Is your play-by-play career stuck on the 9th floor of a 10-story building? Maybe you aspire to a major college play-by-play job but you’ve plateaued at Division I-AA. Or maybe you’ve been in minor league baseball for 10 years yet never even interviewed for a Major League job.
Your play-by-play might be missing the one thing that distinguishes the great voices from the very good ones:
NBA energy.
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I once received a call from a college senior who was interested in pursuing a play-by-play career. He told me his name and where he attended college. Then he was quick to add, “I am the guy who was on SportsCenter recently with my call of that dramatic game-winning play.”
Uhhh…dude. Don’t brag about it. You made SportsCenter’s Top 10 not because your call was good, but because you screamed so loud and so long that you sounded like a caricature of a sports broadcaster.
Screaming is not good play-by-play.
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As a play-by-play broadcaster, if you don’t have a good relationship with the coach of your team, it can make for a very long season. Fortunately, the quality of that relationship is largely within your control.
Today, I’m sharing five keys to building great relationships with your coaches.
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When play-by-play broadcasters ask me what segments their pregame show should include, I tell them to think less about content and more about sponsorable segments. The more money your show can bring in, the more your sales staff will love you and the more job security you will have.
I hosted pre game shows in two markets — McPherson, KS and San Diego, CA. The formula worked equally well in both places.
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A frustrated young play-by-play broadcaster told me that his ability would shine through if only he were provided sufficient resources – statistics, biographical information on players, etc.
I told him that I couldn’t disagree with him more.
Standout athletes excel even under adverse circumstances. Talented play-by-play broadcasters do the same thing.
Working high school and other games where background information is unavailable will reveal your ability as a play-by-play broadcaster. If you are going to execute an engaging broadcast, you are going to have to rely upon the two most basic fundamentals: storytelling and description.
I couldn’t have worked in sports broadcasting today. My skin is too thin.
Even if 99% of the Internet comments about my talk show or my play-by-play were great, I would dwell on the 1% that wasn’t. I would dwell on it to the point that I would consider tweaking what I was doing to appease the 1%.
Big mistake. Don’t be me. Be realistic. Be mentally strong.
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When I was on ESPN Radio, I used to hate when my producer Jason McBride would pop into my headset and say, “We have so-and-so on from the baseball game. They just won 3-1.”
Great. What am I supposed to ask the guy? I didn’t see the game – I was on the air!
Tired of getting caught unprepared, I put together some standard, off-the-shelf questions. Most of them aren’t very insightful, but at least they can get the interview started. From there, you can spontaneously ask more thoughtful questions based upon the answers you receive.
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Once you have the seven fundamentals of basketball play-by-play down cold, these five bonus tips will help make you a star!
This is the most common mistake in basketball play-by-play. There are a lot of changes of possession in basketball. You can’t count on all of your listeners knowing which team has it based only upon the names of the players.
Motown Records is one of the most successful, influential record-producing companies of all time. They reached their peak in the 60s and 70s.
What was unique about much of Motown’s songwriting was that it grabbed you right off the bat. It started fast.
The song “Get Ready” by the Temptations begins with a bold horns riff.Read More
How would you answer this question: What bad sportscasting advice do you hear being shared most often?
The bad advice I hear most often is that painting the picture is the most important aspect of great play-by-play. Painting the picture is important, but there’s something that’s more important.Read More