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Sports Journalism’s Leap from Print to Pocket
Brandon Marcello couldn't have predicted his journey would lead to national sports coverage for CBS Sports. What began with covering high school football games for beer money as a college student evolved into a career that mirrors the transformative changes in sports journalism itself.
Marcello's path wasn't always pointed toward sports reporting. A failed calculus class derailed his meteorology dreams, redirecting him toward journalism after finding a connection in athletes' stories of overcoming adversity. This relatability, growing up in a single-parent household with limited resources, gave him a unique perspective when covering players with similar backgrounds.
The evolution from print journalist to multimedia analyst didn't happen overnight. Marcello details how each technological shift presented new opportunities: from newspaper reporting to blogging, from iPhone videos to livestreaming, and finally to professional broadcasting. His home studio setup developed gradually, starting with basic equipment and expanding as resources allowed, a practical approach making quality content creation accessible to those with limited initial resources.
For content creators struggling with on-camera anxiety, Marcello offers refreshingly direct advice: "Get over yourself." He emphasizes authenticity over perfection, noting audiences connect with genuine personalities rather than polished performances. His prioritization of audio quality over video underscores an important principle: clear sound is non-negotiable, while visual elements can be enhanced incrementally.
Whether you're considering launching a podcast or pursuing sports journalism, Marcello's experience offers valuable guidance: build a content library before launching, stay consistent with your publishing schedule, and remember that growth happens gradually. The persistence that carried him from small-town newspapers to national sports coverage demonstrates that embracing change while maintaining journalistic integrity creates pathways to success in today's evolving media landscape.
Hello and welcome to Autofocus. My name is Brooke. I am here with Brandon Marcello. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me, brooke, I don't even know the last time we saw each other. It was probably been like decades.
Speaker 2:A decade plus. Yeah, we're very young.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're still very young, Very young.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when we say a decade, more like it Decade yeah, it feels like two years it does, but it's been actual like a decade or so.
Speaker 1:But yeah, why don't you tell everybody like who you are, what you do, like you know what makes you special?
Speaker 2:Well, everybody's special number one. Now I cover college football on a national scale for CBS Sports and I've been doing that for the last five years or so in different varieties. Before that I was a beat writer covering other college athletics programs, not just football. I've been doing sports most of my professional life and it's just been a natural progression to what I'm doing today. I just I love it. I love being able to share people's stories, especially because you know sports is like the ultimate, like it's a reflection of life and just overcoming challenges and exceeding or failing and there's always just that drama with it's just always something. That's been a great board to share stories that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, welcome, we are glad that you're here. Um, we kind of go way back, like we go back to the northwest arkansas times. Like that newspaper doesn't even exist anymore. Um, so was that your first journalism job, or was it? Did you have something new before that it?
Speaker 2:was my third one. I had very short tenures previously to that. I got out of college and I immediately went to Nashville, arkansas, and was the managing editor, fresh out of school, for the Nashville News, which is a pretty historic newspaper down there. It's been in a Graves family forever. The former publisher has a lake named after him there. Okay, I mean there's like a mural it might not be there anymore A mural like painted of him in downtown on the side of the newspaper building. It's just like a landmark there. I did that for like I don't know, like maybe eight months and I got a interview and job offer at the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1:I didn't know. You came to the Morning News first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which doesn't exist anymore either. No, and I actually worked in Rogers as a government reporter covering the smaller municipalities in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so crazy. Yeah, I had no idea I didn't. Which means how long did you work at the Morning News? Like three months. Okay, that's so crazy. I had no idea I didn't. Which means how long did you work at the Morning News? Like three months. Okay, that's probably why it was very short.
Speaker 2:Okay, and the reason why it was short is because you remember there was a sports reporter, reiner Sabin, who worked at Northwest Arkansas Times. He and I were close friends and worked at the same student newspaper, the University of Arkansas, and I'd always wanted to get back into sports and he was leaving to go take a job, I think in Virginia, was it Virginia, yeah, virginia.
Speaker 2:and Pilot and I think he went to Dallas after that and so he was leaving, and the sports editor at the time, terry Wood, who I had freelanced for them throughout college stringing stuff, junior high games, high school games and they called me up like hey, would you be interested? And I was like, oh heck, yeah, yes, please get me out of covering government stuff. Yeah, little did I know that I'd be doing a lot of that now, even sports. But, um, yeah, so I remember because the two papers northwest times, arkansas Times and Morning News were competitors. They were competitors Like hardcore competitors. I remember I interviewed, took the job, put in my two weeks and the Morning News was like we don't want you hanging around for two weeks here.
Speaker 2:And I'm all like so can I at least finish the weeks. I have money, you know. And so I remember calling Northwest Arkansas Times up and going hey, they don't want me to stay here two weeks. And they're like well, you can start tomorrow if you want. And so I walked in and go do you guys want me to just leave today? Call us and be like sure. I'm like okay, that's it Bye. And then you know, the next day I was doing all my HR paperwork and stuff.
Speaker 1:So that for how long were you there?
Speaker 2:two and a half years yeah, it was a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah, two and a half three years or so, that's cool. Yeah, I was there for almost seven.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, yeah, those were good days. I I miss. I miss the camaraderie and the feel of being in a newsroom, yeah, especially when, like, something's going on yeah, the newsroom and it's just.
Speaker 2:And then you got people coming in and out. Like you know, photographers are on assignment going somewhere. Like hey, I just saw a you know a wreck over here or whatever. Or hey, I just I'm hearing this over the city council meeting or whatever, and um, it was like getting it felt so cool, because it's like you're getting the news before everybody else got it and you're listening and watching these stories all come together. You don't get that anymore because everybody's in their own little silos remote working. But man, I miss the buzz of a newsroom that was fun.
Speaker 1:I do. I miss that too out of all the times like at the.
Speaker 2:You know, at the times that was like my favorite part was just everybody around each other election night oh yeah, pizza and you're there all night and yeah, I always took issue with that as a sports person. Like we have election night every Friday during the football season, we did. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, yeah, I had to come in and like yeah, because I was like those are my long days, because like I was the morning photographer and then everybody had to do a football game and so I had like a two-hour break to go get dinner and like hang out, and then I, then I would go to like and sometimes more than one, and, yeah, sometimes more than one football games it's like yeah, can you go.
Speaker 2:While you're on Lincoln, can you swing by Prairie Grove? I would do that. Yeah, I would hit yeah, it's like halftime.
Speaker 1:You go hit Prairie Grove, then come back, and I had to get all my photos in before like 10.30. And then I could go finally hang out with my friends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, finally start my weekend, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:We never got pizza for that. Oh man, never a fun time, yeah.
Speaker 2:I do I do enjoy that.
Speaker 1:And then, yeah and right, reiner, that, yeah, I remember him and him go moving on and him being an intern. It was such a fun time. There was so many good, good, good people, good people that are doing amazing successful things now.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I mean it's. It's incredible, like you know, I think in any business, like, I'm sure, like you just you work with people and you turn around 10, 15 years later and this person's doing that, or they're completely out of the industry. You're in and they're like running something. You're like holy crud, I didn't realize you had that in you or whatever. You know, I used to just be a inkstained wrench like me, just writing stuff. Now you're running PR for some Fortune 500 company or whatever. You're wearing a suit every day.
Speaker 1:You're in a suit. You're like corporate now yeah that's weird.
Speaker 2:That's so weird, yeah, yeah, very weird.
Speaker 1:Awesome. I love it. What made you want to become a sports journalist?
Speaker 2:Long story short growing up I wanted to be a meteorologist of all things, and so and I moved up here, I think, when I was like in seventh grade in Northwest Arkansas, and I moved up here, I think, when I was like in seventh grade in northwest Arkansas and I had my eyes on going to Oklahoma or like maybe Mississippi State, because they had really good meteorology programs. Well, I remember my sophomore or junior year. I got thrown into advanced math classes and they decided to put like five of us in both Geometry and also AP calculus in the same semester. Oh cuz that's.
Speaker 2:Needless to say, I completely I was in over my head with you on or excuse me calculus. Yeah, and I Always was an A and B student and I was failing calculus. I had to beg the teacher to somehow find a way to give me a D and I got a D. And I quickly realized, you know, meteorology deals with a lot of math and probably a lot of calculus, and I'm terrible at it Like I didn't have the brain capacity to do it. And so while I was figuring all that out, I would always read the newspapers up here, because back then we had, you know, as I mentioned, the Morning News, the Northwest Arkansas Times, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, and then you also had, like the small community weeklies and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Daily Record.
Speaker 2:Yeah, big County Daily Record, you know. And so Farmington, what was our Farmington paper? The Farmington Post, I think, back then. So I would like just read a lot. And Having just moved within the last few years to here, I never was in a state where, like, sports were really really big and you had one like really sports team everybody followed, which was the Razorbacks.
Speaker 2:Everywhere else you know Mississippi and I grew up it was like Ole Miss, mississippi State, southern Miss, lsu, and everybody was divided. I didn't really care, but here, like everybody was obsessed with the Razorbacks and so I just was interested and so I read a lot about them in all those newspapers. And I remember we had a program at our school which a lot of schools had it was called Newspapers in Education where they would bring every morning to the office a copy of every single one of the daily papers and you could just pick it up for free if you're a student. Well, I was like the only person ever really did that. So I'd go in there every morning before classes start or whatever and pick them up and then I'd read them throughout the day.
Speaker 2:I'd be carrying newspapers around and it took like a few months while the calculus stuff was going on and reading that I was like man, you know what I'd probably like to be like a sports reporter, a writer of some sort, because I was reading it was so great, so, like you had all these different voices in the paper covering like one team, they all had different perspectives. You had Wally Hall, you had Scott Cain, you had Bob Holt, you had Chip Souza, you had Nate Allen in there, nate.
Speaker 2:Allen, of course, was in there, Dudley Dawson, and then you had like even guys like Mike Nail, who was the voice of the Razorbacks, was writing columns for Northwest Arkansas Times at the time, and so I just gobbled everything.
Speaker 2:I was like this is incredible, little did I know, like how spoiled we were.
Speaker 2:Probably up here because it's like I don't think that was going on anywhere really in the country, but up here because it's like I don't think that was going on anywhere really in the country and but reading those stories, I love the voices but also like loved reading the stories about the players, like their upbringing and then overcoming stuff and being successful here. And I really related to that because I grew up like really dirt poor, I grew up in a single parent home, didn't have a father around or whatever to kind of teach me certain things about life, and I would read these stories about players and I related with them so much, a few of them, and I was just like man, I'd love to be able to someday be able to write stories about that type of stuff. And yeah, I fell in love with it. And as soon as I got to college I remember walking into the student newspaper, the Arkansas Traveler going hey, I would love to do. You know Razorback football and I'm like that's cool we're gonna start you off like doing smaller stuff.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh yeah, of course I gotta work my way up and uh, yeah, I just fell in love with it, loved it, learned to lay the land and, um, I got even hungrier and I was like can I freelance? And I remember they're like, yeah, the northwest oxford times will pay you to go cover junior high and like high school football and basketball games and I was like really how much like five dollars.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it was. It was pretty good it was good beer.
Speaker 2:It was good beer money, as I said, college it was. I remember I could at the the Northwest Arkansas Times, freelancing. You could go cover a game on a Friday night and they always wanted a follow-up story, so it would be two stories and each story was $45. Ooh see, that is good beer, money it's 90 bucks to go somewhere for three hours and spend like 45 minutes to an hour writing. That's pretty good money.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then I like parlay that into like do you guys need any features or anything else during the middle of the week? So I like do the Friday night thing, I go cover a Thursday night junior high game, or I like write a Razorback feature for our tab that would come out on Saturdays. So there were some weeks where I was making like an extra 180 bucks.
Speaker 1:That's so awesome.
Speaker 2:It was 80 bucks. That's so awesome. It's really good. College is freaking awesome. Yeah, so, um, yeah, that's just like everything I ever go back like. What you're doing now is like that's what. Like those were like the fun, really fun days yeah doing that stuff that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Um, okay, so you eventually so your career. You, you like you started in here you know, as as a writer. What got you into being a commentator on CBS Sports? How did you go from reporter at a local newspaper to CBS Sports?
Speaker 2:I just follow the progression of technology in a lot of ways. I remember after I left here I became a beat writer at Mississippi State and they were big into you need to blog every day. I became the beat writer at Mississippi State and they were big into like you need to blog every day and you need to do like you need to take iPhones that just came out like a year or two before and they're like shoot video with your iPhone.
Speaker 1:some of your interviews and stuff.
Speaker 2:And then that quickly turned into well after games. Why don't you set up your camera on a tripod and record your thoughts on the game? And so I did that and was like really popular, not because of me, but because it was so new and people were like I want, I want more information.
Speaker 2:Yeah and um. So I just kept doing that, I loved it and went to Auburn I do the same thing and then you know, I don't know if people remember back when they started doing live video on apps called Periscope and all that stuff- oh wow, no, I never did that oh so I would.
Speaker 2:I would, after football games and basketball games, after I'm done writing and I'm leaving the press box, I would just turn on Periscope and do a live thing of me just walking back to my car, holding my phone up answering people's questions.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow. And you just did all of it on your phone.
Speaker 2:Just did it on my phone and people loved it. And I on my phone and people loved it. And I loved it because people, you know, sports is such a like a there's that camaraderie, there's community there and everybody's just so interested and passionate about it. Um, and even in losses you know they're very negative and they're probably even attacking you while you're on there, but like it's just still really cool and I think a lot of people really appreciate knowing they can go directly to someone who was at the event and able to ask questions or find out information, and they can get it directly from you and you're looking at them, interacting with them, and so I did that a lot and it was just one thing turned into another and you start doing podcasts and then podcasts doing more stuff with video, and then then I'm working with 24-7 sports and then podcasts, doing more stuff with video. And then, um, then I'm working with 24 7 sports and then cbs sports and I'm like, hey, we have a streaming network or whatever. So you come on and do hits or whatever.
Speaker 2:And now it's gotten to the point. Now we're in my upstairs office. I've got like a mini studio. I've got like two studios up there I've got one just just at my office desk that I've got set up, and then I got something built off to the side much like this. It's almost like a black void or whatever where.
Speaker 2:I put up some sound panels and some lights and everything, and it's become part of my daily life is doing video, where you know I went into this just well. I want to be a writer, I don't want to be on camera, but now I do both.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I wanted to talk to you definitely about your setup and your gear, but first I want to talk to you about like what was that change like going from like you know, a reporter to being on camera and like having to watch yourself on camera.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's awkward and you know it's one of those situations where I hate watching myself, I think everybody does, everyone does.
Speaker 2:And so it's just like when it was out there, I'd like just go, I'm not watching that, it's out there, it's done. That's why I like doing the live stuff, because, like it's out there, it's done, I don't have to deal with it anymore. But you know, the bad part is like when you start doing pre-recorded stuff and everything, someone's got to edit it and most of the time, of course, I'd be editing my own stuff because I'm do this for me. So that that's a little bit awkward and it took some getting used to. Um, you know, especially because, like especially in my auburn days, I gained a lot of weight and I was a big dude and of course I'd get all this negative feedback from people and I just had to ignore it or whatever and put everything out.
Speaker 2:But, um, it is still very awkward to see yourself on video. Or even like now, like, for example, I was in Las Vegas recently at a Media Days event for the Big Ten conference and I did some. We had, like some studio stuff we did there with CBS Sports and I had to go do some hits and all this stuff. And then later that day I went to a campus at UNLV to go talk to some people and went to have lunch and they just so happened to have CBS Sports HQ streaming up there and I looked up and I saw myself on TV and it kind of freaked me out that would be so weird.
Speaker 2:I was just like yeah yeah, and I was like that looks familiar, that's me so that's a little, that takes a little getting used to, but I really and I really enjoy it because people nowadays seem to they gobble up more podcast type format than they do the written word, and so to be able to share stories and information, now you've got to be able to do both. If not, you know, really lean more into the podcast space.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think video is really important for that. And then just like, like, what advice would you give to people that are just starting out? They're like I know I need to be on camera but I hate it. You know I'm the face for radio. How do you tell them just to get over your, just get over it.
Speaker 2:I would just say that get over yourself, don't worry about that. Just make sure you speak clearly and you have intent and you know what you're going to talk about. Don't say um, we're all going to do that, everybody's not perfect when they're doing it, but be yourself too, don't put on some different persona or whatever. I see some people who do that and whenever they do it, they immediately almost fail, almost every time there's.
Speaker 2:There's a few out there that do it because they're characters, more or less, and people want that character. But people are faking it. They can tell you just need to be able to be yourself and be personal yeah, yeah and just yeah.
Speaker 1:I feel like I mean, I I'm the same way. I hate seeing myself on camera I feel, like it doesn't ever. They're like oh, it adds 10 pounds. I'm like no, it adds like 50 like there's no way I look like that yeah and it adds like 20 years. You know, like when did I have that wrinkle? But no, I think. But no one else is looking at you like that, like no one else is like judging you and like looking at you, you know.
Speaker 2:Like recently, because I'm obviously bald. I don't know if you can make it see that I've started using makeup. Do you do it? I do the. I put it on my head because it's so shiny and I didn't do it for this. I'm sorry. It's fine, but I do it and they're like it's not going to change the color of your skin. You can't really tell.
Speaker 2:It's just like a mat, it's just gonna yeah, the light doesn't go there and so, but I still feel awkward. But I have to get over myself again, you have to get over yourself.
Speaker 1:I feel awkward, I'm standing off patting my head with makeup and looking in a makeup mirror and I thought I'd do that, but yep do what you gotta do. It was so funny. It's funny watching the the tv guys. When we were, we were, we were at things and you would see them like the guys put on makeup, you know and you're like. I was like y'all really do and they're like those lights are harsh and I'm like you win, I'm like I get it.
Speaker 2:They are Like even these.
Speaker 1:These aren't that harsh, but I still will put on like some concealer.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, and.
Speaker 1:I'll put on some like stuff to make you know I don't want as much shine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, usually that's in the afternoon and I used to go work out mid-afternoon and I'd come back and like have 20-30 minutes before I'd do the show and I would still be kind of sweaty after taking a shower and I would just be glistening and you would see it look like I had a headlamp on for my head and everything and I'd have people going are you okay, are you sick? Because you're sweating a lot.
Speaker 1:I'm like I just went to the gym, like I just went to the gym and I get red.
Speaker 2:I don't know about you because I'm like Irish, you know.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, you're like and people are like, are you okay? You're really red. I'm like no, it's just.
Speaker 2:And I've done shows where I was literally had like sweat spots coming through my shirt like a dress shirt and it's like, dude, are you nervous? I'm like, okay, that's amazing, all right.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about your setup. Okay, so what is so you have, like I saw your setup. It was really really cool, Like it has like the green light under there and you have a lot of personal stuff in the background. So tell us about your setup. Like, how do you choose what's going to be in the background?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you just try to put things up there that people can say, oh, that's what he does and that's what he likes, and this is what he's accomplished and why I should trust them.
Speaker 2:In my opinion, that's what I do. So I've got, like you know, I'm the biggest nerd for the movie Robocop, so I got like a Robocop head on the side of my table you might be able to see sometimes on there. I've got like a couple of awards, writing awards and stuff on the, on the um, on the table behind me, on the setup behind me. I've got some little trinkets here and there, some football trinkets. I've even got like I bought this LED scoreboard that I turn on during the season and it'll show scores behind me oh, that's cool, and like what games are coming up. So you just kind of not to take the attention away from you, but like you've got to spice it up. You can't just be sitting there and be like there's a black wall behind you, because I used to do that and people would be like they always go. Are you sitting, are you in a cave, or are you in a basement.
Speaker 2:I'm like, no, it's a backdrop. Yeah, like that's a backdrop, looks like you're in a cave, um. So yeah, it's just pretty simple. Um, you know it's, it's awkward when you like have friends come over and they're all like they come over to your office. That's where I work every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they're all like everything's so perfectly set up behind you. That looks weird. I'm like, yeah, it's for TV. You know, this was not what my desk would look like normally, or whatever Right, yeah. But yeah, I mean, that's just kind of, I think everybody it's kind of common sense, since now everybody does video stuff yeah, especially since the you know, the pandemic you know, everybody's doing zooms and stuff and you know they would do the zoom backgrounds.
Speaker 2:But then people were just like sit in front of a bookcase, like that was everybody's big thing I was gonna.
Speaker 1:I was gonna ask about that. I was like, if you're gonna do a bookcase, like please have read the books that are behind you, like yeah, you're just reading them. You're like you didn't read that.
Speaker 2:Like yeah, I do the same thing like the only books that are like behind me are ones that I've read yeah, or ones that I like or whatever, or if it's a book that was just coming out and a friend of mine has written, I do it to put it there just to almost like promote it indirectly, because I want to support all the writers that I know out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just like that's like I've had people go that that I can't, that book hasn't come out yet. I'm like, see, look, you paid attention, you paid attention to it. Now you're wanting your interest, you want to buy it that's amazing.
Speaker 1:All right, let's talk about the mic and your gear. So, like, what kind of like do you do you use? Like what kind what? What do you use for a mic and camera?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean, the trustiest mic out there, in my opinion, is the uh sure. Why am I forgetting the product number sm?
Speaker 1:oh, this, these sm7s, yes, yeah, yeah, as in yeah, this has, this is the db. It has like the, it's like the step up from there. It has like the preamp preamp already built in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I got the old-fashioned one and I've got, um, uh, like, a preamp with it that's a cloud lifter is what they call. It's like 70 bucks that you just attach directly to the line uh, plug it into a uh, another kind of preamp to help with it, called focus right, um, that I utilize, you can. I can put in four connections so if I'm doing a podcast I can plug in other stuff. Um, my camera, uh, the main one I've got is a Sony. I think A6000 is the model I bought that like in 2000, 2021. At the time it was like 800 bucks.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of money, but now they're like 500, 600 bucks. And I recently just bought a second camera because I'm doing more. Three camera setups, okay, cool, and the second camera is a Sony. But ever since the pandemic and everything they're like, we got to do more high quality like dslr cameras for people are doing live streaming or videos. It's a sony I think it's called zv e10 or whatever, and it's pretty much that sony a6000 dslr, but it's made for streaming. So instead of buying a capture card to plug into your camera and then plug into your computer it's literally just plug in the usb into your usb and it just streams.
Speaker 2:That's awesome and, and that's great, it's a great setup. Um, I've got a couple of lights in front of me. I mostly just use a giant ring light whenever I'm just sitting motionless and it's just a you know a headshot. Um, and let's just a headshot, and let's see what else do I have there? Yeah, just make sure everything looks good behind you. My whole thing is make sure the sound's clear and good.
Speaker 2:And then video, to me in a lot of ways is secondary. People want to be able to hear what you're saying, but light is everything. You can have the best camera, but you've got to have have good lighting. So you got to, yeah, tinker with your lighting. Make sure you're not blowing yourself out, you know, make sure you're not too dark or whatever. So that's my big thing. I always just fiddle.
Speaker 2:I remember when I first started doing more, more of that stuff, it was always just like making sure I got the light, temperature and everything just right. So I didn't look too dark or just completely, because there's been times where I've done stuff and it looks like I'm looking like a ghost. It's just, I know. So you got to pay attention to that stuff too, but it's so easy to do. I wouldn't say I'm, like, you know, a technical savant of any sort. It's just like you do your research, you look at stuff, you go what makes sense monetarily for me and you know, slowly over the years, to be quite honest, I I bought things like my.
Speaker 2:My first investment was a Shure microphone back in 2017, 16, 2016. I bought that and then I was just shooting on a regular webcam and then, um, I started figuring out well, I could get a capture card and capture cards were getting cheaper. Then I think I remember I just bought a I still use it a Cam Link 4K capture card. You just plug in a USB and you can plug in an HDMI output to it. So that's what I plug my DSLR camera and there's so many other options out there. You just got to look with what kind of fits your your budget.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, no, I agree like I, and you said that. Like you know, audio comes first I totally agree, you know, and that was you know. As a photographer, it pains me to say that so yeah, I mean it is.
Speaker 2:It is, I mean as as good as it would be. I mean, people don't want to watch this yeah you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So you got to. So you got to have good sound. Because I mean even today, when I'm out on assignment or working, I'll try to bring some of my stuff. I'll bring a camera, a tripod and maybe a light if I can fit it in my suitcase, but otherwise I'll just do live hits for CBS Sports HQ on my laptop. But the big thing there is just always like we got to have clear sound. I can't tell you how many times I've done live hits where the internet's crappy because you're like in a hotel or whatever and your video's jumpy. But they can cover that up with b-roll and other stuff. But as long as the sound's good, that's all they care about. They don't care about you, whatever.
Speaker 1:It's, just you got to have good sound yep, the audio is like, is like it's so important and so, yeah, like if, yeah, if you're, if you're going to like put your studio together in parts like yeah, sound first sound first and then go to video.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Cause I I mean, you know this I can't tell you how many like streamers you see today that are even like really popular, like you watch it and you're like man, the camera on that is terrible. They must just be using like a small little Logitech 1080p thing that they bought for 40 bucks, but they've got a good sound setup and it's what draws people in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and if they can see the screen, if they're watching like a video game or something that's all I care about, exactly. That's amazing. All right, okay, so I also saw that you started a podcast with your wife. How's that Like? How does that go? It's fun.
Speaker 2:It's on hiatus right now but we're probably gonna bring it back during the football season, cool it's called. We've had this idea for a while. Mostly she did and her first name for it I can't repeat because it's very derogatory, but she came up with it. But we ended up settling with BASIC AF and that stands for Basic as Football and the whole premise of it is. You know, obviously I'm a college football reporter. I'm like neck deep in it every day and she's just like kind of a casual fan or whatever. She doesn't really pay attention to what I'm doing, work-wise or whatever, but she's interested in it. But she also knows like at the end of the day, like when I get done working, like at 9 or 10 o'clock at night, she goes. She knows like I'm just not going to talk about work to him because he wants to get away from it for a couple hours.
Speaker 2:But it's her way of like asking football things that you know, I think a lot of fans, and even including myself, we're like almost afraid to ask questions because we don't want to sound dumb. It's like so what do you mean? Like he ran off tackle. What's that mean exactly? And I can't tell you like how many experts out there like they would ask the same questions. They're just afraid to they don't want to get their.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm supposed to be, yeah, an expert, so she does that and then, like what's really remarkable about it is she'll ask me questions. You know, like if you watch some of the episodes I'll literally just stop and go. I didn't think of it that way. That's a good question, and like I'm like I gotta make a note of that so I can like ask about this to someone next time this comes up. And plus, it's just like I just love spending time with her anyway and we love poking at each other, and so she'll poke at me it is a fun one.
Speaker 1:Just the thumbnails are fun yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then she's just always, you know, then I give her like the last 15 minutes, like what do you want to talk about other than this crap? Like what's going on in your life? She'll tell me about what she's reading or whatever, and I get a chance to ask some really stupid basic questions, so to speak, to her, and she gets to be like what are you talking about? Or like, oh, I didn't think of it that way, so it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:It's fun yeah it's a lot of fun and it's just simple setup. You know we only had the one camera at the time, but I've gotten more now, where we're literally just sitting at my desk that you see on TV all the time, and sitting next to each other talking. Yeah, you know a couple of handheld mics, some Shure tried and true ones, the blue ribbon around them, I don't even know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't remember the name of them.
Speaker 2:I can't remember the name, but yeah, they're like the tried and true ones and you can go on eBay and get them for like $100. That's awesome, whereas if you go to Amazon they're like $300. So do your research. There's all these ways to save money. But yeah, it's a lot of fun. So that's pretty much like I just do that for fun, but it's also work related. Yeah, in addition to everything else I'm doing, you know I do TV guest spots, cbs Sports, hq stuff, interviews. I've brought some coaches actually upstairs in my office to interview whenever they're around town. It's amazing how many like college football coaches like vacation here.
Speaker 1:That's really weird, isn't that weird? I would not have thought that Right.
Speaker 2:Okay, so Florida State's head coach, mike Norvellvell, his wife is from the fort smith area. Okay, and they have a house on beaver lake and they come up every summer okay so that's one person that's really nice yeah um, I'm good friends with gus malzahn. He used to be the coach at auburn who I covered ucf. Now he's the offensive coordinator, actually at florida state. Well, he was up here four weeks ago for a wedding and I was like you want to come swing by and record a podcast?
Speaker 1:He's like yeah, sure, whatever.
Speaker 2:Come over to the house and got to see the family he hadn't seen in a while. And you know, my idea is it's like during the football season, if I'm in town, you know a lot of every Razorback game is on national television now, obviously, and ESPN does all those games. So you have all these ESPN personalities that come through to cover the games. So my idea is I'll just I know a lot of them I'll just call them up and go hey, if you're bored on Friday while you're waiting for the game and you've done all your research, how about I go take you out to eat and then you just drive back to my house and we do a podcast really real quick, so get again. It's one such way you take advantage of the opportunities that are around you and if it's something that interests you, you can build around it and show your personality or whatever so that's, that's that's kind of my whole impetus for everything I do on the in the podcast world, so to speak that's amazing.
Speaker 1:All right, well, thank you so much for being here. I always, I always want to end. I always have one last question for everybody what advice would you give to someone just starting out, like in podcasting?
Speaker 2:Do not get down on yourself. Everything starts very slowly. Not a lot of people are going to watch. Whatever you do, I don't care if you go on there and go. Hey, I have evidence that aliens exist. And he's sitting next to me.
Speaker 1:It's probably still not going to get a lot of views. It's not going to go viral. No, it's not going to go viral.
Speaker 2:So just keep working at it. You've got to build a content library. My big thing is and I've been working on launching another podcast with a friend of mine and I don't know if it's going to launch we're running into some other issues, but, um, our whole plan is when we launch.
Speaker 2:we've got two episodes on the first day, like an introductory episode where you're about what you're going to see and here's some content. And then the second episode is like here's a full episode of what you usually would see, and then, like for that first week or two, like if it's a twice a week podcast, my plan was that first week we were going to have five episodes, that first week. The second week like three or four or whatever, and then trim it down to where, okay, now we're to our schedule or whatever you build up that content. So if someone stumbles upon your podcast, say two weeks later, they've got like 10 things to listen to instead of just one and going well, that's it that's it, and then they're leaving like they don't have a good feel for it.
Speaker 2:So build up your content and keep your confidence going. You're not going to hit it big no one ever hits a big, but keep, keep your confidence. Build up a content library, have a plan going in place to where you can record and do something where it's not just here's one podcast and then do one, three weeks, like put something up, so when people visit it they got like a variety of like four to five episodes yeah, you've got like a backlog and people will see it.
Speaker 1:That's a really good idea and it's like you don't need to just record and and then publish. Record to publish right publish like unless it's like like hot news. Like you can, you can make it wait like it's fine. Build up the backlog till you have it then launch, then launch it Exactly, yeah, exactly right. It's really good advice. Well, thank you so much for being here. It was so good to see you.
Speaker 2:It's good to see you All right.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much and we'll see you next time.