Inquiry Project by Nicklas

How to Become a Sports Broadcaster

By Nicklas

Hi and welcome to this very special addition of “Sportscenter”.  And I’m your host Nick Kubat. Let’s get to it. Today I will be telling you a few notes on how to become a sportscaster, do an interview; we’ll get going right after the break.

There is a high demand for sportscasters because of the rise of TV. Because of this the chances of you becoming a sportscaster is greater. To become one of them, you need multiple things. The most important is wisdom.  You also need strong organizational skills along with good grammar, use of the English language, pleasant speaking voice, great verbal skills, the skill to do ad-lib, if necessary, and sometimes, a very outgoing personality.  

One of the biggest things you must do is start early and get a great head start. If you are in middle school or below, join a sport so you can know the game better. You can also do other stuff such as; record yourself on a tape recorder. And my final note to you is that the more you get into it when you are casting, the more likely the fans will get into it.

If you are in high school, join the Drama club and the Debate team to help with your vocal skills. You can also do a piece on your school’s radio show and do commentary for football and basketball games, if possible. And then you can also intern at a local TV station.

 You could also use your wisdom to note that there are 4 kinds of broadcasters.  One of these is called a play-by-play broadcaster.  This is a sportscaster who tells what is going on, play-by-play. The next one is a color commentator who usually knows the most about the sport and is there to “color up” the booth. A sideline reporter doesn’t sit with the play-by-play and color commentator. They are in the locker-room or where the players sit. They do most of the interviews and are the first people told if there is a player injury. The last type is a public announcer. They aren’t on TV, but they give audible updates to those in the stadium who are present at the game. Some example of this would include when the next home game takes place or who just made a shot.

If you want to go to college to become a sports broadcaster, there are three real options.  First, you could teach yourself.  Although this option would be much cheaper, you also have to be concerned about learning the skill correctly.  You could also attend a traditional broadcasting school, like Syracuse or Penn State, that is known to have a lot of sports casters.  The final option would be to attend a normal four year university.  They offer multiple majors to fit your future career plan.

You may want to note that your first job is probably a local job. You will get from 1-4 minutes on air, and it can take up to six hours to make just one minute of air time. This will help you get a better job in the future if you work hard.

So, that’s what it takes to be a great sportscaster. I will leave you with a quote that a wise caster once said, “It doesn’t matter if 100 stations hate you, if you find the one that wants you, than that’s when it gets important.”

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Welcome back.  I’ve talked to a couple of people on broadcasting and writing. I got an interview in with Indiana Hall of Fame member and sports writer, Tom Kubat, a story of wisdom. I asked him 9 questions. (I had ten but we never got around to the last one.)

“How did you get into journalism?” I asked him to lead off the questions.

His reply was, “I loved sports when I was growing up. When I got to high school I found I wasn’t good enough. I was doing the school newspaper and was taking a few journalism classes. So I went to college at Indiana University to study journalism.”

I asked him the next question, “What was your first paid job and what did you do?”

“Well in high school I [wrote for] the local high school and same in college but those weren’t paid. Right after that the Lafayette Journal & Courier newspaper wanted me. So I started doing high school work there and did a lot of traveling with the lower Purdue teams like Track and Field and the Soccer team. I moved up to Football and Basketball. I stayed as there #1 Purdue guy, doing a couple of NBA and NFL games. Than in 1992 I went to Barcelona, Spain for the Olympics,” was his long reply.

I changed the topic. “What was your wage?”

He thought before replying (this was because he was obviously using his great wisdom).  “Well it varied but was always around $50,000-60,000 a year.”

“Can you tell me what a typical day was like?” I then asked him.

He smiled. He had that wisdom. “No, each day is different because every athlete has a story no matter if it’s background, success, and difficulty. It’s all so neat. To answer your question (which he had already) no I cannot.”

“What were the difficulties of being a sports journalist?” I asked, marking the half-way point of the survey.

“Deadlines,” he answered almost before I ended the question. “Any wise and good journalist will tell you it’s hard to write a good story for a game starting at 8:00 while deadline is at 11:00.”

The next question I asked him was “what were the advantages to being a writer?”

He thought for a bit, I know he was choosing his answer with great wisdom like every good caster should do. When I asked if he heard the question he gave me an “I got to pick one out” kind of look then said, “Well, you grow up watching all these sports stars and think how awesome it would be if you got to meet these people. Being a writer, you have that advantage.” I thought he was done but he continued on. “And traveling with the team took you to interesting places.  The Purdue teams alone took me to 27 different states including both Alaska and Hawaii. So you can just write interesting people and interesting places.” (I didn’t.)

Then I asked him “What were the disadvantages?”

“The only one I could think of,” he said after a moment of wisdom, “is that it has taken away from so much family time. It was, like, rare when I got a day where I could stay and play with my kids or go in the living room and watch a movie with my wife. Any writer would have to give that up if he wants to become good.”

I looked at my sheet; 2 more questions almost done.

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“What would you advice a kid who wanted to become a writer who asked you for advice?” I asked him.

His super long reply to me (which was, as you probably guessed, full of great wisdom) was, “Well I’d tell him or her that they must join a sport and read all about sports. When they get older they should see what they are reading and how the author does what they do to make it interesting. Then, when they figure this out, use this to their advantage and then use it in their writing. Also, if you still enjoy it in high school, you should take some classes in high school to see if you are good at it. If you are and you are having fun then you may have found your career! If not, then I guess you should find something else. There, I can’t help you.”

I somehow got that all written, and then I asked him the final question. Some of you could probably guess what it was going to be.  You can hardly interview someone with this much experience without asking.

“Did you like being a sports writer in the long run?” I asked him.

He thought long and hard . I almost didn’t think he was going to answer, but knew he would, he was just using his great wisdom to his advantage. Then, he finally did answer.

“Yes. Despite its ups and its downs I liked it and would recommend it to anyone who likes sports and writing.”

“Thank you for your time,” I said as he walked out of the room.

His last words before leavening were “No problem.”       

I hoped you had a great time this was a special addition of Sportscenter. Now we’ll head out to Yankee Stadium where the Pinstripes are playing the Rays on the first Sunday Night Baseball of July. We will see you later.  This is Nick Kubat saying so long to us in the studio as we pass it over to Terry Franconia and the crew. Guys?   

      

  

Rerun (or final highlight)

As I sprinkled through the text, the reason I think we created sports broadcasting is for wisdom. If you’re like me, and you love sports, what would you do if you couldn’t play? What if you’re too young to coach? Well then, if you like telling stories like me and know too much about sports, then broadcasting and writing may be the job for you! Yet, you need the wisdom to become a caster and get the wisdom to know this stuff. 

Most people don’t know that in order to become a broadcaster, it takes more wisdom than you think it may take. No one can just walk in on the spot and expect themselves to do well.  It takes years of practice and dedication.  Even then, you still don’t know everything you will need to know.  That’s why we need to use our wisdom to get that head start.  And obviously, you need to practice, practice, and practice as much as you can!

So as I said before, there are two main reasons why we created sports broadcasting.  One of these is help those who are watching and listening to increase their sports knowledge.  Although this is important, the more important reason is so that the sportscasters are able to show people their wisdom in a different kind of way.   These broadcasters have more knowledge about sports and players than almost anyone.  In that way, they have more experience than some players.  They are the true wisdom behind sports.

So, it’s my biggest hope that this helped you with how to become a sports broadcaster. If you were thinking of becoming one before, I hope this helped you and told you what you didn’t know beforehand. If you didn’t really want to become one, then I hope you want to become one now. So, as I said before, sports broadcasting wasn’t created just to tell fans their favorite team’s score.  It’s a way for some fans to show their wisdom, only it’s in disguise.  Now I will leave you with this: you must study, study, study so you can have the wisdom that you need to become a great sportscaster.