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The Boradcaster's Journey Episode #2 · The Broadcaster's Journey

0:11
Speaker 1: The Broadcaster's Journey Podcast, episode number two. My name is
0:15
Speaker 1: Ricky Shuzeri, your host once again here today for episode
0:19
Speaker 1: number two, where the theme is going to be centered
0:22
Speaker 1: around never being too old or too young to pick
0:26
Speaker 1: up the microphone. You can pick it up at any
0:28
Speaker 1: point in your career. and you can still be successful.
0:33
Speaker 1: Episode number one, we discussed a lot about how to
0:37
Speaker 1: become a professional sports broadcaster, how to get those reps,
0:41
Speaker 1: and to just never say no. Always say yes, right?
0:44
Speaker 1: Ken Lavica was a great broadcaster's journey episode. One podcast
0:48
Speaker 1: interview guest, the 19-year play-by-play voice for the Florida Atlantic
0:53
Speaker 1: University Owls men's basketball team and their football team, So
0:57
Speaker 1: we were actually extremely grateful to get him on the podcast.
0:59
Speaker 1: That is a huge get. That is a big get
1:02
Speaker 1: for this podcast. You know, that's a big-time name in
1:04
Speaker 1: the broadcasting industry. But now here today, we're going to
1:09
Speaker 1: get somebody who doesn't have as much experience but still
1:12
Speaker 1: has loads of valuable information to share. It is the
1:17
Speaker 1: Broadcasters Journey Podcast, episode number two, where the theme for
1:22
Speaker 1: this one is all about never... Never forgetting those dreams,
1:27
Speaker 1: you know? You can always pick up the microphone. It's
1:32
Speaker 1: never too late to pick up the microphone. That's the
1:33
Speaker 1: real theme. There it is. The Broadcaster's Journey at Podcast
1:37
Speaker 1: Episode 2 is going to be centered around finding ways
1:40
Speaker 1: to put yourself out there, finding ways to get those
1:43
Speaker 1: real in-person reps. We will discuss all the tools you'll
1:47
Speaker 1: need to make something like that happen. Our interview guest
1:50
Speaker 1: will be someone who started their broadcasting career a bit
1:52
Speaker 1: later than most, However, he still found a way to
1:55
Speaker 1: get out there and get those reps on the microphone.
2:01
Speaker 1: Once again, hello all and welcome on in to the
2:04
Speaker 1: Broadcaster's Journey podcast. My name is Ricky Suzari again, your
2:08
Speaker 1: host here for the Broadcaster's Journey podcast, episode number two,
2:11
Speaker 1: where the theme is it is never too late to
2:12
Speaker 1: be picking up the microphone. You can always start your
2:15
Speaker 1: broadcasting career no matter the age. Now, we got a
2:18
Speaker 1: great one on our hands here today because You know,
2:21
Speaker 1: we've got a great guest who has lots of experience
2:25
Speaker 1: and he's got so much he wants to share, right?
2:27
Speaker 1: But first, we got to recap last week just a
2:29
Speaker 1: little bit because we have so much to unfold here.
2:33
Speaker 1: Like I just said, Ken Lavica, he was great. The
2:37
Speaker 1: 19-year play-by-play voice of the Florida Atlantic University men's basketball
2:40
Speaker 1: team and the football team. So we really just couldn't
2:42
Speaker 1: have asked for a better guest to have on the podcast.
2:44
Speaker 1: You know, just a big-time, get a big-time name in
2:46
Speaker 1: the broadcasting industry. Great connection for me to have, and
2:49
Speaker 1: he shares loads of valuable information with me in the podcast,
2:52
Speaker 1: in the broadcasting industry as well. Great get. Love to
2:56
Speaker 1: having him, right? The biggest thing he talked about was
2:59
Speaker 1: getting those reps and saying yes. You're never too big
3:02
Speaker 1: for an opportunity, right? Now, here's a good example I
3:05
Speaker 1: like to put out there because this is somewhat referring
3:07
Speaker 1: to what he had mentioned, right? Say you are a
3:10
Speaker 1: primary play-by-play guy for basketball, right, like most people are,
3:15
Speaker 1: and you get a call. You get a call for
3:17
Speaker 1: a gig. doing camera work to film field hockey. Like,
3:25
Speaker 1: you're not going to want to do that crap, right?
3:27
Speaker 1: Of course you're not. No one's going to want to
3:29
Speaker 1: do that. But you have to say yes, because it's
3:33
Speaker 1: about those reps, it's about the opportunities, it's about the experience,
3:36
Speaker 1: it's about getting your foot in the door, right? It
3:38
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what position you have. In the room, are
3:41
Speaker 1: you in the room? Yes, you're in the room. Bam,
3:45
Speaker 1: you're important. Another example building off of that. Somebody asks
3:50
Speaker 1: you if you could do play-by-play for a Division I
3:54
Speaker 1: college on a game that will be streamed on ESPN +,
3:58
Speaker 1: but it is for water polo in Nebraska. Now, obviously,
4:06
Speaker 1: you know nothing about water polo, and obviously, you live
4:09
Speaker 1: nowhere close to Nebraska. I mean, come on, man.
4:12
Speaker 2: Who lives out in Nebraska?
4:14
Speaker 1: But you got to just be realistic with yourself, man.
4:17
Speaker 1: If you're getting that play-by-play opportunity to call a Division
4:20
Speaker 1: I support on ESPN, how could you pass that up?
4:22
Speaker 1: You got to go. You got to make the trip.
4:23
Speaker 1: You got to say, oh, yeah, man, I was actually
4:26
Speaker 1: planning on going to Nebraska that weekend anyway. So, you know,
4:29
Speaker 1: that just works out perfect. I'd love to call that game, right? And,
4:32
Speaker 1: I mean, you just go out there and you do it.
4:34
Speaker 1: You do it, man. You do it. There's no saying no.
4:36
Speaker 1: There's always saying yes. You go out there and you
4:38
Speaker 1: do it. You know, I learned so much of that.
4:42
Speaker 1: You know, I recently, the way I learned about Ken,
4:44
Speaker 1: the way me and Ken were introduced to one another
4:46
Speaker 1: was from the ESPN broadcaster, Rich Hollenberg, who actually just
4:50
Speaker 1: called Duke versus Kansas on ESPN in their last exhibition
4:55
Speaker 1: game of the season not too long ago for his
4:59
Speaker 1: breaking and breakthrough cohort, which he does for six weeks
5:01
Speaker 1: every Sunday night for about an hour session. It's a
5:05
Speaker 1: great thing. You guys should all do it if you can.
5:06
Speaker 1: You got the opportunity to do it. That's 1,000% something
5:08
Speaker 1: I recommend doing. But that was one of the biggest
5:12
Speaker 1: things he did was he would go out. If he
5:15
Speaker 1: got a crazy opportunity somewhere, he would go and do it.
5:17
Speaker 1: You know, he was a go-getter. He would go do it, right?
5:22
Speaker 1: And he wasn't going to wait around and sit for
5:23
Speaker 1: opportunities to come to him. He'd go get them, and
5:25
Speaker 1: if some opportunity did come to him, he'd go attack it,
5:28
Speaker 1: and he'd demolish it. That's how you get up into
5:30
Speaker 1: the ESPN ranks, and that's how you call Duke versus
5:32
Speaker 1: Kansas basketball. Now, we're going to talk a little bit
5:38
Speaker 1: about how I got my reps back. because we talked
5:41
Speaker 1: about it somewhat in detail in the episode one when
5:45
Speaker 1: Ken Lavica was our guest, right? But we didn't fully
5:50
Speaker 1: dive into detail about how I've gotten my reps and
5:53
Speaker 1: what I've done with my reps and what the decisions
5:55
Speaker 1: I've had to make were and how difficult those decisions
6:00
Speaker 1: were to be making because, you know, they weren't easy
6:02
Speaker 1: at all right now. So let's do it. Let's talk
6:04
Speaker 1: about it just a little bit here. So first off,
6:06
Speaker 1: the biggest thing I did, I think I've told you
6:08
Speaker 1: this a little bit already, is I built a map, right?
6:10
Speaker 1: And I drew a large circle around Franklin, Massachusetts because
6:14
Speaker 1: that is where I knew I was going to be
6:16
Speaker 1: traveling to and fro for about 99.9999999% of the games
6:22
Speaker 1: I'm going to be calling for this fall semester, right?
6:23
Speaker 1: So that's the way I did it rather than doing
6:25
Speaker 1: my hometown, which I'm actually, funny enough, going to be
6:27
Speaker 1: calling a game from my hometown a few weeks from now.
6:29
Speaker 1: But that's beside the point. So take it to Franklin, right?
6:34
Speaker 1: Found the 20 closest schools to Franklin, Massachusetts. Probably could
6:37
Speaker 1: have even found a couple more if I really wanted to,
6:39
Speaker 1: but I went with the 20 closest. And there was
6:42
Speaker 1: only a few of them that were a little bit
6:43
Speaker 1: over an hour away. Most of them are around 40
6:46
Speaker 1: minutes to 50 minutes away, right? And so what I
6:52
Speaker 1: did was I reached out to all of these colleges, right?
6:55
Speaker 1: A couple of them, Division three, a couple of them,
6:57
Speaker 1: Division two, a couple of Division one. I knew those
6:59
Speaker 1: were shots in the dark. But again, like I said,
7:02
Speaker 1: if you can get a Division one opportunity doing anything,
7:04
Speaker 1: that's an unreal opportunity for you to have. But I
7:08
Speaker 1: reached out and I was saying how I am a
7:10
Speaker 1: senior and I would love to help them out with
7:14
Speaker 1: their broadcasting, athletic, communication, you know, just broadcasting their games
7:19
Speaker 1: as a play-by-play broadcaster, mentioned how I'd want to help them,
7:22
Speaker 1: how I'd love to help them, and how I would
7:25
Speaker 1: love to give the athletes, the athletic department, and the
7:28
Speaker 1: college the coverage it deserves because I don't feel as
7:32
Speaker 1: if that they are being covered well at the moment.
7:35
Speaker 1: That's not necessarily what I said, but that's kind of
7:38
Speaker 1: what I inferred in my email. I said, hey, man,
7:41
Speaker 1: you guys aren't really giving your guys the sauce they deserve.
7:43
Speaker 1: Let me come out there and cook up some heat
7:45
Speaker 1: and give them that chef and curry like they really deserve,
7:48
Speaker 1: because that's just the kind of guy I am. I
7:50
Speaker 1: show up to the workplace ready to ball out and
7:52
Speaker 1: work my tail off. And I've been known to do
7:55
Speaker 1: that for my entire life now. And so that's what
7:57
Speaker 1: I've done with these opportunities that I've been given. Right.
7:59
Speaker 1: You do that. You tell them that you're ready to
8:01
Speaker 1: work your tail off and then. So I had about
8:05
Speaker 1: five to six schools email me back. Funny enough, actually,
8:08
Speaker 1: in podcast episode number one of the broadcaster's journey when
8:12
Speaker 1: Ken Lapica was on, I talked a little bit about
8:14
Speaker 1: the fact that Roger Williams University, Rhode Island College, Worcester State,
8:23
Speaker 1: what were the other ones? Bridges College, obviously, that's the
8:25
Speaker 1: one I got the internship with right now, right? A
8:27
Speaker 1: lot of the schools reached out and a lot of
8:28
Speaker 1: them were positive, right? And now we've got another school
8:33
Speaker 1: reaching out. who reached out to me about maybe three
8:37
Speaker 1: weeks ago. It was Johnson and Wales University who reached
8:40
Speaker 1: out to me asking about some potential opportunities to call
8:43
Speaker 1: some men's ice hockey and men's basketball games, as well
8:46
Speaker 1: as some women's ice hockey and some women's basketball games, right?
8:49
Speaker 1: But it's just the ice hockey and the basketball thing.
8:52
Speaker 1: Those are the two biggest sports I'd love to call
8:54
Speaker 1: the most, you know? I mean, those are great opportunities
8:57
Speaker 1: to call.
8:57
Speaker 2: And I.
9:02
Speaker 1: The second I got that email, because he was one
9:04
Speaker 1: of the original schools I reached out to was Johnson
9:06
Speaker 1: and Wales. And they were one of the original schools
9:09
Speaker 1: that reached out to me and said that they had
9:10
Speaker 1: all their freelance positions filled. So I was like, ah,
9:13
Speaker 1: darn it, right? You know, that's unfortunate. But I had
9:18
Speaker 1: found a way to just not let that get down
9:21
Speaker 1: on me. And then he had reached out to me
9:23
Speaker 1: about a couple months later. And said we'd love to
9:26
Speaker 1: have you back. What are you going to do to
9:27
Speaker 1: maximize that opportunity. With Johnson and Wales. As well as
9:30
Speaker 1: your opportunity that you've already got with Regis. I'll tell
9:33
Speaker 1: you that right now. Continue to get as many reps
9:35
Speaker 1: as you possibly can. When your supervisor sends you the
9:38
Speaker 1: list of games. Quite literally do as many of them.
9:40
Speaker 1: As you're possibly physically. Or mentally able to do. Don't
9:46
Speaker 1: overdo it. But also overdo it. If you know what
9:49
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Right. Do whatever you can. to just do
9:55
Speaker 1: as much as you can, right? At the end of
9:58
Speaker 1: every game, be like, hey, anything I can do to
10:00
Speaker 1: help out? If they say no, then you're good to go.
10:02
Speaker 1: But if not, then ask around. Be like, hey, what's
10:05
Speaker 1: going on? Can I help you out with anything today?
10:06
Speaker 1: You need some help with something? Introduce yourself. Say, hi,
10:09
Speaker 1: how's it going? Say, what's your name? Nice to meet you.
10:11
Speaker 1: How long have you been with Regis College for? How
10:12
Speaker 1: long have you been with Johnson & Wales for? Well,
10:14
Speaker 1: I'm a senior at Dean College, so I've been here
10:16
Speaker 1: for the broadcasting industry for about four years now. You know,
10:19
Speaker 1: it's just small talk, simple little things like that. And
10:22
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you guys. I'm not good at
10:23
Speaker 1: small talk whatsoever, right? I could have a conversation start
10:26
Speaker 1: and die within 30 seconds. Like, I'm not lying. So
10:31
Speaker 1: you got to find ways to have that little simple
10:33
Speaker 1: in between. And you just you got to you got
10:41
Speaker 1: to make those connections, right? The big thing I say
10:44
Speaker 1: is make connections with anybody you can. You may be thinking,
10:47
Speaker 1: you're a broadcaster. Why would I go and talk to
10:49
Speaker 1: the janitor? Why would I go talk to the president
10:54
Speaker 1: of the school? Why would I go talk to the
10:57
Speaker 1: families and the parents? You know, you got to. That's
11:00
Speaker 1: the things you've got to do. If you want to
11:02
Speaker 1: be successful, if you want to get your name out there,
11:04
Speaker 1: you want to be heard, you want to be known,
11:06
Speaker 1: you want to be well-known, and for a good cause...
11:10
Speaker 1: I suggest making as many relationships. And as many connections
11:14
Speaker 1: as possible. At every opportunity. And at every spot you can.
11:17
Speaker 1: Regardless of any person's position. Because you never know who's
11:20
Speaker 1: going to be where. You never know who's going to
11:21
Speaker 1: be hiring who where. You never know. You just never
11:23
Speaker 1: know nothing. You never know who's going to be asking
11:26
Speaker 1: who for advice about who. So I'm just telling you man.
11:31
Speaker 1: Be nice to everybody. Make those connections any way you can.
11:34
Speaker 1: And truly maximize every opportunity you can. It does not
11:38
Speaker 1: matter how you do it. But just. Find ways to
11:41
Speaker 1: make every opportunity the best you possibly can. All righty. Hello, everybody,
11:56
Speaker 1: and welcome back to the Broadcasters Journey podcast episode two.
12:00
Speaker 1: It is now time for the interview portion of our podcast.
12:03
Speaker 1: We welcome on in our lovely guest here for episode two,
12:06
Speaker 1: Justin Bowman, who is brings lots of experience to the
12:10
Speaker 1: broadcasting industry despite not being in the industry for too long.
12:13
Speaker 1: We really appreciate you for coming in today, Justin. First
12:16
Speaker 1: question that I would love to ask you is, when
12:19
Speaker 1: and how did you realize you would want to start broadcasting?
12:23
Speaker 3: I love this question just because it wasn't because of
12:26
Speaker 3: IRL stuff. It was actually because of video games. You
12:30
Speaker 3: know me as well. For those who don't know, I've
12:32
Speaker 3: known Ricky basically since he was this big. And I'm
12:37
Speaker 3: friends with his brother, like, best friends. But the one
12:39
Speaker 3: thing that we both loved a lot as kids was
12:41
Speaker 3: video games. And I didn't know it when I was
12:45
Speaker 3: a kid, but when I was around 9, 10 years.
12:48
Speaker 2: Old, I was a big Madden person.
12:49
Speaker 3: You know, Madden 09, Madden 10, Madden 11. And I would,
12:54
Speaker 3: unbeknownst to me, like, commentate. Like, me playing, like, single-player
12:59
Speaker 3: games against CPU. I was a weird kid back in
13:01
Speaker 3: the day. And saying stuff like, like, oh, Brady DeWalker.
13:06
Speaker 3: first down and stuff like that and my mom knows
13:08
Speaker 3: brought it up and I just was like oh whatever
13:10
Speaker 3: I didn't really think much of it and I didn't
13:14
Speaker 3: even touch anything close to that for I want to
13:18
Speaker 3: say another 14 years and then around 2023 2024 I
13:24
Speaker 3: got asked like someone one of my friends was hosting
13:28
Speaker 3: like an esports tournament for I think it was Overwatch
13:30
Speaker 3: because Overwatch was big at the time now and They said, like,
13:37
Speaker 3: have you ever, like, announced before? I'm like, in my head,
13:40
Speaker 3: I'm like, never. But I'm like, let's give it a shot.
13:42
Speaker 3: Because I've tried so many adventures before I even landed
13:45
Speaker 3: on broadcasting.
13:47
Speaker 2: And I had fun with it. So I decided to
13:49
Speaker 2: venture more into the sports.
13:50
Speaker 3: Field of video games since that was my... I've always
13:55
Speaker 3: loved sports ever since I was young. And I really
13:58
Speaker 3: liked it there. So I reached out to, I want
14:02
Speaker 3: to say, 20 different Massachusetts high schools. And the only
14:06
Speaker 3: one to respond was WRPS Rockland. And when I went
14:10
Speaker 3: in for the interview, it was Seth Razuski, the producer.
14:14
Speaker 3: Mind you, I've known him since I was like five
14:16
Speaker 3: years old. So I was like, what are you doing here?
14:20
Speaker 3: I didn't know that when we both graduated, he actually
14:23
Speaker 3: got a job at WRPS Rockland.
14:25
Speaker 2: So he recognized me when I reached out to Ms.
14:29
Speaker 3: Shipper, who's now the principal. Funny enough, was the guidance
14:33
Speaker 3: counselor for me back in the day as well. So, yeah,
14:35
Speaker 3: that's how I got into broadcasting, and now start of
14:39
Speaker 3: year two, and.
14:40
Speaker 2: It's going great.
14:42
Speaker 1: Awesome. I think that the video game theme is a
14:45
Speaker 1: growing theme among broadcasters where they always start off just
14:48
Speaker 1: broadcasting 2K or Madden or whatever it may be. That's
14:52
Speaker 1: exactly how I started broadcasting too, was just calling video
14:54
Speaker 1: games just through my head, and that's how I figured out.
14:57
Speaker 2: I had a passion for it. Yeah, I was just going.
15:00
Speaker 3: To say, like, Also with how like hyper realistic games
15:06
Speaker 3: are now, they're not good quality. The quality is far
15:09
Speaker 3: gone from, you know, that back.
15:11
Speaker 2: In my day as I'm getting to that age.
15:14
Speaker 3: But I just video games like they give you like
15:18
Speaker 3: that simulation of an experience to do stuff like that.
15:22
Speaker 2: So I fully agree.
15:24
Speaker 1: And so you mentioned your first opportunity was with WRPS Rockland,
15:27
Speaker 1: but how about that first ever broadcast, that first on-air opportunity? How,
15:31
Speaker 1: what was your emotions and what was the mindset going
15:34
Speaker 1: into that one?
15:35
Speaker 3: I was really nervous because technically this is my second year,
15:39
Speaker 3: but if you want to count the year before, they
15:42
Speaker 3: had me do baseball, but even then with me and
15:45
Speaker 3: when Meanseth were talking about it and DJ Rockle from Rockland,
15:48
Speaker 3: it was more of a trial thing. Like in That
15:51
Speaker 3: first game, it was 40-mile-per-hour winds.
15:54
Speaker 2: We were cold.
15:55
Speaker 3: No one could hear the broadcast because the wind was, like,
15:58
Speaker 3: overtaking the microphones. And, like, it got better as the
16:01
Speaker 3: games got along, but we understood that, like, the first
16:04
Speaker 3: true season for me and Rocco was going to be
16:08
Speaker 3: that next season. But the one thing that I always
16:09
Speaker 3: go back to was I was super nervous going into, like,
16:13
Speaker 3: that one because I've never called IRL sports for it,
16:15
Speaker 3: let alone baseball. I did it before for, like, video
16:18
Speaker 3: game leagues for baseball, but... Then all of a sudden,
16:21
Speaker 3: I think it was the third inning, and then DJ
16:24
Speaker 3: Rocco said, have you ever seen Rat Race?
16:27
Speaker 2: I'm like, why is he talking about Rat Race?
16:30
Speaker 3: And that was one of those things where I was like,
16:35
Speaker 3: maybe broadcasting isn't too serious. Maybe it's good to have
16:38
Speaker 3: a little fun.
16:39
Speaker 2: And honestly.
16:41
Speaker 3: Last season and going into this season as well, whenever
16:45
Speaker 3: I'm in it to commentate with Rocco, the chemistry is
16:48
Speaker 3: off the charts.
16:48
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm the total sports nerd guy. Take it serious.
16:52
Speaker 3: And he just tries to make me laugh, and he
16:53
Speaker 3: talks about TV shows. It's the perfect yin and yang,
16:56
Speaker 3: and it's been.
16:58
Speaker 2: Awesome, honestly.
16:59
Speaker 1: Sounds like a great, just about the best duo you
17:02
Speaker 1: could ask for, honestly, that you guys got going on Rockland.
17:06
Speaker 1: um what so far has been obviously a lot of
17:09
Speaker 1: challenges you've faced so far calling high school sports is
17:11
Speaker 1: never easy but what has been the biggest challenge that
17:14
Speaker 1: you think you've faced so far in your.
17:15
Speaker 3: Career biggest challenge is definitely interesting because going just going
17:22
Speaker 3: into new adventures is also going to be scary so
17:24
Speaker 3: you like that's the i think that's the answer most
17:27
Speaker 3: people are going to give like oh like new challenges
17:29
Speaker 3: like every single time but as long as you have
17:31
Speaker 3: the confidence to go into it yeah you're going to
17:33
Speaker 3: stumble a few times so I wouldn't say that. I
17:37
Speaker 3: think it would just be the initial prep work. I
17:40
Speaker 3: was fine with it, but getting used to writing down stats,
17:44
Speaker 3: writing down, hey, this team is 3-0 in their last
17:46
Speaker 3: three games, but against this team, they're 0-3 in their
17:49
Speaker 3: past three seasons.
17:50
Speaker 2: This team averages this many points per game.
17:53
Speaker 3: This team is really stingy on defense, but they're a
17:58
Speaker 3: really bad offensive team. I think that, getting used to that,
18:02
Speaker 3: was definitely a little bit of a struggle because... especially
18:05
Speaker 3: that first football season, at least that first half, I
18:08
Speaker 3: was really just going straight off energy. I was just
18:10
Speaker 3: going straight off my, myself doing like a little bit
18:13
Speaker 3: of work before and then doing that.
18:15
Speaker 2: But then I really wanted to improve myself.
18:17
Speaker 3: Me and Seth talked about like constantly improving and constantly
18:21
Speaker 3: doing stuff like, Hey, mention like how this team is
18:25
Speaker 3: all time against Rockland, like seven and nine or stuff
18:30
Speaker 3: like that. If there's a good rivalry with that. So,
18:33
Speaker 3: I would probably say that because obviously getting into new
18:38
Speaker 3: experiences is always going to be weird. But I've gotten
18:41
Speaker 3: used to the fact that I just kind of– you
18:43
Speaker 3: just kind of stumble at first and then you have
18:45
Speaker 3: to learn to crawl.
18:46
Speaker 2: It's like being a baby.
18:47
Speaker 3: And then you mature into being a good broadcaster wherever
18:51
Speaker 3: you go.
18:52
Speaker 2: That's a fair point.
18:53
Speaker 1: I do agree. I would have to agree with that,
18:55
Speaker 1: that the prep work is– It's definitely one of the
18:58
Speaker 1: hardest things about broadcasting because you always want to over-prepare,
19:02
Speaker 1: but then you don't end up using most of the
19:03
Speaker 1: prep you actually do.
19:05
Speaker 2: But I love it. That's the thing. I love it.
19:09
Speaker 3: And I know that most people, like if I'm at
19:13
Speaker 3: 5 a.m., I'm writing down stats, and I'm like, dude,
19:15
Speaker 3: no one else would do this.
19:17
Speaker 2: You can tell that you love something if you do
19:19
Speaker 2: stuff like that.
19:20
Speaker 1: Exactly, exactly. So you mentioned that it's been a struggle
19:24
Speaker 1: for the prep work, but how much have you had
19:26
Speaker 1: to learn Like, just, like, broadcasting, like, basic broadcasting knowledge.
19:30
Speaker 1: How much of that have you had to try to
19:32
Speaker 1: learn on your own?
19:34
Speaker 2: Yeah.
19:35
Speaker 3: It's definitely interesting because my first game was Rock Universe
19:42
Speaker 3: Mash P Football. That was the first one last year.
19:45
Speaker 3: And yet, you ever seen like an anime show where
19:48
Speaker 3: like you have that like moment of realization where like
19:51
Speaker 3: you did something impressive and you didn't like knew it
19:53
Speaker 3: that was what happened it was the first play it
19:55
Speaker 3: was a kickoff return all the way to the 10-yard
19:57
Speaker 3: line almost for a touchdown they ended.
19:59
Speaker 2: Up not even getting points out of it somehow um.
20:02
Speaker 3: But i've been learning like i've been trying to consistently
20:07
Speaker 3: learn through watching games, which.
20:10
Speaker 2: Is, like, duh.
20:11
Speaker 3: But, like, I already have, like, not, like, a natural gift,
20:15
Speaker 3: but I already have, like, just built-in knowledge just from
20:19
Speaker 3: my previous years that, like, I've been able to match
20:22
Speaker 3: with sports and just knowing the game from playing it
20:25
Speaker 3: when I was in high school as well. Like, different
20:28
Speaker 3: mindsets as well. Different mindsets, if that makes sense. And
20:33
Speaker 3: then I think the... Interesting thing I'll mention is you
20:40
Speaker 3: look at games, like you can watch the Patriots versus
20:43
Speaker 3: Jets like this past week when this was recorded. You
20:46
Speaker 3: listen to that broadcast and it's way different. You watch
20:49
Speaker 3: the London game and you're like, yo, that cameraman should
20:51
Speaker 3: be disciplined because like they weren't even focused on the
20:55
Speaker 3: field because when you're in those positions, you understand the
20:59
Speaker 3: importance of like how everything worked together. Like I think
21:05
Speaker 3: it's teamwork is probably the biggest thing that is lost
21:09
Speaker 3: when it comes to most places. It's just like being
21:11
Speaker 3: able to like sit down and be like, Hey, we
21:13
Speaker 3: all have our moving parts, but, but it's like a
21:16
Speaker 3: symphony if we're able to make it work.
21:18
Speaker 2: So I think teamwork would definitely be a thing to point.
21:20
Speaker 1: Out as well.
21:21
Speaker 2: For sure. I love that answer.
21:24
Speaker 1: What is like your best piece of advice you would
21:26
Speaker 1: have for that younger generation of people who maybe be,
21:30
Speaker 1: maybe would be in high school right now, still trying
21:32
Speaker 1: to break into this industry?
21:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously, I used to do a podcast.
21:38
Speaker 3: It's probably dust on it at this point, behind the mic.
21:41
Speaker 3: I did it for 10 episodes. I got some great,
21:43
Speaker 3: great people on it. John McCooch, Jack Calhoun, Max Wallace,
21:49
Speaker 3: Ford Martin, the guy, the play-by-play guy for Central Michigan,
21:52
Speaker 3: Adam Jaska.
21:54
Speaker 2: I got some really cool people on it.
21:56
Speaker 3: And most people, the one thing they all said at
21:59
Speaker 3: the same time was, just do it.
22:02
Speaker 2: Which is great advice. That's, that's advice. Just get into
22:04
Speaker 2: the industry.
22:04
Speaker 3: Like if you're iffy about it, but it's like true
22:08
Speaker 3: advice that I would.
22:09
Speaker 2: Give that I've not many, I think only one person
22:12
Speaker 2: gave it.
22:12
Speaker 3: And I think it was John McCooch was get rid
22:16
Speaker 3: of the fear of rejection, being able to get rid
22:18
Speaker 3: of the mindset of the fear of rejection and just
22:22
Speaker 3: be like, accept the ability to like hear the word
22:25
Speaker 3: no and just keep going when it comes to the industry.
22:28
Speaker 2: Like you're, Before I even– we'll talk about it in
22:32
Speaker 2: a little bit, I assume.
22:33
Speaker 3: But, like, before I even got to MIT, I messaged, like, what,
22:36
Speaker 3: 40 other colleges?
22:38
Speaker 2: Like, hey, you need a person. And then I landed
22:40
Speaker 2: on MIT.
22:41
Speaker 3: You're going to get so many no's, but it's going
22:43
Speaker 3: to make you value those yeses so much and make
22:45
Speaker 3: you just so blessed to be in this industry. Just
22:47
Speaker 3: whatever people do give you a chance. So I would
22:51
Speaker 3: probably say getting rid of the fear of rejection would
22:54
Speaker 3: probably be my piece of advice.
22:56
Speaker 1: Awesome. And just a few more quick questions, one of
22:59
Speaker 1: them being, you just mentioned MIT. Obviously, it's a bit
23:02
Speaker 1: of a jump going from high school to the college stage,
23:04
Speaker 1: but what has been the most, I guess, the most
23:07
Speaker 1: rewarding part about being able to call games at the
23:10
Speaker 1: college level now?
23:13
Speaker 3: Just, it's just so cool that.
23:19
Speaker 2: MIT has been able to give me the opportunity.
23:22
Speaker 3: I think just the opportunity in general, I'm so blessed
23:24
Speaker 3: to be in the position I'm in, honestly. if you
23:27
Speaker 3: told me two years ago, like, Hey, you got, you're
23:30
Speaker 3: about to start broadcasting, by the way, second year, you're
23:33
Speaker 3: going to do college sports. I would have called you crazy.
23:36
Speaker 3: I think just the overall fact that like just last year,
23:41
Speaker 3: I was just starting high school sports and I'm like,
23:43
Speaker 3: I'm just going to do a year of practice and
23:46
Speaker 3: just see where it goes. Now I'm working for The
23:49
Speaker 3: Middleboro Cobras. It hasn't been announced yet, but I guess
23:51
Speaker 3: this could be the formal announcement. I'm now the director
23:53
Speaker 3: of social media relations with the Middleboro Cobras, which is
23:55
Speaker 3: a semi-football team.
23:57
Speaker 2: Wild.
23:59
Speaker 3: I'm working with Bridgewater TV with Division II football, Stonehill
24:04
Speaker 3: College basketball.
24:05
Speaker 2: I might be going to Philadelphia in the spring, which
24:08
Speaker 2: is wild.
24:10
Speaker 3: Just getting those opportunities just because you have the confidence
24:17
Speaker 3: to do it. I think that's probably been my biggest
24:20
Speaker 3: lesson learned is how much confidence I've gained just from
24:23
Speaker 3: getting into this industry. Because you know me, when I
24:27
Speaker 3: was young, I was definitely a shy person. I was
24:29
Speaker 3: not one of those guys that was like the class clowns,
24:33
Speaker 3: the guy that made himself known. I was a very
24:36
Speaker 3: kept-inside person. And these past few years, especially getting into
24:41
Speaker 3: broadcasting and doing something you love, being able to have
24:45
Speaker 3: the confidence to just be myself is probably the best thing.
24:49
Speaker 3: It really, for, for my self-improvement journey from where I
24:52
Speaker 3: was a few years.
24:53
Speaker 2: Ago, it's, it's been amazing.
24:55
Speaker 1: Certainly that being yourself and just saying yes to every
24:59
Speaker 1: opportunity is one of the biggest things that every person
25:02
Speaker 1: who I've tried to get advice from has always preached
25:04
Speaker 1: to me is just say yes to everything. And clearly
25:07
Speaker 1: you've been the one saying yes to everything and it's
25:09
Speaker 1: worked out well in your hands.
25:11
Speaker 2: Yeah.
25:11
Speaker 3: I was going to say Bridgewater TV. I started Bridgewater
25:13
Speaker 3: TV with like midget wrestlers. as, like, a cameraman, and
25:17
Speaker 3: just because they had, like, one of those things, and
25:18
Speaker 3: I was, like, this is stupid, but I'm fine, I'm
25:21
Speaker 3: for it, and they're, like, they mentioned, like, oh, like,
25:25
Speaker 3: if you don't want to come back, like, we get it, like,
25:27
Speaker 3: Jeff Ballard's the guy there, and he's, oh, it's super funny,
25:30
Speaker 3: and I'm, like, dude, this is, what an introduction, like,
25:33
Speaker 3: being able to say that story later on, like, the
25:36
Speaker 3: stories you're able to, like, make.
25:38
Speaker 2: Is also just so awesome, so.
25:40
Speaker 1: It certainly is, and My last question that I have
25:43
Speaker 1: for you is if you could go back to maybe
25:47
Speaker 1: not the start of your career but around the similar
25:50
Speaker 1: time to the start of your career, if there was
25:51
Speaker 1: anything you could try to change, what would it be?
25:53
Speaker 3: I'm not a big believer in change and not from
25:59
Speaker 3: the perspective of like you should change and evolve. Like
26:02
Speaker 3: that is fully true. I'm a big believer in the
26:04
Speaker 3: butterfly effect. Like for me personally as a human being,
26:08
Speaker 3: I did so– I truly believe that there were so
26:13
Speaker 3: many factors for me to even get to this point.
26:16
Speaker 3: Even the ones that don't even involve broadcasting. So, if
26:21
Speaker 3: I had to choose one thing, it was just to
26:23
Speaker 3: have that confidence from the beginning.
26:26
Speaker 2: Like, and just.
26:27
Speaker 3: Because definitely at first I was a little bit nervous.
26:30
Speaker 3: But like I said before, I shook off those cobwebs, like, immediately.
26:33
Speaker 3: But if it's anything, it's just having... Just have that
26:36
Speaker 3: confidence from the beginning. Like, you know how good you
26:38
Speaker 3: are and you know how talented you are.
26:40
Speaker 2: And just.
26:42
Speaker 3: be patient because you're going to get a lot of
26:44
Speaker 3: notes before you get a lot of yeses.
26:45
Speaker 2: And that is going to be rough.
26:48
Speaker 3: Like that's, you're, you're going to have, I had a
26:51
Speaker 3: few people message back and forth about doing broadcasting and
26:54
Speaker 3: then I'll get aired and I'm like, Oh yeah. And
26:57
Speaker 3: so like just being, just being confident is like the
27:00
Speaker 3: biggest thing. Um, not only for broadcast, but just being,
27:04
Speaker 3: but for life in general. So I'd probably say that.
27:08
Speaker 2: Awesome.
27:08
Speaker 1: That, That's a great way to wrap it up.
27:10
Speaker 2: A great answer.
27:11
Speaker 1: Confidence is not only the key to broadcasting, it's certainly
27:14
Speaker 1: just the key to life in general. And well, Justin,
27:17
Speaker 1: that is going to do it for our interview portion
27:20
Speaker 1: of the podcast here today. We really appreciate you joining
27:23
Speaker 1: us here today, taking your time and giving us your
27:26
Speaker 1: valuable information and your valuable insights to your upcoming and
27:29
Speaker 1: your broadcasting journey. Of course, man.
27:31
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. Welp.
27:35
Speaker 1: That was a great interview we just had right there
27:37
Speaker 1: with Justin Bowman. Really happy he could come along. And,
27:40
Speaker 1: you know, he's a high school longtime hometown friend of mine.
27:44
Speaker 1: You know, went to the same schools and everything as
27:46
Speaker 1: my brother and I. And, you know, just a great
27:49
Speaker 1: local friend. Like we mentioned, it's great having somebody in
27:51
Speaker 1: the industry so close to us because we never would
27:53
Speaker 1: have even imagined something like that being possible. Yet, however,
27:58
Speaker 1: here we are. And, yeah, it's great. It's great. And
28:01
Speaker 1: he was great. shared a lot of valuable information. You know,
28:04
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that I like that he mentioned, which
28:06
Speaker 1: was the biggest theme of our entire show here today,
28:09
Speaker 1: was the fact that it is truly never too late
28:13
Speaker 1: to start broadcasting, and it's truly never too late to
28:15
Speaker 1: just go out and pick up that microphone, man. I mean,
28:18
Speaker 1: I tell you, man, it's simple math. You just go
28:22
Speaker 1: pick up the microphone and start broadcasting, and there you go, right?
28:25
Speaker 1: The big thing he mentioned is how many schools he
28:27
Speaker 1: reached out to. He said around 20 different high schools.
28:29
Speaker 1: That's a similar path to what I had When I
28:32
Speaker 1: reached out to all the different schools and found my
28:34
Speaker 1: opportunities with Regis and Johnson and Wales. This guy Justin
28:38
Speaker 1: reached out to so many different high schools. And when
28:41
Speaker 1: one finally reached out back to him and finally answered
28:44
Speaker 1: and finally said, Hey man, we'd love to have you
28:46
Speaker 1: on the broadcast team with us and call some games
28:48
Speaker 1: for us this season.
28:50
Speaker 2: Right?
28:50
Speaker 1: He jumped on that immediately. He smashed the opportunity. He
28:53
Speaker 1: had a home run in the park. And I love
28:55
Speaker 1: using that reference because He started off with baseball, which
28:58
Speaker 1: he had never done before. He had never called baseball
29:00
Speaker 1: games before yet. However, he still found a way to
29:03
Speaker 1: step up in the pocket and smash the ball. He
29:08
Speaker 1: was incredible, you know. So big shouts to Justin. He
29:12
Speaker 1: was great. He just gave us some great tools. He
29:16
Speaker 1: told us how to get those reps. He told us
29:18
Speaker 1: ways he found those reps. Of course, it all starts
29:20
Speaker 1: in the video game industry. We all just start off
29:22
Speaker 1: by calling games in our head, right? Ken Lavica mentioned
29:25
Speaker 1: that last week, and I mentioned it a little bit too.
29:28
Speaker 1: Justin just mentioned it as well to even further enhance
29:31
Speaker 1: that take because it truly is true. Well, again, my
29:37
Speaker 1: name is Ricky Struzzeri, your host of The Broadcaster. Journey podcast.
29:41
Speaker 1: This was episode number two with the theme being it
29:43
Speaker 1: is never too late to start broadcasting and our guest
29:45
Speaker 1: Justin Bowman. Thank you and see you next time for
29:48
Speaker 1: episode number three.