Aces of Trades: Jeff Ruth staying active at Marion's WZMO
MARION – He thought he knew what he wanted to do, then changed his path – and became an award winner.
“In high school,” recalled Jeff Ruth, “I was on the school newspaper staff and wanted to be a writer for a newspaper or magazine. I had a professor at Bowling Green who didn’t think I would make it as a writer so I thought I would try radio and television, and I got hooked.”
Today, Ruth is sports director and public affairs director at WZMO in Marion – 104.7 on the FM dial.
“I like to be active,” he said. “It keeps me involved in the community and it’s only a few hours a week so it’s the best of both worlds.”
Ruth, 69, was born in Mansfield but grew up in Cincinnati, then moved back to Mansfield his senior year of high school. He graduated from Lexington High School in 1971, then Bowling Green State University in 1975 with a degree in broadcast journalism.
“As long as I can remember I was interested in listening to the radio,” he said. “At night I would tune in stations from around the country. I never really listened to much music. Even as a teenager I was interested in talk radio.”
“After Bowling Green I moved back to Cincinnati to get a radio gig,” he continued. “It took more than a year before I finally got a job at a new radio station in Falmouth, Kentucky. I was hired to work in the news and sports department. After about 6 months the station went bankrupt, so I got an overnight job at a station in Hamilton, Ohio.”
“Then I read an ad in a trade publication,” he added, “that WMRN in Marion was looking for an announcer and newsperson. I applied and was hired in May 1979. I worked there till I retired in 2019 – after 40 years. The last 23 years I was the morning announcer after Charley Evers retired. That’s 23 years of getting up at 4:30 a.m.”
WZMO owner Tom Kennedy then called him.
“Tom called me in 2020,” Ruth said, “and wanted to know if I would be interested in doing a couple of interviews a week. I like to be busy, and I said, ‘Sure as long as it’s nothing before 10 a.m.’ I do 2-3 interviews a week with people in the community to let our listeners know what’s going on.”
“Also, as the sports director at WMRN,” he added, “I enjoyed covering local football and basketball, so I started broadcasting high school football games on Friday nights in 2021 and we also did high school basketball games on Friday nights as well. I’ve now been covering local sports for the past 2 years on WZMO.”
Dave Gorenflo was Ruth’s play-by-play analyst for high school basketball broadcasts in the early 1980s.
“Jeff has been ‘the’ voice for high school sports in central Ohio for over 40 years,” assessed Gorenflo.“His enthusiastic and tireless promotion of his adopted community have endeared him to thousands of radio listeners.”
“I’ve been so fortunate to have a career that I absolutely loved,” Ruth responded. “As sports director, I was able to cover Ohio State football and basketball games and was able to travel to all the Ohio State bowl games. I’ve broadcast over 550 high school football games and over 1,500 high school basketball games and was named twice as the Central Ohio Sportscaster of the Year. I was, and still am, part of a great community. I have been very blessed.”
Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs – whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at news@marionstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Aces of Trades: Jeff Ruth staying active at Marion's WZMO
