Brady welcomes Randy Gore to the podcast and they talk about his upbringing in the Pittsburgh suburb of McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Randy talks about growing up a Pirates/Steelers/Penguins fan. In fact, he was born in 1979 when the Pirates and Steelers had won world championships in during that calendar year. Randy attended and graduated from Waynesburg University where he majored in Communications with an emphasis on Sports Broadcasting. He describes the practical experience he gained at Waynesburg, first learning production work before getting a chance to broadcast games for the Yellow Jackets student-run production. Very similar to Brady’s training at Northern Kentucky University, Waynesburg provided a student-run television production for the athletic department under the supervision of the professors. Once he became an upper classman, Randy earned a talent position on the Waynesburg broadcasts. Randy interned as a college student for the Pittsburgh Penguins. On game nights he was part of the crew that executes the in-game entertainment segments. Among other things, on non-game nights he did things such as log file footage of highlight clips to be used at a later time for things such as hype-videos and sponsor video. Interns from the Penguins were also able to work as production assistants for ESPN and FOX coverage of Penguins playoff games. Once Randy graduated from Waynesburg he bounced around as a freelance prouduction worker in the Pittsburgh area before landing a job at WJPA Radio (95.3 FM, 1450AM) in Washington, Pennsylvania. At WJPA, Randy started as a producer and board operator before landing his first on-air opportunity in the news department as a Saturday morning weekend reporter. Randy talks about the early struggles breaking into broadcasting when its hard to earn a living and how his parents were supportive of his pursuit of chasing the dream even when times and money were both lean. Randy was able to earn more opportunities and gain full-time employment at WJPA. He thanks Operations Manager and Sports Director Bob Gregg for having the confidence in him in order to gain more sports experience. WJPA was the flagship station for the Washington Wild Things of the Frontier League and in 2005 Randy becomes the team’s play-by-play broadcaster. The discussion turns to being in the tough position of describing a mistake made by a player and not upsetting his family who is at home listening. Randy talks about going through the process of exploring other baseball opportunities but ultimately staying with the Wild Things for 11 seasons which is a long tenure in the Frontier League. What would be a conversation about minor league baseball without discussing the long bus rides and trips. Randy does protect the innocent by not going into seedy details but does refer to it as some of the best times of his life. Despite all of the success, after the 2007 off-season was a bit of a turning point for him in his broadcasting career. Feeling the need to find a job with a pension and more secure insurance benefits, Randy applies for a job with his father’s company. He did not get job which kept in broadcasting full-time and shortly thereafter he enjoyed the best success of his career up to that point. You can follow the PAC Sports Network on Twitter @PACSports and the Presidents' Athletics Conference @PAC_Athletics You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com or send an email to Podcasts@stoveleg.com Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
