A few duties of the sports radio producer 

tonytsoodle

I entered sports talk radio after my short stint away from radio selling e-cigarette products—the most unlikely of pairings. Upon my two-year sabbatical, I traveled coast to coast, garnering new relationships and meeting new people. After that chapter ended, I returned to radio as a side hustle to the boutique agency work I was doing with Red Plains Media. In essence, I was freelancing. With a family and the mandate for health insurance, during that time, I needed to get my family covered and avoid paying the penalty without coverage. Still, I’m unsure where the freedom of choice went with that, but savings for another blog and another place.

Chris Baker, my mentor and guiding light in radio, was the program director of WWLS FM in Oklahoma City. We stayed in touch after his untimely exit with Cumulus years back, and he reached out to me with a job offer to produce The Dominant Duo, Total Dominance Hour and Inside Sports with Al Eschbach. It seems like a lot, but those shows are a couple of segments within (at that time) four hours, Monday through Friday. If you’re a listener, you may realize I’m that Tony.

Since 2017, I’ve produced these shows while scoring a spot on ALICE 104.9 FM Monday through Friday, 10 am-3 pm. It’s a full plate while enrolled at The University of Oklahoma with fifteen hours. But as Gwin Faulconer Lippert once told in her media classes at Oklahoma City Community College, “Radio Happens.”
It doesn’t matter if I have problems or if there aren’t enough hours in a day. It happens whether you are there or not. So, I fulfill my duties at the radio station while balancing a flurry of school assignments. Fun.

Here are a few duties of the radio sports producer. And some best practices for navigating an unfamiliar environment.

Find your rhythm

For the sports radio producer, your day in and day out relies on your timeliness. I am the world’s worst at this, but I always attempt to stay timely with my show-specific promos and podcasts. It is policy and a part of the duties. Once the broadcasts conclude, the producer must enter the station’s recording software. At WWLS, we use a programmer we refer to as the Profiler. It records the shows in chunks of fifteen minutes. Once the podcast populates there, you can download it and piece it together to complete it. To multitask, I usually download these segments as they show up in Profiler and begin editing/deleting the commercials. Find your rhythm to stay timely and keep the podcast and promos fresh. I promise you there are listeners waiting for the next upload to digest.

Cultivate relationships

I know sports, X’s and O’s may elude me, but I know and enjoy sports. It consumes some, but for me, it is an added treat in life. I am not going to live and die for sports. In contrast, I have met some good people through my ride as a sports producer. If I am genuine and value these relationships, I appreciate their time and schedule, also. Good relationships take time to develop. Do what you say, and all those relationships you hope to make in the industry will arrive.

Know more than your host

Sounds crazy, right? You’re thinking, “If I knew more than the host, wouldn’t I be hosting?” I can’t tell you how many times, while sitting in the producer’s chair, I could lend some information to the conversation and correct the information going across the air—almost an on-air fact checker. Be prepared in more than one way. Undoubtedly, your host will lean in on your talents on the air.