Apologies for the lack of blogginess around here. Is that a word? Probably not.
Behind the Scenes of the Sports Department
This is my least favorite time of the year! The first few weeks of August, the semi-calm before the storm. I am a "go get it done, let's do it right now," type of person. I would rather have 100 things going on right now, than sit around and wait a week for half that amount.
With football season nearly upon us, a cyclone hits my sports department at the radio station. First off, I have to wrangle sports commercials/liners from our sales staff, cross check them, organize them into teams, etc. Fortunately, over the last couple years someone has done that part for me, but it is still something that gives me great anxiety.
I have four high school broadcasts to organize every Friday, and some college football Saturdays for the Monmouth College Fighting Scots. First and foremost, I make sure the athletic directors at each school know my crews are coming. That is a process that begins in July, using snail mail to send out broadcast permission letters. Many AD's get right back to me, but I still call or email the week of the event to confirm, especially for the late season games with the amount of time that has passed since that initial letter was opened.
This year, I am compiling conference preview shows. These are one-hour shows featuring interviews with most head coaches in the team's conferences that we cover (Western Big 6, West Central, and Lincoln Trail). Interviews have been conducted over the past few weeks, and production of the shows should begin early to mid week.
My biggest pain in the neck (even moreso than the sports liners), is the equipment organization. Much preparation is needed on a weekly basis, mainly due to the fact that I am the only broadcaster that works at the station. Pickups and dropoffs are crucial, and I have a grid for the nine weeks of the season, denoting which crew will use what equipment. In small market radio, equipment is a premium, so I must get very creative in certain instances.
The one thing that I didn't have to worry much about over the summer was gathering a crew of four play-by-play announcers. Sure, there were some anxious moments at times, but everything has worked out (fingers continue to be crossed). I have three other play-by-play guys with years of experience and professionalism, and for the first time in my years as a sports director, I am comfortable and confident with the guys I have in place. That was key, because too often in my career have I had to answer troubleshooting phone calls, or worse yet, give directions to a field/gym, as I am preparing to go on air for my own broadcast.
Those are the biggest stressors I endure in the weeks and months leading into the football broadcast season. Sure, there are many more....unfortunately....many more!
Galesburg Silver Streaks on 1590 WAIK
Over the last two seasons, I have broadcasted Galesburg sports sparingly, but took over play-by-play duties for the girl's basketball team full time last season. This season, I will be broadcasting all Silver Streaks athletics on 1590 WAIK. It is always tough to leave a team or a conference you have covered for a few seasons, but it's great to jump onto a new team/conference, and see different teams. I have really enjoyed working with the coaches and players at Galesburg High School, and I am excited to work Streaks games all season.
We will be doing some fun things this fall on WAIK Streaks football broadcasts. I will be handling the play-by-play, and for the second season we will have a local celebrity guest announcer doing the color commentary (more on this idea below). For the kickoff next Friday, there will be a one-hour pregame show with interviews with the coaches from the Western Big 6, along with a short pregame show featuring information on the opponent, Chicago Academy. Each week during the pregame show, I will talk with sophomore coach Jake Miller, and defensive coordinator Shawn Hickey will join me in the postgame show. If all goes well, Nate Williams will be bringing listeners some tidbits from the sidelines as our sideline reporter, and will get a few comments from head coach Wes Olson after the game. Nate plays football at Knox College and is a Canton High School graduate. I look forward to working with him, and helping him in a career in sports journalism.
Celebrity Guest Announcer Idea
I love to tell the story on how this idea was born. It was the brainchild of my former assistant, Joe Roderick. Joe is now hosting a sports show on Team 1380 in St. Louis. I was having an extreme difficulty at finding a color commentator last summer for Streaks football. I had feelers out everywhere, and could just not tackle one down for the entire season. Joe and I are both avid professional wrestling fans (insert laughing here!). At the time, the WWE had a guest host on Monday Night Raw each week. Joe walked into my office and said, "I have an idea for our color commentator." I listened, and he explained that we should do something like the Raw guest host. I scoffed at the idea, nearly laughing him out of my office. He insisted, and I took an hour to think about it, and decided it could be a unique idea. It paid off, as it had a great reception. Joe, your yearly royalty check for $0.0001 is in the mail.
More on WAIK
Taking a page out of several radio stations' books, 1590 WAIK will be rebroadcasting a high school football game on Saturday morning. Longtime broadcaster Jason Bates, of Galva, approached me early in the summer questioning if it would be possible that the new Mid-County Cougars (Galva/Williamsfield/ROWVA) co-op could get on the air somehow. There were details that needed to be ironed out, and in the end, we made it happen. Jason will be providing the play-by-play on nearly every game this season, with ROWVA athletic director Jason Danner providing the commentary. Bates and I met at Buffalo Wild Wings in Galesburg on Friday to discuss some of the intricacies of the broadcasts, troubleshooting, equipment, commercials, and how the broadcasts will generally work on a weekly basis. There is a possibility that these Mid-County games will be broadcast online on Friday nights, live. They will then be aired on Saturday mornings on the radio (1590 WAIK) at 9:00 a.m. Of course, they will also be available on www.1590waik.com at that time on Saturday mornings.
New Website
The new IHSSN website is beginning to take shape. Donnie Laur (of 618football.com and illinoispigskin.com fame), who is redesigning the website, has been sharing the template with me over the past few days, and I am extremely excited for its debut. The reason I waited nearly two years for this to happen, was to find the right person for the job. I needed someone that could meet me in the middle, per se. I don't understand computer talk....whatsoever! I know enough to put IHSSN on the web and make updates and do some small things. It looks bad, but it's the content that I care about. Now, as the audience grows, it needs to have a more professional look.....and it sure will! In all of our conversations, it may take a couple emails to explain either side, but in the end we are able to understand what each side is thinking. Many of the web designers I talked with were not very clear, could not "dumb it down" from computer-speak to layman's terms. To Donnie Laur, I commend you for that!
Video Streaming
Tonight, I will be testing out video streaming at the Monmouth-Roseville Gatorade scrimmage. I had a meeting last week with Kevin Sander of iHigh.com. At first, it didn't seem like we were looking at the same thing, in terms of what he thought I should do, and what I wanted to do. After a good meeting (enjoying a Crappy Burger from Crappy's in Galesburg), we came to a pretty good consensus. There are still some questions I have, but essentially I am happy with one iHigh could provide, and vice versa. Kevin will be traveling back down from the suburbs tonight with his camera equipment, to show me some of the details first hand.
IHSSN.net Classics
Over the past few days, I have been uploading some old radio broadcasts of games. They are located on the IHSSN Classics page (http://www.ihssn.net/ihssnclassics.htm). In the beginning, this was to place just the "classic" games online. There are certainly some of those, but I am now putting up old games, some classic, some not so much. If any broadcaster or radio station out there would like old games placed online, please email me at ihssn@hotmail.com. Certainly, your radio station/broadcaster will be credited.
Previews
Due to some other things going on, the previews have slowed down. I will be working on a few this weekend, so keep checking back.
Your One-Stop Site for Online Football Broadcasts
I am still compiling the list of week one online broadcasts for next Friday night. Any radio station out there, or online broadcaster, that I have not yet emailed, please drop me a line at ihssn@hotmail.com to get your online broadcasts posted on IHSSN. I am aiming at Sunday (tomorrow) night, to have the old schedule up. It will look like last year for the first week, as it was last season. For week two, the new IHSSN.net should be launched, so it will have a much different look.
IHSSN Football Coaches Poll
The IHSSN.net Football Coaches Preseason Polls will debut on Wednesday. Any coaches that have not voted, you have until Tuesday (8:00 p.m.) to vote. Any head coach or assistant coach is eligible to vote. Email ihssnfootball@hotmail.com to put in your vote (top ten for any class you are comfortable in voting for).
The End
That's about all that's going on right now. There should be some coverage this upcoming week from soccer and volleyball, and of course Friday night football. Stay tuned!!!
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