Football Announcing, The Worldwide Leader, and Political Correctness

Photo by Robert Lee (robertleepxp.wordpress.com)

I try to avoid political topics on here. Part of it is I don't like politics, I don't like politicians, and I hate the extremists on both sides of the aisle who just scream back and forth at each other, seemingly now louder than ever. But I heard about this story last night, and now that it's been confirmed, I feel like I had to say something.

By now you've heard ad nauseum about the evils perpetrated around the rallies and counter protests in Charlottsville, Virginia as part of the ongoing craziness that is the United States in 2017. It's prompted many places in southern states to take down statues of figures from the Confederacy or for opponents of these statues to take them down themselves. At the end of the day, this is probably for the best, but this isn't the point of this post... as I'm sure you guessed by the title.

A week from Saturday, the University of Virginia's football team will be playing FCS school William and Mary at home in Charlottesville. Ordinarily, all that would come of this is Virginia losing an NCSS point for the purposes of the Death to the BCS Playoffs, and that would be the end of it because they don't have any other lower level opponents on their schedule at the time of this writing, and thus they won't get a one year ban from the postseason. Virginia will probably win, and William and Mary will take home a decent payday, and everyone goes home none the worse for wear. Instead, in this heated political climate, all hell broke loose last night.

Webucator Asks Confessions of a Sportscaster

In the two and a half years since I started writing Confessions of a Sportscaster, I've been involved in a lot of shenanigans. Most of it has been legitimate talks of what's going on in the world of sports and commentary on major issues on and off the varying playing surfaces, predictions that haven't really been super accurate, documentation of yelling "THREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" over a hundred times in the span of three months in an effort to be the greatest home court advantage in the CCIW, to convoluted attempts at running logistically impossible tournaments due to either the fact that time travel doesn't exist or the tournament I'm running is frowned upon by elitists with way more money than I could ever dream of having. Maybe someday I'll actually try to do a study to see how feasible the latter is, but that's a story for another day. Today, I have people to help.

It's May, which means we're in the thick of graduation season, primarily at the college level (unless you're a North Central student, in which case you poor saps still have like three or four weeks left). It also means that another group of young adults is getting ready to transition into the real world, which is a scary thing. It can be especially so if you're like me and majored in broadcasting. It's a very hard field to get into. I know a few friends from my time at WONC have found work or internships of some sort in broadcasting, and I'm thrilled for them. For others, it can be more of a struggle.

I was approached by Bob Clary, the Community Manager over at Webucator.com, a company that "provides onsite and online training on technologies such as Microsoft ASP.NET, XML, Windows, Java, Adobe Flash, HTML5, JavaScript, Dreamweaver, and much more," according to their website. Bob asked me to share advice for the upcoming graduating class in the form of skills I think are important to know when searching for a job in this market. It's something I'm more than happy to do.

When it comes to just about any job, having a resume is obviously important, but having demonstrations of your skills available is just as important. In many professions, this means having a portfolio. In broadcasting, it means having demo reels or airchecks ready to send to potential employers. I have DVDs of some of my work from video and TV classes from North Central, and have access to find old airchecks from my time at WONC. While those are good to have, you want to stay up to date, so being able to use a studio while you still have time to go build new airchecks is a must. Not only does it showcase what you can do in an on-air setting, it also gives you some practice in production, which in today's radio market, you MUST have. As important as Microsoft skills are in the corporate world (hence why in May Webucator is focusing heavily on it, including offering a free Powerpoint class), skills in programs like Adobe Audition or Pro Tools (if you're more Mac-centric) are a necessity. Of course, knowing how to use Microsoft Office helps out too, so if you want to brush up on certain things, these guys might be a good resource.

When I was first asked to do this post, my first thoughts actually went to more intangible things, and it's something that I think applies across all fields. First of all, don't be afraid to try something new or go out of your comfort zone. When I first started college and joined WONC, I'd intended to only do sports-related activities, but needed to do about three hours a week of shifts, so I picked up a Saturday afternoon music shift. I was nervous and kind of shy, even being on the radio with that level of listener interaction, but I had mentors who pushed me and encouraged me to experiment around a little bit, and before long I found that I absolutely loved it. It became a cornerstone of my experience there.

I added to that experience piece by piece, and during my junior year, talk of who the station's senior staff the following year came up. I said to myself, "Why not go for the top?" I applied to become the station manager for the 2010-11 school year, and got the job. It came with challenges certainly, but I'm proud of the fact that I oversaw the day to day operations of 70 people being on air 24/7 and the fact that the faculty mentor who I reported directly to felt comfortable enough with how I was running things to take a pro term my final trimester and only be on campus two days a week. Heck, my public address work only started because a nervous, awkward 16-year-old me decided that in addition to running the statistic portion of Aurora Christian's scoreboard for the girls' basketball team I'd announce the game as well. I'd always loved doing it back to my days of apparently reciting Ray Clay when I was three, but that was when I started actually doing it.

I think this last piece of advice is the most important one though: network yourself. It seems like who you know has as much of an impact on your ability to land a job as what skills you've developed. During my college years, I interned for both ESPN 1000 and WGN-AM in Chicago, and loved my time at both. While I'm sure my experience at North Central and WONC was a major factor in getting internships at both stations, having a North Central grad and WONC alum as ESPN's internship coordinator and having fairly close connections with a TV producer from WGN (and Dean Richards) didn't hurt. The WONC connection has also helped me land the gigs I've gotten since I left college. I worked for about six months at WROK in Rockford for program director Scot Bertram, another WONC alum who I'd some some stringer work for a couple years prior, and having the connection there certainly helped. While not in broadcasting, my current full time job with HERE Traffic in Chicago was probably helped by the fact that one of the people I interviewed with is married to another WONC alum. This one was probably more subtle, but I don't think it hurt my chances. Heck, even my current career as North Central's women's basketball announcer was a result of the school's Sports Information office looking for a body for a tournament my senior year that I snatched up and haven't looked back at since they offered me the gig full time after I graduated. Simply put, if your program offers alumni networking events, by all means go. It can create a relationship that could help you out down the road.

Graduates, you're entering a scary time in your life. No matter what your field, these tips and some others that other Webucator folks have for you as a part of their Marketable Skill Campaign can help you out as you plan for your futures.

Boston Strong (Language), The FCC and Sports

My four years at North Central College on the WONC staff taught me a lot about the world of broadcasting. On air shifts were the most important thing, of course, but there was an academic side to it, with readings weekly about different broadcast-related topics, and almost all of them had something to do with the FCC. Mostly, it was about things they could fine you for (read: don't do this at WONC, lest we get levied a heavy fine and the station has to shut down), and these things appeared on tests during my time there (I take responsibility for this my senior year, since I wrote the tests).

On the broadcasting side of things in terms of being on the air (with a good concentration in sports), there were probably three major lessons I learned.

1. "W" is pronounced "Double-You", and anyone who pronounces it differently will be promptly corrected. It's John Madormo's pet peeve (so that's probably where I picked it up) and it probably put you on his hit list.
2. Don't even speculate possible reasons for why a door in a press box slams shut on air. You will incur the wrath of Naperville North's "Press Box Mom". For the record, I wasn't the speculator, but I was there when it happened, and being both the Assistant Sports Director and the guy calling the Huskies' football game the following week (against Central, no less), I was put in the unenviable position of trying to clean up that mess with the Press Box Mom (which ultimately was resolved).
3. "If you wouldn't say it to your grandmother, don't say it on air." -"ancient" radio proverb, regarding the use of strong language in a broadcast setting.

It's that last one that has a lot of people buzzing after the Boston Red Sox game at Fenway yesterday.