Nessler wins Furman Bisher Award
Longtime Atlantan Brad Nessler was on Tuesday named the winner of the 2010 Furman Bisher for Sports Media Excellence.
Nessler, who began his broadcast career at WGST in 1980, will be honored by the Atlanta Sports Council, which presents the award. A longtime Duluth resident, Nessler is a college football and basketball play-by-play man for ESPN (since 1992) and ABC (since 1997).
The award, established in 2000, is named for longtime Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Furman Bisher to honor outstanding coverage of local and regional sports.
"I've always thought if you could speak like Furman writes, you could be the perfect broadcaster," Nessler said. "He's always honest and always fair. That's what I try to do as a broadcaster.
"He's one of the first guys I met 30 years ago when I moved to Atlanta. He's a gentlemen and unbelievable at what he's done over his career. I'm almost speechless. It's great to get an award, but to get one with his name on it ... wow."
Bisher said he first became aware of Nessler when he began working at WGST. Bisher said he quickly realized that Nessler wasn't going to be there long.
"He's a delight. I love him," said Bisher, who will give the award to Nessler at the Atlanta Sports Awards banquet on March 8 at the Fox Theater. It will be the first time that Bisher has been on hand to give away the award named after him. "He's always so good-natured. I don't care what the score is, his voice always sounds like he's having fun."
After WGST, where he handled play-by-play for Georgia Tech basketball for five seasons, Nessler became sports director at WSB radio in 1985 and continued as the voice of the Atlanta Falcons (1982-88). He briefly moved to his native state of Minnesota to call Vikings games from 1988-89 before he was hired by CBS and began his network television career.
"It's a privilege and honor to present such a meaningful award as the Bisher Award to someone like Brad Nessler, a local guy who has done well nationally, who has worked his way through Atlanta ," said Gary Stokan, the president of the ASC.
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