Adam Kaufman: Sports Journalism Swingman

Story by Mike Drew

Photo by boston.cbslocal.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Adam Kaufman is a man with tremendous affection for where he has come from. Kaufman, now a Boston sports journalist, says he could not be more grateful to have spent his undergraduate career at Syracuse University. 

“It was really just an incredible four years,” he said in a telephone interview this week. “Whether it was hosting, anchoring, updates, play-by-play, I mean you had the opportunity to do it all in an environment that has crafted a legacy for itself as a sports broadcasting institution.” 

In an interview on the Red Ticket Blues Podcast, Kaufman said as a New England kid, he grew up wanting to become the next Sean McDonough. A stroke of luck allowed him to gain his first professional broadcasting opportunity close to home: as the voice of the Providence Bruins from 2006-2011. 

Kaufman said he realizes how fortunate he is to be given the chance to work in the market of his choosing. 

"It's just an incredibly passionate environment," he said.


A 2004 graduate of the Broadcast and Digital Journalism program at Syracuse University, Kaufman embodies the role of multimedia journalist in his current work. He serves as a columnist for Boston.com, a radio host for WBZ News-Radio 1030 and 98.5 the Sports Hub and a television anchor for Comcast SportsNet New England. 

He credits this ability to wear so many hats to the opportunities he received at his alma mater. 

"It’s hard to even put into words to be perfectly honest," he said. "I learned a lot."


Here is a transcript and audio version of my conversation with Adam:

Q: Hi, I’m Mike Drew. I’m speaking with Adam Kaufman, a Syracuse University grad who just so happens to work in my home market of Boston. He does just about everything, he’s a columnist for Boston.com, he’s a radio host for WBZ News Radio and 98.5 the Sports Hub and a television anchor for Comcast SportsNet New England. Adam, thanks for the time, first question for you: as I mentioned you were a student here, so describe for me what your time at S.U. was like.

A: (Laughs) How long do you have? I mean, it was a great time. It’s hard to even put into words to be perfectly honest. I learned a lot. I was surrounded by great people, great teachers, the hands-on experience, less-so in the classroom, obviously that came a little bit later on throughout the program and curriculum. But more so, outside with all the different extracurricular things you could do from WAER and WJPZ and at the time it was UUTV, I think it’s Citrus TV now, all the different things I was able to do on the radio and TV side in both of those areas. And whether it was hosting, anchoring, updates, play-by-play, I mean you had the opportunity to do it all in an environment that not only has crafted a legacy for itself as a sports broadcasting institution, you know all the names, I don’t need to reel them off, but also a place that’s such a passionate sports school. You know, that was something that was really important to me, not only to be at a place with a great communications program, but with a place that had me with the teams, you know they weren’t always going to be at the top of their game in their respective sports, but to have those competitive programs that competed at the highest level, you know the basketball team had a championship (its only one) my junior year when Carmelo Anthony was there. The football team was kind of inconsistently competitive. The lacrosse team was always competitive. The women’s basketball team was really in the early stages of growing into what it is now, which as we know is coming off a great year. So, I mean, like I said, I could go on and on and on, I haven’t even touched about Greek life and everything else like that from a social perspective. It was really just an incredible four years.

Q: Yeah, that legacy was a big reason why I ended up here too, for sure. So, specific to your work on radio now, I’m curious about this: what do you think are the main differences between talking sports on a news station and talking sports on a sports station?

A: Well, there are a bunch, but in my specific environment (that being the stations that I’ve worked at in the Boston market and New England), it’s time more than anything else. You know, I host a show weekly on 98.5 the Sports Hub, which is the number one sports station in the market and obviously it’s a talk-show format, so you don’t have to be as rigid with the clock. You know, if you’re in the middle of a really good conversation, debate, interview, whatever it may be, you can push the limits a little bit. I mean, yeah, it’s important to stay as close to it as possible, but you can flow, you can expand, you can enlighten, you can take calls, you have that interaction with not only the listeners, but your co-hosts, your guests, whomever it is. In the news format, it’s you know, a lot like 1010 WINS, for instance, in New York, which obviously is just like WBZ News Radio 1030 where I work, I mean it’s an iconic news-radio station in the country. But within a news-radio format, you don’t have the same kind of time because the clock is everything, the clock is as important as the content in a lot of different cases. And so, my sports segment may be 90 seconds, whether it’s “tell a story” or “present the latest information in a traditional sense” or “interview a guest”. I mean, how do you do an interview with a guest in 90 seconds or 1:45, well that’s what you need to figure out. It’s not like having somebody on for 15 or 20 minutes, so it’s, you know, they’re two so totally different universes, but each incredibly fulfilling, just in, you know, alternate aspects.

Q: So, last quick one I have for you: so, you’re a Boston guy, I’m a Boston guy, we all know how it is there. The market is crazy, it’s at times sensationalized, a lot of other places criticize that, but, you know, it’s because people care and people live and die with their teams. So, from your perspective, what is it like working in the…or I should ask: how different do you think the Boston market is from, say, most other markets you could work in in the country?

A: Oh, I think it’s a lot different and that’s not to say that Boston is unique in and of itself, I mean it is, but it’s not as though it’s the only place that is, you know, this sports Mecca where no other place has a passionate fan base. We know that’s not true, I mean in New York, the fans are rabid. In Philadelphia, the fans are rabid. There are intelligent sports fans all over the country: Chicago, St. Louis, wherever it may be. But, obviously in a place like Boston or like some of those other places that I mentioned, you compare it to, I don’t know, maybe Atlanta or Florida or California, and this is, you know, they’re not specific parts necessarily or wherever it may be in the country, you know, the passion isn’t quite the same. You may have more fair-weather fans, you know, people like to call them “pink hats” up this way. Or maybe, there’s a dedication to the college teams more so than the pro teams and up here, the college teams are very much inferior to the pro teams, you know we live and die, you know the collective “we”, by the four major teams and you know, all due respects to the New England Revolution, the professional soccer team up here. It’s just an incredibly passionate environment where the fans, it’s almost remarkable, in a lot of ways (and the passion has always been there), but in some ways it was even more so before all the winning started back in 2001 and there have been nine championships since I think. You know, prior to that, when it felt like, you know, there wasn’t one in a million years and in reality it was, I don’t know, 15 years, it just, there was misery and that made you passionate and now it’s the winning that contributes to being passionate, but you don’t have it in the same way during the regular season as you once did, you know, year-round throughout, now it picks up even more so, the intensity, in the playoffs. But, I suppose that’s true of sports in general wherever you are, whatever the market is. You know, the more negative things that are going on, almost the more passionate you’re going to be because people like to complain, they like to moan, they like to, you know, get to the bottom of things, whereas, you know, celebrating and everything being rosy, everything being awesome, it’s not quite the same experience. But, we’re lucky up here, we’re lucky that across the board, we’ve got competitive teams that are, you know, constantly if not in the championship hunt, at least trying to be and the fans that care to root them on and fill up the events and all of it.

Q: Alright, Adam. Thank you for the time and we’ll listen for you soon. Thank you.

A: Alright, my pleasure.

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