Ryen Russillo

Ryen Russillo is a sports radio host currently working for ESPN Radio. He is 32 years old. He hosts NBA Sunday, [The Huddle] and the The Baseball Show every on ESPN Radio. Ryen is also a regular host for GameNight and a fill-in host for The Pulse. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts where he previously hosted a show entitled "The Die Hards" with co-hosts Anthony Pepe, John Anik, Kevin Winter, and Mike Winn (the final two both leaving the show relatively early on), while working for the "Sportingnews Radio" -owned, "1510 the Zone", which no longer runs non-sponsored local programming. Russillo has also worked as a play-by-play man in Minor League Baseball, and did a few Boston Celtics games while with "1510". He appears regularly on "New England Sports Tonight" with Gary Tanguay and Greg Dickerson, and has also appeared on "Cold Pizza". Ryen was named Best Radio Voice of 2007 by Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch for his work on ESPN Radio.

Controversy

John Dennis

In September 2005, Russillo got into an argument with Boston talkshow mainstay John Dennis when Dennis accused Russilo of hitting on his daughter at a party. Dennis left an angry profanity ridden voice-mail on Russillo's answering machine that was later posted on the "Barstool Sports" website. [ [http://www.barstoolsports.com/article/john_dennis_voicemail_for_ryen/408/ Barstool Sports: John Dennis Voicemail for Ryen Russillo ] ] Dennis repeatedly threatens to attack Russillo and keeps saying Russillo's name wrong (Rutillo, Rodillo, etc.). Russillo has not commented on the message publicly, and Dennis does not seem to really care about the incident any longer. Though, Russillo had been slated to join the "WBCN" football pregame and postgame shows, but was suddenly dropped, which Dennis denies having involvement in.

Gary Payton trade

Russillo got into an argument with another journalist over who had broken the Gary Payton trade from the Lakers to the Celtics. The other journalist claims that he had broken it first while Russillo claims that he has time marked tapes proving that he broke it first. The journalist was later identified as Bill Simmons.

References