I spent a couple mornings a week during the summer at the Sports 56 studios. My guide/teacher was local radio personality John Hardin. While I did have a few minutes here and there to talk to some of the on-air talent between breaks, most of my time was spent in the production studio with John. He would give solid advice on how to be successful on air, as well as how to keep yourself organized first , because that would help the talent stay organized and lead to successful broadcasts.
One of the cool tasks I was given was to answer phone calls from fans or when the various shows would have guests come on. I got the chance to speak with notable people such as University of Memphis head men’s basketball coach Josh Pastner, Grizzlies General Manager Chris Wallace, Grizzlies color commentator Sean Tuohy, and some athletes such as Grizzlies Guard Tony Wroten, Toronto Blue Jays Pitcher and former University of Tennessee star R.A. Dickey just to a name a few. The important thing for me that I had to remember about being in this situation is that you cannot get star struck. It is important to act professionally and speak to these people as if they are any regular person. I can say my initial thoughts were thinking about how cool it was that I got to speak with these people, but then I quickly realized I had to get them set up so that they could get onto to the show.
The final thing I was asked to do towards the end of the summer was to work on my writing skills so that I could do live on air updates. The way the station works is that at the beginning of every hour and every half hour mark there is a two minute update that gives very quick highlights on the previous night’s games, upcoming games for that day, or any breaking news within the last couple hours. The hardest thing I had to learn from doing this was trying to decide what news came first. People in the Memphis market are likely to want to hear basketball news first, then football, and other sports after that. Also in time I learned that my writing had to be simple and quick, yet informative, because I only had two minutes to do these updates, and throw in thirty seconds to read an advertisement, so really I only had a little over a minute of writing I had to have. Unfortunately I was never able to get on air to do an update, but as the summer progressed I did see an improvement in my writing skills, which I know is very practical and will help me in the near future.
Follow Matthew on Twitter @mjschwrt
One of the cool tasks I was given was to answer phone calls from fans or when the various shows would have guests come on. I got the chance to speak with notable people such as University of Memphis head men’s basketball coach Josh Pastner, Grizzlies General Manager Chris Wallace, Grizzlies color commentator Sean Tuohy, and some athletes such as Grizzlies Guard Tony Wroten, Toronto Blue Jays Pitcher and former University of Tennessee star R.A. Dickey just to a name a few. The important thing for me that I had to remember about being in this situation is that you cannot get star struck. It is important to act professionally and speak to these people as if they are any regular person. I can say my initial thoughts were thinking about how cool it was that I got to speak with these people, but then I quickly realized I had to get them set up so that they could get onto to the show.
The final thing I was asked to do towards the end of the summer was to work on my writing skills so that I could do live on air updates. The way the station works is that at the beginning of every hour and every half hour mark there is a two minute update that gives very quick highlights on the previous night’s games, upcoming games for that day, or any breaking news within the last couple hours. The hardest thing I had to learn from doing this was trying to decide what news came first. People in the Memphis market are likely to want to hear basketball news first, then football, and other sports after that. Also in time I learned that my writing had to be simple and quick, yet informative, because I only had two minutes to do these updates, and throw in thirty seconds to read an advertisement, so really I only had a little over a minute of writing I had to have. Unfortunately I was never able to get on air to do an update, but as the summer progressed I did see an improvement in my writing skills, which I know is very practical and will help me in the near future.
Follow Matthew on Twitter @mjschwrt