The Anchor’s Desk with Scott Reister: How to Get Your Local Sports Anchor to Cover Your Team

The local news is the best place to get coverage of your local high school, college, and pro teams. For a fan at home, it’s a wonderful thing — unless your team is continuously getting ignored every time the weatherman tosses to the sports desk.

Of course your big-name professional and D-1 teams will get their standard 0:30-1:00 of airtime each night. I’m talking about the local high school or medium-sized college team that has an equally passionate following.

How do they decide what to show in that three minutes of sports each night? What can you do to influence those decisions? What should you never do? Here are the answers, coming straight from a sports anchor himself.

You have to understand that your local sports department is a not your own personal ESPN-sized operation dedicated to your specific zip code. Nowadays, local TV sports departments consist of 1-3 people in the office on any given night. With layoffs sweeping the industry, that number is lower and lower everywhere you look. And these people have a LOT of ground to cover, usually a multi-state region consisting of hundreds of high schools and handfuls of colleges.

Time to put yourself in my shoes and discover the decision-making process. Here’s how I choose whether or not to go to your school’s game:

First and foremost: Can I physically get there and get back to the station in time to get it on the news?

Between my 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. show, I maybe have one hour total to get to an event, shoot video, and drive back.

If your team is playing more than 30 minutes away from the station, your chances of getting airtime just took a big hit. In the time it takes to go out to your school and shoot one game, I could shoot video at three different games and have more content on the news that night?

Next thing I consider? Newsworthiness.

Is your team any good? Is it a big game? That helps your cause. But I still have to weigh it against the time constraints, what else is going on that night, and whether I believe that enough people care. If I show up at a 1A high school basketball game and there are 30 people in the stands, did that event really deserve TV coverage?

Be your school’s PR person and give me a reason to go.

E-mail/call ahead of time to tell the TV station about the big event. Even better, give me an interesting angle or news hook that I can follow up on.

Perfect example: A coach called me to tell me about her gymnast that was heading to some national meet, it was a big deal, etc. I was just about to tell her how I didn’t have time to make it, but then she mentioned how this kid just had his appendix removed a few days ago, and was still performing.

BINGO!

I got a great story. So I went and did a story on that amazing turn of events. I Never would have gone without that compelling story to cover. Find an angle and a reason to get me there. It’ll increase your chances every time.

Also, act as a PR person and provide all the vital information. Don’t assume the news knows about your big game. Call in and report your score. Even if the cameras weren’t there, stations may still want to run the score, especially on a Friday night. If you call me I’ll probably run it, if you don’t call and I don’t have the information, there’s no way you get mentioned. Call in scores.

When requesting coverage, don’t be a jerk

When you call or email a local TV sports department, realize they are not obligated to cover your school, and don’t talk to them like they have done some great injustice by not preaching to the world how great your school’s JV underwater basket weaving team is. Starting to vent your frustrations at the sports guy will have the opposite affect.

Be polite, say what is happening, provide contact info, plus offer an interesting angle about the event. Don’t assume we know about your game.

Whenever I handle these situations, I quote the great Rod Tidwell from Jerry Maguire: “Help me, help you.”

Hope that helps. Enjoy the games.

Scott Reister is a featured contributor to Midwest Sports Fans. He is a Sports Anchor for the NBC affiliate in the Tri-Cities and Spokane, WA. To learn more about Scott, visit the Scott Reister bio page on Midwest Sports Fans or check out the Scott Reister bio page on Midwest Sports Fans or check out the Scott Reister bio page on Midwest Sports Fans or check out the Scott Reister bio page on Midwest Sports Fans or check out the Local Sports page on KNDU.com.

To contact Scott: sreister@hotmail.com

Tags: scott reister, sports reporting

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