Aug 5, 2022
Host: K.P. Wee
Guest: Rich Burk, Play-by-Play Broadcaster
SUMMARY: Sometimes nice guys finish first – as is the
case with Rich Burk, one of the busiest and nicest sportscasters
around. On this episode of The K.P. Wee Podcast the veteran
play-by-play announcer (ESPN, Pac12 Networks and NBC’s Olympic
coverage) is sharing insider tips for anyone who aspires to his
success. In addition to having called more than 2,000 baseball
games for major and minor league teams, Rich has also
covered football, men's and
women's basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, swimming, diving,
and wrestling. The one common thread? Prep. Prep. Prep. Rich spends
as many as eight hours painstakingly compiling stats and other
background related to each and every player (for both teams) going
into a series. He does a similar amount of homework before
conducting interviews, which is what makes him so nimble and able
to elicit great conversation. You’ll also learn why young
sportscasters need to read, read, read—and why silence from the
broadcast booth can be a gift. The show wraps with some colorful
career highlights and parting thoughts for anyone who feels shy
about seeking out a mentor. “Most people in this industry have been helped
by mentors,” says Rich, “and those same people are almost always
happy to help younger people trying to break in.” So don’t be
afraid to reach out!
Interested in checking out
Rich’s perennially popular
Baseball Scorebook
Model?
It’s available online
here.
Click here if you would like to hear previous episodes of
the K.P. Wee Podcast or here if you’d like to know more about the many books
he has authored.
If you’re a fan of this
podcast’s intro music, please follow Roger Chong: Twitter
@chongroger and Instagram @chongroger
KEY TOPICS:
- Rich shares thoughts on the trajectory of his
play-by-play career, including the priority he put on protecting
stability and quality of life with his family in
Oregon.
- Public speaking has always been in Rich’s
comfort zone largely because he starts with the assumption that
people like him. Makes it easy to relax in front of the
microphone!
- Some of Rich’s earliest training was as a
college student sent out by his baseball coaches to speak on their
behalf at various service clubs in Southern California.
- Pro Tip: Be yourself and trust that everyone
will like you.
- Not everyone comes out of the gate with a fully
formed on-air persona. It took Rich time to cultivate his
play-by-play style.
- Rich developed his baseball scorebooks to help
him keep track of details while juggling other stadium roles early
in his career. It was a great lesson in multi-tasking!
- Rich put together his
Baseball Scorebook Model
in 2007 and it has sold steadily
ever since. The format provides room for flexibility. He counts
broadcasters among his fans!
- Pro Tip: Be prepared! People assume Rich has
everything memorized but in fact he is just very organized. It
takes a considerable investment of time, but he always has at his
fingertips copious notes/player facts (for his team and the teams
they face), including:
-
- Number of games played
- Batting average
- Double, triples, home runs, and
RBIs
- Stolen bases and stolen base
attempts
- Trends – notable activity out on the
field
- Basic Bios: Height, weight, hometown, college
career, and other fun facts.
- Inputting data prior to a series can take Rich
as many as eight hours! Updates are quicker.
- Pro Tip: Be prepared with background material,
but always remember: It’s about what’s going on down on the field.
The art is in knowing how much to use and when to use
it.
- Letting things breathe: Rich believes the age
of social media has conditioned broadcasters to “blather on and on
and on.” He’s a fan of the old school approach, knowing when to let
the crowd to tell the story.
- About the time Rich’s old friend, golf
sportscaster Peter Jacobsen, set him up to shadow broadcast legend
Vince Scully. He spent two days watching the master do his thing!
And took away two bits of advice: Be yourself (which he took) and
Don’t listen to other broadcasters (which he opted to ignore – he
has studied other people’s on-air styles).
- Pro Tip: Read! Vince Scully once told Rich (who
wholeheartedly agrees) that aspiring broadcasters should devour
written material in order to build facility with
language.
- Pro Tip: When conducting an interview, do your
homework, know your subject and have in mind a general map (keep it
flexible!) of where you’d like to go.
- Pro Tip: Listen to cues from your interviewee.
Sometimes an unanticipated twist in the conversation will come up.
You’ve got to be ready to go with it!
- Listener Question: About Ron Tonkin, the late car dealership owner in Portland for
whom the 4,500 spectator baseball park was named in
2014.
- Rich reflects on his most memorable
broadcasts:
-
- 1997 Portland Rockies league
championship.
- 2014, 2015, and 2019 championships for the
Hillsboro Hops.
- A memorable game-ending (and ultimately
career-ending) grand slam by Tagg Bozied taught Rich a critical
lesson: Always, always keep your eye on the
field!
- An all-out fight between Portland Beavers and
Las Vegas 51s fans at an away game – a crazy scene in which once
again Tagg Bozied figured.
- Closing Thoughts for Aspiring Broadcasters:
Seek and reach out to as many mentors as possible. They were young
once and remember what it feels like trying to break into the
business!
KEY QUOTES:
- “I was
able to work my way up the ladder without having to move. Luckiest
guy in the world!” (Rich)
- “You can always assume that people are going to
like you. And the other piece of advice I’d give is: Be yourself.”
(Rich)
- “You’ve done your homework! Well done, K.P. I
appreciate that!” (Rich)
- “It’s probably a total of three hours of work –
more at the beginning of a series – because when we face a new team
I have to input all that information … The art of it is knowing
what to use and when.”
- “I find myself sometimes with all this
information but I have to know when not to use it because the game
is the focus. If it’s a tie game late in the game I don’t want to
be giving too much bio information. I don’t want to look away from
the field.” (Rich)
- “It’s a lost art just to let the crowd tell the
story.” (Rich)
- “Have a general map of where you want the
interview to go, but at the same time be flexible on your feet so
if the interviewee says something compelling you want to go down
that path.” (Rich)
- “Most people in this industry have been helped
by mentors; have been helped along the way by a lot of people. And
those same people are almost always happy to help younger people
trying to break in.” (Rich)
RICH BURK’S BIO: Rich Burk is a versatile sportscaster who
serves as a play-by-play announcer for Pac-12 Networks. He has
called football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, soccer,
volleyball, swimming and diving, and wrestling for the Pac-12
Networks in addition to calling games for Fox Sports Net NW, ROOT
Sports, and ESPN2. Additionally, Burk has called many games on
radio, from historic venues such as Pauley Pavilion, Madison Square
Garden, and Cameron Indoor Stadium. On several occasions he has had
fill-in stints in Major League Baseball, including time with the
San Diego Padres, Montreal Expos, and Toronto Blue Jays. His
professional baseball resume of nearly 2000 games includes calling
four no-hitters and two perfect games. He currently lives outside
of Portland in Hillsboro, Oregon, where he coaches youth baseball
and during recent summers has called play-by-play for the Hillsboro
Hops, a minor-league affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He also
has two children with his wife of over 24 years.
FOLLOW RICH: WEBSITE
|
TWITTER | EMAIL
|
RICH BURK'S BASEBALL SCOREBOOK
About K.P. Wee: K.P. Wee is the author of multiple books and a
regular contributor to sports radio programs and websites. In
addition to hosting The K.P. Wee Podcast, he also enjoys writing
sports and psychological fiction with a twist of romance. He spent
a decade working as a program developer and instructor for a
private school before joining the Vancouver Canadians baseball
club’s media relations department.
You can find out more about books by K.P. Wee
here.
Follow K.P. Wee: K.P. @Twitter
Additional episodes of the K.P.
Wee Podcast are available here.