6 Tips from ESPN on A Career in Sports Broadcasting

A few weeks ago our Ohio Center for Broadcasting Cleveland campus held a competition where contestants had the chance to audition for the ESPN affiliate in Cleveland, OH.  The contest was called "The Next Star of KNR."

Leading up to the contest we thought it might be cool if the air-staff there at KNR provided the contestants with some tips for jumping into a career in sports broadcasting.  I thought it could be a long shot - since they are all super busy - but worth a shot, right?

Welp, they abliged.  And they were super cool about it.  Giving some very passionate responses.

If you are a current student at one of our Ohio or Illinois campuses, you have no doubt heard a lot of the same advice before.  That is because, there really is no magic pill.  A lot of what makes people successful transcends across all industries.  I'm talking about things like passion, hard work, technical know-how, etc.

However, the WKNR guys really provided some actionable show hosting techniques here.  Which I think is great for a couple of reasons:

1.  If you are already a student - you could take these and employ them immediately during your air-shift.

2.  If you are looking to attend our program and you LOVE the idea of sports broadcasting but are afraid you "don't know enough about sports" - you might see that you don't really have to know a lot if you are, say, entertaining - energetic, opinionated, or funny.

Anywho, enough blabber.  Here are those tips from ESPN Cleveland WKNR:

 Don't overload your take with meaningless stats or boring details. Instead, try to make your listeners laugh, cry, and think about sports in a new way.  -- Hammer

People listen to shows because they are interested in the host's opinions. Rather than simply laying out the big topics of the day, find something that you are passionate about and share your feelings. Everyone knows the Indians are a bad team. Everyone wants LeBron to stay in Cleveland. What can you bring to the marketplace of ideas that isn't totally obvious?   -- Hammer

Don't be affraid or rejection or the word "NO".  It's a competative field and you have to keep on fighting especially when you get turned down or told no. – Kenny Roda

Every great sports talk host has one thing in common: ENERGY! No one wants to listen to someone who sounds tired, bored, or sick.? Sit up, smile, scream, yell, rant, and rave. -- Hammer

Be versatile and know as much as you can about all aspects of broadcasting (Hosting/Reporting/Production/Engineering etc.) The more you know about all aspects, the better off you will be and more valuable you will be to the company. --Chris Fedor

ALWAYS try to be BETTER THAN THE LAST TIME when you open the mic!? -- Munch