Curt Smith, former Presidential speechwriter and senior lecturer in English at the University of Rochester, has been named the newest member of the national Radio Hall of Fame steering committee and has been renamed to the Baseball Hall of Fame committee that yearly admits an announcer to the Cooperstown shrine. In addition, Smith has begun a broadcast column for the official website of Major League Baseball, MLBlog.com.
The Radio Hall of Fame steering committee includes executives, academicians, journalists, and others interested in preserving radio history. "Curt Smith is one of the most recognized sports experts in America," said Radio Hall of Fame president Bruce DuMont. "His insights into sportscasting will make our decisions wiser."
Smith has hosted Fox Empire Sports Network's Fan TV series, wrote ESPN-TV documentaries based on his book Voices of the Game, and helped write that network's SportsCentury series. He has written for, among others, the Boston Globe, Newsweek, New York Times, Reader's Digest, Sports Illustrated, and Washington Post, and appeared on numerous network programs, including ABC, Armed Forces Radio, BBC, CBC, CNBS, CNN, ESPN, Fox News, MSNBC, Radio America, and The History Channel.
Currently, Smith is the host of Perspectives, a weekly series on National Public Radio station WXXI AM 1370 which examines such issues as politics, education, health care, and sports with national and regional newsmakers. He also writes a column for Messenger-Post Newspapers and is the author of 11 books, including Voices of Summer, The Storytellers, and Windows on the White House. The Associated Press and the New York State Broadcasters Association voted his WXXI commentary "Best In New York State."
A former senior editor of The Saturday Evening Post, Smith was a speechwriter to former President George H.W. Bush and hosted several Smithsonian Institution series. A member of the Judson Welliver Society of Former Presidential Speechwriters, Smith was named among the "100 Outstanding Alumni" of New York's State University system. He received his bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 1973.