3 Keys to an Awesome Postgame Interview

Postgame interviews can be some of the most exciting, yet stressful, opportunities for sports broadcasters of any experience level. However, there are some keys to success that we should keep in mind to help us produce the best possible interview. This certainly isn't a complete list of what goes into conducting outstanding interviews, however these 3 keys can provide a solid framework for postgame success.  Postgame interviews should be dynamic, informative and fun! Use these tips to produce the best interview possible!

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Transcript

spk_0:   0:00
All right, picture this. The game is over. You're down on the field. You're ready to conduct a postgame interview. So many things can go right? So many things can go wrong. Are you prepared?

spk_1:   0:25
Welcome to the Sportscasters Club radio show, where it's all about becoming a better sportscaster on a better sports fan. And now your host, Rick Shults. Welcome to the Sportscasters Club online radio show. I Am Rick Shults. Today is a topic near and dear to my heart, because

spk_0:   0:54
I began my professional baseball

spk_1:   0:56
broadcasting career doing postgame interviews, doing postgame interviews. It was a great

spk_0:   1:02
way to start. I just wanted to be involved as the local minor league baseball team. The Hudson Valley Renegades came to town 1994. I wanted to be involved, so I got a job with the ball club as a program salesman. Selling programs had nothing to do with broadcasting it all, but I was 18 years old. I wanted to be involved. I wanted Thio be in the mix with a professional baseball team that I had just come to town and I established a relationship with Bill Rogan, who you've heard on this podcast and Fortunately for May, he allowed me to conduct postgame interviews for him. So at the end of the broadcast, bill would send it down to the field, and I would conduct my post game interview with the player of the game and then send it back up to him. Great introduction to sports gassing with professional baseball. I certainly wasn't getting paid, but I was getting paid in experience. And that's one of the things we talked about a lot here at the online radio show and at sportscasters club dot com, there was one particular day that I'll never forget. It was during that year, 1994 my first year doing postgame interviews, and I was ready to conduct the interview of my life. The game had proceeded. It was almost the end of what I would do is I would go down to the field basically to start the ninth inning. So as soon as the ninth inning ended, security knew me. I had my badge. I would hop onto the field and walk out an interview, whoever the player of the game waas and the way I would do this as an 18 year old because I would obviously watch the game, and then I had a little note card. I have my little file cards and I would write out some questions and then I would go down and conduct the interview on a cassette tape. We would bring it back up and cue it so Bill would send it down to me on the field and then press play, and it sounded like I was right down there on the field. You'd hear the interview, and then I'd send it back up to him. So this particular day I had my questions all written out. I had probably 7 to 10 questions on my little note card. I grabbed the tape recorder in the commercial break between the eighth and ninth inning. I said, Okay, Bill, I'm going to go down there and interview Jay Payton or whoever it was that day, and Bill said, Oh, great, let me see your questions. I handed in my note card. He said, Oh, nice questions, Good questions And he tore it up and my questions were in a 1,000,000 pieces on the floor of the press box of our radio booth. I I flipped out. I said, Bill, what are you doing? These are my questions. What? I have to go down and do my interview. Why would you do that? And Bill looked at me and said, Did you watch the game? And I said Yes. And he said, Do you know who you're gonna talk to? I said yes. And he said, Great, have a conversation asked the questions that you want answers to and that the listener wants answers to. And I said, Bill, but my questions, you just tore him up. He said, You don't need the questions. You watch the game, you're ready for the interview and I was furious. I huffed and puffed out of that radio booth, stopped my way down to the field and then bumbled my way through the interview and conducted it. And that's the last time I ever used questions. Because the message waas, You don't need to have your questions written out word for word, because number one that's going to sound unnatural. Number two. To your guest, it's gonna be very unnatural. I mean, think about that. I'm on the field after a game, talking to a player who just won a ball game, and I'm looking down at a card reading questions. But Number three Bill had confidence and knew that I could do it. So when I come back, I'm gonna touch on three keys that will help you have a successful post game interview. Three things you can do to be as well prepared. It's possible to have a successful post game interview, and we'll touch on those three when we come back.

spk_2:   5:11
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spk_0:   5:58
All right, you heard that story about my post game interview career and how I went from having my questions on a note card to just simply reading the questions. And there are three keys that you can grab hold of to make sure you're prepared to have better postgame interviews. And these are all tied to preparation in one way or another. But three ways you can have excellent, outstanding fantastic postgame interviews. Number one goes without saying, Pay attention to the game and this is really the case. Whether you're ah beat reporter covering a local team and then going into the clubhouse afterwards and conducting interviews, or in the case that I mentioned earlier where I would on the radio play by play broadcast, I would go down and conduct the post game interviews. Pay attention because you're gonna pick things up during a game and you're gonna watch the game intently focused because you never know what's gonna come up during an interview, for example, let's say a player hits a big home run in the ninth inning to win the game, and you're talking to that player. And during the interview, he says something to the effect of well, we were really down. But then that third inning changed things completely for us, and I was able to hit the big home run at the end well by paying attention and being focused and dialed into the game. You knew that in the third inning they had a big defensive stop, a big play by their third baseman to rob a base hit down the line with a diving stop. And that shifted the Mo Mentum that gave the picture of boost. And that changed things in the game and and only by paying attention, you know that. So pay attention. That's the number one thing. It's very difficult to conduct a postgame interview if you don't know the entire context in the entire rhythm and what happened in that game. So pay attention. Certainly keep score if it's a baseball game or if it's a game you're broadcasting yourself. For example, with Army basketball. When I was broadcasting the Army basketball games in the late nineties early two thousands, I would call the play by play of the game on the radio and then we would bring a player over to join me at courtside for an interview certain places. Let's say, when we were playing a duke, I was way up in the rafters, couldn't get anybody up there. It would take him probably 10 minutes to get up to where I was broadcasting. But in the case where I was broadcasting courtside, it was easy to just have a member of the sports information staff bring a player over. So maybe it was Chris Mottola who was the point guard for Army. And maybe after the game he would come over, put on a headset and conduct the post game interview with me. And just by broadcasting the game, I automatically paid attention. I was locked in. I knew exactly what happened, and we were able to have a conversation number two in your mind. When you're conducting a postgame interview, always try to think, What does the listener want to know? And definitely this translates to any time you conduct an interview, whether it's in a ah studio setting on the radio, on the telephone, on on this podcast, for example, but definitely in a post game scenario. So what does the listener want to know? There's a big difference between let's say, interviewing a player after the game. Let's say it's Jay Payton. I use that name because he was playing for the Pittsfield Mets in the mid nineties when I was broadcasting in for Hudson Valley and I interviewed him quite a few times after games because he usually had a good game. And sometimes when Pittsfield one and he's the I would talk to and when I would interview him. There's a big difference between just making a quick comment of, Ah, great home run there to win the game. I mean, that's kind of it's kind of ah, block question. It's not a question at all. It's a lazy way to ask it. But maybe what the listener really wants to know is, what were you thinking as you were gearing up for that, too? Oh, pitch Or what was going through your mind As you step to the plate after your team squandered a three run lead, try to get a little deeper, get a little deeper to ask um, or focused pointed question that your listener wants to know. For example, if something dramatic happened during the game and then you're conducting a post game interview, that's probably something still on the mind of your listeners. So you want to ask about it? Because that's what they want to know. For example, I recall broadcasting a game where there was a 20 minute bench clearing brawl where the players were fighting. The fans were fighting, throwing things, that the players throwing them back at the fans. It was mayhem. Well, the game continued. And then at the end of the game, I conducted a post game interview and it would have been ridiculous if I didn't talk about that just by following the game and knowing that that's what my listeners wanted to know about. So that's very important to ask the questions your listeners want to know about and a great way to do this. For example, what I did, I would go down to the field with my tape recorder. It wasn't a live interview, but it would work even if it was live. And I would say, Hey, Jay, I want to talk about Hey, would you join me on the post game show and he'd say Yes or whoever the player was would say yes most times and I'd say great, definitely want to talk about the big home run you just hit to win the game. And also also Well, we'll talk about what happened in the third inning just

spk_3:   11:53
to give him

spk_0:   11:53
a little heads up. Hey, we're gonna go. We're gonna go there. We're going to talk about that. Number one, it's warming up the guest. We're building a quick little bit of report in about 10 or 20 seconds of just chit chatting before we go live on the air. And number two, it's It's also refresher, refreshing his memory. So maybe something's come to his mind to allow him to give better answers. So great way to To have Ah, great post game interview is by keeping the listener in mind. What do they want to know? And Number three, The third key to conducting a solid, fantastic, awesome post game interview is be yourself and have a conversation. And that's really what What Bill Rogan showed me when he tore up my questions is that I watched the game now go down and have a conversation man to man or manta woman or woman to man or whatever it is with the person that you're interviewing, have a conversation. That's all that comes down to. And so having scripted, written out questions is never the way to go. You may have bullet points written down. You may have bullet points, preferably in your mind in a postgame scenario. I mean, when they go to Michelle Tafoya after a game, a football game, she doesn't look down at a card. A note. She watched the game. She knows what to ask. She knows the specifics Now. If there's a a stat that you need to glance down to get a statistic right, that's fine. If you need a note like that, or if there's a name that's tough to pronounce, tough to remember. If you need a note. Nothing wrong with that at all. But you want to have a natural conversation. It's gonna elucidate a better answer from your guest because they're gonna be more relaxed. They're gonna be more calm. It's gonna be conversational and natural, and you just

spk_3:   13:48
wanna have a conversation.

spk_0:   13:49
That's it. You watch the game now go down and have a conversation. Have some things in your mind that you want to talk about. But listen, listen to the answers and let those answers take you wherever the interview is going to go, you can focus it back on specific questions. You wanna ask, But listen to the answers. Nothing is worse than having an interviewer asked a question and have the guest given Answer that that makes you open your eyes. That surprises you that maybe it's something you didn't expect and then tow. Have the interviewer completely change topics and go to their next prepared question. There's nothing worse than that. For example, let's say that you're conducting a postgame interview and you say, Well, great, great job in that ninth inning, you know, What were you thinking as you stepped up to the plate with the two account? And maybe the player says, Well, I was really confident and knew I was going to succeed. I felt really good out there. I was looking for a fastball, and it all really boiled down to the fact that today was such a special night for me, and I really want to do something big just because it was such a special night. Now my next question should be Well, why exactly was it a special night? Well, actually, today is the first time my grandmother has ever seen me play a game and she was here to watch. But how many times do you hear an interview or just not even follow up? And it leaves the listener on the edge of their seat saying, Why don't you ask that question? So listening is very important. That has to do with any time you're conducting an interview. You have to listen and go where the questions and the answers direct you so again, to recap three Keys to a An awesome, fantastic wonderful postgame interview. Number one. Pay attention Number two. What does the listener want to know? And number three. Be yourself and have a conversation when I come back. We've got a couple questions from listeners, and we've got a question and answer coming up in just a

spk_2:   15:55
minute. This is the year that you want to improve your sports broadcasting skills. Then why not start your own podcast? It's simple and fun. We use buzz throughout the host our podcasts, and you can too simply click on the bus sprout link in today's episode notes. And if you have questions while you are creating your podcast, let us know we'd like to help you.

spk_3:   16:23
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.

spk_1:   16:41
Okay, question and answer. Today we've got to e mails that have come in and again

spk_0:   16:47
questions at sportscasters club dot com. That's how you ask the burning questions that are on your mind, and we will answer them as we can. Here on the online radio show Number one. How do I build a network of trying to read it? A network of professionals? How do I build a network of professionals? And that comes in from Tommy and Duluth. Tommy, Great question. I find the best way to do it is to get out there and do it. I didn't mean to rhyme there, but I did get out there and do it. Tommy, I don't know how old you are. I don't know the stage of your career, whether you're in high school college, whether you're already broadcasting whether you're building a career right now, whether you're in a a corporate 9 to 5 job and you're looking to do something on the side. But the answer is to get out there and do it, because as you get out there and do it, you'll naturally meet people, others that are out there doing it as well. And and then as you get out there and get some experience, it opens up so many doors, so many ways that you can network with others. For example, if if you're not involved in sports casting and then out of the blue you call or your email or you contact a sportscaster and start picking their brain, maybe they want to give you some info. Maybe they don't because they don't know how serious you are. But let's say you're already doing your local high school games and you reach out to somebody and say, Listen, I'm broadcasting for such in such high school. I'm having a great experience getting my my feet wet in the sports casting industry. But I want to ask you a couple quick questions. Well, then you've proven that you're somebody that's hungry. You're out there in the industry. You're you're already almost a colleague. You're not just a fantasy camper. You're somebody who's doing it and you're gonna open a lot more doors, and people are gonna be a lot more helpful and willing to help if you're already in the industry. So that's what I would say, Tommy. That's how I would answer that. Get out there and do it. Whether you're at the high school level, college professional, get out there and do it. And people are gonna be very willing to help. That's question. Number one. Question Number two from Danielle in Lakeland, Florida Thank you, Danielle, for e mailing in and she asks, Should I talk about the news during my sports broadcast? Well, Danielle, my answer to that 99% of the time is no. Do not talk about the news during your sports broadcast and the reason being people know where they can go to get the news. They know where they can hear about politics. They know where they can go to hear about gardening. They know where to go to hear about Harry Potter or Tiger King or anything else. But the reason they're tuned into you is to hear the sportscast. So I know the listeners that we have here on the Sportscasters Club, online radio show. And I know the reason you tune in is because it appeals to you. We've got a lot of interest. I listen to a lot of podcasts myself, a huge array of podcasts. I probably got 10 or 15. That air saved that. I get their episodes downloaded right to my phone, every single one and I listen and sometimes I'll listen. Morte Oh, maybe this week Dave Ramsey show is really striking a chord. So I listen to 56 episodes in a row on my phone. Or maybe next week it's Jason Barrett in the Barents Sports Media podcast, and maybe I'll listen to a bunch in a row there. Or maybe I'm listening to the Brian But Feeny show and listening back toe the great stuff he does on Earl Nightingale or as a man. Think if there are any of these different podcast. But the point is, I'm tuned in specifically for that material, and you're gonna turn off people if you stray out of that realm because if they're tuned in for thing A and you give them thing be that was false advertising. So here on The Sportscasters Club online radio show, which Certainly I hope you subscribe because then you'll get every episode downloaded right to your device. So I do it. An apple that's I used the apple podcast player, so they all come right there. Hopefully you subscribe on some apple or some app device. Some app to whether it's stitcher, Spotify, whatever. However, you get your overcast, however you get your podcasts, it's the most convenient way to do it. But when people listen to our episodes, they want sports broadcasting and occasionally will touch on the sports topics of the day. For example, Ahh. While back we did a show about how the Mets got it right and five reasons that they were absolutely rightto hire Louise RoHaas to be their new manager. But it's sports related, and I always focus on the sports broadcasting angle. And so that's I think, something that you want to focus on. So the answer to your question No, do not talk about the news. Marty Glickman always used to say People are tuned into T to the game to hear the game, and people are tuned into the sportscast to hear the sportscast. If they want to know about the other sport that's going on right now. The other game, they're gonna tune into that. So if I'm broadcasting a baseball game, and meanwhile, there's a college football game going on at the same time, I'm not gonna talk about it, because if you want to know about that, you're gonna go there. Maybe I give a score. Maybe, but I'm not going to sit there and talk about the ins and outs of another sporting event if you're tuned in to my event, because that's why you're there. If you wanted that other event, you would tune in there. Sports talk shows different because you're covering all the sports but still on a sports talk show. I would stick to sports, not news. Same thing holds true if I'm hosting a news program. Don't focus on sports because sports fans nowhere to go to get the experts in that regard as well. So it goes both ways, so I hope that helps hope those answers help you. Thank you for sending in your questions to questions at sportscasters club dot com, and when I come back, it's gonna be exciting as we wrap it up.

spk_3:   23:12
When you're done with this episode, or even if you want to open your browser now, you can go deeper and learn the secrets of sports broadcasting. Search our full list of books at sportscasters club dot com, available from Amazon and Kindle paperback and audible format.

spk_0:   23:28
All right, Another episode in the books of the Sportscasters Club online radio show. Thank you for sharing this radio show with sports fans that are in your life and thank you for subscribing so you get all of our episodes right to your phone. And as you heard us talk about

spk_1:   23:43
during this episode are free Facebook Group, the Sportscasters Club community. It's a place that we share some some other contents and videos. We bounce ideas off each other. I've had a lot of broadcasters recently asked

spk_0:   23:56
about that kind of a community.

spk_1:   23:58
And who knows? Maybe down the road this year will get even deeper into a community where you met sportscaster. So that's something you're looking to do. Stay tuned. But until then, I'm Rick Shults. Hope you enjoyed this episode, and we will catch up with you next time. 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.