My First Experience in Sports Broadcasting

As part of my radio studies at SAIT Polytechnic, I am doing a practicum with Maverick Media. I'm part of their broadcasts of games involving the University of Calgary Dinos at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium for the duration of the season, which ends February 8, plus potential playoff games later.

I got recommended to this job by Lance McKenzie, the communications director for Dinos athletics, based on my previous work as an official PA Announcer at their women's rugby games and occasional hockey games. He was impressed by the way I follow University sports (especially the U of C), so when I reached out to him asking about a potential practicum, he recommended me to Ned Bosnak, who was more than happy to take me on.

At first, I found myself shadowing the commentators during the broadcasts, but during the volleyball games on January 24-25, Lance suggested that I come up with some extracurricular information and stats that the commentators may not be aware of and send it to them before the next telecast. The first thing I did was conduct post-game interviews with one of the Dinos players and the coach from the other team. I recorded the interviews then wrote down the highlights. The next day, I gave the information from my interviews to the commentator.

This started to become a regular thing, so over and above the shadowing and observing, I'm now tasked with finding information about the league standings and how the games affect both teams in the playoff chase. I then send that information off to my main supervisor, Tanner Hill, and he then relays it to the on-air talent.

I've also been getting a feel for how the crew prepares for the live production of the broadcasts...I learned about how they communicate with the camera operators, how the script is set up, and how the commentators use highlight packages for pre-game, intermission and post-game material.

This has been a great experience for me so far, and I'm looking forward to spending the rest of this month with Maverick Media, and the Canada West broadcast team for the University of Calgary Dinos. There is one weekend remaining for home games at the Jack Simpson Gym...February 7-8, the Dinos basketball teams take on the University of Lethbridge. After that, there's a possibility for the U of C to host basketball playoff games later this month.