A Sure Way to Fail at Sports Broadcasting

There are many ways to succeed in building a sports broadcasting career, but this episode deals with one sure way to FAIL at sportscasting. Why do you need to hear about how to fail? So you can recognize it and do the opposite!

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Transcript

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Did you know that there is a surefire way to fail at sports broadcasting? And I will tell you what that is coming up

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next.

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Welcome to the Sportscasters Club radio show, where it's all about becoming a better sportscaster on a better sports fans. And now your host, A man who began his sports broadcasting career way back in 1993. Rick Shults There is a surefire way to fail it. Sports broadcasting if that's your goal. If from way back when you were a child you have dreams about failing at sports broadcasting I'm gonna help you make that dream a reality. I will tell you how you could fail. Welcome to the Sportscasters Club

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online radio show. I am Rick Schultz. Thank you very much for listening. Thanks for subscribing for everyone out there who has subscribed to the podcast. Whether it's on apple podcast stitcher Spotify Wherever you listen to your online radio shows, thank you for subscribing. Please recommend this and share this with any friends. You have sports fans, aspiring sportscasters or establish sportscasters. We appreciate you doing so Today's topic a sure way to fail at sports broadcasting and there is one there is a way that you can fail, and I say this from experience because I've seen it happen. I've seen aspiring sportscasters who probably didn't want to fail, probably wanted to succeed in this industry. Probably wanted to advance move their career along. Earned Maur have more stability. Find happiness in the sports broadcasting industry. But they just weren't able to do so. And that's because they they found the surefire way to fail it. Sports broadcasting. It's pretty simple. I'm gonna break it out in three parts, and we're gonna talk about it next.

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Are you searching for one on one coaching to take your sports broadcasting career to the next level? Visit the coaching section on our website sportscasters club dot com.

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All right, there's a sure fire way, a sure way to fail at sports broadcasting. And

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I'm gonna start by telling a little story from my broadcasting days back in the mid nineties, broadcasting minor league baseball, we would travel around, too, all the different minor league towns, and over the years you'd get to know the personnel and the people in those cities. You'd get to know the broadcasters, the executives, the people that worked around the ballparks, whether they be in operations, maintenance, media, on field activities and then certainly players and coaches as well. But there was one particular town that we played numerous times every season. We would go to their ballpark and play. They would come to our ball park and play, and this particular team was kind of a rarity because they had to Broadcasters. Actually, we did, too. I had a broadcast partner, Bill Rogan, who introduced me to broadcasting, gave me a shot and then eventually I grew into the position, and then when he moved on, I became the broadcaster for the ball club. But there were other teams around the league and most of them had just one broadcaster. And that's usually the way it waas my final season in the New York Penn League. I was the sole broadcaster for the most part for most games, which is a challenge in and of itself. But this one particular team had to broadcasters as did we and they were really good guys. We got to know him over the course of that one season in the mid nineties and the funny thing is they had the same name. So let's just pretend their name was Joe. That's really not what their name was. But I'm not gonna call him out here because they very well may listen to the Sportscasters Club online radio show. So there were two Joes that were broadcasting for this team in our league, and we over time we began to refer to them in certain ways because they had distinct character traits. And this is all gonna tie back to the sure way to fail it. Sports broadcasting. One of them, we called professional Joe Joe would get there early. He would be prepared. His score book would be meticulously filled out. He would have tidbits that we're prepared to share with his listeners. During the broadcast. He would have all kinds of information planned. Joe was just so good. He was a pro's pro. He had great relationships with the players. They trusted him. They gave him information they wouldn't share with anyone else. And he was able to connect with his listeners on the radio Because of all this information, he would show up hours before each broadcast. He was neatly dressed. His shirt was tucked in Nice pants and shoes in the summertime. It's hot. It's 90 plus degrees. You were a nice polo shirt. Clean shaven hair was well groomed. This guy was just a professional. When he walked into the dugout, you knew that this was someone with authority. This was someone that commanded respect. The players knew that you could see the way they interacted with him and the way he interacted with us. This guy was a pro's pro. Joe was a professional. Then you had the other broadcaster who we nicknamed Unprofessional Joe. So we would joke about it. We would joke, Hey, I can't wait. We're gonna This week we're going to see a professional Joe and Unprofessional Joe. Because the other broadcaster by the same name, Joe, was the complete opposite. He would show up 20 minutes before the game. Hey, had a scruffy beard was not shaven, not clean cut. And I know now that's that's pretty much the fat these days with the beard. And the hipsters like to have the beard going and and maybe it's a style thing now. But 25 years ago he just looked scruffy. He looks sloppy. His hair was a mess. he wore jeans, sneakers, shirt untucked. I remember one day professional Joe was in the dugout conducting an interview with a player for the pregame on his radio cast, and unprofessional Joe bopped into the dugout, started hanging from the rafters in the dugout, kind of swinging back and forth. The guy was the complete opposite, the mirror opposite of Professional Joe. The funny thing is, they were both great guys. We really enjoyed hanging out with both of them. Really super guys. One was professional. Joe prepared, professional, respected, clean, cut, ready to tackle the broadcast. He was there early. He did his homework unprofessional. Joe showed up and he winged. It didn't prepare. Players kind of probably thought he was a little bit of a joke. I know what we thought of him. That's why he got the nickname Great guy, but very unprofessional. The following season, when we traveled to this town and arrived, we said, Hey, Joe, how's your Buddy Joe doing? And he said, No. Joe's not on the broadcast this year, So a professional Joe was still there. Unprofessional. Joe was gone, and so he found that sure fire way to fail it. Sports broadcasting. He was unprofessional, and that's what I boil it down to when we come back. We're going to talk about three ways that you, too, can be unprofessional. And that's coming

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up. Are you enduring the Sportscasters Club online radio show? If so, please hit the subscribe button so you'll never miss an episode. When we release each new show, you'll be the first to know. So hit the subscribe button in your podcast up

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today, and we'll keep the awesome, cool, entertaining and informative material coming. All right, let's talk about three ways. You could be unprofessional. Thanks so much, by the way, for listening to this broadcast and for subscribing to

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the Sportscasters Club online radio show. There are three surefire ways that you can be unprofessional. There's probably a lot more, but I boiled it down to three. And if you want to learn more in depth about these, you can go toe sportscasters club dot com way number one that you could be unprofessional. Don't prepare. Just show up and wing it. Don't do your homework. Don't learn about the players or the teams or the situation or the season or the history and the the rules and the philosophy of the game you're broadcasting, just show up and wing it. The only knowledge you bring to the broadcast is what's already in your head. Do that and that will help you be unprofessional and put you on your road to failing at sports broadcasting the number two way to be unprofessional don't fit in. What do I mean that by that don't fit in? Well, there was a broadcaster that I worked with many years ago that would stand at the batting cage and hoot and holler during batting practice. I would be standing there talking to players, getting tit bits, finding out some information. This is all ours before the ballgame. And that was a great timeto network with the players and coaches and front office personnel, and get a lot of the information you need for a broadcast and for them to get to know you as well. Great relationship building time. So I would always be down there at the cage and you do what you fit in. You just stand there and act like a normal person and chit chat with everyone and fit in as players air rotating in and out of the batting cage to get their hacks before the game. Meanwhile, this other broadcaster was hooting and hollering and cheering for each long fly ball A guy would hit, and this is in batting practice, and people would look at him like, What's up with this guy? And so that's what I mean by fitting in. You've got to fit in, and if you don't that's away. You're unprofessional, and that's a way that you can fail. It's sports broadcasting, same thing in a clubhouse when I was a student at Fordham University at WFUV Radio and we would go into these big league club House, Mets, Yankees, Devils, Islanders, Rangers, Knicks, Nets, Giants, Jets. We'd be in the clubhouse and you want to fit in. You want to act like everyone else acts. If all the media is observing certain decorum and certain rules, you want to do so as well to fit in be part of that pack because you're able to emulate how to be professional in that environment in that setting. And so the first time I was ever in a big league locker room, I was nervous. My knees were probably shaking and this was probably even before that. This is probably when I was in high school working for a small country radio station, and I was able to get New York Knicks press passes. I remember being in the locker room and being in the Knicks locker room, the Pacers locker room, and I remember my knees shaking. But I just followed everyone else. If the pack walked over to Reggie Miller to listen to him talk, I walked over. If they observed a certain decorum or pattern or or professionalism when asking a question, that's what I did as well. And that's how I was able to fit in and be a professional and build that into my repertoire in my career. Certainly when I attended WFUV at Fordham, a lot of that was built into the program. That's why I went there. And I learned a lot more about how to conduct yourself in that environment at WFUV. And then when I was the sports director at WFUV Radio, I coached students regarding this, and this is something we built into our program howto act it at a game when you're in the clubhouse, on the field and That was one of the great things, and one of the highlights of our program still is. And it was one of the things I enjoyed coaching students regarding that and how they can be out there in the field, in the dugout, in the clubhouse and how to conduct themselves in a professional way. But you want to fit in, and those airways, you can be a professional in this field. If you don't fit in, you're gonna come across as unprofessional. And that's a sure fire way to fail in the third way to be unprofessional is don't care. If you don't have a passion and excitement and an enjoyment of what you're doing, it's gonna come across that you don't care, and that is a surefire way to fail it. Sports broadcasting. If you are just showing up toe punch the time clock and you don't really want to do it, it's gonna show it's gonna come across. I mean, in baseball, when you have a game every single day, it's kind of like ground hog day. You really have to love it because I mean, when I was broadcasting, we would broadcast an entire summer. Let's say three months and we may have two or three days off. So a lot of my friends would say, Can't you come out? Can't you come out with us and have fun and hang out and do the thing that normal teenagers are 20 year olds do? And I said, No, I have a game. I have a game I ever broadcast tonight and have a broadcast tomorrow and I were broadcast in the next day, and when we finally had an off day, I was bummed out. You know, I'd get to do a lot of laundry and catch up on those things, but I just love being there so much. I didn't want the off days, and that was part of having a passion and a desire and an enjoyment of it. So that's what you need to do if you want to be a professional. So if you want to be an unprofessional if you want to be like Unprofessional Joe and have these, this is these air sure ways to fail it. Sports broadcasting don't prepare, don't fit in and don't care three ways that you can follow if you're looking to doom your career right now. Hopefully you're not. But if you want to do in your career, that's how you can do it when we come back. Question and answer. Good one today.

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Now it's time for the best part of our show. Your questions are answers. To ask a question for the program, send an email to questions at sportscasters club dot com.

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All right, The Sportscasters Club online radio show. Rick Shults With you. Today's question and answer. We've got a question from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Randy, Randy. Thanks for checking in your email message says, Do I have to be a fan of my team? I was tough to know exactly how to take that question. Randy. You didn't really give any context or any any more in depth explanation of what you're asking. Do you have to be a fan of your team? But I assume you're saying as a broadcaster, do you have to be a fan of the team you broadcast for? The answer is no. You don't have to. You certainly don't have to and actually as a broadcaster, my philosophy and our philosophy at Sportscasters Club is that you want to be as objective as possible and as neutral as possible. You want to be the reporter who's reporting the fax and let the listener or the viewer make up their own mind. That's you want people to listen to the broadcast and not know if you're a fan of one team or the other. This is certainly the case. If you're doing a national game or a neutral game, it's definitely different if you're broadcasting four team. For example, when I broadcast for Army basketball at West Point, I may not have grown up as an Army fan, an Army basketball fan, and this holds true for any team. But you can't help but deep down root for the team you're broadcasting for because you're around them all the time. It's more fun to call a winner. The team is happier. People generally get along better when they're winning, and so it's more fun and more exciting and and easier to engage when you're broadcasting for a winner. So it's natural to want the team that you're broadcasting for to win, and so I did. I wanted those those Black Knights to win, and I was when I was broadcasting for the Hudson Valley Renegades I wanted him to win. And when I was in the Yankees Double a farm club, the Norwich Navigators, I wanted them to win. But you really never want that to cloud your your judgment now. And I never grew up is a Yankee fans. Still, I'm not a Yankee fan, but broadcasting for that team in their organization. Sure, I wanted him to win because it's more fun. I always felt that you always wanted to be on one end or the other. You wanted to either be with a winner, a winning team, a team having great seasons. We're having a great season or just a horrendous loser. Really. The mushy middle is where you know, you didn't have the excitement of being a great team or being a just a horrendous, lousy team. The mushy middle is kind of where you you had to kind of figure things out, and sometimes you didn't have that story line one way or the other. But do you have to be a fan of the team you broadcast? No, absolutely not, And most broadcasters, because of the transient nature of this business, are willing to travel and you've got to be willing to travel. Then we talk a lot about that on the website in some of the articles and some of the sacrifices you need to make as an aspiring sportscaster. But you've got to be willing to go somewhere and broadcast for a team in the middle of nowhere, and you may not grow up as a fan of that team. I remember interviewing at the winter meetings for a position, Let's say, with the Modesto ways in the Out West or the Williamsport Cross Cutters in Pennsylvania, I mean, I wasn't a Cub fan or I wasn't a an A's fan, but had I broadcast for those teams, I certainly would have wanted him to win debt deep down. But you don't have to be a fan of that team to broadcast that team. It can help when you let's say you look at Gary Cohn for the Mets. He grew up a Met fan and he knows met history inside and out. That's a huge advantage for him. Same thing with Mike Breen on the New York Knickerbocker side or Bob Papa on the New York Giants side. But you can bounce around and broadcast for different teams without growing up unnecessarily being a fan of that team. So I hope that helps. Randy, do you have to be a fan of my team? Know you don't have to, but when you're broadcasting for a team day in and day out, it usually happens naturally.

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All right, The Sportscasters Club online radio show taking down our final minutes together here.

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This was a fun episode. I hope you found it to be an exciting episode. I told you that interesting story about Professional Joe and unprofessional Joe. Professional Joe lasted in the industry and unprofessional Joe did not. And we talked about the three ways to be unprofessional. Don't prepare, don't fit in and don't care. There are probably others as well, and you can read a lot more about that topic at sportscasters club dot com. But those air three ways that really stick out on how you can be unprofessional, and we had a great question from Randy about being a fan of his team. Hey, before I let you go, I just want to remind you to subscribe to this podcast. That way, every time we publish an episode, it'll come right to your phone. You can listen on the treadmill, walking the dog, driving in the car to work, driving to school wherever you happen to be so

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sportscasters club dot com is where you can go for all the information, click on radio show and then you can subscribe. I subscribed to all my podcast on Apple, so then they just come right to my phone

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and I can listen to a wide

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range of five gas and radio shows whenever I want. That's where Media is, and it is great. Technology is a wonderful thing. Thanks for listening today. We'll catch you next time on Sportscasters Club online radio show, and I'm Rick Shults signing off. Thanks for listening to The Sportscasters Club radio show at sportscasters club dot com. Don't forget to subscribe, so you will never miss an episode. And thanks for liking sharing, boasting reviews and spreading the word