Blog 3: What is the Matter with Sports Broadcasting These Days?

Problogue:  In this blog, I become a grumpy old man and tell you why it's hard for me to be a fan of sports broadcasting these days.  Along with the criticism, though, I list some of my rules for good broadcasting.  Criticism without suggestions is just backseat driving.--RC

If you've read my first two Blogger posts, you've figured out that they were written months ago and written for a blog promoting North Central Missouri College, for whom I work.  Nothing wrong with that; the blogs were aimed at a different audience, however, and professional in nature.

This is my personal blog, though, so here's my personal opinion on the state of sports broadcasting 2021:

It's not very good.

I'm a sports announcer at heart, and even though I wear several hats at NCMC under the umbrella of "digital media", it's sports announcing that has given me a pretty good living the last 25 years.

I pay study sports announcers as well as the broadcasts they are a part of.  So, what is the matter with professional sports broadcasting of live events these days?  Why has it become so tired?  Why has it becone so hard to watch or listen to?

Commentary upcoming on two seperate issues: the announcers and the production itself.

Stand by while I get my grumpy old guy hat on.

I'm embarrased that the process and production ideas that so intrigued me when I started my broadcast career in the late 70's have vanished.  Or at least faded.  Let's start with these:

• What ever happened to just telling the story of the game?
• Why do some announcers, very good on radio, struggle with TV-play-by-play?
• Why is there so much of information that is out of context or just disruptive to the viewer?

Telling the story of the game has become secondary to honoring the sponsors of the broadcast. Do we really need to be reminded so often of where the financial backing for the broadcast comes from?

On one hand, the rule of thumb is that a potential customer needs to be exposed to the advertiser's product seven times before they become a buyer.  OK, that's fair.  Let's take a Major League Baseball game on Fox right now: for the number of times I've seen the Bally logo this summer, I should be spending millions on their gaming properties.  For the number of times I've seen the ad for KU Med Center  (Royals games) I legitimately should be hospitalized for the next three months.

Let me ask, does this happen to you:  You get so sick of the exposure to marketing that you REFUSE to buy the product.

And don't even get me started on the lame sponsorship pitches seen on the NFL's hard-to-swallow local presentations by the hometown media.  Note to HyVee: Patrick Mahomes can throw footballs in my yard all day, I'll still buy groceries where it's less expensive and is easy to access.

I know modern economics at the pro level, where it's all about the money (and it truly IS all about the money, my friend, a topic for another time).  But jeez, do we really have to have 150 seconds of commercial break between innings of a major league baseball broadcast, bracketed by sponsor mentions headed into the break and more sponsor mentions going back to live action?

Sidebar: last spring I sat through a commercial break on a cable show (non-sports), counting the number of ads that ran.  There were twenty (20!) different ads before the show resumed.

And, have you noticed the split screen commercials during sports?  While we continue to watch video of the game on one half of the screen, a commercial plays on the other half of the screen.  Really?  OK, I kind of get that for soccer, where the clock rarely stops and the action is continuous.  But baseball?  Football?

Bad news: it ain't going to change.  Not so bold prediction: it's going to get worse.

Radio announcers working TV games drive me mad.  Let me rephrase: Announcers doing radio play-by-play on a television broadcast drive me mad.

One of the best things I heard back in the mid 2000s, visiting with a veteran TV guy, was, "All (TV guys) talk too much during a game telecast."

What it means is announcers are using the descriptive radio style  developed early in careers as radio sports announcers, and not moving on to a style in which the camera providing the pictures describes the action.  No need to paint a picture with announcing when the picture is already there.

Here are some basic rules for TV play-by-play (PxP) broadcasts that I've picked up over the years:

• The camera is the PxP announcer.  As an assigned PxP  announcer, the job is to add details and background to what the camera and graphics don't show, or don't show well, and compliment what the camera is showing.  Please don't say, "he runs right", or "she dribbles across midcourt" when we can see it.  NBA Finals announcer Mike Breen may be the king of this among high-profile announcers.
• PxP announcers need to prepare more background material for TV than radio, because less time and energy is spent in describing the play and more time and energy is spent enriching the play.
• The color analyst, the PxP announcers sidekick, is in reality the lead broadcaster on TV.  He is the one who should be talking as they analyse the play.  And they better be prepared to talk about things other than the play, without moving away from the drama of the game.

Much more on this later...

Why is there so much overkill of information?  Please don't get me wrong...I love a good story...but the following type information is too much information:

• Useless stats: OK, I know we're in a data-driven age, but enough is enough.  Elias Sports Bureau is wonderful in many ways, but please broadcasters, use a teaspoon to dish it up.  
• Stats with no context: Preseason Monday Night Football told us that the Chiefs only had nine fourth down conversions in the 2020 season...and that they had two that night against Arizona.  But, in how many attempts in 2020? Nine?  Twenty?  Forty?  And in what situations?  Late game when desperately needed?  Late game running the clock out?  
• Graphics, scoreboards and bottom line tickers: each may have their place, but please, not at the same time.  
• I get that fantasy sports are big (the normalization of gambling, sponsors of major sports, tossed fuel on that fire, more later) and we have to keep those folks happy even though I'm willing to bet (play on words intended) that more that half the audience for any given game does not play fantasy sports.
• The scoreboard+clock/inning+more is great game information, but please keep it simple (and maybe eliminate some of the overdone advertising?).

Lest I continue simply bashing current sports broadcasts, here are some things I really and truly believe in:

• Tell the story of the game.  Games produce their own drama.  Broadcasts are there to allow listers/viewers a chance go share in that drama.  Period.  Help them do that.
• Know the audience.  Talk to the people you know are watching/listening.  And please be as  objective/honest as possible ("no cheering in the press box" is a great rule).
• It's okay not to talk.  The great baseball broadcaster Ernie Harwell used to advise radio broadcasters to pause now and then and just allow the stadium sound to fill the broadcast.  "Let the people rest their ears", he liked to say.
• Easy on the stats, make sure they make sense, and use them at the proper time.  If you've got nothing else to say except to quote stats, you haven't done your homework on the people.  If you've got nothing to show on the screen except stat graphics, your camera people aren't working hard enough.

More suggestions on sportscasting coming up...but at least I got that off my chest right away.