TV Sports Reporting

How To Improve Your On-Camera Performance

Jon Chelesnik

My senior year at the Princeton of the Plains, Kansas State University, I took a storytelling class from a wonderful women named Charlotte McFarland. The purpose was to develop spontaneity and on camera performance.

The local cable TV station filmed our class doing our final storytelling performances of the semester. When I watched my segment air one week later, my first thought was, “You sure are a handsome guy Jon.” My second thought was, “Love the pink paisley shirt.” My third thought was, “Dude, you have no camera presence. You look nervous, you look scared, you look reserved and you’re mumbling.” So, I went about trying to fix those things.

I don’t know that I’ve improved much, but here are some top tips for improving your on camera performance.
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Posted in: My Career, TV Sports Reporting

Top Tips For Interviewing Coaches After a Loss

Jon Chelesnik

Imagine this scene: You’re watching television. Somebody has just won a championship — a Super Bowl, a National Title, the Final Four or something similar. There’s confetti falling. A sportscaster stands atop a podium interviewing the winning players and coaches. People are kissing the championship trophy. Pandemonium. Then they go to commercial, come back from break, and there’s some poor sap standing outside a locker room getting ready to interview the losing coach.

What do you do if that poor sap is you?
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Posted in: My Career, Play-by-play, TV Sports Reporting

What’s better to wear on TV – coat and tie or polo?

Jon Chelesnik

In 2003, I was doing play-by-play and sideline reporting for a startup TV network called The Football Network. It was all football all the time, before the NFL Network.

The first several broadcasts we did we wore coats and ties. About a month later, management gave us polo shirts with the company logo and asked us to wear them for our next broadcast. Ironically, the game was in my hometown of San Diego.
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Posted in: Play-by-play, TV Sports Reporting

Critical Components of a TV Sports Anchor/Reporter Demo

Jon Chelesnik

A TV news director was hiring a sports anchor/reporter. One applicant caught his attention but his reel featured a highlights montage and nothing else. The employer liked what he saw but didn’t ask the applicant to send additional video. He already had enough similarly qualified applicants whose reels provided what he needed.

Don’t miss out on a job because your reel is improperly constructed.
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Posted in: TV Sports Reporting

Setting yourself apart from other white male TV talent

Jon Chelesnik

I am proud of the advances the TV broadcasting industry has made in diversity hiring. There are countless more opportunities today for women, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians. That is a great thing.

Interestingly, the diversification of our industry has prompted a challenge that didn’t used to exist.

tv talent

A white male TV sportscaster I know is looking for an agent. He is supremely talented, yet the agents keep telling him the same thing, “I’ve already got five guys just like you.” He asked me how he can set himself apart from other white male sports anchor/reporters.

This is not the first time I’ve heard such a conundrum.
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Posted in: Sports Anchoring, TV Sports Reporting

17 tips for rocking your Jim Nantz Award reel

Jon Chelesnik

If you plan on applying for the 2017 Jim Nantz Award and STAA All-America program honoring the nation’s most outstanding collegiate sportscasters, start thinking now about what’s going to make you stand out.

Jim Nantz Award

Every year, the same errors in broadcasting fundamentals cause many applicants to not rank as high as they might have hoped. The broadcasts you do this Fall and Winter will help you win the award in the Spring.
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Posted in: Play-by-play, Sports Anchoring, TV Sports Reporting