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by David P. Greisman - “I have a face made for radio and a voice made for print.” The classic line holds true for me, too.
That never mattered. Over nearly five years of covering boxing, my thoughts had remained almost exclusively in print form.
That changed the other week.
A fellow writer asked if I would do color commentary for a boxing broadcast in Boston. I didn’t think twice about accepting the gig, though I did have two thoughts about the gig itself:
“Yes!”
And…
“Oh, no.”
Writers have the luxury of thinking before they type, of observing, pondering and then crafting sentences word by word. Broadcasters confront the needs and drawbacks of immediacy. They must think on their feet, speak as the action happens and do so with the understanding that there is no “backspace” or “delete” button.
Several writers have found varying degrees of success in putting down the keyboard and donning the headset.
Larry Merchant, now of HBO, once was a reporter, editor and columnist who had gigs at newspapers such as the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Post. Steve Farhood was a young writer who became a young broadcaster nearly three decades ago. He still writes, and he still broadcasts, too, on series such as Showtime’s “ShoBox: The New Generation” and Lou DiBella’s “Broadway Boxing.” [details]
That never mattered. Over nearly five years of covering boxing, my thoughts had remained almost exclusively in print form.
That changed the other week.
A fellow writer asked if I would do color commentary for a boxing broadcast in Boston. I didn’t think twice about accepting the gig, though I did have two thoughts about the gig itself:
“Yes!”
And…
“Oh, no.”
Writers have the luxury of thinking before they type, of observing, pondering and then crafting sentences word by word. Broadcasters confront the needs and drawbacks of immediacy. They must think on their feet, speak as the action happens and do so with the understanding that there is no “backspace” or “delete” button.
Several writers have found varying degrees of success in putting down the keyboard and donning the headset.
Larry Merchant, now of HBO, once was a reporter, editor and columnist who had gigs at newspapers such as the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Post. Steve Farhood was a young writer who became a young broadcaster nearly three decades ago. He still writes, and he still broadcasts, too, on series such as Showtime’s “ShoBox: The New Generation” and Lou DiBella’s “Broadway Boxing.” [details]
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