Breaking into sports broadcasting takes more than just a love for the sports industry, professionals said during a March 10 webinar hosted by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association.
The webinar provided students with actionable steps for entering sports broadcasting, including gaining experience early and understanding the industry’s future growth.
Alex Strouf, a sports producer at ESPN Wisconsin and UW-Stevens Point alumnus, said he got involved in the industry early.
“(At my school), I could work in the athletic department, sports radio station and sports television show,” Strouf said. “I mean, it was diabolical how much stuff I was doing.”
Strouf said building relationships and connecting with professionals is important.
“You could just cold DM them on LinkedIn and say, ‘hey, here’s a five-minute sizzle reel of my work, can you give me feedback?’ and that opens the door,” Strouf said.
Pablo Iglesias, a digital content specialist with ESPN Wisconsin, said building connections in the industry is important.
“Never be afraid to take the risk, have conversations and put yourself out there,” Iglesias said.
Iglesias said it’s important to study other people’s work to refine and see what others in the field are doing differently.
“I want to grow as a storyteller and I still want to grow as a storyteller in general,” Iglesias said. “I’d go back and watch tapes of other people and say, ‘hey, I like how this person did this and I want to try to emulate that in my own way.’ That’s really important to grow.”
Artificial intelligence is one of the many changes in sports media, Strouf said, and companies are trying to get ahead of the curve by exploring new uses for AI.
“Utilizing it to repurpose content, transcribe the show and kind of identify the best moments rather than me having to go back and listen to three hours of content,” Strouf said. “Here’s the three-hour transcript, give me the best 30-90 second clips so I can cut those quick and put them on social media.”
ESPN Wisconsin radio host Ben Brust said he is using AI to polish out the foundation of what would make a great show.
“When I put in transcripts, I can tell AI to be a fan, content director, it can do air checks, but it took a lot of work to sort of build a project for it to understand what we’re trying to accomplish day in and day out,” Brust said.
Despite new technology in the industry, Iglesias said students who have passion and drive for sports broadcasting should never turn down opportunities.
“Nobody likes just a straight ride,” Iglesias said. “That’s why we love rollercoasters because of the dips and turns. You never know what’s going to come up, but you have to have fun with it along the way too.”
