For my second interview, I talked with Neal Slotkin. He is a senior producer at Comcast Sportsnet. I knew that Neal was an adujunct faculty here at Rider, and so I decided to send him an e-mail. We then had a phone interview a couple of days later.
Comcast sports net in this area focuses on the sports in Philadephia. That's what Neal and his team reports on. He says that he has various responsibilites and that his job changes everyday. Sometimes he works with the field producer. He goes with the reporters to interview players and coaches. He films what are called "News of the Day" which are stories about a specific team that usually last about 2-3 minutes long. He works very closely with the Flyers and the 76ers. He also travels with the Philadelphia Eagles. He goes to their home and away game and writes and reports about that. When he gets back, he edits everything and then writes something for the anchor of the show to read. He's also a feature producer. This takes a little more work because it's about 5-6 minutes long and it needs to be planned ahead. An example of a feature he gave me, was when Harry Kalas (the announcers for the Philadelphia Phillies) passed away. Since he had been sick for a while, and people knew he was probably going to die soon, the station started preparing the feature ahead of time. That way when it did happen, they could air it as soon as people heard the news. The features need special attention because they need to go through a lot more videos, and they really need to keep up with the situation.
Neal got started at Rutgers University. He worked at his campus radio station reporting on the sports event at the school. He then had an internship at Channel 6 and an independent study at WFAM New York. He also volunteered at Prism Sports. After he graduated, he landed a job at ESPN and worked there for 3 1/2 years. One day his mother gave him a call telling that she heard that Comcast was starting a station in the Philly area focusing on Philly sports. Being from Cherry Hill, he was very interested in the project because a Philadelphia Sports' fan. So he left ESPN and joined the project. On October 1st 1997, Comcast Sports Net was launched.
As far as technology is concerned, he says it changes everyday and that electronic media is just going to have to keep up. From putting up extra online content to making applications available for blackberries and other phones. As far as their station, they are trying their best to keep up with the ever changing technologies. They have both facebook and twitter accounts that keep audiences updated constantly. They're also working on broadcasting games on their website.
Neal mentioned several things he like about his job. He loves the variety of what he gets to do. He also loves the fact that he gets to follow and write about the sports and teams that he is a fan of. Also the fact that he gets to work with sports in general, because it's something that he's always loved. He also likes the fact that he works with such talented people. What he doesn't like about it, is that it could get very hectic and busy. As he said, it's not a 9-5 job. He works a lot of nights and and rarely has weekends off. He has a family, and because of his hectic job, he misses a lot of things with them. Another dislike is the fact that the people on the production side don't make great money. He said it's enough to make a living, but that the real money goes to the people who are on air.
One thing Neal suggested as far as getting your foot in the door is an internship. He couldn't stress that enough. He said you can never have too many. He also said that while you're at your internship, try to set yourself apart from the rest. Go in early, stay later, offer extra help, volunteer to go on a shoot when you weren't supposed to be working. Those are the types of things that will make you stand out from everybody else. He said you need to be a hardworker, very responsible, and a solid writer. He said it's also important to listen well, ask questions, and be flexible. He also said that it was very important to be a well-rounded person. He said there were no specific trade publications that should be read, but to keep up with what's going on everywhere. Even you're interested in sports, read about what's going on the news and in other areas of the media so that way you have a good grasp of everything.
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Link to comcast sportsnet Philly
Example of a program aired on Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia
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