children and nine grandchildren.

HSRN is headquartered in Hartly, Delaware and focuses on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, delivering its sports and non-sports products via the network’s web site (hsrn.com) and mobile app. On game days, listeners can choose which game they want to hear from HSRN, and in the upcoming 2022 season, may be able to choose from as many as 11 HBCU schools.

Photo credit: Dan Costen for NSMA