Sports TV Anchoring

ben-higgins

An Interview with Ben Higgins, KGTV

KGTV 10 San Diego Sports Director Ben Higgins shares some tricks of the trade, explains why it is important to interact with the athletes he covers, and tells us how he transitioned from radio to TV sportscasting.

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mary jo perino

An Interview with Mary Jo Perino, Freelance Sportscaster

TV sportscaster Mary Jo Perino shares why it’s important to know your audience, when to cover national stories on a local sportscast, and an easy trap for young sportscasters to avoid.

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Videos & Additional Sports TV Resources

Group Critique 26: March 2019

Fitting that a month of March Madness should feature an all-basketball edition of the Group Critique with both radio and TV Play-by-Play up for review.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • Where pauses will quickly improve your basketball play-by-play.
  • The two most important differences between radio & TV play-by-play.
  • How to handle one of the biggest play-by-play challenges.
  • Suggestions for overcoming a nasally delivery.
  • A common word to avoid in your play-by-play.
  • When to mention which team has the ball other than after a change of possession.

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Group Critique 23: December 2018

Ho ho hope you pick up some useful tips from this month’s group critique session. Radio critiques of basketball and football play-by-play plus a double helping of football TV play-by-play.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • When using the shot clock becomes a PBP crutch
  • How to tell if you’ve prepared well for your football broadcast
  • When to watch the field and when to watch the monitor

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Group Critique 21: October 2018

It sounds like fall! This month’s radio group features plenty of football play-by-play critiques with a sprinkle of baseball. Meanwhile the TV play-by-play side digs into baseball and basketball.

What you’ll learn in the radio portion:

  • How your favorite words can quickly become cliche
  • Advice for using your voice to underscore drama
  • A habit you should develop for all scoring plays
  • The common three letter word to eliminate from your play-by-play vocabulary.

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Group Critique 19: August 2018

The final Group Critique for the summer of 2018 features radio and TV baseball play-by-play, with a solitary football radio clip to get you ready for the upcoming season.

What you’ll learn:

  • Ideas for baseball description beyond game mechanics
  • Why top level employers might think you didn’t prep enough for a football broadcast
  • An example of consistently weaving storylines into baseball PBP
  • Suggestions for coaching up your TV analyst
  • Are you falling into the single-camera webcast trap?

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Group Critique 17: April 2018

On the radio side Jon critiques basketball, football, and hockey play-by-play. TV critiques include basketball play-by-play and a sports anchor/reporter reel.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • A great example of basketball description
  • What to say while you work on ID’ing the tackler
  • How to use time and score to build drama on a TV PBP broadcast
  • Why your facial expressions add to your sportscast

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Group Critique 16: February 2018

It must be basketball season! This month’s session is almost exclusively basketball PBP (including a TV demo)… with a little sports talk hosting to spice things up.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • The phrase that might be softening your sports talk opinions
  • When the shot clock becomes mandatory info in basketball PBP
  • A good example of when it’s okay to fall a count or two behind
  • Types of description to leave out of a TV PBP broadcast

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Group Critique 13: August 2017

This month our Group Critique includes radio and TV demos. Under radio we have plenty of baseball PBP, football PBP, and an interview. On the TV side Jon reviews basketball and baseball play-by-play.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • The question you must answer to turn your broadcast into a story
  • One thing to track in football PBP
  • How often to reset an interview guest
  • How long to your questions should be during an interview
  • A good example of providing captions in TV PBP

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Group Critique 10: Winter 2017

The first Group Critique of 2017 packs a punch with plenty of radio and TV critiques. The radio session covers sports talk, football, basketball and baseball play-by-play. For the TV crowd Jon reviews hockey, a sports anchor/reporter reel, soccer and basketball.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • Why you need to structure your post game show
  • How to add clarity when you give the time and score
  • What to do if you feel like you need to speak faster in basketball PBP
  • An illustration of PBP character development
  • Aiming for the bigs? Discover why you need to add pitch type and location to your PBP
  • A great example of voice control in hockey PBP
  • The facial expression you must use as a sports TV anchor/reporter

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Interview: Mel Proctor, Former MLB Baseball TV Broadcaster

Mel Proctor is the former TV voice of the Orioles, Padres, Nationals and Washington Bullets, among other teams. He is also the author of I Love the Work But I Hate the Business. In this interview Mel shares how he balanced family and a career on the road, why a sense of humor is crucial to a sportscasting career, how to handle executives who don’t know broadcasting, and more.

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