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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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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A sportscaster friend of mine was telling me that when he graduated college ten years ago, he envisioned earning a six-figure salary that would allow him to own a big house, drive a nice sports car, travel to exotic island destinations at least every other year and allow his wife to not work.
Today, he’s earning close to the six-figure sportscasting salary he desired. His home, while not as large as he would like, is modest and comfortable. Both of the family cars are sedans with over 100,000 miles. The last family vacation they took was to Six Flags America three years ago, and his wife works full-time.
He’s happy. He’s comfortable and he’s grateful for his sports broadcasting career. He just wishes he knew at 22 what he knows at 32 so his expectations would have been more reasonable.
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Recently, I heard from a young guy who is doing high school and small college play-by-play. He aspires to one day be the voice of a pro team, but he’s concerned with the amount of job market competition.
“I am really dedicated to becoming a pro broadcaster, but it’s a bit intimidating to hear how many people are applying to jobs nowadays,” he shared with me. “I get a bit anxious.”
Totally understandable and not at all uncommon. Keep in mind, though, that you control your future. Despite your concern, keep taking steps towards your goals. Productivity decreases anxiety.
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A sportscaster friend of mine recently shared his grand plan with me to launch a podcast.
He couldn’t have been more fired up. He was going to build a program that would draw tens of thousands of listeners each week, earn thousands of dollars of advertising and catapult him to a sports talk radio career. His enthusiasm was contagious. He had me really believing he was going to do it.
One month later, he quit. Only a handful of people had checked out his podcast. None of them listened for more than a few minutes and he wasn’t able to sell any advertising.
You can’t give birth to an adult. Whatever your sportscasting career goals, they aren’t going to happen overnight.
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A story was published years ago about former Montana Grizzlies voice Mick Holien. It talked about how Mick was selling a bunch of memorabilia he collected over his 31 seasons as the Voice of the Griz.
The story got me to thinking about my favorite memories from my sports broadcasting career. My two favorites aren’t even about on-the-air stuff.
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