The Timeout

I enjoy writing this personal blog, but it's mostly just a chance to express some things on my mind regarding sports and sports broadcasting.  It also takes a lot of time to complete an entire blog, for me upwards of three hours overall, and that takes away time from other aspects of my life. 

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In athletics, a coach who falls behind early faces a choice: do you use your timeouts early and try to turn things around, or do you save your timeouts hoping the team can rally on its own and using the timeouts later in a closer game.

Timeouts are tools.  And like any tool, it takes an artist to use them well.  A choice must be made.

Two stories, mostly for entertainment:

My friend and co-broadcaster this year, coach Larry Holley of William Jewell College has more wins than any other four-year college coach in Missouri, and is the 10th most winning coach at all levels of college basketball.  He's seen a lot of games and called a lot of timeouts.  A practiced storyteller, he tells of the time early in his career coaching at Northwest Missouri State University.  

Late in a close home game, Larry needed a timeout but wasn't exactly sure how many he had remaining, so he quickly went to the scorekeeper.

"How many timeouts do I have?" he asked.

"How many do you want?" replied the scorekeeper.

And, former volleyball coach Terry Pettit, who put the Nebraska Cornhusker volleyball program on the map as a head coach, used to say this about what goes on in a timeout:

"During a timeout, you either say 'Woah!' or 'Go!'."

I think in life, as in sports, you have several timeouts to use as you see fit.

And I see fit to take a timeout right now.  I'm behind and I need to say Woah.

I still have a lot to say, and it will come, but right now my focus is on producing and broadcasting basketball, whether it's the current Holiday Hoops basketball tournament at North Central Missouri College, or NCMC games which resume next week.  And the upcoming baseball and softball schedules for this spring. As well as teaching responsibilities.

So, it's Woah for this blog, probably until late spring.

Not to say there won't be an occasional rant that makes a cameo appearance; but not weekly.  Until later.

So until later, 

Cheers!

Women's Basketball is a Separate Sport

Problogue:  I have to admit it, this blog has slid down my priority list with the onset of the college basketball broadcast season at North Central Missouri College and my other duties for NCMC.  Designed as a weekly commentary, I've fallen short in the last month, but certainly plan to become more of a regular writer.

A happy holiday to you all!  My holiday season will be wrapped into coverage of the Holiday Hoops basketball tournament in Trenton, Missouri, hosted by the NCMC Foundation.  Hope you can join us!

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I was having a discussion with a coach recently--a female who coaches women's basketball, but that's not really important--and I was doing an impromptu speech about the differences between men's basketball and women's basketball.

The two are different sports, in my mind.  Different in popularity, to be sure; the men's game is more popular to the general population, according to the statistics, than the women's game, there is no disputing that.  Men's basketball is also:

• Different in speed of play.
• Played by athletes above the rim at times.
• Influenced heavily by what is shown on sports TV.

OK?  It's different.  

I like men's basketball.  But I like women's basketball also.  It's just a different game.  Accept that, and enjoy it for what it is:

It is a game where skill and talent rule, but fundamentals and systems still matter.

Red Auerbach's Book

When I was 11, I found a copy of Red Auerbach's book, Basketball: For the Player, Fan, and Coach from 1953...paperback edition, no actual pictures but drawings of players to illustrate the concepts.  Even a

section on shooting the set shot.  The foul lanes in the drawings still have the narrow lanes of the bygone era...it teaches you to never leave your feet on defense...don't throw fancy passes... and extreme fastbreak "racehorse basketball" ( I'm sure Red never anticipated a Paul Westhead).

I treasured that book as an introduction to the game.  I didn't understand all of it...I had to ask my non-sports mom what a "pivot" was, and really didn't learn anything from that discussion.  But I digress...

This was a book on basic fundamental basketball.  Most of it is still used in some form today at all levels of basketball.

And the women use the fundaments, even those fundamentals spelled out some 70 years ago, which is refreshing to me.  

And what's wrong with that?

It is a game in which women practice hard, play hard, and and play the game hard.  Then they let it go, win or lose.

I'm going to generalize here, I admit: the final score of a basketball game often is not as important to females--again, generally speaking--as it is to males.  Of course there are exceptions...and there are important games that mean more than other games.  My experience in coaching female teams and being around them for many years as a broadcaster, is that females forget the outcome fairly quickly, consider it another life experience, and embrace winning as a very nice feeling in the moment.

As a coach, that used to bug me.  I was a true believer in the silent bus ride home after a loss, the Billy Martin and Bobby Knight (warning: explicit language) method.  I used to believe in making myself and everyone around me miserable for a long time after losses.  But I'm older now and have seen and experienced a few more things than I had as a 30 year old.

I was wrong to make those feelings the centerpoint of my life.

Women's basketball is a game in which players don't look to the next level as much as their male counterparts.

I've had lots of conversations and lots of interviews with college players in the last 20 years; the men, almost invariably, say playing professionally is a goal. The women I talk to rarely mention playing for pay later in their life.

Women tend to list continuing in school, developing a career, and looking forward to family life.  And I think that shows in the women's game, which is without a lot of ESPN-inspired demonstrative behavior and trash talk before, during or after a good play.

Chess and Boxing?Who knew?

Just my thoughts.  For the record, I also enjoy dance teams, scholastic bowls, livestock judging and a good chess boxing match (#7 on this list) now and again.

And, of course, Monty Python's Upper Class Twit of the Year.

If you're interested, there's a great YouTube video on a study made four or five years ago about the competitive behaviors in female athletes.  Take four minutes and enjoy it.

Going to Extremes for North Central Missouri College

Problogue:  The start of our video broadcast production year is always stressful.  Because North Central Missouri College doesn't have a "broadcastable" sport in the fall, our start to the production year is the start of basketball season, which in 2021 tipped off at 5:30 on November 2.

I was right again...it was stressful, partly because I was gone for two weeks leading up to the game.  

Here's a recounting of that week. 

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After a long vacation,  a series of broadcasts to start the year meant an 85 hour work week (Monday through Saturday) for me at Pirates Digital Media.

Why?

Here's a recap of the facts:

• Mid October trip, two wonderful days in San Diego (first time, won't be the last), 10 more wonderful days in Hawaii (came close to drowning, but didn't ruin the trip).
• Stepped off the plane at midnight October 31.
• Tip off of first televised basketball broadcast November 2nd, followed by five more games over the weekend--that's the 85 hour work week--and then two more the following Tuesday, which meant another 21 hour day.

Here's the narrative, some explanation and opinion:

At North Central Missouri College, we televise our games online.  I choose those words carefully. We're not like other schools at our level (National Junior College Athletic Association) and almost every other collegiate level outside of NCAA Division 1.

I say "televise" our games online because we have an in-house basketball production unit that features a multiple camera set (five cameras this year), a staff of at least five (three live camera operators, a director, and an announcer), three wireless cameras, a wireless microphone system for natural court sounds (placed on the backboards for rim and net sounds, as well as player grunts and sneaker squeaks and ref whistles), an automated scoreboard graphic, and a replay system.

During the broadcast, we feature interviews in the pregame with both coaches, commercial breaks that highlight North Central, halftime interviews produced before the game with our players and other people associated with our school, and a live interview court side with our coaches after the game.

Because our basketball facility is used by the community as a wellness center, we put up our equipment before games and take our equipment down after games.  That is about a four hour process, if everything goes well.

As a producer, it also takes time off-site to set up interviews for the game, record those interviews, and edit and publish those interviews.  We have six interviews for a basketball doubleheader, the opponent coaches are taped on Zoom and our coaches/players/guests are taped in our studio.  Just guessing, I'd say it's an average of one hour per interview to produce completely.

Additional duties are to make sure wireless batteries, camera batteries, and communication radios for video staff are charged and working.  And I set up my own tables and take them down, too, and am proud to do it.

As a play by play announcer, I prepare my game notes and spot charts starting about a week before the day I'll actually use them.  

• After the first games, the North Central information is simply updated, but preparing for our opponent is a process of converting a roster into workable notes and a scoresheet kept during the broadcast, including
• Finding cumulative statistics and whittling them down to what I'll use during the broadcast, including where teams are nationally ranked among other teams. Also going back go find the team's record last year.
• Finding individual stats for each player and interpreting them (for instance, a free-throw shooter's average of 100% is a little misleading.  Is it 40 attempts or four?  Big difference.  And I look them up). Too many stats are too many stats: I'm interested in points, rebounds, shooting percentages, assists, steals and blocks.  And where they rank nationally in those categories.
• Researching what each player has done in the past two or three games, going back in the stats to see what happened in previous meetings over the past two seasons between the two teams and what current players did in those games.
• Researching some personal information on players, like nicknames, parent's names, best accomplishments, any thing else that might be usable during the broadcast.
• Keeping track of the national rankings.
• Writing a pregame show and in-game notes, which include updates on upcoming games and news from the NCMC campus.

I had my Audio/Visual class come up the other day to see what setup for a multiple-camera shoot looks like, and they asked me why I do that much work, and what extra money I earn by going to that much trouble for our live broadcasts.

Answer: I don't know.  And I don't.

I don't truly know why I go to the extremes to put on a broadcast like we put on.  

I do have some theories...

I have yet to see another NJCAA school, run in-house at least, that does multi-camera/announcer centered game broadcast.  When I was at the NCAA D2 level, nobody produced shows like that either.  I felt we were #1 in the nation then at the D2 level, and I think we're #1 right now at the JUCO level.

I like that feeling a lot.  File that one under the "ego" theory...

I also think that it does the school to have the finest production possible.  Parents and friends watch (from both schools), recruits watch, other coaches watch.  All good for NCMC, although  it's impossible to assign a financial number to it, much to some people's dismay through the years.  I call this the Public Relations theory.

Also there's the Goliath theory...we want to look bigger than we actually are, perhaps.  Isn't that pretty normal on social media?  Don't companies promote themselves in an effort to appear bigger and better than their competitors?  Don't people try to show their best lives to their followers?  No difference here.

How about the "chip on the shoulder" theory?  

I've worked in relative obscurity for much of my career.  My belief is people think, because I have created systems from scratch and have focused on amateur athletics, I must not be any good.  We don't have expensive equipment (I'd rather pay for people's services than high end tech); I don't cater to advertisers,  I don't need the best seat in the stadium and certainly don't want a gaudy press credential around my neck.  I like to be nice to everybody, not just the high flying media phonies and the people they use/abuse to get what they want, and everyone knows it.  

And finally, the legacy theory: I want people to remember us as the leaders in the industry of streaming live sports (at least among student-staff, in-house productions) and I want our students to know that they were the biggest part of that legacy.

Now, about the money. 

I get paid (very fairly) to help promote the school, recruit students for our building digital media program, and produce media featuring NCMC.  I've had to work for money sometimes, and I don't mind being paid, but it does not motivate me.  What motivates me is the process, telling a story, and being good to people.  And to a very real and large extent, not letting people down.

That's why I am willing to work an 85 hour work week.

Grinding, Paths of Least Resistance, and Life Lessons

Problogue:  We all work hard, we all try to succeed.  Some succeed without really sweating it out, just kind of going with the flow.  How is that possible?  Is it "working hard", or "working smart" or something else?

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I have a good baseball coaching friend--a two time Hall of Famer--who doesn't like to describe life in athletics as "grinding".

He thinks that baseball is fun, baseball is a game, and baseball is full of pleasure, even when it means hard work.  "Grinding" misleads.  "Grinding" negates the undercurrent of what makes the game great.

He has a point.

I've tried at times to pursue things that I found interesting but was not particularly suited for or prepared for.  Round peg in square hole stuff.  Trying to grind my way to success.

It occurred to me at some point that maybe I might be more successful if I applied a process I first heard about in the context of martial arts:  instead of trying harder to be good, try softer.

Try softer.

To me, trying softer means to go with the flow, the concept of the martial art's akido.  In my life it's meant figuring out what I do well, what I like to do, and then finding a way to make a living out of that information.

If you want to get spiritual about it, letting the universe take you where it wants to, not trying to guide your rocketship life where you think it should go, is the anti-grinding.

Not that hard work is unimportant.  Not that preparation is unnecessary.  Not that planning is a wasted effort.

If taking the four hours it takes to generate information for a broadcast is "grinding"...if investing three hours setting up the video equipment needed to do a multi-broadcast television broadcast is "grinding"...if being on the air for a five-hour doubleheader and then spending another hour taking down the production so it's ready to go next time is "grinding", then maybe video sports broadcasting as a producer and play-by-play announcer is not for you. 

Running water finds the path of least resistance, and still manages to get places.

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Speaking of running water: my recent trip to the North Shore of Hawaii nearly ended sadly for me, but for a North Shore lifeguard who pulled me out of the surf after I'd been swept out by the undertow and could not get back to shore.

If they had not been nearby and watchful,  I would not have survived.

Funny thing about my near-death experience: the take-away was that 59 year old, overweight midwesterners should be smarter than to think they can do the same things as 20-something athletic Islanders.

Lesson learned.  And thank you to the Sunset Beach life guard.

"What's Your Favorite Sport to Broadcast?"

Problogue: I love being a sports broadcaster, and really like it when people show an interest in what I do and how I do it.  I think, though, when fans ask me questions they are just making conversation or don't know what else to say to me.  I don't want to give them a real short answer to their questions, but more than once I've described the construction of the clock instead of just giving the current time, seeing glazed eyes staring back at me, or worse, staring over my shoulder.  I'll work on my direct answers.

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More than anything else people want to know when they find out I'm a sportscaster is, "What's your favorite sport to broadcast?"

Hmm, let's see; it's a long list of sports I've broadcast that I can consider.

There are the obvious sports that everyone knows about: football, men's and women's basketball (yes, they are different sports), and baseball.

Then there are sports I've broadcast that don't come to mind immediately to most people, like softball, men's and women's volleyball (again, vastly different) and wrestling.

And soccer...that's an interesting one because soccer on TV can be very slow to a broadcaster because you mostly name the people who make touches, and now and then the defenders that mark the offensive players, yet soccer on the radio is extremely fast (especially at the amateur level, where there are more turnovers) because you not only name the players but create a picture in the listener's mind of where the ball is, which direction it's heading, and what the pass or shot or save looks like.

Swimming and tennis can be fun, and not a lot of announcers at my level have had the opportunity to broadcast those.

Auto racing was a brand new thing to me when I first tried it in the mid 2000s...BMX bike racing too...

Mud volleyball is played...in chocolate milk, I think

Softball for disabled adults and kids.

I've done one hockey match.

Mud volleyball...now that's unique.

So I have a bunch to choose from.

Now the envelope, please.  And the winner is:

The winner is that I get really excited to do the next one.  When I wake up in the morning and I have a softball game scheduled, my favorite sport is softball.  When volleyball is the sport that day, that's my favorite sport to broadcast, and so on.  I'm blessed, I think, that I can wake up excited about that day's event to cover, and I know that when I'm done preparing and fortunate enough during the game to avoid technical problems, I'm going to have a good time and enjoy whatever happens in the game.

OK, that's not really the answer, as I dodged that question.  I mean, if a basketball parent asks what my favorite sport is...can I really answer, baseball?

So here's some truthful information:

The sport I'm the best at broadcasting is basketball.  I've simply done more basketball than any other sport, I guess.

The sport that is most challenging for me to do is football.  About 30 starters from each team (I count the specialists and return guys as starters) that I need to know a lot about, plus second and third stringers that I need to know something about, plus tons of stats to interpret and stories to unwind and a three-hour long broadcast done a long way away from the field of play.  I would spend a total of about five hours to create an opponent's spot chart and update my team's spot chart each week.

My football spot chart-with offense only-from 2017

The most fun broadcast is baseball.  On TV, lots of time to tell stories and interact with a color analyst; on radio, so many things to describe and the time to do it.  Also, it's the game I've been most involved with as a player and coach.

The quickest game to broadcast on radio--along with soccer--is volleyball, another sport I have a background in as a coach.  Calling by name the players who touch the ball so quickly in this sport is a-machine-gun approach, but a nice break between plays to recap.  On TV, the beauty of the athletic play is easy to see.  Women's volleyball is a combination of power, finesse and quickness, plus strategic serving; men's volleyball is power, power, power, with tremendous ball handling.

Softball is fun with its quick tempo and lots of action (as opposed to the slowdown in baseball with runners on base).  Not much time for stories, even on TV, and certainly not on radio.  Low scoring and pitching, strikes and outs, and defense dominate in good softball.  I can live without the cheering in the dugout (just teasing, ladies, you go do what you do).

I've come to respect the buildup and drama in soccer.  Americans say it's boring but the world disagrees, and I side with the world on this one.  Good passing and the ability to build an attack is a beautiful thing.  Plus TV broadcasting allows time to tell stories.

Swimming, tennis, auto racing, hockey, BMX racing and wrestling were sports I had a lot of help with, working with a good color analyst who did most of the detail work.  Not entirely proud to admit that, but proud to note that I knew what I didn't know, and picked a strategy that worked.

There's only one way to describe my one match as a mud volleyball play by play announcer: it's over now and barely remembered.

See?  The answer to the "what's your favorite sport to broadcast" question is long and winding, and in the time I fully explained myself you would have a clock but no audience left.

And I wouldn't have even gotten close to explaining the in and outs of broadcasting mud volleyball.

The Bygone Era of Tape-Delayed Sports

Problogue: I am sad that I won't live long enough to see all the cool things that can be done on the internet.  Yeah, there's trash and annoyance and lots of sin, but some really great things also.  Like online broadcasting...

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Twenty years ago I was co-owner of TEAM Sports in Kansas City, doing video play by play (with one camera, exactly what people are doing now) of local high school sports.  

Twenty years ago, there was no internet to stream to, so we recorded on SVHS tape and then hustled that tape to Comcast Cable in eastern Jackson County (Missouri) for airing on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Tape delay of high school sports was pretty cool at that time; the game would be played, we did a fair job of putting it on tape, and players/parents/friends/fans were thrilled to be able to see the replay in their home.

We even tape-delayed the state high school basketball and wrestling tournaments for a couple of years, distributing the broadcast tape to cable outlets across Missouri.  I believe it was the first ever state-wide video coverage of those events.

And it was pretty new.  And it was pretty cool...for awhile.  And, importantly, there were interested sponsors.

The truth, though, became apparent to me fairly soon: the fun part of sports is the drama of the game as it's happening.  It's a real life soap opera (click the link if you don't know what a soap opera is) being played out in front of you.  It's what we love...it makes it worth being there, even if "being there" means watching it on TV.

Tape delayed sports is subject to spoiler alerts.  If you know the result and the details, it's really not a lot of fun to watch, at least as a fan.  Maybe players want to see how they look in their uniform, or impress other people that they're on TV, but the drama is long over if you know the outcome.

Radio knew it all the time...live radio sports beats delayed video sports, although in the early 2000s it was close for awhile.

There came a point where we just couldn't find interested advertisers to back delayed sports coverage, and our company came to an end.

We had discussions and disagreements over implementing the internet for broadcasting, giving us the ability to go live.

I decided it was worth the gamble.

My first online broadcast was in the Missouri-Iowa-Nebraska-Kansas (MINK) League, with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes team the Kansas City Grays.  With the help of TEAM Sport's computer guru Mike Perry, we set up a small audio system (maybe WireCast?) to do a game from Blue Springs.

My anxiety over doing the game itself was pretty high, but my head was about to explode when I started getting messages on my broadcast laptop that the system was failing, and that I was continually being disconnected.

I struggled through the game with the notion that nobody could hear it.  And had a terrible feeling, of course.

Come to find out the next day, the system only had the capacity to support five listeners at a time.  So, we kind of blew up the system with an overload of listeners, which helped my attitude immensely.

That fall, I received a phone call from Rockhurst University's athletic director, asking if I could do online streamed radio coverage of Hawks basketball home games.

Rockhurst Hawks

Heck yes!

So I became the play by play announcer and chief engineer for RockU for two years in the NCAA.

That led to twelve wonderful years online, both audio and video, with William Jewell College, and now 2+ years at North Central Missouri College.

During that time we also formed broadcast networks for a couple of high schools, led by high school students wanting to have the experience.  I helped initiate the first-ever NCAA Division II conference-wide broadcast network, and have done internet coverage of national basketball, baseball, volleyball and softball broadcasts.

The point is, after 2005 or so, none of that would have happened using the tape delay concept.

"Live" is king in sports.

The internet allows everyone to go live if they choose to.

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Jon Gruden: Wow.  Takeaway: you shouldn't be thinking it, but if you are, you better not write it down anywhere.  But still, we should know by now not to think it.

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We have a staff of 10 people who are interested in our sports broadcast production team at North Central Missouri College, where we start our video basketball coverage on
Pirates Digital Media November 2nd with a Women's/Men's doubleheader.

Our multi-camera approach is pretty impressive with the right numbers of staff, and not only is this group good by the numbers, I think they're  going to be pretty good when they get going (maybe great!)

Blog 9: Narrowcasts, Facebook, and Zuckerberg's Wallet

Problogue: I've been so blessed to have broadcast sports beginning in the late 70s on AM radio, through the current broadcast boom on the internet.  The internet, I think, has extended my time on the air by 20+ years.

Plus...a thanks to Albany TV, and Mark Zuckerberg holds his breath for six and a half hours...

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I've started a number of broadcast networks for online sports.

It may have been a bit audacious to call them "networks", since they normally had just one way to share the programming.  But, in typical marketing fashion, it sounded good.

My networks have always been connected to one school or one team, becoming the "voice of" that school or team.

(Quick aside: why aren't video broadcasts known as the "eyes of" the team?)

As an announcer, being associated with one school or one team is really a lot of fun.  It is your team, you live or die with them, you can be partial on the air (to a degree) and you normally get to know the people around the team pretty well.

And you get to know the parents, friends and family for which the broadcasts are intended.

That's why I try to sometimes use the term "narrowcast" instead of  "broadcast".  Our team broadcasts are intended for the parents, friends and family.  And those that are stakeholders in that team, like alumni. And, of course, the same kind of audience from the opponent on any given day.

But we certainly never, ever expect to see viewers in the thousands or millions.  We don't deal with advertising folks who insist on doing business in Cost Per Thousand.

Over the years I've become very comfortable with narrowcasting.

I'm not sure that I treasure anything more than just doing the job, except for maybe getting a sincere compliment from one of the stakeholders of the broadcast.

Here's the one of the best compliments I ever received:

After a basketball game on the William Jewell College Sports Network, the opposing coach came across the floor immediately after the game and shook my hand.  Before he talked to his team.

"My wife was watching the entire game and said it was wonderful, " he said.  "She wanted me to come right over and thank you, and now I can't wait to watch the replay."

That's what it's about.  You can't replace that feeling I had with money or followers or retweets. (Punchline: his team lost the game that night.)

May you have the same experience someday in your broadcasting life...

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On Monday, NCMC broadcast student Jaden Varner and I were in Albany, Missouri visiting Albany TV and visiting with their producer Jered Rolves before a local softball game.  Albany TV streams their sports broadcasts on Facebook, and by now you know what happened to Facebook Monday...

Albany TV of Albany, MO

If you don't know what happened to Facebook Monday, they were shut down from approximately 10:40 a.m. CDT until around 5:00; Jered was facing the rare dark side of online broadcasting, a situation in which he might not have had a home platform for his broadcast.  And he was going to let viewers down because of it.

He was a lot more composed than I would have been, honestly, and FB came back just in time for the first pitch...although Albany TV had the option of recording the game and showing it later, in athletics live is everything, which is the subject of a coming blog.

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Did you hear this, although I don't know how it could be official: given the information (all bad, it seems) about Facebook recently, and given the outage on FB Monday...Mark Zuckerburg's net wealth dropped six BILLION dollars while FB was down.

The Zuck

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Speaking of Monday...I sure missed the Mannings on Monday Night Football....you?

Blog 8: Early Broadcasts Online: You've Got to Start Somewhere, Sometime

Problogue: As I've gotten older I've gotten a lot more bolder than I used to be (hey, I quoted Bob Segar last week and here's another--although opposite--reference to a Segar lyric...hmmm).

I believe in taking chances, perhaps failing but often succeeding.  I believe that you have to try, hesitating rarely produces anything of value.  I believe that when you get in to a car to drive, you have to push down the accelerator, not just keep your foot on the brake.

Early in the internet era, I believed the idea of sports broadcasting online was a tremendous opportunity.  Not bragging, but I was right, and it's kept me employed in sports broadcasting the last 20 years and counting.

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It used to happen to me a lot.  But that was a couple of decades ago, before the internet ruled the entertainment industry.  When Netflix mailed movies.  When YouTube was only about sharing home  video.  

Fans would come up at games and ask me where they could see or hear the broadcast (since they were actually at the scene of the contest, the question itself struck me as odd).

I would reply that the we were broadcasting on the internet (I don't think anyone used the term "streaming" or "online" much then) and not only would it be live, but it would also be archived to be watched later.  I'd tell them the website address.  And then I would cringe thinking about the next thing that was going to happen.

Because it always did happen.  

Whether they said it to me, or scowled at me (perhaps both) or just said nothing at all and left me to accept the silence, it always did happen.

"You mean...it's ONLY on the internet?"

It's that insinuation...that tone.

Pretty sure what they meant was:

• "You're not on a radio/TV station?"
• "You're not talented enough to be on a radio/TV station?"
• "An internet broadcast is not nearly as meaningful as a broadcast on radio/TV."
• "People don't care about/won't listen or watch anything not on mainstream media.
• "No one will sit in front of their computer for an entire game."
• "You won't do as good a job as a real broadcaster."

Like I said, that was several years ago, and of course things have changed. 

Considering it all, the broadcasts of sports online (from single camera school broadcasts all the way up to big time professional sports) far outnumber the network presentations of sports.  

And that opens big time opportunities for sports broadcasters.

If you really want to broadcast sports, you can have your own station overnight.  Over a nap, even.

And if you think you have that fire, you have no reason to wait.  

Start your own station...start your own network...don't worry about viewers/listeners right now...you don't need much money to start...just start.

And this...I will be happy to help you if I can!  I just love doing it.

Reach out to me:

rickcolebroadcaster@gmail.com

816.589.8500

Blog 7: Three Things In Broadcasting This Week

Problogue: I had another blog post prepared for this week, then three broadcast things popped up over the weekend that truly intrigued me.  So a quick commentary about those things, and a podcast already prepared for next week!

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And I wondered to myself: Is this the future?

The format has been tried many times before, but never met wide acceptance: major television networks have provided alternative channels for big events like NCAA championship football, the Super Bowl, the NCAA men's basketball championships.

The shows have offered an alternative to the traditional play-by-play of the event, with separate hosts giving their commentary, a slew of stats for your consumption, and multiple angles from the telecast shown, among other things.

The advertised purpose, as always, was provide the viewers with a choice during such a big event.  The hidden purpose, as always, was to provide another revenue stream to the networks looking to obtain mega-advertising dollars aside from the traditional broadcast.

But it hasn't really worked.  Until now.

Why didn't previous attempts at an alternative broadcast universe work? They didn't have the Mannings.

The Manning Family Football Franchise has delivered, making Monday Night Football's alternative on ESPN a sensation.  And people are eating it up.

They are one of a kind (pair of a kind?).  You can't invent the chemistry Peyton and Eli have together.

My wife says Peyton and Eli Manning are too wordy and too much for her to simply watch the game action.  And while she's right, I love hearing their explanation of the play, their terms and inside information, the guesses about what's coming next, and their playful interaction, especially brother-to-brother.

And the stories...!

I think the guests are needed a bit, but I also think sometimes three's a crowd.  But some real highlights there too, so guests should be polite and not outstay their welcome.

Poor Steve Levy and company doing the traditional play-by-play on ESPN.  That flash of light they just saw was a new style of play-by-play that has arrived like Marty McFly in Back to the Future.  Or maybe not.  But poor Steve Levy and company...

Fearless prediction: We're going to see a LOT of rip-offs of this format by other networks now.  And it's going to be awful.

The reason: no one else has the Manning chemistry.

**********

It's a nightmare for a play-by-play announcer.

Paul Allen's incorrect call of a last second field goal attempt Sunday on the Vikings radio broadcast has the internet buzzing and people wondering how that could have happened.

Well, suffice to say it DOES happen...there are reasons for it...and there are correct ways to handle a botched call, or really anything in life.

I am armchair quarterbacking here, because I've never done an NFL game, but I've also botched calls on the air that feel like it's NFL level.  At an NAIA women's championship tournament game once, for instance, my team made a shot that gave us the lead in the final seconds, but I thought it had just tied the game.  Embarrassing, and a bad feeling that didn't go away quickly.

Paul Allen explained the call and the aftermath with Peter King of NBC the day after.  This should be mandatory viewing for sportscasters for several good (and bad) reasons.

Let me preface by saying that I don't know Paul Allen and I've rarely heard his work.  What I do know is that he's a veteran of the booth, has a radio talk show in the Twin Cities, and seems to have a style (meaning his outspokenness, his willingness to offer his own strong opinion, and a penchant for turning a phrase)  similar to the late Rush Limbaugh.  Those were my impressions of the man based on the 30 minute Peter King interview.

The good:

• Allen certainly did own up to the mistake; I mean, what else could you do?
• He openly admits that he "guessed" what the outcome of the kick would be (it was a 37 yard attempt, basically an extra point).
• In the "age of rage" (his phrase) he has shrugged off the criticism.
• Allen knows that social media will have it's say, good or bad, and that's part of the gig.

The bad:

• Although he claims to not even have thought about the missed call until the plane ride home, I don't buy that for a moment.  His explanation and casual demeanor, to me, sound phony and calculated.  Weren't there fire alarms going off in his head as the words left his mouth? 
• His general attitude toward himself, his sports broadcasting and his overall impact on the world of broadcasting go a little beyond "necessary arrogance" mentioned here before.  Again, I've never met the guy, just a first impression.
• Peter King introduced Allen as a kind of latter-day Myron Cope (Pittsburg Steelers announcer for decades), alluding to his Vikings-based emotional calls.  Great for a Vikings fan to listen to, and that's okay because he IS broadcasting for the Vikes, but my gut feeling is that Allen is a little more interested in making sure you know how smart and articulate he is than anything...
• And interested in dropping names.  In the King interview he must have mentioned 20 of the people he knows or is good friends with...which seemed really unnecessary given the topic at hand.
• He did, in fact, guess that the field goal was good.  The rule in sports broadcasting, like good umpiring or referee calls, is to "stay behind" on the call.  In other words, wait a split second to actually see the result of the play and getting it right, rather than anticipate and make a mistake you'll have to apologize for later.

I was all set to become a Paul Allen fan, appreciating him owning up to making a big mistake and being humble; instead, I got a guy who basically said, "I made a mistake but I'm so good that it doesn't matter." 

I guess I didn't stay behind the call on that one.

**********

And finally...

HBO's Hard Knocks comes to the regular season.  The Indianapolis Colts will be featured beginning later this season.

Good idea?  Not a good idea?

For fans, I think it's great.

I wonder about the coaches and the team, though.  How will this affect them?

Again, per Peter King of NBC, the production of the show will largely be done through remote cameras with a minimum of NFL Films staff actually in the rooms.  Still, it will be a presence.

I suppose the good idea/bad idea was bandied about before the original, training camp Hard Knocks began.  So we'll see how it goes.  

Blog 6: What I Do at North Central Missouri College as Digital Media Specialist

Problogue: I'm a dreamer.  Mostly realistic, I think, but still a dreamer.  As I've gotten older I've seen many of my early dreams contained within my reality but still not disappearing.  It's like what Bob Segar said in the song "Against the Wind": 

Well those drifter’s days are past me now
I’ve got so much more to think about
Deadlines and commitments
What to leave in, what to leave out

Had a birthday the other day and turned 59.  But I'm still dreaming.--RC

**********

When I was a kid, I dreamed of being a professional athlete, playing baseball, basketball and football at the same time.  I would win the world championship and be the MVP every year!

As I got just a bit older, I thought being a radio announcer must be pretty cool also.

Time went on.  I wasn't a good athlete but I was extremely interested in sports, and I still thought being on the air would be cool.  

Circa 1978

I got a job at my hometown radio station in Sidney, Nebraska at the end of my sophomore year.  It was cool! And I got a chance to be exposed to sports announcing as well as playing records (late 1970's disco!) reading news and doing time/temperature on the mighty KSID AM/FM (right).

Radio certainly fit me better than playing sports.  So radio became my dream.  And doing sports on the radio was the nice convergence of the two dreams in a nice package.

I was KSID's Sports Director at age 19, working in that role for two and a half years before deciding to pursue teaching and coaching.  But I always found work while I was pursuing my degree at Chadron, Nebraska and at Wayne, Nebraska, and also while I was actually teaching.  The broadcast bug never went away.

Fast forward to the fall of 2019.  I came to Kansas City with the idea that I would simply teach, with no extra duties and no broadcast schedule.  That idea didn't last long.

TEAM Sports era

My wife and I formed a video broadcast company, TEAM Sports (right), that ultimately evolved to online broadcast networks for summer collegiate baseball in the MINK League, Rockhurst University basketball, William Jewell College's entire athletic program, and now the new Digital Media and broadcasting program at North Central Missouri College in Trenton, Missouri.

And at North Central Missouri College, I'm looking for students that might want a similar experience to the one I've had.

So there's that.  But, here's something else.

I want to form the best Junior College broadcast team in America. 

Is that arrogant?  Stupid?  Ego-driven?  Sometimes I get the blank stare and an eye roll afforded to someone who dares to mention something so audacious so loudly.

I've been doubted in the past.  I've failed before...but I've also succeeded before.  And I have a outline for success at NCMC.

 Here's the plan:

·        Build a broadcast team, just like a basketball or softball team, that allows students to perform roles they are passionate about as they learn about digital media through hands-on training and some coursework for college credit.

·         Cover all aspects of NCMC life with feature stories, social media posts, and live broadcasts of events.

·         Use the talents of our team members, working alongside full-time staff, to make NCMC the best and the most unique broadcast team in the country at the JUCO level.

Specifically for our live sports broadcasts, here's what will make us the best:

• The drama of each game will be the centerpiece of the broadcast.
• We'll use students to run a multiple camera system for our live events, and not a simple "one-camera-shoots-all" broadcast.
• We know that our opponent, watching their team on the road, is a big part of our audience, and we include them in our game plan, featuring announcers who are (mostly) unbiased in their call of the game, and have taken time to know not only NCMC athletes and coaches, but also the opponent.
• We will feature announcers who believe telling the game story is more important than showing off how cool they are.
• We'll have a game on when we say we'll have a game on.

That's not arrogant, stupid, or ego-driven.  That's a plan that has worked before for me, when William Jewell College was the leader in NCAA D2 video streaming.

Pirate students will make the difference at NCMC, just as students made the difference at William Jewell.

Now we have to find the students.  And keep the dream alive.

**********

Know of a student who's interested in college media and broadcasting?  Get in touch with me at rcole@mail.ncmissouri.edu or call/text 816.589.8500 or contact NCMC Admissions.

Blog 5: The Top Sports Broadcasters, and Why You Hate Them

 Problogue: As you watch TV  football this fall, you'll inevitably be judging the broadcasters working the game.  I judge them too, but mostly on their technique in the booth.  I've studied different broadcasters for years, but I try to be objective because it's my business and I want to learn.  Here are some things I hope you'll consider while you judge broadcasters as a fan.  Also a few notes about who I consider the best broadcasters at the moment are, and some of the broadcasters that helped shape my career.

The top national play by play broadcasters often draw unfair criticism from fans.  I'm talking Al Michaels, Joe Buck, Mike Tirico, Mike Breen, Sean McDonough, and others you see on the big networks--you know, the ones you love to hate.

I evaluate announcer for their mechanics, which I've studied for a long, long time.  But fans, sometimes frustrated by the game outcome,  unreasonably bash these guys (and their broadcast companions) for their performance.

It's not fair.  

Generally, the criticism falls into these categories:

• "(Name) knows nothing about my team."
• "(Name) loves the other team."
• "(Name) hates my team."
  
• "(Name) is arrogant and full of himself."

Let me take you through this a little bit:

"(Name) knows nothing about my team."  As a fan, yes, you may actually know more than the national announcer about YOUR team...but the national announcer has to know both teams. and know them well.  Could you do that?  Would you spend the time and effort each week to learn just as much about the opponent as your team?  Do you pay as much attention year-round to other teams as you do your favorite team?  

Rhetorical question: Can you rattle off the depth chart of the opponent as easily as you rattle off your favorite team's starters and subs?

"(Name) loves the other team" or "(Name) hates my team."  Funny how this works: a play is made, success is experienced by one team over another. If it's not the fan's team that had success there is grumbling about how the announcer loves the other team and hates their team.  That's just the way it is: if your team makes more plays than the other team, they will receive more credit from the announcers, and if that team goes on to win (because they had more good plays, usually) the announcers will give that team credit for prevailing.  

Rhetorical question: What would you have them do instead?

Case Study: I live in the Kansas City area and would have loved to see the Royals win the 2014 World Series.  As it turned out, Madison Bumgarner had a series for the ages--some say the best pitching ever in a World Series--and the Royals lost in seven games.  Fans in Kansas City are still upset by Joe Buck's (see below) call of the series, even though Bumgarner was the most impactful player (MVP) making the the biggest difference (2-0 with a save and a 0.43 earned run average, with nine hits allowed, one run, one walk and 17 strikeouts in 21 innings) on baseball's biggest stage.

I'd like someone to objectively chart the number of positive and negative comments made by announcers toward each team during the course of a broadcast.  My thesis: the winning team would receive more kind words and praise than the losing team.  My comment: seems fair to me.

Not many people complain about announcers when their favorite team wins.

"(Name) is arrogant and full of himself." I say, well, they better be.  To a certain extent, at least.  

Hall of Fame third baseman Chipper Jones said professional athletes must possess "necessary  arrogance".  Perfect description for a broadcaster, also, so follow me on this:

It takes a bit of ego and confidence to talk into a NERF ball as a professional (for those who don't know, normally broadcast microphones have a wind screen--a NERF ball--on the end of them, although not many are purple).

Arrogance?  Ego?  Confidence?   All are necessary.

**********

Here are a few of my current top broadcasters, again based on the mechanics in the broadcasting they exhibit.

• Joe Buck. Criticized like no other, he understands what a TV announcer's job is: let the camera tells the story. He's there to tell you what you can't see well (like who has the ball).  And his work during the fall of both baseball and football?  Always solid and prepared for his many assignments.  And there's this:  Joe Buck has turned fan ridicule into a fun mockery.  I mean, what else can you do?  He has my respect for the way he's dealt with criticism...plus his obvious skills.
• Al Michaels/Cris Collinsworth.  Conversational style with a great mix of personal information about teams and players, and technical information about the game.  Never in a hurry, they get all their information in, plus a warm/calm presentation of the game.
• I don't listen to much baseball on the radio anymore, but the Royals Ryan Lefebvre deserves a lot of credit and I'm a fan.  Ever-fresh material, always in a good mood but never breathless over anything that's going on, give this guy credit for his day-to-day work  over 27 years with a team that's normally pretty bad.  Yet, the same professionalism every broadcast.

I need to drop one name in here that you might not know now, but he may very well be the next top network guy, should he choose to.  Joe Davis (left) is the man who replaced Vin Scully on Dodgers TV, but he's much more than that.  Catch him doing some college football or perhaps a MLB playoff game: he's solid mechanically, is personable without going over the top, and has a very calm presence.

And here are a few guys you may recognize, announcers who shaped my style and made me believe in  proper process and execution in sports broadcasting.

• Ken Coleman.  Wrote a book on sportsbroadcasting that I found as an elementary student  in Lorenzo, Nebraska in the early 1970s.  Loved it!  The charts, the prep work, the game itself...
• 
  Curt Gowdy (right).  Was the predecessor to Coleman with the Red Sox before he went national and was the 70's version of workhorse announcers in multiple sports.  Most people didn't know that he had a bad back, had to travel laying down in a station wagon to get to games, and often had to be carried up to the press box later in his career on a flat backboard.  The fact that nobody really knew about his physical condition is testament to Curt, who never got rattled on the air.
• Dick Enberg.  Along with Al McGuire and Billy Packer, was THE college basketball announcer as the NCAA tournament grew.  Also was an ever-present voice in multiple sports, and by reputation one of the nicest guys around.  I find myself using his iconic "Oh my!" expression from time to time, worry about people thinking I'm just ripping it off, and then realize that it's been so long since Dick was on the air that it's more a tribute than a steal.  First time I heard him: Notre Dame beats UCLA breaking the Bruins 88 game college win streak.
• Denny Matthews/Fred White.  I saw Royals Stadium, through these guys eyes, from 500 miles away before I ever saw it in person.  Thank you for that.  Fred died in 2014 but Denny persists as the reincarnation of  Al Davis (just kidding).  I still hear myself on rare occasions sounding a little bit like them, the first on-air influencers of my career.
• Skip Caray (below).  Son of Harry, father of Chip.  Atlanta Braves broadcaster during the rise of the SuperStation, WTBS.  Sarcastic, deadpan, knowledgeable, cranky at times, tremendous sense of humor and sense of timing.
  
  I was a fan because I thought we shared many similar personality traits.  I don't think he really got the acclaim he should have, but maybe because he was honest and didn't pull punches even toward his own teams.  Most don't realize he did NBA basketball and NFL and college football.  You'll hear him in the background on some old clips now and then. Note: If you've ever heard me at the end of a game say, "Totals and highlights in a moment," it's a deliberate tribute to Skip Caray, I think of him every time I use that phrase.

Blog 4: Is College Important? And More Beliefs on Good Sports Broadcasts

 Problogue:  In this blog, you'll learn my thoughts on starting a sports broadcasting career by getting a college degree as opposed to getting actual experience on the air, bypassing college;  also, here are some more of my ideas about good sports play-by-play broadcasting.--RC

There is an ongoing debate: do sportscasters need a college degree to have success in the field?  or is experience more important?

Personally, I took the long, winding road through the small gyms and fields in Nebraska and Kansas City to get experience.  I feel pretty good about that kind of education, I think it's served my talent and personality pretty well.  As a reviewer told me years ago, you're not nationwide but you continue to get paid for what you love to do.

Point is: I'm not nationwide.  I'm okay with that, mostly, as at 58 years old it's probably not going to
happen.

If I were to do it again, I'd hedge my bet and get a college degree in sports broadcast journalism and work as many games as I could for whomever would have me while I was going to school.  Again, I suggest this because different tools and credibility help ascend the ladder.

Not that I'd trade my practical training, along with teaching and coaching for two decades, for any other experience.

Learning is never wasted; there are, however, many types of learning.

*************

I have a set of well-defined beliefs about sports broadcasting that I've learned through all those times of doing all those games in a phone booth over 40+ years.  Those beliefs may be old-school, but I absolutely believe in them, and I teach them to young broadcasters.

Here are some:

• The game story is the most important thing.
• As a broadcaster, you are not a part of the game story.
• Talent for broadcast preparation is essential.
• Preparation for the broadcast is more important, by far, than voice talent.
• Preparation for the broadcast is more important, by far, than cute phrases or signature calls.
• Preparation for the broadcast is more important, by far, than "style".
• Announcing the score is the most important statistic you can use, except perhaps on video/TV broadcasts when the score is contained on a live graphic.
• You must have an idea who your audience is.  If you don't have data about your audience, you can probably figure it out on your own by asking yourself:
• Who hired me?
• Where is this game being broadcast?
• How is this game being broadcast?  Hint: If it's online, you can bet that the opponent has some fans listening/watching as well.
• Talk more slowly than feels comfortable; you are essentially a storyteller.  Would you want your grandfather to rush through a story he was telling you?
• Know the correct pronunciation of names.  Where do you get those?  Start with the coach, school official, or even just ask the player in question.
• If you make a mistake in any aspect of your broadcast, be transparent and apologize.  Once.  And only once.
• Don't be sophomoric.  Be professional, even if you actually are a sophomore and are announcing your first game.  Even then, be professional.  Go light on the criticism, witticism and jokes.  If you're nervous, that's OK, but don't try to cover it with silly stuff.
• Don't criticize a player, unless you could actually make the play yourself with your skills.
• Take it easy of refs/umpires.  They're good people, actually, and can be a great source of information.
• You've done a pretty good job if your audience enjoyed the broadcast, but doesn't really know your name.

We'll talk more about sportscasting skills later on.  Next time, a look at your favorite/not favorite national announcers, and why you may be emotionally attatched/distanced from them.

Have a good Labor Day weekend!

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.