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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Many play-by-play announcers broadcast their games on video Webstreams. If there’s only a single camera, some broadcasters will lean towards doing a radio call. Because there’s a picture, others will use more of a TV style.
Do you then use that game on your radio demo or your TV demo?
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Many play-by-play broadcasters who are doing Webcasts get frustrated when they go to the online archive of their broadcast only to find they can’t download the video. They wonder, “How can I put this broadcast on my demo?”
The answer is easy. Not necessarily inexpensive, but worth it.
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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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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
Two years into my first job in McPherson, Kansas, the play-by-play gig at the University of Kentucky opened. Cawood Ledford had passed away. I naively thought I could go from doing McPherson High School games to the Kentucky Wildcats.
I must have spent 20 hours trying to find the best stuff for my demo.
Stupid.
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A sportscaster invited me to listen to the demo on his website. He pointed me to a specific basketball play-by-play track he wanted me to listen to. It was one of several on the page.
If you have a single sample you want to be sure an employer reviews, make it the only sample of that genre of sportscasting that you provide.
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A sportscaster said, “I’ve applied for a couple of hockey play-by-play jobs. I worked for a team six years ago but it was my first job. I’ve grown a ton as a broadcaster and that hockey is representative of what I would do now.
“What should I do?”
There are two solutions for replacing old demo material.
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What’s harder — asking someone on a first date or asking someone you don’t know to critique your demo?
I can give you advice on both, but I’m going to address the latter.
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Editing my play by-play demos used to be so frustrating.
Either I would find the perfect segment, except it took 45 seconds or a minute to get to the play-by-play. Or if it started in a timely fashion, there was something afterward that I didn’t like.
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