EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
This semester, I interned at SportsRadio 94WIP, a sports talk radio station located in Old City, Philadelphia. The station’s address is 400 E. Market Street 9th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19106. My supervisor for the semester was Mike Brown, the assistant promotions director. I had four learning objectives: to learn the process and components of putting together a sports talk radio show for a widespread public audience, to understand how sports talk in a city differs from sports talk done on a national scale, to explore the role of a promotions worker and their contribution to a sports talk station, andto better understand the role and practice of a host/co-host of a sports talk radio show.
Work/Projects
Assistant Producer
Mike and Ike Show, Monday-Friday, 10 am-1 pm
I was the assistant producer for the Mike and Ike Show, which airs Monday-Friday from 10 am-1 pm. One hour before the show, I would help Mike Barkann, Ike Reese, and the show’s producer, Eric “Turtle” Golden to compile topics for the show, as well as figure out statistics that could be useful to back up opinions and discussion on those topics. During the show, I would give Mike and Ike stats and clarification of facts and figures that they needed as they would discuss them on air, while also scouring Twitter and various websites for the latest sports news that could be discussed on air. If the two of them would be out on a “remote” broadcast that was not in studio, I was in charge of taking calls from listeners and filtering them through to be on hold to go live on the show. After shows, I would also sometimes call listeners who had won the daily prize given out that day in order to obtain their necessary information for our prize sheet.
Promotions Assistant
On Fridays, I worked in the promotions department under Mike Brown and Vince Quinn. My main task was to call prize winners to inform them that their prize was ready, get information for our prize sheets, or to remind them to come pick up their prize before the passing of the deadline to do so. I also organized a lot of the prizes as they would come into the station for distribution, while also storing away prizes for later times as well. My main projects I would do involved cutting air checks, which were clips from the shows where the host would mention a liner of promotional content that had been given to him. These air checks get sent to that organization to let them know that they were promoted on the air, and can sometimes be used for their own promotional purposes.
2010 - present
2010 - present
I learned that you can never underestimate the value of strong preparation when putting together a talk show for radio, especially in comparison to not having a structured plan of what to talk about, but that sometimes structure flies out the window based on what the callers want to talk about. When guest host Glen Macnow and Ike put together a structured outline of how they wanted to discuss topics and how long they were going to stick to them, it made the show very structured compared to the looser format that is usually in place when Mike and Ike are on together. However, the looser format is very helpful if callers want to talk about a certain topic for the duration of the show, as well as when news breaks. For example, when DeSean Jackson was released by the Philadelphia Eagles, most of the shows for a good week or so were dominated discussion the implications of Jackson’s release and how the fans felt about it. Another example of a change in format was when A.J. Burnett was signed as a free agent by the Philadelphia Phillies, which prompted a whole new topic for the final half hour of the show on that particular day. Structured planning is a very good thing and can help a normal show flow very easily, but flexibility is also important to prepare for topics that may be particularly harped on by the listeners or news that breaks.
The other big lesson that I learned in my time working at the station is that doing the little things really does pay off if you do them with the right attitude and an enthusiasm for them. My supervisors, both in promotions and on the show, were always complimentary of the fact that I sought work to do—both from them and on my own in ways that I felt would be helpful to the station. Surprisingly, I found that many of the interns they have currently in my positions are not always quite as motivated to find work or seek out how they can help out in their position, and instead look for perks whenever they can. It was a reminder to me that having a good attitude about things can be a real breath of fresh air, especially in a place that can sometimes get a bit negative or cynical.
Learning
Future Plans
This experience working in a sports talk radio station reaffirmed a few things for me. For starters, I know for certain now that I am definitely going to have to work my way up a “ladder” of sorts to get myself on air in a big market, especially after hearing Mike Barkann tell me about his experience getting into broadcasting and by watching many of the people working smaller jobs at the station who have aspirations of being on air someday but are not at that point as of yet. It will be a process for me to be able to talk sports and have my own show for a big market, meaning I may have to take smaller jobs in order to get to that point. I think my ambition of being a play-by-play sportscaster was also reaffirmed by having this experience. Having my own talk show would be really great, and I would have no qualms with doing that. However, doing it every weekday every week would also become a very monotonous thing, and knowing how I do not like to get stagnant, I have a feeling that pursuing being on air for the sporting events themselves would have more variety and appeal to me. Mike himself encouraged me to pursue that if that is my true hope and ambition, so I am going to do my best to strive after it.
Based on how my advisors reacted, it sounds like the work I did on my on-job integrity is continuing to develop and grow, especially with seeking work and to do a quality job on it. That was a very encouraging thing to hear from them, and I hope I continue to improve and show that quality in other areas of my life. However, I think balancing of my time between my work life and down time needs to continue to be developed. I had a good rhythm going for about a month, but after a while I lost the consistency I had in keeping a structured schedule outside of my work life like I was trying to do. This really hurt my devotional time that I had built into my day, as that deteriorated as the semester progressed. I am planning on continuing to develop this though, so I am hopeful it will be a work in progress and improve in the future.
Preparation/Recommendations
Though my journalism classes had me mostly prepared for print experiences, they did a very good job of emphasizing the importance of fact-checking and getting the news accurate and correct. This was especially important for me when I would scour the internet for the latest stories, as well as when I tried to confirm a fact or statistic that Mike and/or Ike wanted to use on the air. Additionally, my experience gained in A/V Newsgathering on editing audio clips proved valuable for me when I was cutting air checks for the radio station, since I was using Audacity as the main program to do this task and I was already familiar with it from my time at Messiah. The overall background I had on good journalism principles and ethics carried over to contributing to the talk show, since it can be its own form of journalism at times and needs accuracy and a good perspective in order to properly function.
I would highly recommend a station of 94WIP’s caliber to students who are looking to blend broadcasting and journalism together in a recognized, big-name setting. The experience I have gained there and the connections I have made have been invaluable. I hope other students creatively seek big opportunities like this one to help further their future journalism and broadcasting ambitions.
