How to Improve Your Skillset During Quarantine
Quarantine. Social Distancing. Coronavirus. COVID-19. That’s all that’s flooding our feeds, our inboxes, and unfortunately our lives. There’s no doubt how big of an impact…
Read article
Questions to ask a coach in a post-game show
In November 2016, Sportscaster Life wrote about questions to ask a coach before a game. It’s consistently one of the most searched for and asked…
Scripting: When It’s Okay To Read Prepared Text
We work in a business which relies on our skills to swifly describe what we see to those who aren’t in attendence, so it might…
Broadcast Prep: How to cover the bare essentials
In an ideal world, your broadcast prep would be expansive, detailed, well researched and organized in a way that allows you to easily reference or…
Be Ready for Anything when you’re on air
Sports is something where anything can happen, and as sports broadcasters, we have to be ready for anything that might occur before, during or after…
Tips on Being a Helpful Sportscast Host
At times, being on the road can be rather stressful for a sportscaster. Whether it’s a new venue that you’ve never been to before or…
Preparing for a major broadcast
A few weeks ago, the eyes of the state of Indiana were on New Palestine High School. Charlie Spegal, the Dragons’ senior running back, entered the…
My Pocket Notebook Makes Me a Better Sportscaster
Anyone who’s known me long enough knows that since high school, some 13 years ago, I’ve always had a small notebook tucked in my back…
Broadcast backups for when things go wrong
The single most important thing a broadcaster can do is prepare. You’ll see it all the time in spotting charts and research on teams and…
Talking with Coaches After Tough Incident
One of the most challenging aspects of sportscasting has to be dealing with coaches. If there is a bigger ‘chalk and cheese’ in sports media,…
Three Packing Tips for Sportscasters
For many sportscasters, travel comes with calling games. Whether it’s a quick trip down the road to the high school gym, or a cross continental…
Calling Games Solo vs With Colour Analyst
There is a huge difference between calling games on your own and having a colour analyst in the booth with you. Chances are throughout a…
Handling Training Camp as a Sportscaster
Late August and early September mean many hockey, football and basketball teams are holding their annual training camp. It’s an opportunity to shift back into…
Prep for a New Season and Four Things to Consider
If you’re like me, August means two things. Hot temperatures with plenty of time in the area lake/river/ocean. And secondly, having one eye on the…
Staying “On” During the Off-Season
If you’re a fall/winter sportscaster like me, you may be smack in the middle of a much-deserved off-season. If you’re a spring and summer sportscaster…
How to Achieve Great Basketball Prep
Today we’re talking preparation, specifically basketball prep. Prep is arguably the single most important aspects of sportscasting. You can be an average play-caller and have…
Dealing with a Difficult Coach
So I want to tell a story. This happened to me a few years back where I ran into a coach who didn’t see eye…
Working Towards Your Big Break in Broadcasting
A year and a half out of school, my life in the broadcasting world has been a blur. The same can be said for friends…
What Questions should you ask a Coach before a game?
The pre-game interview. It can be a fantastic addition to a pre-game show or like trying to extract your own wisdom teeth with a pair…
Get the Most from your Pre and Post-Game Shows
Every broadcast should start with one, and every broadcast should end with one. It’s not a whistle, or a buzzer or a gun….it’s a ‘show’,…
Vin Scully’s Prep Techniques
On Monday we talked about Vin Scully’s final game, final year and final call of his illustrious career. However in the process of gathering articles…
Soccer Cheat Sheets: Arlo White
A while back I shared a beautiful set of spotting boards and scoresheets that were produced by BBC’s Nick Barnes. The feature was done by…
Sportscasting Advice from Basketball Broadcaster
I stumbled upon the blog of college basketball announcer Adam Young recently. In search for information on spotting boards, I found a series of posts…
Soccer Cheat Sheets: Nick Barnes
I love what you can find when you’re not looking for it. When doing some research and scouting around for some imagery on another story,…
Using Google News Alerts for Better Prep
Being a sportscaster is a tough tough job. You’ve got to be eloquent, knowledgeable, expressive and trustworthy. You have to manage your emotions, but convey…
How to Prep for Games When Info is Unavailable?
This post stems from a conversation I had with fellow hockey broadcaster Jonathan Kliment. Kliment reached out to Sportscaster Life to discuss prep techniques, namely…
450+ Football & Basketball Describers
Logan Anderson’s blog “Say the Damn Score” has been on fire lately. His last two posts in particular are something to take note of for…
What is “Game Day” Like for a Sportscaster?
There was an interesting question on a popular Facebook group for Sportscasters the other day…what does your day of prep look like? There were other…
How to Format Broadcast Segments
My background in this industry, the on-camera side of things at least, is all from the school of life and practical experience. I never majored…
Video: Using Google Docs to Import Stats
In today’s blog, how to import stats into Excel when the original tutorial didn’t work. On some websites, the direct import to Excel feature doesn’t…
Interviews and Approaching Players
I was reading through the STAA forums recently when I came across a thread looking for help on how to approach players for interviews. Interviews are…
Emrick’s Game 5 Scoresheet
Known for his extensive vocabulary and his unique delivery of the game, lead NBC announcer Doc Emrick is often considered in a class of his…
Tips for Memorizing Rosters
It can be the toughest part of a broadcasters job, memorizing every fact and tidbit possible about every player so that it’s available at a…
Bruins Announcer Jack Edwards Detailed Prep
A lot of words have been used to describe Edwards, with things like ‘homer’ among them, but he is also incredibly detailed and well researched…
The Art of the Interview
Interviews are a huge part of a sports broadcasters job. Whether it’s intermission or half-time features or your own talk radio show the art of…
What are spotting boards?
A spotting board is usually an over-sized, one page chart of all players on a team. It is more useful in some sports than in…
“Talk About” Your Interview
Scott Feschuk with Sportsnet Magazine featured a great article about reporters getting lazy with their questions: We’re big believers that your best columnists have to…
Auto-update team stats from web in Excel
Do you spend hours collecting and transcribing information from team and league websites, into a format that’s easily accessible when you’re on air? Did you…
Using VLOOKUP to search stats
Excel can be a powerful tool to help collect and organize information for your broadcasts. The follow video is a step by step tutorial on…
Broadcasters Edge
Broadcasters Edge is a spotting board program, designed to help broadcasters collect information on players, teams and games, and organize them in an efficient manner.…