He appears to be just another sports buddy. He could show up at your kid’s high school sports event, college football tailgate or backyard barbeque cornhole game, and be right in place.
He seems like one of us. Which is exactly what he is.
Scott Nolte has been a sportscaster for WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling during the last four decades: the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and now the 2020s. Over that time, he has routinely given us our local, regional, and national sports news and features as we eat breakfast, clean up from dinner or prepare for bedtime. And it feels like he’s part of the family. He’s talking to me, talking to us. He’s one of us crazy Ohio Valley sports fans.
“It’s an honor. It brings a lot of humility to the forefront,” Nolte said of being part of the Ohio Valley sports family. “Somebody is making the choice to watch me. I am so appreciative that people have accepted me into their families, their homes.
“I’m proud of where I’m from and that I’m from Warwood. I’m proud of the localness of my broadcasts. I am from here. I’m proud to be from Wheeling and proud of the opportunities I’ve been given.”
Now in his 31st year broadcasting at the Wheeling-based television station, Nolte still finds the juice every day when he goes to work. He doesn’t have to produce the spark; he just has to watch as area athletes perform great feats. He loved it so many years ago, and he still loves it today.
“My job is what I love and really look forward to. How lucky am I that the field that I want to be in, I am in. And I get to do what I want to do as opposed to just going to work every day,” Nolte said.
“It’s really cool. It’s an honor honestly that I go on TV and people are willing or kind enough to listen to me or welcome me into their family. Welcome me into your home every night for 30 years.”
So, if you believed Nolte had a plan at an early age, maybe in high school, to be a lifelong broadcaster, you would be wrong. Nolte had no idea what he wanted to do as a sophomore at Wheeling Park High School. What he did know was he wanted to talk instead of study during study halls in one of the school’s commons.
Coincidentally, that area of the high school was right across the hall from the broadcasting classroom of the late broadcasting and teaching legend Pat Clutter, a man who influenced Nolte and some of his contemporaries to enter the field.
Clutter noticed Nolte, only because Nolte was disrupting his class with that beautiful, loud voice. Few would handle the situation like Pat Clutter, who didn’t close his classroom door, or give Nolte grief, or ask the study hall monitor to discipline the student. He instead offered Nolte an opportunity, an opportunity that began as a seed and grew into a lifelong career.
“Pat Clutter came across the hall and said I was so loud that I was interrupting his class!” Nolte said. “And the second thing he said was, ‘You have a great voice.’
Nolte continued, “He said, ‘I want you to go down to your counselor’s office and sign up for my class next year.’ So, I went down to my counselor and signed up for his broadcasting class my junior year. I’ve been in broadcasting ever since.”
During that junior year, Nolte worked alongside Mike (Anthony) Pietranton doing play-by-play and/or color commentary on WPHP radio broadcasts of Patriots basketball games. Right then Nolte admits he, “kind of got bit by that radio play-by-play and commentary bug going with the team” on road games or during games at The Palace on the Hill.
During his senior year, he began to work some weekends at Z107-FM, which switched format and programming to WEGW-FM Eagle 107 on December 27, 1989. Nolte stayed onboard and continued there while he was a student at West Liberty State College. Following that, Nolte joined WEEL-FM as operations manager; he returned to Eagle and remained with the radio station after joining WTRF.
So, a lot of career moves, changing from building to building? Not at all. Actually, each career change landed Nolte in the same building, as both radio stations were housed in the WTRF building on 16th Street in Wheeling. Unlike Elvis, he seldom had to leave the building!
“I have worked in that building since November 1989. Thirty-some years in that building either in radio or television,” Nolte said.
With a foundation based on radio, Nolte “hadn’t done anything with TV” when he started turning the wheels toward television. He noticed Jerry Echemann, primarily a weatherman, filling in for weekend sports broadcasts. Clutter was still teaching at Wheeling Park High School at that time but was also a full-time News Director at Channel 7. Nolte contacted Clutter about the opportunity to work weekend sports since, “Pat and I were close even after I graduated high school,” Nolte said.
“August (3rd or 4th) 1993 he calls me. Pat calls me. He said you start tomorrow. I will talk through a few things with you. Come in Saturday and I’ll do some things with you. Come in at 3 o’clock and I’ll sit with you.
“He was showing me some of these ins and outs. He left at 4 after he said looks like you know what you’re doing.”
After that first show, the phone rang, and another local sports broadcasting legend, Bob Finnegan, was on the line. Nolte was afraid what was coming following his first sports segment. Surprise. Finnegan said, ‘Great job, looks like you’re working out.’
“That’s where it started in 1993,” Nolte said, “and I’ve been there ever since. It’s hard to believe how quickly it’s gone by.
“I was in the right place at the right time. Pat had confidence in me. He trusted me. He was willing to give me a chance. I’ve been lucky to have a lifelong career ever since.”
Do It. Do It Well.
Consistency runs through Nolte’s life, whether professional or personal. His entire professional broadcasting career has been based in the same building; his entire personal life has been based in Warwood. Perhaps consistency runs through the DNA he and his sister Christine received from their parents, Donald and Connie Farrell Nolte.
Donald, who passed away four years ago, worked for 42 years as an electrician at the Shoemaker Mine, 36 years underground, and six at the prep plant in Benwood. Donald grew up in Fulton and was graduated from Wheeling Central Catholic. Connie, meanwhile, has lived her entire life within a one-block section of Warwood Avenue in South Warwood. She has never driven a vehicle in her life, yet she still was a driver … she drove the passion for sports in her only son.
While his father primarily liked football, they loved all sports together.
As an adult, Nolte has continued that Warwood green-and-white pride, living on Warwood Avenue before moving onto Maser Lane in Clearview with his second wife Susan Fox Nolte. They share six children, five of whom were at some point Warwood Redbirds. By the way, Nolte was a catcher for the Redbirds, and baseball is his true sports first love.
Another consistency has crept into Nolte’s professional life, as he has served as the broadcasting instructor at Wheeling Park High School, filling a spot that long ago was held by none other than Pat Clutter. Fifteen years into it, Nolte likes the connections he can make with young people who are students during the day, athletes at night. He gets to know the human side and the athletic side, happy to see hard work pay off in the classroom and in the arena.
Named Sports Director at WTRF in 1996, Nolte has brought much acclaim to the station, including honors such as Outstanding Sports Operation, Best Regularly Scheduled Sportscast, and Best Play-by-Play. In 2020 the OVAC recognized and honored Nolte for his lifelong dedication to covering teams and athletes in the conference by granting him entrance into the Hall of Fame.
Of course, he appreciates the recognition, but even today Nolte is able to keep the focus on the right thing, the thing that got him into sports broadcasting in the first place.
The game.
“I’ve been going to games for 30-plus years, and I get paid for it. I don’t have to pay for a ticket.”
This story, similar to each of his broadcasts, ultimately comes to an end. Until tomorrow, when Scott Nolte, sports buddy, returns to our homes on television to talk to me, to us.
