In 2003, wild fires raged throughout much of where I live in Southern California. I’ll always remember flying into the airport and seeing thousands of acres of red-orange flames and billowing black smoke stretching its fingers upwards toward the airplane. The land looked hopeless, like nothing would ever grow there again.

Today, that same ground is full of young, strong, beautiful pine trees, colorful wildflowers and sagebrush. The land flourished following disaster.

Getting fired in sports broadcasting can be similar. I have seen countless broadcasters build their careers upon getting fired – always taking a step forward after what looked like a step back. Never despair if you lose your job.
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Imagine yourself getting a play-by-play job at the highest level of minor league baseball or hockey (Triple A and the AHL) without any experience broadcasting either sport. That is what happened when Craig Elsten was hired in 2015 as the voice of the AHL’s San Diego Gulls.

And you know what? Craig earned and deserved it.

Full disclosure – I have known Craig since early in my own career, when he was an intern when I worked at XTRA Sports 690 in San Diego. Although he had never broadcast hockey, he had called football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. He has been a sports update anchor, reporter and talk show host. And he has done radio and TV.

And you know what else? After moving to San Diego for college, Craig never left.
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Recently, I was asked if there was ever a point in my sports broadcasting career when I doubted myself.

Of course there was! Doesn’t every sportscaster experience that at least once? It wasn’t my ability I started to doubt as much as it was the chance that I was ever going to get where I wanted to go.

My goal was to go as far as I could in sports broadcasting. I didn’t care if it was play-by-play or sports talk show hosting. At the time I experienced my self-doubt in 1999, I had considerable experience in both.
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