Blog

3-Step Plan For Moving To The Next Level In Your Sportscasting Career

Jon Chelesnik

Growing up in San Diego, I am a long-suffering Padres fan. The highlight of my fandom was 1984. I was at The Murph when they beat the Cubs in the deciding game of the NLCS to move to the World Series.

One of my favorite all-time Padres is closer Kirby Yates. He went from being released by the Angels to an All-Star with the Padres. The way he did it was by having a plan: stay in shape and develop a new pitch — the splitter.

Like Kirby Yates, you can have a plan for moving to the next level in your sports broadcasting career.
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Posted in: My Career

Coach Bill Snyder’s Example Will Help You Find Sportscasting Opportunities

Jon Chelesnik

I love Kansas State football. I graduated from K-State and was a walk-on in the basketball program. But it’s the football program I’ve always had a deep passion about because of Bill Snyder.

One thing Coach Snyder’s teams did was enter and exit the stadium as a group. It was a show of solidarity and there is strength in numbers.

You can apply that same “strength in number approach” in the sportscasting job market using the Referral Request Email.
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Posted in: Job Market, My Career

6 Tips For Finding Sports Broadcasting Opportunities

Jon Chelesnik

I love reading books. The one I’m currently reading is the second time I’ve read it: The Last Coach. It’s a biography about Bear Bryant.

Another book I just read for the second time is one of my all time favorites, When Pride Still Mattered, by David Maraniss. It’s a fabulously researched biography about Vince Lombardi. And another I recently read — even though I’m a Kansas State Wildcat and this is a KU book — Phog, about the legendary coach Phog Allen. Fabulous book.

My favorite books are usually recommended to me.

Do you know what? It’s the same in the job market. The best opportunities are going to be recommended to you.
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Posted in: Job Market, My Career

The Time-Saving Key To Choosing Demo Material

Jon Chelesnik

Two years into my first job in McPherson, Kansas, the play-by-play gig at the University of Kentucky opened. Cawood Ledford had passed away. I naively thought I could go from doing McPherson High School games to the Kentucky Wildcats.

I must have spent 20 hours trying to find the best stuff for my demo.

Stupid.
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Posted in: Job Market

Working On This Is Even More Important Than Working On Your Career

Jon Chelesnik

This post is prompted by an e-mail I received from someone who said he’s running out of perseverance and belief in himself. He writes, “That feeling when you get rejected by a cute girl is the same feeling I’ve got over and over the past four or five years when I miss out on job opportunities.”

As the message continued, it included such phrases as, “Gut wrenching pain. Starting to fatigue. I feel it in the pit of my stomach. Running out of perseverance and belief in myself. I just feel lost.”

He finished by saying, “I’m sorry to sound so defeated, I’ve just been at this for a long time now and I can see no end in sight.”
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Posted in: My Career

STAA Aligns With The Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting

Jon Chelesnik

picture shows dan patrick working with full sail students

When I hosted on ESPN Radio from 1999 through 2003, there was a rule that TV talent had to make occasional appearances on the radio network. One night, the door to my studio opened shortly after midnight. In shuffled Dan Patrick. It was the end of a long evening for him hosting SportsCenter yet he went out of his way to do a segment with me.

Now, Dan and I are connected again.

Two years ago, Dan started the Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting in collaboration with Full Sail University. At STAA, we are proud to announce a relationship with the Dan Patrick School. We are offering STAA services to DPS students and making occasional virtual classroom visits to help prepare them for sports broadcasting success.
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Posted in: My Career, STAA

Is Your Demo Overwhelming Employers?

Jon Chelesnik

A sportscaster invited me to listen to the demo on his website. He pointed me to a specific basketball play-by-play track he wanted me to listen to. It was one of several on the page.

If you have a single sample you want to be sure an employer reviews, make it the only sample of that genre of sportscasting that you provide.
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Posted in: Job Market

Two Tips For Great TV Football Play-by-Play

Jon Chelesnik

Ray Scott and Pat Summerall are among the greatest TV football broadcasters of all-time.

They were masters at talking less.

That’s the first of three keys to great football play-by-play, and for broadcasting any sport on TV:
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Posted in: Play-by-play