The Massachusetts Broadcasters Association (MBA) honored legendary WEEI Boston Red Sox radio play-by-play announcer Joe Castiglione with its prestigious Broadcaster of the Year Award at the association’s annual Sound Bites conference on November 21 at the Sheraton Framingham in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Castiglione, who announced his retirement prior to the conclusion of the 2024 Red Sox season spent 42 seasons in the Red Sox booth, making him the longest tenured radio broadcaster in Red Sox history.
A native of Hamden, Connecticut, he began his career calling Colgate University football and baseball games while earning a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from the university. He would later graduate from Syracuse University’s prestigious Newhouse School with a master’s degree in Radio and Television.
Prior to becoming the Red Sox play-by-play voice, Castiglione worked in Youngstown, Ohio as a sports reporter and football announcer with his first major role in sports broadcasting happening in Cleveland in 1979 where he called both Indians and Cleveland Cavalier games.
Castiglione’s Red Sox legacy started in 1983 when he was paired with another Red Sox legend in Ken Coleman. In his 40+ years with the Red Sox, Castiglione was the voice for millions during the lowest lows and highest highs of the franchise.
He’s maybe most famous for his call at the end of the 2004 World Series which ended an 86-year World Series drought for the Sox, exclaiming “for the first time in 86 years, the Red Sox have won baseball’s world championship. Can you believe it?” The phrase would become a signature call.
Joe Castiglione was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2014, the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2015, and was named the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award winner, presented annually by the Hall of Fame for excellence in broadcasting, in 2024.
Castiglione, who was introduced by Audacy Boston Senior Vice President and Market Manager Mike Thomas, was joined by wife Jan Castiglione, daughter Kate Romano, son Duke Castiglione, sports reporter for WCVB-TV, and granddaughters Anna Castiglione and Tilla Romano, and is the eleventh recipient of the MBA Broadcaster of the Year Award.
Sound Bites is the MBA’s annual learning, meeting, and mingling event which provides seminars for sales, programming staff, and managers, and offers a networking reception and dinner program led by the MBA’s annual meeting, industry guests and speakers, entertainment, and the annual Sound Bites Awards, which recognizes the best in Massachusetts radio and television broadcasting over the previous year.