WLWT-TV鈥檚 new sports reporter-anchor Jaron May calls Cincinnati 鈥渁n amazing sports town,鈥� which is high praise considering he grew up in Massachusetts cheering for the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, and Boston Celtics.
His bio at WBBH-TV, a sister Hearst NBC affiliate in Fort Myers, Florida, says that 鈥渁s a Massachusetts native, Jaron is very spoiled when it comes to his teams. His from the Patriots, Celtics, Red Sox and Bruins.鈥�
The Syracuse University graduate will be covering Cincinnati teams starting April 21 鈥� and anchoring weekend sports 鈥� when he replaces Olivia Ray, pregnant with her first child, who is leaving the station after three-and-a-half years.
鈥淚鈥檓 super excited to be joining the WLWT team and covering one of the best sports cities in the country,鈥� May tells me.
He reported from Super Bowl LVI media week before the 2022 Bengals-Rams game, and he鈥檚 looking forward to covering the Bengals. With Joe Burrow, Ja鈥橫arr Chase and Tee Higgins 鈥渢he Bengals will be serious Super Bowl contenders for years to come,鈥� says May, who grew up 15 minutes from the Patriots鈥� old Gillette Stadium.
鈥淭he Reds also have a very bright future with youth like Elly De La Cruz and veteran leaders like new manager Terry Francona. But besides those bigger teams, I am also extremely excited to tell the stories of Southwest Ohio. There are countless amazing sports stories out there about our local athletes and teams. I hope to bring them to the WLWT audience,鈥� May says.
In Fort Myers, May covered a variety of sports, including spring training baseball; minor league hockey and baseball; college and high school teams; and Olympics trials leading up to the Paris games.
鈥淚t was a blast meeting and covering all of the Floridian Olympians. From the more routine sports like swimming and gymnastics, to the more unique sports like taekwondo, sailing and skeet 鈥� I got to cover it all,鈥� he says. But he didn鈥檛 travel to Paris for the 2024 Olympics.
May also did freelance play-by-play for Florida Gulf Coast University and Florida SouthWestern State College. He was hired in 2022 by WBBH-TV after graduating from Syracuse University.
鈥淲e are excited for Jaron to join our sports team. His enthusiastic love of sports is clear, and his experience covering everything from spring training to Super Bowls will be an asset for all Cincinnati sports fans,鈥� said Jeff Benscoter, WLWT-TV news director, in the station announcement.
Growing up in a sports-oriented family, May 鈥減layed almost every sport under the sun,鈥� according to his WBBH-TV bio. Basketball was his favorite sport, closely followed by football. He played basketball through high school, and 鈥渟till follows it at every level extremely intently (but don't ask about my NCAA tournament bracket),鈥� he says.
May pursued a broadcast journalism degree at Syracuse to combine his passion for sports 鈥渨ith his love of public speaking,鈥� according to his WBBH-TV bio.
His senior year, May was named a 2022 Jim Nantz Award First Team All-American, which is an honor given to the top-five collegiate sports broadcasters in the country, according to his WBBH-TV bio. In college he was sports director at WAER-FM, the university鈥檚 National Public Radio affiliate, where he did play-by play, sideline reporting, a postgame talk show and anchored sports updates. He also did play-by-play for some Syracuse sports for the ESPN+ ACC Network Extra.
