Sports Broadcasting: Much More than Reading the Scores

With football season officially underway, we are excited to feature fellow football enthusiast WCSH6-TV Sports Director Lee Goldberg as today’s Monday Maine Maven.

Before coming to Maine, Lee worked his way up in the sportscasting business as sports director at WBOY-TV in West Virginia from 1991-1993.

He started working in Maine for NEWSCENTER on WLBZ2 in Bangor in 1993. While at NEWSCENTER, Lee had the opportunity to work with longtime broadcasting legend Bruce Glasier.

Together the two shared a chemistry and unmatched passion for local sports coverage, especially high school football.

In 1993, Lee hosted the first ever 5th Quarter, a half hour show recapping high school football action and standings across the state. After the shows growing popularity, the two sports anchors created the co-hosted the award winning show from 1995 to 2011 when Bruce Glaiser retired.

In 2003, Lee was named by the Maine Athletic Directors’ Association as the media person of the year. He has also been recognized for his outstanding sports reporting by the Maine Association of Broadcasters and the Associated Press.

In addition to covering the local sports action at WCSH6, Lee has traveled to cover some of the most memorable stories in New England sports history, including five Super Bowls and two World Series.

Lee lives in the Portland area with his wife and four children.

1. Lee, how has your business changed since you got into broadcasting, with all the various means of connecting with your viewers?

When I first started back in 1991, there was no internet, no cell phone, no YouTube, no way to get scores and highlights texted to you on your phone. You used to have to wait until the 6 pm news to find out what happened each day, and now you can get all the news the second after it happens.

It was important for me to ‘re-invent’ the way we do local sports to give viewers a reason to watch and show them something they cannot get anywhere else.

2. You’ve covered huge sporting events in your career; which one stands out the most and why?

That’s a tough one. I have been to five Super Bowls and two World Series among countless other huge events…

I would have to say even though the Red Sox winning it all in 2004 for the first time in 86 years was a personal favorite, the Patriots Super Bowl win against the Rams in New Orleans tops the list. It was the year of 9/11 and the country was desperate for a ‘feel good’ story… The underdog Pats beating the heavily favored Rams was surreal and for me, about far more than football.

3. If you could tell people one thing about your job that most people don’t know, what would it be?

I don’t just show up and read the news 10 minutes before air time… I am in charge of producing the sportscast, writing the sportscast, editing the video, updating the website, making graphics and shooting video as well.

The actual anchoring of the nightly news is the easy part!

4. How do you use social media to communicate and promote your shows?

Social media has been a huge help on many levels. It helps me stay/get connected to athletes and I can get some great story ideas or tips from social media.

Obviously, the promotion part is great too. I can get any information I need out to my 5,300 Facebook friends and 821 Twitter followers with a click of a button… Nothing else lets you do that.

You can follow-up with Lee through his Twitter account @WCSHSPORTSGUY, at WSCH6.com, or in the comments section of this post.