Tuesday, July 23, 2013

It's Not Always Rainbows & Sunshine: Sports Reporting in 2013

by Mason Walling – “If you can’t stand the thought of working on Christmas, then this isn’t the business for you.”

            These are the words of Lindsay Liquori, a sports reporter at WSYR Channel 9 News in Syracuse, NY.  However, in our interview over the phone on Monday, Ms. Liquori told me that in the ever-changing world of sports media a better word to describe her job is “one-man band.”

The 21st century sports reporter is expected to not only cover press conferences, conduct interviews, and organize sports segments, but also to shoot her own video footage and edit the footage into highlights.  On top of that, Liquori is a part-time sports anchor at Channel 9, responsible for writing and delivering weekly sports updates.


“There really is no normal day in this business, which is one of the perks about it for sure because I don’t want a desk job,” Liquori said.


Over the past 20 years, it has become increasingly harder for television reporters like Liquori to break news due to the emergence of Internet media, such as Twitter.  The competitive nature of this industry is also at an all-time high, and in order to move up it’s likely that a reporter will have to move away from family to different cities.

Liquori has had the blessing of working for three different stations, YNN in the Hudson Valley, News 12 in Westchester, and now WSYR, all of which are only a short drive away from her hometown in Albany, New York.  She originally got her start in the industry by joining MCTV, the student-run television station at her alma mater, Marist College.

As a professional, Liquori told me that one of the most memorable events that she covered was the Boilermaker Run, an annual 15K road race in Utica, NY.  The Boilermaker Run was established in 1978 and is now a largely charity-based race that has various events for runners of all skill levels and disabilities.

            Liquori says the most rewarding part of the job “is that you get to cover stories and tell stories that change peoples’ lives.”

For the full-length interview with Lindsay Liquori, click here!


Transcribed Interview

(Mason)           Okay, so Lindsay, where are you originally from?

(Lindsay)          I’m from Albany, New York.  I went to Niskayuna High School, which is a suburb of the Albany area, and I stayed there kindergarten through twelfth grade.  And I’ve actually never gone out of New York to work which is kind of interesting in this business, but I’m from Albany, the Albany area.

(Mason)           And where did you go to college?

(Lindsay)          I went to Marist College which is in Poughkeepsie, New York, its half way in between Albany and New York City.  So, it’s just a train ride away from, you know, a great outlet for a lot of media things and that’s what kind of attracts it, but not too far from home.

(Mason)           What made you decide to go to school there? Was it that, the media outlet?

(Lindsay)         Yeah, I think that knowing that I wanted to get in this business but also knowing that I didn’t really want an urban setting, I wanted a college feel, I didn’t want to go to school and have the campus be a city, really attracted me to that.  But knowing that I was so close for internship purposes, for tour purposes, for mentor purposes the city was right there.  And also probably out of high school I wanted to play Division I softball, and Marist is a low Division I program, and I walked on to the team.  So I kind of balanced academics and athletics in my college search.

(Mason)           Yeah and that kind of goes into the next question I wanted to ask you:  What is your sports background yourself?  And even like that of your parents or your family?

(Lindsay)          When I, in high school I played three sports, I played field hockey, basketball, and softball.  I have two sisters, one older one younger, and they all played three sports, and I think that that saved my dad when we were growing up because he had three girls, but we were all athletic.  My mom and dad never, I don’t think they played, they never played collegiate sports.  They might have in high school, but I’m not really sure.  Although I know my dad did play, you know, rec league softball, but he did take a very active role when we were growing up.  He was our rec soccer coach.  He was our travel softball coach.  So he was involved that way.  Then, my two sisters, they both played volleyball at Union College in Schenectady, New York, which is Division III.  And then I went on to play two years at Marist, so sports have always been a really big part of my extracurricular activities.

(Mason)           What made you want to pursue reporting or working in TV from the sports standpoint?

(Lindsay)          I think that that role of athletics growing up was always there, and when I originally went to Marist, I went in as a PR major but my freshman year a sports communications program was developed and I figured hey I’m already doing communications, sports has been such a big part of my life growing up, why not put the two together?  And then I ended up joining the Marist television station, MCTV, and that was just kind of like, that was kind of the end of it because we just did, we ran a television station as best we knew how as college kids.  And it just clicked, I loved going there, I spent all my free time in there, and just being able to put the two together at the time under college circumstances was fun.  It was nothing other than, it was just a really enjoyable thing and, I mean, it was not as like the real world, nothing like it is now but at the time it really just, it was an activity that I said I can do this for the rest of my life.

(Mason)           Yeah so I know you are currently working at Channel 9, how long have you been there?

(Lindsay)          I’ve been there just over two years.  I came in March of 2011, and I’m still there now.  And it’s my third station; I worked at YNN in the Hudson Valley, and I worked at News 12 in Westchester before this.

(Mason)           So describe for me what a normal day at Channel 9 is like.

(Lindsay)          It’s funny that you say normal because there really is no normal day in this business, which is one of the perks about it for sure because I don’t want a desk job.  I don’t think I could handle sitting some place for eight hours every day.  There is a loose structure; I work 2:30 to 11:30 Wednesday through Sunday, or at least that’s when I’m supposed to be there but what’s great is that day to day things will change.  But loosely I’ll come in, you know, I wake up and check my e-mail, check all my websites, you know, the newspaper, Twitter, Facebook, all the things, you know, look for story ideas.  That happens as early as when I wake up just in case things break because you know news doesn’t always break in the 2:30 to 11:30 cookie cutter that you want it to, but you’re kind of always paying attention.  But you come in, you look at the game schedule for that day, you look at the interviews you have scheduled for that day, just scouting all of your sources, you’re making phone calls and you’re going out and shooting, editing, you come back, you write, if I’m on the air that day, sometimes I fill in anchor, most of the times I’m reporting, but it really is based on interviews scheduled for that day, prioritizing deadlines, I do an athlete of the week segment and an SU type of feature when SU is in session for basketball and football, so I’m scheduling those interviews, I’m conducting those interviews, but I do do every part of them, I’m real one man band most of the time.  So if there’s something that needs to get done, you know, I’ll grab equipment and go out myself and do it.  So that’s loosely what I do every day, but then sometimes if there’s a press conference an hour early, an SU game starts at noon, or, you know, they’re playing on the West coast so they don’t start until 10:45 and then you’re there until 1 in the morning.  You know, Final Four everything kind of goes out the window and you just, you know, drop everything and go.  So there’s a loose structure but with the nature of the business you have to be prepared to work extra hours, long hours around the clock and jump if something happens.

(Mason)           That’s funny, because every time I do an interview like this with somebody in sports media and tell them to describe a normal day, they all give pretty much the same answer, how there is no normal day.

(Lindsay)          Yeah, and there really isn’t, which, it keeps you on your toes, but sometimes you want just a go to the office type of day, you know, after a long stretch but there really is no normal day.  You do the same patterns, you go through the same motions, but what you’re covering and who you’re covering and where you’re going changes which is different from a lot of other professions.

(Mason)           Yeah, that’s something that I absolutely love about it, too.  So, what’s the best part about your job? And I guess on the flipside of that, what’s the most challenging part?

(Lindsay)          I think one of the best parts, or one of the most rewarding parts I will say, is that you get to cover stories and tell stories that change peoples’ lives.  And be a part of so many peoples’ lives, and for the most part, in local sports, it’s the good part.  You’re going to Friday night football games, you’re going to, you know, Big East basketball tournaments, rarely in the sports world are you covering, you know, you’re not covering murders, you’re not covering bank robberies, you’re not covering law making, you’re covering exciting contests that matter to a lot of people, and in my opinion obviously it’s the best part of a newscast because it’s uplifting. So I think that’s one of the most rewarding parts is that you get to effect peoples’ lives, tell peoples’ stories that you really care about and get to know athletes, SID’s, coaches, on a closer level.  You’re building relationships with them, how far it goes is really up to you, but you know, you’re not just a fan.  On the flipside of that you’re not going to games and necessarily enjoying them as a quote un-quote fan, you’re not getting popcorn and you’re not sitting in the stands, you don’t get to go out after work when the game is over, you know, you’re doing work.  But through the majority of the day, when you break it down, you are getting paid to cover athletics for a living, and there’s not many people who can say that they truly enjoy what they do, and the nature of what you cover is just so exciting, it’s unpredictable, it keeps you on your toes, and that’s what I love about it.  I think conversely, the way you have to cover it sometimes is very challenging, the being ready to jump at any time.  If SU plays early you have to go.  2:30 to 11:30 is the normal shift but you have to be willing to drop everything if something happens.  And for people with families, people with kids, people with, you know, relatives that live out of town, sometimes it’s hard to go.  My family is not here, I work tons of holidays, I work nights, I work weekends.  If I want to see my family it’s a struggle to take weekends off to see them.  That’s the more personal struggle, but I think the job struggles too now are:  it’s ultra-competitive, a lot of people want to get into this business, it’s really hard to break news now with the Internet and Twitter and all social media.  You’re fighting just to get to your six o’clock deadline in television, so you have to be multitalented.  There’s no longer just a report days, you are a cameraman, you do every aspect of the job, you’re in the public light so you’re going to get criticized.  So I think there are challenges professionally, and there are challenges personally.  If you can’t stand the thought of working on Christmas, then this isn’t the business for you.  But if you, you know, can value what you’re getting out of the job and realize that, you know, you’re in a pretty special spot going to football games for a living, then it definitely is something to consider. 

(Mason)           Is there any one sporting event that you’ve covered that you would consider the most memorable to you personally, or like the most important?

(Lindsay)          It’s funny that you actually say that.  I have two that actually come to mind that I’ve been at.  When I was in the Hudson Valley I went to the Army Navy football game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, and it was so much more than an athletic event.  Sure you have the rivalry, which I think compares to any of the best rivalries in any sport because it’s a military-based event, and you have people there who are fighting for your freedom.  You have four star generals on the field, and then you have great athletes, and I think that everything from the military standpoint to the athletic standpoint to the government side of things, all of the proponents wrapped up into one was so emotional and so overwhelming.  And then for that to be played in, you know, a National Football League stadium, all the pomp and circumstance that goes with it.  That was just a really, really special event to be part of.  And then I just recently, actually covered the Boilermaker Run here in Utica, and I’ve gotten the chance to interview a couple of the runners, one who had there leg amputated but still ran the 5K, and then a 10-year-old boy who was suffering from spina bifita, and he completed the 15K wheelchair race.  And nobody was complaining.  And it’s those kind of stories that come back to me, you know, I think a lot of people are like oh did you get to cover the Final Four?  I didn’t go, but I covered it, and yeah it was great and exciting, and I’m glad I was a part of it and it has helped me grow as a journalist, but I think that the personal heartwarming stories are the ones that stick for me the most.

(Mason)           Okay, last question I have for you.  On the grand scheme of things, what is you ultimate career goal? Where do you see yourself going?

(Lindsay)          It’s funny that you say that.  When I first got to Syracuse, I was really on the fast track to jumping and jumping.  A lot of people know that in this business to move on you have to move up.  But, I know myself, and I know that I’m a home body.  I like being close to my family and luckily I’ve never had to go more than two hours away.  So when I first go to Syracuse I was like, you know what any top 30 market opportunity that comes up, I’m going to go for it.  You know, if I want to go to Tennessee, let’s go to Tennessee.  If I want to go to Florida, I want to go to Florida.  I think now that I’m getting a little older and I recently got engaged, I’m thinking more in terms of “we” than “me” but I think I could still make it work in a way that I could still find a top 30 market in the Northeast or a sports network.  I think that local news is getting tougher and tougher to work for in terms of salaries and demands and expectations.  It is the same pretty much across the board, but I would like to get to maybe an SNY or a YES network or a regional network that maybe just covers one sport or one league or one team, just so that I could be more focused on one particular entity rather than kind of being spread thin across the local news demand.  But, we’ll see, you know really, it’s tough, it’s tough, and that’s where the connections come in and everything but I think that ultimately, a lot of people always say you want to go to ESPN?  And I think that would be great, but I’m not sure if I’m an ESPN girl, which is probably not the answer you get from a lot of people because I think that a lot of people will aspire to go there.  But I’m okay with being, you know, a more regional network type of person rather than a national network.

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