In an extremely competitive professional field like sports reporting, Chris Whalen is an inspirationally hard worker for young professionals. “I honestly don’t know where I see myself in five years, but I know that in five years I want to be far better than I am right now, because I know that I’m far better than five years ago at this time,” Whalen said. Five years ago Whalen was a freshly graduated Broadcast Journalism student from Syracuse University, searching for a job in a field he loved.
Whalen, now a News and Sports Video Journalist at YNN in Binghamton, won an Associated Press award and was also named a Reader’s Choice winner for favorite television personality two years in a row. “It was nice to be recognized, and to show people like what you do and think you’re doing a good job,” said Whalen.
It wasn’t always clears skies for Whalen, his first job was as a weekend reporter for WICZ in Binghamton, since then Whalen has climbed the ladder to get to where he is now as a sports reporter.
Whalen has already impressed viewers with his sports reporting, but says he plans to get a lot better. “I want to continue to get better as far as being on camera goes,” said Whalen, “ everyday I strive to get better at writing, it all falls back on writing.” Working hard seems to be a reoccurring theme in the sports industry, it's a small field, but there are big dreams. “Hard work pays off, if you set yourself apart from others people take notice,” said Whalen.
Q and A
AM: What are a few things you’ve learned at Syracuse and some key things you’ve done up to this point to help you get where you are?
CW: As far as sports reporting goes I took a class with Matt Park, who I’m sure you know is the radio guy for football and basketball. He had us a lot of out in the field stuff, so we’d go to football games, basketball games, etcetera, to actually cover them and do play-by-play for them. I don’t do play-by-play now but just going out to those games and kinda being around other reporters who were doing it professionally and just getting the pace for what its actually like to be out in the field, real life examples definitely helped as far as at Syracuse. And not just that sports class, but just the regular RTM classes, almost all of them had us going out in the field and actually doing what a reporter does on a day-to-day basis. That was a good experience. As far as after Syracuse, just being in a newsroom, my first job I was doing weekend reporting and I just kinda climbed the ladder from there. Just being in the newsroom and getting and idea for the everyday flow of things and how things can change at the drop of a hat. They sort of prepared us for that at Syracuse, and obviously in a classroom setting its a little more I guess structured so to say, but in a newsroom obviously things just change so fast. That's probably one of the biggest things i’ve used as a learning tool from the time I started is just being around the everyday flow of the people in the newsroom, and I think the stuff I did at Syracuse that I told you about and that are the biggest tools i’ve used up to this point.
AM: What was the biggest adjustment you had to make from the Binghamton station to Syracuse at YNN?
CW: Well I’m still working out of Binghamton, in the Binghamton office, so there hasn’t really been too many adjustments. Although, I started with WICZ, the Fox station in Binghamton, now I’m working at YNN out of Binghamton. I’m essentially covering the same stuff but there were definitely adjustments I had to make, YNN using a different editing system and that I guess was the biggest change, and also since I work out of Binghamton all of our managers and bosses are up in Syracuse so that was kind of weird. I’m basically getting used to working on my own, there is only three of us that work in the office down here so it was kind of strange to have not really much supervision, I mean you talk to your supervisors and managers on a day-to-day basis, but they’re not right in the next room watching over you and checking on things and on you. That was an adjustment but it was also a really good thing, it gave me a lot more creative freedom , they kind of call and say “Hey, what do you got?”, and I tell them what I’m working on and they either say okay, or switch to something else. Other than that it’s pretty much a lot of freedom, so that's good, but it defiantly took some getting used to not having someone I could run into the next room and say “Hey, does this look alright?” or “Hey, what do you think about this?”. Yeah, they are only a phone call away but at the same time it’s not someone you can bring over to your computer and say “Hey, look at this piece of video,” or “Hey, look at this script.” So that was probably the biggest adjustment going from the Fox station where we had our news director right in the next room, as opposed to YNN where all my supervisors are in Syracuse.
AM: What was it like winning the Readers Choice for Favorite Television Personality two years in a row?
CW: Man, you’ve done your homework I guess. It was cool, because I mean I guess I have the advantage of being the hometown favorite. I grew up in Binghamton and so I know a lot of people here, and a lot of people know me. So maybe that was why they voted for me, I don’t know. It definitely wasn’t something I was expecting, it was cool to get recognized for that. It shows you that even if it is people that are just voting for you because, “ Hey, I know that guy, I know Chris, I played baseball with him,” or “ I know his mom,” or something like that, whether it be that or not, it’s still cool that people enjoy what I do enough to recognize it, so that was pretty cool. To get it two years in a row, that was even more special because the first year was like people just know who I am and they like me, but two years in a row it was pretty cool. It was nice to be recognized, and people like what you do and think your doing a good job.
AM: What are some future goals you have in mind that you haven’t already accomplished?
CW: I still watch some of my stuff, and obviously we are all our own biggest critics, but I still watch some of my stuff and I don’t want to say it makes me cringe, but I see and I know I can do that so much better. I want to continue to get better as far as being on cam goes. In fact, just yesterday I was watching some stuff I did from last football season, and I’m like “ Why didn’t I do this or why didn’t I have more enthusiasm when a guy was breaking a 90-yard touchdown run or something like that.” Get back on camera and get better at it, everyday I strive to get better at writing. Yeah, its a television industry but it all falls back on writing. If you’re not a good writer then the rest of your stuff just follows suit and isn’t as good either. Always try to get better at writing, I guess those are probably the two main things that I want to do in the future, its immediate future. Whenever you go on job interviews or stuff like that and people ask you “well, where do you see yourself in five years?”, I honestly don’t know where I see myself in five years, but I know that in five years I want to be far better than I am right now because I know that I’m far better than five years ago at this time. So I hope to keep eventually getting better it goes on.
AM: Last question, how important is it to have connections in this type of field?
CW: Oh my god, that's probably, I just told you about getting experience and getting practice and that's huge, but knowing people and having connections is probably right up there with it. If not tied with it, it’s number two. I don’t want to say you can’t get anywhere without knowing people because you can, and obviously hard work pays off and if you set yourself apart from everybody else people take notice. But at the same time, I’m sure you’re learning how competitive this field is. When I went into college in the fall of 2004, I was like “ Oh yeah, I’m going to be on Sportscenter someday,” but then I went to school with hundreds of other guys that were saying the same thing. They were all far better than me, then I was like “geez, maybe I’m not going to do that.” So it certainly helps to know people, I got my first job at WICZ down here in Binghamton because the girl who was anchoring on the weekend, she was a Syracuse alum. So I had that connection and it went from there, then when I got the job at YNN because I started working with people at YNN and a couple of people I used to work with at WICZ had gone to YNN and they kinda put in a good word for me. I’m sure that didn’t hurt my chances, it only helps. So anytime you know someone it certainly help to have them put in a good word for you. Obviously you still have to be good at what you do.
No comments:
Post a Comment