Richie Cortez career in sports broadcasting begins now

Campus broadcast journalism is in its infancy and Feather staffer Richie Cortez begins his quest to be a sportscaster today.

As I am seeking to become a future sports anchor, my hopes of this program going far is begins with high expectations. I needed advice from someone who knows the ropes of the sports broadcasting business and so I turned to Paul Loeffler, a local sports media personality.

Paul Loeffler was gracious enough to come and listen to our first podcast that featured football player Marcus James, ’20. After the podcast was finished, Loeffler sat down with Kyle Clem, ‘21, and I and gave us some very helpful tips on how to think big, but start small.

“My advice would be to start small, it doesn’t have to be a thirty minute thing or an hour it can be five minutes,” Loeffler said. “Here is one, two or three issues that you can give your take on and record that and put that out there and see how people deal with it. Or maybe there’s a different approach to sports that someone hasn’t come up with before.”

There is more to becoming a sports broadcaster than just talking. That’s just the smallest part of it. There are multiple types of broadcasting when it comes to sports. Giving your own personal intake on a player or team by being a sports anchor or what Loeffler does by calling a game as it’s happening.

You have to have amazing people skills and eye contact is a huge factor. If you aren’t giving the person you are interviewing your attention there is no connection or any sort of chemistry being distributed throughout the interview. Confidence is key, the more confidence you show the more comfortable your guest will seem. Loeffler gave us his perspective on how to be a successful broadcaster or anchor and creating your own image in the industry.

“I see in sports broadcasting there’s a lot when people coming up, they’re trying to be someone that they already watch or hear. But what are the gifts that you have, what can you bring to it that makes it unique to you,” Loeffler said. “Maybe there’s other interests that you have that tie into sports, do you see things a certain way that you can inject that in there, to me people will be a lot more interested when you put a whole lot of yourself into it.”

When I spoke to Loeffler, he was very concise with his choice of words. I learned many important tips throughout our conversation. It made me more comfortable the longer the interview was going and how his tone made the interview more smooth. Which taught me to have fun with this sort of thing. Be yourself, be calm and show confidence.

There is always fun in this business. From programs on television on ESPN, Fox Sports and NBC Sports. Just create your own image and use certain traits to your benefit to entertain not only your audience but yourself as well.

To start off this new program, we are beginning with short two-minute podcasts. With the hope of this program going smoothly within the next year, this should be up and running with taped broadcasts of our own high schools sports events, recorded interviews and even special interviews that consist of games while the interview is going.

This is something I personally have always wanted to do. What I want to come out of this idea is for people to realize if you want to do something, do it. Do not wait for someone establish something to start doing what you want to do. I want to become a sports anchor that others are entertained by and use personal experiences to make things more interesting. I want to create my own image and this is only the first step.

Richie Cortez can be reached via email and via Twitter.

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