Aug. 19, 2010

By Andy Demetra
Gamecock ISP Sports Network

“What do you do when you don’t have a game?”

I hear this question often from Gamecock fans (though not as often as “Hey, are you the intern?”). Frankly, it’s a difficult one to answer – and not because I struggle to fill the time between games. In fact, it’s the opposite. How does a broadcaster winnow everything he does into one concise answer?

During the week, we spend countless hours preparing ourselves for the next game. There’s the exhaustive research of Carolina and its opponents, trying to find the perfect human-interest story to punctuate a conversation. There’s the crunching of numbers until you become bleary-eyed, looking for a statistic that could foreshadow a Gamecock rally. There’s the watching of practice, speaking with coaches and players, searching for those humanizing moments that make fans feel like they’ve been watching alongside you.

And of course, everything is painstakingly entered into a game-day chart, which I treat like the Magna Carta. (Note: if a rogue wind blows it out of the press box and fluttering into the grandstands like it did in Fayetteville, you will see me chasing after it.)

Aside from the play-by-play, I also handle all of the Gamecock ISP Sports Network’s radio production. I produce (“cut,” in broadcaster parlance) the scene-setters and bump-backs that shape our network’s sound. I coordinate the rundown that keeps our coverage flowing. I communicate with ISP’s network studios to make sure commercials are in place, ISDN lines are ordered, and we’re ready for a smooth broadcast. The preparation doesn’t stop until we sign on – and it begins again soon after we sign off.

So the short answer to that question? We do a lot during the week. And we want to share that passion with you.

Beginning this season, the Gamecock ISP Sports Network will give you unprecedented access to its preparation for game-day broadcasts through our new website. From posting our “scene setters,” to sharing our travel stories, to giving you key information about the next matchup, we want you to share the booth with us. Miss Coach Horn’s post-game comments? We’ll have you covered. Travelling through the state, and want to know where you can pick up our broadcast? We’ll have you covered as well.

Let’s face it: the media landscape has changed tectonically in the last few years. Almost every game is televised in HD. People can get score updates instantaneously from their phones. Fans will move Heaven and Earth to pirate a TV feed of the game online, when the radio broadcast is just a few clicks away. People don’t have the same need to tune in to radio broadcasts that they did 10 – or even 5 – years ago.

Yet through all the innovations in technology, no medium gives fans a more intimate connection to their home team than their radio network. We travel with the Gamecocks. We watch their practices. We develop the trust of coaches and players. We see things that no other outlet does.

With this page, we want you to experience the incredible creative outpouring from the Gamecock ISP Sports Network — regardless of whether you listen to every game. Make us a destination for news, audio, and features you won’t find anywhere else. We’re here for you, game day and every day. Thanks for looking around, and I hope to see you soon.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have intern duties to finish.