The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
It sometimes amazes me, with all the outlets for information that are out there, that there could also be so much MIS-information about…well, just about anything, nowadays.
Politics, weather, history…if you look enough places, you can pretty much find different versions of “facts” on many topics.
During this past “sports broadcast year” on RCN-TV, I became aware that this curious trend of misconceptions had made its way around to affecting me.
For example, within a few minutes two different people came up to me before a basketball game this past winter and had two completely opposing views on my broadcast career. One person was kind enough to talk about the recent history of a particular school but did so because he believed the RCN Sports Department was “new to broadcasting in the area” (if you include previous owners, we’ve been covering local sports for over 40 years).
A couple minutes later, another sports fan came up to me and exclaimed that I specifically had “been around forever” (I’d like to think that I am somewhere in between “new” and “forever.”)
Granted, the Lehigh Valley viewing area is changing more than ever before with new people coming in and other people relocating and so forth, but I thought it might be a good time to set the record straight on a few things –at least about myself.
So if you think you know me…or if you want the truth, take this short quiz and see how well you do!
TRUE/FALSE: I have been around television “forever”.
FALSE
I started working in radio and for local newspapers while I was in high school in the Lehigh Valley before moving to work in Philadelphia and New York for different radio stations. My jobs including covering the Phillies (including one World Series), Eagles (one NFC Championship game) and other pro and collegiate sports teams for Sportsradio WIP in Philly, which was the top rated sports radio station in the country when I was there. I migrated into more TV work before moving back to the Lehigh Valley to continue my career at RCN.
While I have been here a few years now and have had the good fortune of meeting and becoming friends with a great group of people — some of them legends who have been around much longer than I…I would hardly would consider me as being around “forever”.
TRUE/FALSE: I am a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan
FALSE
This has come up a few times within the last year because our “SportsTalk” show co-host Keith Groller somehow has fallen under the delusion the I live/breathe/eat Eagles football—which anyone who’s watched the show since the beginning of the program should know is not the case. (For the record, he is a die-hard fan of the Rams—the team that was supposed to show up for last year’ s Super Bowl).
I have been quite critical of the Birds over the years and would often square off against Keith’s predecessor, Joe Craig, who was clearly a passionate Eagles “homer.” While I spent many years having to be the “anti-Eagles angle” for many of our arguments, Keith has been misleading our audience into thinking I only care about the Eagles, which now has people coming up to me to complain about “my Birds.” Listen to any show or podcast we’ve done over the last decade and you’d be hard pressed to believe I have been anything but objective about this team.
In full disclosure, I DO root for the Phillies, who I became a die-hard fan about as far back as I can remember. I have always tried to remain objective about every team that I have covered or may discuss in the various “sports talk” formats that I have worked in radio and television. While it sometimes makes for more interesting show content for the teams in our coverage area to do well, I don’t throw myself into becoming an over-passionate fan of any specific team to success as some talk show hosts may do.
Because of my work covering the Phillies, I’ve had the tremendous great luck of meeting some really huge names in the business, which continues to help in more ways that I could have ever imagined.
I feel I have remained objective in my analysis over the years when discussing the Phillies, but it is the only team to which I have actively considered myself a “fan.”
TRUE/FALSE: Local media members only care about the “big sports” (ie., football, basketball and wrestling).
FALSE
Anyone who says that I don’t keep an eye on other sports has clearly never visited my office to see piles of papers with details on every sport (including polo!) conducted in our coverage area that I actively update on a regular basis.
Again, I would refer people to our “SportsTalk” programs for evidence to the contrary. Our recent coverage includes features on ice skating, track (one of the sports I competed in while in high school), lacrosse, rifling, tennis, girls softball and others. A few months back we even had a feature on street skating. We try very hard to make sure we touch on EVERY sport during a given season.
TRUE/FALSE: I only broadcast the games of the teams that I like.
(I heard this comment this past fall after I announced a number of Bethlehem Catholic football games in consecutive weeks).
FALSE
First of all, I do not dictate which teams and which games we broadcast, so anyone who has ever thought I am “for” or “against” a team due to which game I happen to be announcing is completely wrong.
Secondly, I would say in the two decades that I have been broadcasting games — professional, collegiate, scholastic and amateur — there certainly have been teams/coaches/fan bases that I readily admit I was not a huge fan of. It would be ridiculous for me (or anyone in this industry) to say that they have enjoyed, never had any issues and/or have had complete cooperation with every single sports personality that they have ever come in contact with.
To be perfectly honest, there are coaches who are much nicer and more accommodating in helping us prepare for our broadcasts than others. There are members of certain teams who want media members to do and say specifically what they want you to say — something that I have NEVER done nor agreed to — which sometimes irritates people when they can’t control you. There are administrators who only want you to say things they want you to talk about (which nearly always are the things that make those same members of their organization look good) and hold grudges when you bring up negatives that are proven points of fact that most people are not aware of (I have received a ton of “thank you” comments from our viewers over the last year because of this!).
Also, some of my most treasured bits of feedback come from people who had assumed I was “against” them or their team — often through misinformation — only to actually listen to one of my broadcasts and have them come back to me and apologize, while complimenting me on my objectivity and professionalism.
There was one coach in particular who thought that because a local paper had predicted his team to finish in last place, that EVERY media member had it out for them. This same person was very adversarial when we came to broadcast his team early in the year … only to call me the next day — not only to thank us for coming but for not holding a grudge against him or his team for his misdirected frustrations toward us.
This brings up an interesting issue for broadcasters … and for me as well.
Unless you are directly working for an organization that pays your salary (ie., most professional sports teams, like the Redskins, Eagles, Sixers, et al either directly pay the announcers or have direct influence with their broadcast partners), you are really doing a disservice to your audience by “clouding” the truth and playing favorites to schools or groups—usually in exchange for getting something in return.
I have built a career on discussing the facts—both positive and negative—about whatever aspect of sports that I am covering. I don’t know if it’s the changing media attitudes in society, people only hearing what they want to hear, or the fact that everyone now has the ability to edit communications through a simple click of a device. But I think it’s been one of my strengths as a person and as a media member to try to be objective and fair in covering all angles of the subject matter, which includes covering as many teams as possible.
Hope you enjoyed the “quiz!” Thanks for reading, listening and for expressing your opinions (whether I agree with them or not) to me during the past sports broadcast year. Feel free to keep the comments coming—I always enjoy hearing others’ viewpoints and look forward to continuing to share the information I can provide our customers!
