When is the last time you felt burned out in your career?
A friend sent this message to me. “I’m a one-man band at my station — sports anchoring and reporting. I’m wearing myself out ensuring that I have plenty of local content each night. What can I do?”
I had two suggestions for him, one practical and the other mental.
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There’s no such thing as maintaining. Not in your personal life, your fitness or your sports broadcasting career.
If you aren’t progressing, you’re going backward.
These 5 tips will ensure you are moving forward in your sportscasting career:
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Recently, I reviewed the cover letter of someone who was applying for a radio sports update anchor/reporter position. He wrote that he is a hard-working team player, that he hosts a weekly sports talk show, and that he does sports updates and reporting for his local station.
He blew it in multiple ways.
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A friend of mine emailed me from Hawaii one winter. He had just broadcast three basketball games, his team won the tournament and he got to hang out at the beach. In December. It was a pretty awesome work trip.
His story started me reminiscing about the best places my sports broadcasting career took me. Places like Pocatello and Des Moines were interesting because they were so different from my home turf in San Diego. However, Idaho’s snow and Iowa’s mosquitos that were the size of small Volkswagens were ultimately forgettable.
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Running STAA is a lot like being a bar tender.
For whatever reason, many people are comfortable sharing their career and life challenges with me. I appreciate their trust in me; they know that anything they say to me stays with me.
The reason I share this is because many of the sportscasters I talk to are “glass half empty” guys. If they would simply flip their perspective and be grateful for what they DO have, new opportunities would start to come their way.
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Someone I know recently hosted a sports talk show solo for the first time. He had co-hosted for years but this was his first time working alone. He said he realized the difference with about two minutes left in his opening monologue. He had run out of stuff to say.
They were the longest two minutes of his life.
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There is a common mistake that many people make in their cover letter that can instantly kill their sports broadcasting job application. I’m reminded of it by the following message from an employer who had recently hired a play-by-play broadcaster for his university.
“A friendly reminder to all job applicants: Please include something, ANYTHING, on why they would either like to work for me, or for [our university]. It is staggering, and disconcerting, how many applications I have received which don’t do that.”
An NFL play-by-play broadcaster was contacted by a college student who had asked him to critique their work. The request was presented in a long-form email. The message said nothing personal to the veteran broadcaster. Instead, it detailed the student’s broadcasting career before wrapping up with a request for a critique. Attached was a 20-minute audio clip.
It is the only critique request to which this NFL broadcaster did not reply.
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Play-by-play broadcasters all have access to information about fundamentals – time and score, ball location, etc. What sets apart great broadcasters is discovering and implementing advice that isn’t available to the masses. A great way to do that is to ask industry pros to critique your work.
Many sportscasters have shared with me critiques they have received from some of the top play-by-play broadcasters in the industry. Today, I want to share them with you.
Here are 5 tips to take your play-by-play from good to great:
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One time, I was working with a radio station owner to find a new sports director. The application instructions provided a two-week window in which folks could apply. On the second day, an application came in that blew away the employer. That applicant was hired before the two-week application window had even expired.
There is an advantage to being among the first to apply for a job.
Here are three reasons to submit your application early:
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