{"id":458,"date":"2018-03-25T10:41:17","date_gmt":"2018-03-25T14:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/?p=458"},"modified":"2018-04-01T14:29:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-01T18:29:06","slug":"you-dont-have-to-be-a-fish-out-of-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/2018\/03\/25\/you-dont-have-to-be-a-fish-out-of-water\/","title":{"rendered":"You Don’t Have to be a Fish Out of Water…"},"content":{"rendered":"

As is often the case, anticipated guests at the Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar Series have last minute commitments and despite being scheduled for months, I’m sometimes left scrambling for a replacement…So, when Chelsi McDonald <\/a>of WHDH-TV called two days before her appearance and said she had to interview Charlie McAvoy on the date she was to appear, I went into producer mode…Who could I get to take her place?…Well, despite being the number 10 market in the country, Boston has a number of newcomers, many more than I was expecting to find….<\/p>\n

I called Lucy Burdge<\/a> of WEEI…I had heard her on the radio a number of times and liked her perspective…She said she’d love to come over but had a show to produce that night…I left a Facebook message on Ryan Hannable<\/a>‘s page…Did the same for Ty Anderson<\/a>….Hannable got back to me and said he was up for it…Booked…As it turns out Anderson was also available but I told him Hannable had already beaten him to it…We had a good laugh…Then, as luck would have it, just hours before “showtime”, McDonald emailed to say her assignment went well, was over and she could make it after all, if I still wanted\/needed her…I did my best Johnny Olsen<\/a> impression and said “Come on Down!”…And so, we went from having just one guest to three…Adam Pellerin<\/a> of NESN filling out the group…<\/p>\n

Off we went…<\/p>\n

It’s been a while since the students in the class were “newcomers”, freshmen just arriving in Boston for school but fours later, as they get ready to hit the pavement, it’s important to have some basics to rely on…You’re going to be the new kid on the block and no matter how hard you try to avoid it, you’re the outsider, at first anyway… It doesn’t have to stay that way, however…<\/p>\n

“Find a niche, find something that you’re better at than anyone else in the market”, Hannable told the students, “find a way to distinguish yourself”…McDonald added “Your first couple of markets, that’s where you’re able to take risks, invest yourself in the community”…<\/p>\n

Be patient…Don’t expect to light the town on fire from the start…Do your research, learn the players, on and off the field…I still owe a huge debt of gratitude to Paul Leahy of the Malden Evening News, Paul Harbor of the Medford Mercury and Joe Hrubi of the Somerville Journal for taking this grad school rookie into their confidences when I started out…”Be a sponge” said Hannable…<\/p>\n

Hannable worked countless jobs for free, McDonald switched to news to move up in the marketplace…Pellerin remembers his news days, “Versatility is important and (coincidentally) having that background helps expand your job search.”…<\/p>\n

In smaller markets you might be the lone reporter…In other perhaps a handful…In Boston it’s dozens… While competition can be challenging, it can serve a positive purpose for you…”It’s important to learn from other members of the media”, stated Pellerin, “I always watch the way other people cover a story, you’re always in competition.”…”I have a DVR”, McDonald told the class, “I’m always watching how they do things.”…Hannable was quick to add, “It keeps you on your toes”…<\/p>\n

Being a newcomer can be exhausting, exciting and discouraging all at the same time…But rewarding and satisfying at the same time…Look at it this way, it’s a start…The beginning of your dream…It might not be in your “comfort zone” as McDonald remembered her own experiences, but it has to start somewhere…<\/p>\n

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As is often the case, anticipated guests at the Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar Series have last minute commitments and despite being scheduled for months, I’m sometimes left scrambling for a replacement…So, when Chelsi McDonald of WHDH-TV called two days before her appearance and said she had to interview Charlie McAvoy on the date she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}