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Highland Park Native Becomes Twin Cities' Top Voice

Cory Provus named the lead announcer for the Minnesota Twins.

When they make their initial trip to Wrigley Field, most kids want to be like one of the stars on the field. But Cory Provus took a different angle. 

The Highland Park native looked up to the press box and saw the person he wanted to be. 

“I went to my first Cubs game when I was five or six with my family, I saw the grass and I saw the ivy, that was great,” Provus said. “But I wanted to find that guy who wore those big glasses.”

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Provus was speaking of Harry Caray. By listening to the voice of the Cubs and many other Chicago broadcasters for so many seasons, Provus developed a love of radio and broadcasting and transformed that into a career that has blossomed to a new level. Recently, Provus, 33, was named the lead announcer for the Minnesota Twins.

'Once in a lifetime opportunity' 

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It is another step in a journey that began for Provus in Highland Park and has taken him around the country before two years with the Cubs and the last three seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity," Provus said of his new role in the Twin Cities. “These jobs don’t come open all that often. You have to take advantage when you can and there are only 30 of these jobs in the world and one came open with a great organization.”

Broadcasting is in Provus' family genes. His cousin Brad Sham has been broadcasting Dallas Cowboys games since the 1970s.

It is no surprise to Provus’ friends that his career has taken off so quickly for someone still relatively young.

Andy Engle, a friend of Provus since they were three, remembered when they would play games and Cory would do double duty, providing a faux broadcast as they played.

“He was probably the only kid in Highland Park – let alone America – who had the foresight to know what he wanted to do,” Engle said. “Cory is one of the few people who can say they had a dream as a kid and now he has accomplished that dream.”

Learning to craft a play-by-play

After , Cory went on to where he took to heart the lessons he learned from Michael Rosenzweig, a U.S. History teacher.

“I loved the class because he made me think more than what I saw on a page but how to put that into my own words,” Provus said. “Essentially that is what play by play is. I’m seeing something, but now it is up to me to describe it. He kind of hammered home the idea what you read is great, but now use your own words.”

After graduating from Highland Park H.S., Provus enrolled at Syracuse University and its renowned broadcasting program. He then embarked on a career that took him to several parts of the country including Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama, where he gained experience as a broadcaster. But as he was getting his feet wet, he cultivated and maintained a relationship with Dave Eanet, WGN Radio’s sports director.

That foresight paid off before the 2007 season when there was an opening in the Cubs broadcasting booth to serve as a backup to Pat Hughes and get to do one inning of play by play among other responsibilities.

Eanet said Cory was the first person he thought when he had to fill that spot, despite the fact that Provus was still in his 20s.

“Off the air as a person he just seemed to be older than his chronological age,” Eanet said. "He was mature and had a good presence. I knew he would work hard and would really want it and that was proven to be the case.”

Heading to Wrigley

Provus’ Highland Park roots and love of the Cubs certainly didn’t hurt him in the interviewing process.

“What helped was I knew the Cubs broadcasts so well because I had been listening to it forever,” he said. “I knew who the sponsors were, I knew about Kathy and Judy, I knew about Spike O’Dell. I was able to pitch myself to them and it was real because I listened to them forever.”

Eanet eventually made the decision to go with Provus, who acknowledged his first trip with the team was a little overwhelming.

“I called my brother John and said “John, Derrek Lee is sitting five rows behind me,” Provus said. I don’t know what I am doing here. But I am on the plane and comes up to me and chats with me for about an hour.”

That began what turned out to be a close relationship between Provus and the iconic figure in Cubs history, which ended with Provus serving as one of Santo’s pall bearers last year after Santo’s death.  “Ron taught me it was a big job but you better be able to still laugh at yourself because he was the champion of that,” he said. That is how I go about things now.”

Calming down Ron Santo

With the new management team led by Theo Epstein trying to turn the Cubs around, it is easy to forget that just a few years ago, the Cubs were the National League Central Division champions and Provus was part of the WGN coverage.

Eanet was particularly impressed with Provus the night the Cubs clinched the division in Cincinnati in September 2007.

“Cory did a really good job in the clubhouse and that was his first time doing that,” Eanet said. “He was with Ron Santo who is so excited so he had to calm Ron down.”

After the 2008 season, Provus was approached to have a larger broadcast role than what he had at WGN and soon he moved north to be the sidekick of the MLB broadcast Hall of Famer Bob Uecker.

Provus said working with Uecker was very similar to working with Santo in that they put the game in perspective. “It’s baseball, but it is not war here. It’s an important business, a lot of money is invested, a lot of fan emotion is invested. But at the end of the day it is a game and let’s have some fun.”

Joining the Twins

After his third season in Milwaukee, Provus received an offer to be the top announcer for the Twins and their 88 station radio network, an offer he jumped at quickly.

After doing a limited amount of college basketball play-by-play next month, Provus and his wife, Dana, a Northbrook native, will be concentrating on moving to the Twin Cities and Cory will be learning about his new organization.

His goal is to learn as much about Twins history as possible but he will carry an important lesson with him that has helped him achieve a goal at 33 that many broadcasters never see.

“It’s impossible for a radio broadcaster to be too descriptive,” Provus said. “There is always something else you can do to paint a vivid picture.”

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