Former Indianapolis sportscaster Chet Coppock dies after car accident

Keywords Media & Marketing / Radio / TV
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Longtime Chicago sportscaster Chet Coppock, who spent most of the 1970s at WISH-TV in Indianapolis, has died at age 70 after suffering injuries in a car accident a week ago.

His daughter, Lyndsey, said on her Facebook page her father died Wednesday. He was a passenger in an accident April 11 near Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Coppock was a fixture on sports television for years. He was sports director at WISH from 1974 to 1981, often serving on the same broadcast team as Jane Pauley. He also served as state chairman of Indiana Easter Seals and Indiana March of Dimes.

He returned to his hometown of Chicago in 1981 to work for WMAQ-TV and also served as sports director at WMAQ-AM radio, where he became a pioneer of sports talk radio with his "Coppock on Sports" show on WMAQ-AM. The often-bombastic Coppock came to be known as the "Godfather of Sports Talk Radio," greeting callers by saying "Your dime, your dance floor."

Coppock also worked as a roller derby announcer, promoted pro wrestling and was ring announcer during the Chicago portion of Wrestlemania 2.

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