Tag: television

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Rhythm Dance

Back in the day I created quite a few sports videos set to popular music for the various television entities where I worked as a producer. Two of my favorites were Kenny Loggins’ “Run for the Roses” (before the Cowboys played in the NFC Championship game the year the Super Bowl was to be at the Rose Bowl) and The Oak Ridge Boys’ “Thank God for Kids” (which, amazingly, will have its 29th airing this holiday season).

The key to setting sports to music is to combine the right beat with the perfect words and the best highlights. For some reason that came naturally to me during my television days. I’d hear a song every so often and would immediately envision how to use it. The amazing thing is most people – my musically inclined children included – would say I am not blessed with the gift of rhythm… at least when it comes to dancing or keeping a beat.

Yet in my daily life – both personally and professionally – I find rhythm to be one of my greatest strengths. Whether it’s sitting down to write my monthly e-newsletter, working in the yard, or participating in my latest hobby, I easily fall into the rhythm of the moment.

The words for my e-newsletter flow through my hands, as if magically, each issue. I simply sit at the keyboard and type. Mowing, gardening and the things that go with them allow me a few hours of escape, during which all kinds of inspirational ideas flow through my mind. During my hours each week in the pool, the silence sweeps me away to an almost meditative state. As the water flows around me, I find the rhythmic strokes much more relaxing than all the years running was my passion.

So, if you’re looking for peace, tranquility or inspiration, think about the rhythm in your life. Are you in sync? If not, look at where the interference is happening… and seek out that quite place inside you where alignment rests. You’ll find yourself more relaxed, more productive and, best of all, you’ll really like the feeling of harmony – and that could be the inspiration for a wonderful video of your life.

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A Look Back In Time

One of the necessary skills for being a sports television producer is having the ability to back-time a broadcast off the air. That means if your designated off-time is 4:58:30 p.m. EDT and it’s 4:55:08, you have to quickly recognize you have 3:22 to conduct an interview with the player of the game or winning coach, get in the last two 60-second commercials, and have the announcers smoothly wrap up as you count down, “5-4-3-2-1-black.”

Having lived that life from 1981-’95, I find those particular talents come in quite handy in the business world. First, I’m seldom late for anything. In sports television, you’re judged on two things: how you got on and off the air, and what the other three hours looked like. It’s pretty much 50/50 on the grading scale, so you learn to be on time and on your game. Second, I break down big projects into small pieces and typically get them done as scheduled. That ability likely comes from knowing that in a football game you had four commercial breaks each quarter, so you learned to think and communicate in terms of ‘here’s what we’ll do during the next segment.’

You don’t have to have worked in television to become more efficient. The key to improvement is to adjust your approach to think in terms of the clock counting down. The moment you walk in the door you’re losing time. So plan your day accordingly… schedule specific tasks and commit to getting them done. Remember, you can never gain back a single minute, so treat each one preciously. You’ll become more adept at moving forward and within no time you’ll be judging yourself as an A+ in productivity.

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Mental Telepathy

Inevitably whenever I’m watching a sports event on television, I’ll make a comment at a critical moment and the announcer immediately repeats it. Last night, just before Boise State went on its BCS-saving last-minute touchdown drive, I started singing, “Felix the cat, the wonderful wonderful cat… whenever he gets in a fix, he reaches into his bag of tricks.” Within five seconds, Kirk Herbstreit said, “I wonder if the Broncos will reach into their bag of tricks?” My son laughed and said: “Do you have a microphone directly into their headsets?” My response: “I spent 15 years producing those games and the last 15 watching them as a fan, so I sort of know what they’re thinking.”

College football is my passion. Amidst mowing the lawn, cleaning the garage, doing ‘Zen and the art of automobile maintenance’ on our 10-year-old Camry, swimming and enjoying quality family togetherness this Labor Day weekend, I found time to watch ‘College Game Day’ and five football games. That’s a lot of moments to figure out what’s going on and where the announcers will take things.

The opportunity here in business is to climb into the heads of your customers (both internal and external ones) – and fully understand situations from their perspectives. Too often, leaders are so caught up in how you personally see things that you fail to consider what the view looks like from the other side of the table, or counter, or phone line, or desk. Yet stepping outside your own narrow scope opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Try it – let go of your bias – and you’ll discover the ability to anticipate what’s coming next. It’s a winning strategy in any game.

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Tiger Beat

As a former sports television producer, I pay close attention to the talent who provide play-by-play and commentary on the airwaves. In my opinion, the smoothest voice belongs to Jim Nantz of CBS – who in the last nine weeks hosted the Super Bowl, NCAA Basketball Championship and The Masters… all from the best seat in the house. He’s rock-solid, friendly and knows exactly when to raise his calm voice to a crescendo of excitement. My wife and I met him a couple of years ago and he was kind and engaging, with his ego solidly in check.

Which is why I am disappointed he chose to weigh in, after the fact, on Tiger Wood’s slips of the tongue at Augusta last weekend:

“If I said what he said on the air, I would be fired. I read in the USA Today and it was called ‘mild language.’ Someone on my broadcast team dismissed it as him having a camera in his face. Well, guess what? Phil Mickelson had a camera in his face all week and did you ever hear him come close to approaching that? He didn’t hit every shot the way he wanted. Have you ever heard Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus use that kind of language? What are the parameters between what’s right and wrong?”

My disappointment is Nantz went beyond the role CBS pays him millions to fulfill. He’s supposed to be Switzerland and remain neutral on and off the air so his journalistic credentials remain solid. Yes, television is entertainment; however, in my perhaps antiquated viewpoint, the role of the play-by-play person is to set the stage, call the action and ask hard questions of the commentators.

Think about the next time CBS airs a golf tournament and Nantz asks Nick Faldo about Phil Mickelson. Will you think, “You know, he’s a Phil fan; doesn’t like Tiger.” By inserting himself into the story,  Nantz lost an important piece of what makes him outstanding: objectivity.

By the way, I’m no Tiger apologist. Yes, I think he’s the greatest golfer. Off the course, Tiger messed up big time with his family. His public persona, which made him wealthy, was far from his personal actions. That said, as all business leaders know, change is a work in progress… two steps up and one step back. Hopefully, Tiger corrected his sexual misconduct. He’s clearly still struggling with salty language. Let’s see how he adapts over the next few tournaments before piling on again.

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Return to Yesteryear

A couple of Sundays ago we scheduled an ‘electronics free day’ at our house – which our kids met with a resounding “What! You’re kidding?” From the time we awakened until we went to bed, there was no television or radio… no e-mail or Twitter …no cell phones or iPods…no Xbox or Nintendo DS.

Instead, my wife, kids (ages 19, 15 and 11) and I did things like…oh…have focused conversations, read books and play board games. We also cleaned our house from top to bottom, discovering three overflowing bags of clothes and toys to donate to charity. From my viewpoint, it seemed all of us were more relaxed, smiled a lot and went to bed exhausted. The next morning, the kids even said, “You know, that wasn’t so bad.”

Obviously, it’s hard these days to disconnect for an extended period of time – and there were a couple of moments I admit to fighting the urge to peak at the Internet to see what was happening in the world. The bottom line is we enjoyed each others’ presence a lot, and the day turned out better than any of us expected. Then there’s the thought we used less energy, which is good for several reasons. It’s our intention to do this throwback day again in December when our daughter returns from college…and I, for one, can’t wait.

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