Ben Blevins
Ben Blevins began working at WSIC Radio in Statesville as a 15 year old student at West Iredell High School . After graduation in 2002 , Ben began his college career at Appalachian State , studying electronic media and broadcasting . Of course , growing up as the son of the Voice of Statesville ( Billy Blevins ) radio production came quite naturally to Ben , who began producing the play-by-play radio broadcasts of App State ’ s football and men ’ s basketball games as a freshman .
“ Meeting Bob White and Harrill Hamrick in 2004 was a turning point for me ” Ben said . “ Bob and my dad started in radio together at 550 AM in Statesville . Bob went on to be the Chief Engineer for WBT in Charlotte and when he told me he was in search of help with the start of the Charlotte Bobcats radio broadcasts , I went to work for him and was able to learn the technical side from the very best .” Through this association , Ben was able to work with many NBA teams , Carolina Panthers , NASCAR , SiriusXM , and National Public Radio .
In 2010 , Ben was approached by ISP Sports ( multi-media rights and marketing group for college athletics ) out of Winston-Salem . ISP needed an engineer and Ben was their choice . Now responsible for fifty-five different radio networks and 2,000 radio affiliates across the country , Ben now has more than 35,000 hours of live sports programming each year for which he is responsible . Sports radio broadcasting for campuses such as UCLA , Syracuse , Wake Forest and Kansas all come from Winston- Salem … and are the responsibility of Ben Blevins .
“ I have been exposed to so many sides of production through my experiences ,” Ben commented . “ ISP Sports became IMG College , which merged recently with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment to form WME | IMG , the leading entertainment , sports , events , media and fashion agency .”
Of his high school experience , Ben gives credit to Mr . Tim Ivey ( now principal at South Iredell High School ) for starting a broadcasting class as a counter to print media while at West High . “ He hobbled together stuff and we started a version of a Channel 1 News at West . We played the news during lunch and I knew the code so I could turn on every TV at school . I made sure EVERYONE was watching !” “ To me , this was so much more fun than newspaper , we had a freedom to be more creative .”
“ I had mentors along the way and I ’ d like to be able to do that for students ,” Ben stated . And that very thing seems to be happening as IMG has recently begun a partnership with Forsyth Technical College to create a communications curriculum .
The Blevins family has given West Iredell High School another reason to be very proud of their graduates .
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