Dave Goren Interview

Today I am honored again to bring you a great interview. I had a chance to speak to NSAA Executive Director and Wake Forest football analyst Dave Goren. Dave and the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association  and STAA are co-hosting a huge Awards Weekend that will take place from June 8-10th in Salisbury, North Carolina and will feature ESPN personality Dick Vitale as well as New York Times bestselling author Mitch Albolm. For more information on the weekend please check out their link at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e71ltn6h848ebde1&llr=bcbdrvdab

You can follow Dave on twitter @NSSA_DaveGoren

How long have you been in broadcasting?  Started in college in 1977… so 36 years (YIKES!).


When did you know that it was what you wanted to do?  From the time I was in high school.


How much time do you spend preparing for a broadcast?  Now, my only broadcasting is as analyst for Wake Forest football during the fall, and a weekly radio sports commentary.  For football, I start by attending spring and then pre-season practices, and probably do between an hour and two preparing for the game each week.  For the commentaries, it’s a matter of coming up with an idea, and then getting the writing to flow.  It is also usually an hour to two-hour process.

 

In my tv days, preparation for anchoring usually began with reading the morning newspaper cover-to-cover (not just sports).  I would typically be in sometime between 2 and 3pm for the 6pm sportscast.  I would try to get the 11pm sportscast laid out before I left for dinner or for covering a game.  Depending on whether there was a game to cover, I would be back by 8:45 to start preps for the 11.


What sports do you currently broadcast?  Radio analyst for Wake Forest University football on the Wake Forest/IMG Sports Network.  Occasionally freelance ofr others, including ACC Digital Network.


Who are/were the people you look/looked up to in broadcasting?  I grew up about 40 miles outside of Boston, so I listened to all of the Boston guys – Ken Coleman, Ned Martin doing the Red Sox; Johnny Most with the Celtics; Don Earle and then Bob Wilson with the Bruins; Gil Santos with the Patriots.  Then, there were the local tv guys, such as Don Gillis.  All of them were institutions in New England and helped us as fans form that lifelong connection to the teams they covered.

 

Nationally, I was a big fan of Curt Gowdy – such a distinctive voice.  Same with Charlie Jones and Jim Simpson on the AFL games on NBC.  Dick Enberg and Marv Albert doing college basketball in the late 60s and early 70s.  Ray Scott, the incomparable Vin Scully.  Then, there were some of the more underrated guys, such as Frank Glieber on CBS.  Lindsey Nelson, Chris Schenkel, Jim McKay, Jack Whitaker.  All great with their use of language.

 

Later on, Al Michaels became, in my opinion, the gold standard for play-by-play.


Is there anyone you emulate, and if so in what way?  I’m sure I’ve taken a little bit from each of the people I mentioned, but I have always just tried to be me. 

What advice do you have for young broadcasters trying to make it in the industry?    As I stated above, be yourself.  Prepare diligently, write often (the more you do it, the better you’ll become), practice frequently (even if you’re using a hairbrush as a microphone).  Stay away from shtick — gimmicks can work for a time, but eventually people get tired of them.  Develop relationships with people in the industry, whether they can be directly beneficial to you or not.  Always be willing to help others – even if it is not beneficial to you.


What is your favorite on air story you can share with us?  There are a handful of stories that I seem to focus on:

·       I covered Wake Forest football as a tv reporter for 18 seasons, most of them losing season, until they broke through and won the ACC Championship in 2006.  I remember walking out of Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, after they had beaten Georgia Tech, saying to myself, “Wake Forest just won the ACC Championship.”  In a business where we overuse the word unbelievable, for me, it truly was.

·       A high school football player had been paralyzed from the chest down after a car accident.  The story we did with him, on his willful determination to walk again was very powerful, both in words and pictures.  A good photographer can help make a story great.  If you have a good relationship with your photographer, you can almost know what the other is thinking, and what that person wants.  Great teamwork, makes great tv.

·       Did a story on a young hockey player who had a neuroblastoma, an often fatal cancer.  We did a follow-up with him a year or so later, on Thanksgiving night, after he had been cured.  And the emotion, especially from his dad, was gripping.

·       In my last year in tv, it was opening night for high school football.  We were live at 5 and 6pm from tailgating in the parking lot.  As I was walking into the game, a mother and father of a player stopped me and introduced themselves as the presidents of that school’s booster club.  We had a nice informal chat and then I went into the game.  At halftime, I took the first half video and went back to start editing the highlights.  During the second half, my photographer called and said the game was delayed by a serious injury.  It was the son of the people I had met walking into the game.  He died two days later.  We showed only still frames of the player from the game (the actual hit that caused his death could not be seen on video) in our stories over the weekend. 

 

On Tuesday of the following week, I received a call from a friend of mine who was also a friend of the family’s.  They had seen the still photos and wanted to know if they could possibly get one to display at their son’s funeral.  I called our art director and asked if he could make it happen.  He had seven photos of the boy ready for me when I got to the station.  My friend picked them up and delivered them to the family.  During the 5pm news that day, my phone rang.  It was father, sobbing, saying, “Thank you so much for doing this.”  I could barely respond.  Can you imagine the father of a 15-year-old boy who has just died, picking up the phone to say “thank you?”  As sad as that story was, that simple gesture probably meant more to me than anything I covered in 24 years in local tv sports.

If there is anything else you’d like to include or add please feel free to do so as I’m sure the readers would love read it.  Being in sports media can be a wonderful way to earn a living, travelling all over to cover some of the biggest sporting events on earth.  Just be mindful of the tradeoffs you will make.  Because most events happen at nights and on weekends, that is when you will be working.  Have a best friend who’s getting married during a local tv “sweeps” month?  Sorry, you can’t be in the wedding.  You want to go hang out with your friends on a Friday or Saturday night?  Sorry, not til 11:45 or later.  Married and your wife wants to go out to dinner with another couple?  Good luck with that.  Married, with kids?  Good luck spending much time with them at night.

 

I’ve been fortunate the last four-plus years, no longer having to cover daily sports, to be able to spend quality time with my family, while my two boys are still young enough to be living at home.  I wouldn’t trade my career for anything, but it sure has been gratifying to watch them grow from kids to young men.