Babe Bills Herself as Fabulous--Her Fans Think She Is

It’s just past noon and the Babe and the Boss are rapping about the Yankees over airwaves across the country.

George from New York, not a first-time caller, will wait behind Bruce in Fresno and Norm in Chicago to chat with “The Fabulous Sports Babe.”

George Steinbrenner doesn’t mind being put on hold. That way, the Yankees’ owner can listen to “The Fabulous Sports Babe Show” until his turn comes up.

The calls show just how far Nanci Donnellan has come in the year since she became the first woman to host a national sports radio show.

“I’ve been trying to get him for 10 years, and one day he calls up and says ‘I want to talk to her. I like her,’ ” says Donnellan, who prefers to be called the Babe.

The ranks of her fans, mostly males aged 18-34, have grown since she began broadcasting from her tiny studio at ESPN Radio Network headquarters in Bristol. Only an estimated 3% to 4% of callers get through.

Her syndicated program, which celebrated its first anniversary July 4, is broadcast weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to nearly 140 affiliates, up from 30 in the beginning. The Southern California affiliate is KMAX-FM (107.1) in Pasadena.

As soon as a Houston station signs up next month, the show will be heard in eight Top 10 markets. New York and Boston have not been cracked.

“She really took us from a part-time service to a seven-day-a-week syndication,” said Mark Mason, general manager of ESPN Radio Network. “It takes time to build an audience. But in a year, the growth has been astronomical. And we’re still growing.”

There is a reason why: The Babe blends humor and in-depth knowledge of sports into a hip format.

“Using a syndicated personality in the morning usually doesn’t work. She’s so darn good that that doesn’t come into play,” said Jim Johnson, president and general manager of KFXX in Portland, Ore. “She understands how to keep listeners, how to keep the show moving, how to get the right guests.”

Johnson’s all-sports station offers the Babe’s program during morning drive time, a prime slot.

“She formulates good questions, and gets a better interview than most would,” Johnson said.

Chicago Tribune media columnist Steve Nidetz said he likes the show, broadcast on one of two all-sports stations in his city, because it isn’t parochial and the Babe isn’t afraid to be critical.

“I was listening the other day, and she was all over the Baseball Network for blacking out games. She was complaining how she couldn’t see the Red Sox the other night. That’s great. That’s the kind of thing I like to hear.

“She’s out there, and she’s not afraid to say what she thinks. That seems to be the kind of host the sports crowd likes. They like somebody who’s over the top,” he said.

Some find her too over the top.

Larry Stewart, TV-radio sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times, said the Babe is well-prepared and that he liked the show’s fast pace.

“But she’s a little too brash for my taste. In sports talk, it seems, the hosts just get carried away with their own importance. She fits right in with the rest of them.

“Sometimes callers need to be cut off, but in her case she is sometimes too quick to do it,” Stewart said.

The Babe was not an overnight success, working in local markets for 16 years before ESPN picked her to launch its national radio show.

“People think I just started doing this,” the Babe said. “I’ve paid my dues and learned. My style is pretty much the same. Hopefully, it’s more refined and polished.”

It has to be. The show moves quickly and the Babe must switch gears fast enough to keep pace with callers who may change the subject from tennis to the NFL to baseball in a matter of minutes.

In between, she searches her computer looking for breaking news and weaves in interviews and zany gimmicks--like reading quirky messages off the Babe Fax.

“I would describe it as a big-time sports talk show wrapped liberally in entertainment,” said Len Weiner, a producer and director known to the show’s listeners as the “Phone Boy.”

“If it’s happening in sports, it’s not going to get past us on the Babe’s show. And neither is Hugh Grant getting caught picking up a hooker,” he said.

Weiner and Denis Horgan screen callers and write for the program, including the catchy songs, which are recorded by Jim Cutler, the voice of American Radio Systems.

The Babe will only say she about 40 and has a “B.S.” degree from the University of Mars. She wound up working for ESPN radio after stints in Boston, Tampa and Seattle.

She got her nickname while working in Florida, after she hurt her back at a driving range and ended up confined to bed for weeks. While broadcasting from home, she invited callers to “come spend an afternoon in bed with the fabulous sports babe.”

“It was just one of those off-the-cuff remarks I make during my show. And they just ran with it.”

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, the Babe is on her feet in the studio, yelling into her microphone.

“I’m standing on my toes and I can see Friday. I can see the end of the week from here,” she says. “Come on and snuggle on up to the Babe. I’ll be gentle.”