I can’t believe it has been five years since I got an opportunity to anchor “The Endzone” (now called “GameTime”) on WDAM. I found the video today while sifting through some old files looking for something else.
I get the question “why were you doing sports?” a lot. And, for those who have often wondered about that, I want to share a story….
Radio is where I started
You know, for the longest time, I wanted to be a sports broadcaster. In fact, the whole reason I applied to earn my Master’s Degree from Syracuse University was to get a job as a Play-by-Play guy. Preferably on radio. I didn’t like TV.
During my time at Oregon State, even while earning a degree in Earth Sciences, I called games on the radio and TV and loved it. Football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, gymnastics, and even racquetball. Seriously, racquetball.
I hosted a weekly two-hour-long sports show, The NickelBlock (that is where the name for this site comes from), for five years. I co-hosted another few weekly shows for two of those years – Shadawordisyea, with Brandon Williams and Eric Bartz, and The Fence with Michael Todd Backus and a handful of special hosts. I was on TV, too, co-anchoring “The Best Dam Beaver Sports Show” for three of those years with Shauna Noah, Paul Koehnke, Rob Ricker, Jason Webber, Brian Gjurgevich, and others.
I loved it. Loved radio. It was very casual and personal. It felt like having a one-on-one conversation with people. At a college radio station, this feeling was likely because, often times, only one person was listening. On TV, things were different. I wasn’t as comfortable, but it reached a larger audience. Two people.
Jokes aside, the shows were reasonably popular. For college radio. I ended up working to get “The NickelBlock” rebroadcast on other college stations.
I parlayed that into a job writing for the college newspaper, The Daily Barometer. While the name may make you think it was a newspaper about the weather, it wasn’t. Just a regular college paper with a great name (I’m biased).
I produced a weekly sports column. At the time, I’d never done any actual reporting in my life. I wasn’t a writer. But I tried. Lindsay Schnell, the Sports Editor at the time, gave me a shot. Journalism, to me, was about looking at the facts, determining the truth, and holding those who claim otherwise accountable to their falsehoods. So for me, it was no different than science. Have a hypothesis, collect data, see if results confirm the hypothesis, then write about it.
Two years later, I was given the award for the Best Columnist – not just for sports, but general columnist – in Oregon by the ONPA. Shortly after that I was given the ‘keys’ to the Sports Department at The Daily Barometer. I was the Sports Editor now.
At the same time, I was now the Program Director of KBVR. While also handling duties as the Sports Director at KBVR. All while also calling all of the games. And while hosting my radio show and co-hosting the other radio shows. And while also being on TV weekly.
I was also in school full-time.
At this point, I’d calculated that I was “working” a 108 hours per week. I was up around 7am or 8am and I wouldn’t be finished with work and school work until around 1am or 2am. Then I’d wake up and do it all over again. Six days per week.
As you can imagine, my sympathy for student today who claim to have ‘no free time’ when all they do is go to class is nearly zero. And my empathy for kids who are in school and working is endless.
A brief writing career
After I graduated, it took me a long time to find a job in sports media. The housing collapse had sucked most of the jobs out of the market. And find a job in the shrinking world of radio or newspaper wasn’t exactly a fruitful endeavor.
I finally landed a job at a weekly newspaper outside of Portland. I was a part-time reporter. I covered local high schools and a small college. It was hard, but it was a blast. I worked for a great guy, Sports Editor, Zac Palmer. While I’m not sure he enjoyed my writing style, he worked with me to make it as clean and concise as possible.
A year into the job I was nominated – and won – an award for the Best Sports Columnist in Oregon from SPJ. Pretty neat. While I’d won an award in college, that always felt like getting a trophy in Little League to me. Sure I got one, but I was playing against other kids. This one, I was up against professionals.
It was at roughly the same time that I decided that, while newspaper writing was fun, I needed to add some beef to my resume. Because as much as I was applying for jobs in radio, I wasn’t getting any bites.
So I left my job to go back to school.
Heading to Syracuse
I applied to go to Syracuse for obvious reasons. All of the great sportscasters that I knew went to Syracuse. Did I have the grades? Nope. Did I have the name? Nope. Did I have any reason for thinking I would be accepted? Zero.
Funny story, though. I remember being out on a date with a girl and talking to her about applying. And she said, “why apply if you don’t think you will get in?”
And I legit said: “My life always just kinda works out like that.”
And, to that point, I had evidence to back that up. I got onto a college track and cross country team as a Freshman when my times were too slow. I got into Oregon State when my transfer credits didn’t apply and my GPA was too low. And, even trained as a scientist, I got a job a sports writer for a newspaper.
You miss 100-percent of the shots you don’t take. So I kept shooting. Ad, for one reason or another, I hit some important ones.
Before you think that I’m just lucky and gliding through life, it is worth noting, that I ended up working hard to become one of the faster freshman on the team before being hurt, I worked my tail off and graduated from Oregon State while working a handful of simultaneous jobs and winning the school awards. And, as a scientists who is a sports writer, I won awards for writing and journalism with zero formal training.
So, in my mind, while I have no business being accepted to Syracuse… I was really hoping that trend of things just working out would continue.
It did. I was accepted.
My dreams of getting formal training in radio broadcasting were coming true. And soon I would be able to get the job I wanted to badly.
Or so I thought.
It was interesting. Even as a 22-year-old calling games for KBVR-FM, I noticed that my eyes were starting to “go” a bit and I was having a more difficult time seeing the numbers of the players. That was new, since when I started college I rarely wore glasses – except to drive at night.
As a sports reporter, at 24, going to high school games, there would be times I couldn’t see the number of a player on the other side of the field.
By the time I enrolled at Syracuse, at 26, I recall going to a football game, standing below where the play-by-play guys were setup, unable to see the numbers on the players backs.
I had come to the heartbreaking realization that a career in play-by-play was unlikely for me.
As much as I loved it, if I couldn’t see the players, I couldn’t call a game.
My dream was over.
The other curveball I was thrown while at Syracuse was being surrounded by a ton – and I mean a ton – of talented sports broadcasters. Not alumni, either. I mean in class. People like Jon Doss, Matthew Harris, Michael Lederer, Veronica Rohrmoser, Thom Cich, and a guy many WDAM fans know, eventual WDAM sports director, Jonathan Marshall.
I ended up eventually recognizing that a career in sports broadcasting was going to be a difficult road. I was probably the 10th-best sports reporter in my class. At one school. In a nation full of great schools (albeit none as good as Syracuse). And if I couldn’t do the part of it I loved, calling play-by-play, I was starting to have second-thoughts about endeavoring upon that career path.
So, from that point, I went through the program trying to see what other avenues I could investigate as a career. Play-by-play streaming? Online sports journalism? Podcasting?
Back at Oregon State, I had started a website, “The [Five]”. This was well before Fox News stole the name from me. It was a sports reporting website, at the time mainly Oregon State centric.
I decided to start posting articles and writing columns again. This time about sports in general. And I encouraged my classmates to do the same.
The website started picking up steam when Michael Lederer started to gain some inertia. He broke a few stories on the site and we ended up with about a quarter-million hits during just a few months. Guys like Jake Paque, Casey Grogan, and Jon Wiener (another eventual WDAM alum, of sorts) all helped out, too.
It seemed like I’d found a niche! And I spent my time working on creative ways to produce specialized sports web content.
When things changed
You know how I said my life always “works out” somehow?
Well, I’ve always loved weather.
I recall the first Tornado Watch I was under in Springfield, Virginia. I was five years old. I was watching The Weather Channel, like all normal kids do. And it popped up. My mom, someone who up until this point had never been under a tornado watch in her life, said I had to stay in the basement. But I keep running to every window in the house looking out trying to see a tornado. Because all I knew was that was the thing from the Wizard of Oz.
The love for weather grew as I grew. When I was six or seven, my mom bought me The Weather Book, by USA Today. A book that was so far above where I was intellectually that I look back and laugh. But I read that thing constantly. I didn’t fully understand it. Not even a little of it. But I read it.
In high school I took an elective “easy” science class, and asked the teach if instead of regular class work, I wanted to write a research paper on the Blizzard of ’93. The original plan was to go to college for two years while running track, then transfer to Wisconsin for a degree in Meteorology.
I got hurt, that didn’t pan out. So when I transferred to Oregon State, I took all (one) of the meteorology classes that were available. And all of the other atmospheric and oceanic classes (ample).
So, as I was finishing things at Syracuse, during the final six weeks of course work, we produced daily newscasts. Everyone had a responsibility. From reporter, to camera person, to producer, to director, to show runner. You name it, a student did it.
On the first day, I pulled the “Sports reporter” straw. Easy. Thom Cich, who I mentioned above, got the “weather forecaster” straw. He was less than enthusiastic. During the dry run he was looking for an out. Someone with whom he could swap responsibilities.
I loved weather. Love talking about weather. And as a trained scientist, I knew what the weather was doing at all times and why.
At the same time, I never wanted to be on TV. Even when I was on TV as an undergrad for sports I didn’t much care for it. And, at this point, I knew TV wasn’t in my sports future, either. So I said, “Hey Thom, I’ll switch with you.”
And then I went on TV and did this….
Afterward, I was cornered by three of my professors. And they asked when I was doing weather again. I figured it was because I had not done well.
Their response: “No, we think this is what you need to do for a career.”
And the rest is history. In fact, I never ended up doing any sports reporting – ever – for any newscasts. Just weather. I ended up anchoring the weather 18 more times during the next six weeks. And used the clips I curated to get my first meteorologist job in Amarillo, Texas, where I had the chance to anchor the morning news and chase tornadoes at night. And forecast the end of the universe.
And make a few silly videos along the way…
Sports broadcasting
But my life always works out, somehow. And that happened when I was approached to help with sports at KAMR. I had the opportunity to call a few football games at AT&T Stadium. It was D-II football. It was for a little-known network. But it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
I couldn’t see numbers. I couldn’t see names. So I took over color commentary duties. That was nice, I like commentating more, anyway. I got the chance to breakdown plays as they happen, and highlight to people what they missed in real-time, do replays like the pros do – because I was the pro for that game.
It was a great experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Doing play-by-play is a dream I still have. And a career I would still love to pursue. But my eyes continue to get worse. So, short of my getting LASIK (expensive) or suddenly waking up with perfect vision, that career path looks unlikely. And at this point, I am so far removed from that world, it seems even more unlikely.
As for the first clip at the beginning of this whole story, that was the first time – for an actual television station, not in college – I had run through highlights. It was only the third time I’d ever read through a prompter for an entire sportscast, as during college we just made it up as we went. That is why I always think it is special during the few occasions when luck grants me the chance to anchor a sportscast on WDAM. That is when I get to have fun for a night re-living my youth, so to speak. And I get to stroll down the career path I almost had.
