The “Dean” of area sports broadcasters, Dana Balash has been the sports anchor at WFMJ-TV, Channel 21 since July of 1992 and has served as the station’s sports director since 2000.
One of the most aggressive, humble and considerate sports reporters ever to come out of the Mahoning Valley, he began his media career in the area as a stringer-correspondent for The Vindicator in the early 1980’s under their late sports editor, Chuck Perazich.
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In 1985, he joined then WFMJ Radio (AM 1390) and broadcast high school football and basketball games where he worked alongside former sports director Steve Mechling, also calling basketball play-by-play with former YSU men’s basketball coach and later ESPN basketball analyst/Portland Trailblazers color analyst, Mike Rice. It was Rice who has always given Balash credit for kick-starting his broadcasting career as he gravitated to the national stage while broadcasting a multitude of highly visible college and professional games.
He moved over to television in 1990 as a general assignment reporter and in 1992, gravitated to sports and a post that he has held for the past 33 years.
In March, he will have been with WFMJ Broadcasting, Inc. for 40 years.
During his tenure, he has covered a myriad of major events and among his notable assignments were the 1995 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves, the 1997 Fall Classic between the Indians and Florida Marlins and the 2016 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and Indians, covering each game of their scheduled match-ups.
He has also covered a pair of NFL championship games, Super Bowl XXX in Tempe, Arizona between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers and Super Bowl XL between the Steelers and Seattle Seahawks.
Additionally, he has covered the 1997 and 2018 MLB All-Star games as well as the 1997 and 2022 NBA All-Star classic.
A versatile reporter and sports director, Balash isn’t limited to just reporting on the major sports, having also covered the career of former middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik. He calls Pavlik’s pursuit of a world title one of his most favorite assignments from his local fights at the Covelli Centre, to his fights in Atlantic City, New Jersey to those that were staged in Las Vegas, Nevada.
An innovative sports director, he was part of the image that changed covering local sports and was a major influence in the plan to extend coverage of high school football and its “Overtime Report,” a highly-acclaimed 21-minute, uninterrupted segment each fall Friday beginning at 11:00 p.m.
Now in its 31st year, the “Great Clips Overtime Report” has covered more than 7,000 games and shows no sign of slowing down.
He also hosts Penguin GameDay, the coaches show revolving around Youngstown State University athletics. Currently in its 20th year, it airs each Wednesday beginning at 7:00 p.m. during the football season.
Balash has been honored by the OHSAAA and Ohio Associated Press for his work and in 2005, received the OHSAA Sports Media Award – the highest award presented to the media by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
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In 2000, he was honored by the Hubbard High School Alumni Association as its “Honoree of the Year” and in 2009, was inducted into the Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame.
After graduation from Hubbard High School, he continued his education at both Kent State University and Youngstown State University.
He resides in Poland.
