Matt Bowling’s first full-time broadcasting job is in an Oregon vacation destination. He is joining Basin Mediactive in Klamath Falls as sports director.
“There are far worse places I could be doing this kind of job than a resort town in the Pacific Northwest,” he grins. “Klamath Falls is an hour and a half from both Crater Lake and Mount Shasta and there are plenty of parks and trails around the town itself. The climate is great, and the town gets 300 days of sunshine per year. It’s also a certified Blue Zones Community.”
Growth opportunity
Bowling learned of the opening in an STAA Job Leads+ email. He applied the same day, made a follow-up call one week later, interviewed and was offered the job. “In addition to play-by-play, I’ll be doing daily sports reports, contributing to the morning talk show, writing web articles, and helping with social media,” Bowling enthuses. “This job will greatly expand my career options by giving me a strong portfolio and skill set beyond play-by-play.”
Changing his approach
Even with undergrad and Masters degrees from the University of Oklahoma, Bowling found the sportscasting job market to be challenging. “I applied for full-time jobs last summer — my first out of college — and came up totally empty,” he recalls. “Only a couple even emailed me back.”
That frustration prompted Bowling to take advantage of a job market makeover package offered by STAA. “I knew it would be smart to let someone [like STAA Owner Jon Chelesnik] who’s been in this industry longer than I’ve been alive show me the best way to present myself to potential employers.
Bowling continues, “Words are a big strength of mine…visuals, not so much. The resume and reels Jon created for me were massive upgrades over what I had before and included things that I never would have thought to (or been able to) design myself. The proof is in the results. Like I said, almost nobody even emailed me back last summer. This summer, I was on track to be interviewed for a few other jobs before I accepted Basin Mediactive’s offer.”
In Klamath Falls, Bowling will be working for a locally-owned company with a small staff. “I’m not going to be in a corporate setting where I’d have to worry about potentially being caught in a wave of layoffs, among other things,” he states with relief. “In [General Manager] Rob Siems’ words, they are ‘a close knit group that helps each other,’ which is an ideal environment for someone navigating a new job and a new town.”