Mavericks’ radio voice Chuck Cooperstein has been awarded one of the highest honors in broadcasting as he was named 2022 Texas sportscaster of the year by the National Sports Media Association.
The distinction took place at the association’s national convention in Winston-Salem, N.C., over the weekend and Cooperstein follows in the footsteps of a virtual who’s who of Texas radio and television broadcasters that have won the award.
“It’s always nice to win something,” Cooperstein said Tuesday, “and it’s even nicer when your peers vote on it.”
Cooperstein joins a star-studded list of personalities that have won the award, including Mavs’ studio host Dana Larson in 2021, television voice Mark Followill (2018) and Cowboys’ radio voice Brad Sham (numerous times).
The award has been given annually since 1959.
His Texas colleagues voted late in 2022 and Cooperstein was notified in January that he had won.
The award was handed out in North Carolina at the NSMA’s convention. The national winners were Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times in the newspaper division and Ian Eagle, who announces NBA, NFL and college basketball games, in the broadcast division.
“It’s a very august list,” said Cooperstein of the Texas winners who preceded him. “The NSMA has been around a long time, this was the 63rd edition.
“There were a lot of people there (at the convention) that I have known forever, including several NBA guys. And there were a lot of really, really cool people there that you’ve heard of, but maybe not met, or know and haven’t seen in a long, long time. It was great to see so many friends and colleagues.
Cooperstein has been a finalist for the Texas award on several occasions.
He spent the weekend in Winston-Salem with his wife, Karen, and took part in an assortment of panels and meetings, including giving young sportscasters critiques and tips when they came to the convention hoping to network and to have seasoned professionals listen to their work.
Cooperstein has been part of the Mavericks’ family since 2005-06 and has kept fans in the know on the radio for virtually every game since then. He often has said that he enjoys “painting the picture” for fans who can’t be at games or see them on television.
He had a famous call of the clinching game in the 2011 championship run, putting the exclamation point on the title series against Miami by saying: “The Mavericks have scaled the NBA playoff mountain and have planted their flag.”
Before joining the Mavericks, Cooperstein worked in sports-talk radio in Dallas since 1984.
“I think I’ve officially run out of stations to work for,” he joked.
That list includes KRLD, WBAP, The Ticket, ESPN, The Eagle and, most recently, 97.1 The Freak, which is the flagship network for Mavericks’ radio broadcasts.
Cooperstein also has done his share of national radio work.
But he truly is best known as the radio voice of the Mavericks and has received an assortment of honors for that work.
Although, he hesitates to call it work.
“I’ve had fantastic material to work with,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to mess it up when you get 14 years of Dirk (Nowitzki) and then go right into Luka (Dončić).”
Twitter: @ESefko
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