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Dean Stone Bio
It all
started in Philadelphia amidst Dean Stone's teenage years, when
his Aunt and Uncle took Dean out to a local electronics store
to buy him a
Hi-Fi Stereo for his birthday. After returning home, Dean proceeded to
spend
countless hours listening to the radio, and playing cassettes
and vinyl records.
It was during this time that Dean noticed two jacks in the
front of the
system; one for headphones and the other for a microphone.After already enjoying hours of talking into a tape recorder his Dad brought home from work one day, Dean was very curious to see how much fun it would be to talk on a microphone over stereo speakers, instead of speaking into a tape recorder then hearing the playback. With a few extra dollars in hand from his birthday, Dean walked across town to the local Radio Shack, where he found and purchased a Realistic brand microphone. Back at the house, in the basement where the stereo was located, Dean unraveled the microphone, inserted its plug into the "mic" jack and as they say, the rest is history. The main features of the stereo that Dean was initially so thrilled about were now secondary to this one tiny opening labeled "mic". Dean would continue to spend hours enjoying the stereo, but his voice was the only sound coming through the speakers. From reading sports scores from the local paper to announcing every time his mother brought down or took away a load of laundry from the adjoining laundry room, everything and everyone Dean came in contact with in that basement became part of the show. About four years later, Dean took to the local airwaves and hosted his own radio program at WRDV-FM during his senior year in high school. Fun as it was from talking in his basement in Montgomery County to talking in the cellar of a municipal building in nearby Bucks County Pennsylvania, Dean wanted to do more in communications, and be seen as well as heard. Dean
went on to attend The Pennsylvania State University, where he would
obtain
a degree in Journalism from the institution's well-known College of
Communications. Even before graduating college, Dean was made a
reporter and
sports anchor during his internship at WMGM-TV in Atlantic City, New
Jersey.After a brief stint at KMIR-TV in Palm Springs, California and WTAJ-TV in Altoona, Pennsylvania where Dean was told by the news director that he should pick another line of work because he wasn't good enough to be a television news reporter, Dean was ready to turn a negative into a positive and use his broadcast and announcing skills to the best of his ability. In 1997, while perusing the want ads in The Press of Atlantic City, Dean came across a job at Resorts Casino Hotel for an announcer to enthusiastically host games and tournaments. Dean applied for the post, auditioned, and was immediately hired. While speaking half the time on a microphone on the boardwalk in front of the property and the other half from a deck overlooking the middle of the casino floor, patrons both indoors and out got an earful of Dean's delivery. Because Atlantic City is a major boxing town, a day didn't go by when someone approached Dean to suggest he should announce the fights. Being a boxing fan and having attended many fights in Atlantic City over the years himself; it seemed to be the next logical step in Dean's career path. Dean, with the help of friends and people he was introduced to in boxing, pursued his first ring announcing job. After months of calling around to local promoters trying to land his first gig, Dean finally got the break he was looking for. He was asked to announce an all-women’s boxing card at the Tropicana Casino & Resort in May of 1998, for Diane Fisher of Dee Lee Promotions. Since his
debut
that night in the ring, Dean instantly put himself on
the map
as a boxing ring announcer, and before long was hired to introduce a
myriad of fights. In due time, he
became the premier announcer in the Tri State
Area.
From 1998 to 2003, Dean successfully covered almost every noteworthy
boxing
event in Northern & Southern New Jersey as well as the
Philadelphia
and New
York City metropolitan areas, many of which were broadcast on ESPN,
Showtime
and Pay-Per-View.Beyond the aforementioned geographical areas, Dean was grateful to be hired as the voice of the exhilarating King of the Cage mixed martial arts (MMA) series, and traveled monthly to the West Coast to call their Pay-Per-Views. Outside of the continental United States, Dean traveled to Canada for MMA events, and multiple times to both the US Virgin Islands and Argentina to announce boxing. But this is just the beginning of Dean's long-term goals as an announcer. He hopes to continue to emcee sports and entertainment events and do his part, to raise the level of excitement and make every event a main event.
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