THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

MY JOURNEY TO BECOME A FEMALE SPORTSCASTER

“I want your job!”  It’s a comment I get A LOT.  Many want my job, but few people are willing to put in the hard work to get there.  A steady stream of young aspiring female sports reporters contact me wanting advice on how to do what I do.  Most of them cringe when I tell them my story.

A job in sports media may look glamorous, but it involves a lot of groveling.  Dealing with egomaniac narcissists isn’t always fun.  Forget a social life or having weekends and holidays off.  Your life revolves around the sports you cover.  Some hopeful sports reporters I counsel seem mainly interested in rubbing elbows with professional athletes.  There are also the occasional young women I advise who are passionate and knowledgeable about sports.  It’s rewarding to be able to pay it forward to those with the right passion.

Twenty plus years ago I was like the latter.. dreaming of a career covering sports.  Growing up in Southern California, I spent countless hours with my brother and father watching our beloved Los Angeles Lakers and Dodgers.  I studied broadcasting at Pepperdine University, but was clueless as to how to get my career started after graduating.  Back then women in sports media were an anomaly.  I knew I needed to start in a small television market, but wondered who would hire a female for a sports department of one.

I wrote letters, actual letters not emails, to the only women I saw covering sports on television, Linda Cohn at ESPN and Lesley Visserat CBS Sports.  Amazingly, Ms. Cohn called me one week later.  She was gracious and encouraging.  Her advice was to never pass up an opportunity to be in front of the camera or be involved in anything sports media related.  She also stressed the importance of networking.  Ms. Visser wrote back with similar advice.  The fact these successful women would take the time to encourage me gave me a big boost of confidence.

I quickly got internships at the ABC Channel 7 sports department in Los Angeles and at Prime Ticket (which became Prime Sports, which became Fox Sports.)  I had a full-time job as a travel agent and then as a marketing assistant at the Los Angeles Clippers, but spent most of my evenings at my internships.  I enticed the production crews with cookies and lasagna to allow me to jump in front of the camera on set and in the field.  It took some time, but I eventually had a decent looking resume tape.  I constantly scanned the industry magazine, Broadcast Media, for job postings.  Over time I collected a two-inch thick file of rejection letters. 

It wasn’t until I suffered a broken heart that I finally went all out.  I was desperate to prove to myself and to the man who broke my heart that I was capable of achieving my audacious dream.   It was my “TV sports career or bust” tour. I put my belongings in storage, packed up my car and started driving.  I targeted the Pacific Northwest as my region of choice to land my first television job. 

The Internet was in its early stages.  There were no station websites.  I looked up television stations in a directory and called new directors as I drove through the small towns of Redding and Yreka, California, Medford, Oregon and Yakima, Washington.  I asked for five minutes of their time to introduce myself and drop off a resume tape.  Some news directors were too busy to see me, others gave me a few minutes.  None had any openings.

I ended up in Portland, Oregon where a college friend lived.  My meager savings were running out so I took the only short-term job I could find, working at a temp agency.  I ended up answering phones at a construction site.  Not my dream job.  However, one day I was looking through the classifieds in the local newspaper and spotted an ad for a television reporter.  A cable station in Vancouver, WA was hiring for their small budget newscast.  They were also looking for a sports reporter/anchor.

I got the job and finally had my first on-camera television job.  It was part-time and only paid $7.00 an hour, but it was a start.  During the year I was employed at Columbia Cable I also worked as a waitress, a nanny, a shoe salesperson and a radio reporter.  Television didn’t come close to paying the bills. 

When I got desperate for a full-time gig I hit the road again.  The news director at KEZI-TV, the ABC station in Eugene, OR agreed to meet with me.  He didn’t have any openings, but was friendly and liked my resume tape.  Before leaving I asked if I could call him occasionally to check his job opening status.  I called every other Thursday at 3 p.m.  We developed a friendly rapport over the next few months.  Then one day he called me for the first time.  His weekend sports anchor wanted to move into news.  Was I still interested in a job?  Absolutely!

After three years in Eugene honing my craft covering two PAC-10 schools and an NBA team, the Portland Trailblazers, I was fortunate enough to land a job in Phoenix, Arizona, a top 20-television market.  Thanks to networking I’m in my 15^th year at FOX 10. 

This is my advice to those who want my job.  Do everything you can to prepare yourself to take advantage when an opportunity presents itself.  Pick a region or area with small television markets to focus on.  Don’t wait until there is a job opening to show your potential boss you want to work for them.  Small market news directors have so much employee turnover they already know who they want to hire before the job is even posted.  Don’t be in a rush to work in a big market.  Make your rookie mistakes where your audiences are smaller.  Keep the dream alive.  Persistence plus passion= payoff.