This caused the on-air talent in radio broadcast jobs to move to other formats; this may be one of the major reasons for the explosion of talk radio in the 1990s and the later renaissance for sports announcing: They were the only radio announcing jobs that allowed the on air talent to express any kind of creativity or personality.
Sport radio jobs come in two varieties – the play-by-play announcing position, or the host of a call in radio program about sports. The latter tend to work for local high school (or if in a college town) college games, typically ones that they specialize in, and are direct employees of the radio station. (Some of the larger football programs on the college level hire their own announcing talent). At the professional league level (the National Football League, National Hockey League, National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball), announcers for home games are typically employees of the teams they cover.
A sports radio job focusing on play by play announcing requires that you not be nervous in front of the microphone – some basic radio announcing jobs are a solid pre-requisite. You must be able to read clearly, and cleanly, and know how to pace your delivery. The vast majority of Americans speak at 100 to 110 words per minute. Most radio announcers learn to slow down to 90 to 95 words per minute so that their delivery isn't too fast for someone who's listening without the benefit of body language and facial expressions as nonverbal cues. (This is a fairly basic skill, taught in the basics of broadcasting classes, and even down on the high school level with forensics and debate teams.)
Sports talk radio announcing gigs are challenging ones to get. In addition to being knowledgeable about general sports and sports issues, you need to be in a radio market where there's a demand for that kind of air play and on air talent. It sometimes happens for big college level basketball, hockey, and football programs, and very rarely for a professional baseball program. For experienced announcers who know the local team, it can happen in a major sports franchise city. The general rule of thumb in this format is that you'll engage callers on conversations about the local sports team and on sports issues of the current day. Being prepared for your show will take about as long as the show itself. You'll be spending your time reading up on sporting events, and preparing the topics of discussion with your audience. Think carefully about what kinds of topics will engender strong opinions. Your ratings depend on listeners being passionately engaged; if the callers aren't calling in to argue with you, you're not doing your job right. (This may be one of the reasons why the sports-talk format hasn't really expanded past Pittsburgh as extensively as it has eastwards – recreational argument isn't something that people outside of the Eastern seaboard have really gotten on to.)
For reasons dealing pretty much entirely with demographics, the big demand for this sort of position is in the radio marketplaces on the East Coast. The sports-talk format has much fewer stations carrying it going west of Pittsburgh, though there are at least two stations carrying it in every major radio market all the way to the West Coast. The easiest way to break into this market is to work for the radio station that broadcasts them, and audition to be the backup talent. Most auditions tend to be low stress; most radio stations want to maintain their current audience base, so you need to find a way to reinforce the theme and style of the radio station's broadcast, while leaving room for your own on air personality to show through as you discuss the sporting issues of the day.
The benefits of these types of sports broadcasting jobs are that you get to engage your passions about sports, whether you're a fan of a particular team, or a fan of a particular sport. You'll find that your expertise makes you a major draw in your radio market, which can pay well. In major media markets, on air talent can make about as much as a typical office manager for that city. Being able to work on a subject that you're passionate about is a great way for the job to remain engaging and entertaining; it's like the general advice of Euripides: Work at something you love, and you shall never work another day in your life.
So, if you have a passion for sports, and some experience with broadcasting, consider getting into sports broadcasting as a career, and turn your passion into something that earns you a nice living.
