Read John’s blog

John Appicello has served as Sports Director at WSLS for more than two years. He comes to Roanoke from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he spent five years as a weekend sports anchor at WHTM-TV ABC27. Prior to his return to the Keystone State Appicello was a Sports Director in Chattanooga, TN; Augusta, GA; Lubbock, TX; and Flagstaff AZ, and a Sports producer in West Palm Beach, FL. John is a two-time Mid-Atlantic emmy award winner and has won AP Sportscasting awards in five different states.

The Tamaqua, Pennsylvania native was a standout in cross-country, wrestling and track & field in high school and ran collegiately at Syracuse University. He was inducted into the Tamaqua Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1994, and the Tamaqua Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. He received his degree in Telecommunication News at the University of Florida. He is an avid Gator fan and has enjoyed Florida’s National title in Football and back-to-back titles in Basketball.

Career coverage highlights include hosting the Texas Tech women’s basketball coaches show during their 1992 National Championship run, covering Tiger Woods’ first win at the Masters, the 1996 Olympics, and the Steelers most recent Super Bowl win in Detroit. Appicello was part of the Olympic torch relay as the flame made its way to Atlanta.

Because of a family history of the disease John has been active with the American Cancer society and cancer research fundraisers. Most recently in Harrisburg Appicello was a part of the broadcast team for the annual Gittlen Memorial Golf Tournament, with proceeds going to cancer research at Hershey Medical Center.

John is married and has two children: a daughter, Nina and a son, Aidan.

His wife Amanda is an Augusta, Georgia native and University of Georgia grad, making the Florida-Georgia football game an interesting Saturday in the Appicello household each fall. John enjoys spending time with his family, running and is an avid golfer. He has played Augusta National twice and has the pictures to prove it!