* Schultz, Brad (2002). Sports Broadcasting. Boston: Focal Press, pp. 270 pages.
* Smith, Ronald A. (2001). Play-by-Play: Radio, Television and Big-Time College Sport. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 304.
You probably could get into a long and heated argument, even in a sports bar, over the question of does the world of journalism and mass communication education need another textbook that deals with sports broadcasting. You could get into another good argument over the question of do we need an historical analysis of the relationship between broadcasting and intercollegiate sports.
But after reading Brad Schultz's Sports Broadcasting and Ronald Smith's Play-by-Play and experiencing the media hype associated with living in the host city for Super Bowl XXXVII, I'd have to answer 'yes' to both questions. While the two books are completely different in style, purpose, and intended audiences, they both make significant and interesting contributions to the body of knowledge associated with the coverage of sports on radio and television.
Sports Broadcasting is a fairly traditional textbook designed to help prepare students for jobs and careers in sports journalism. Schultz focuses on preparing students to work in small and medium radio-TV markets, because that's where most students will start and many will stay. The seventeen chapters include history, economics, impact, writing, reporting, on-air work, play-by-play, producing, live coverage, ethics, employment opportunities, women and minorities, global concerns, the future, legends, and a summary of a question-and-answer session with the commissioners of professional football, basketball, baseball, and hockey.
Schultz provides a bit of philosophy and theory, but most of the book deals with very practical issues and advice. He includes criticisms of how the craft has been practiced and continues to be practiced. He offers some good insights and connections that should encourage students to think critically about the profession of sports journalism.
The book has a number of charts, tables, and statistics. References are included at the end of each chapter. There are plenty of examples, pictures, and anecdotes. The biggest names in sports and sports journalism, are mentioned.
On the down side, perhaps Schultz tries to do a bit too much in his book. It's almost as if he believes students will have to get all they know about sports broadcasting and sports journalism from reading his book. As a result, he can't really do a great job of covering any one element and settles for providing relatively introductory information in almost all the major areas-writing, reporting, photography, producing, anchoring, and play-by-play.
In addition, the book ends with a bit of a whimper. The last two chapters deal with the 'legends' of sports broadcasting (why not group this in the history chapter?) and with a summary of comments made by the commissioners of the major professional team sports during a Museum of Television and Radio satellite seminar in April 2000. A summary chapter or ending with 'The Future' chapter might have been a better bet.
Despite the problems, Brad Schultz's Sports Broadcasting would be a useful book for introductory courses in radio-TV and for classes in radio-TV journalism and sports journalism. It's an easy read, makes some good points, raises some interesting issues, and fills a need for a primer on how to do sports on radio and television in small to medium markets.
Play-by-Play is NOT a traditional textbook that will help students prepare for careers in sports journalism. It's a well-researched, historical analysis of the less-than-ideal relationship between higher education and the broadcasting/ cablecasting of big-time college football and basketball. The book also deals with the effects of radio-TV generated revenue on college athletics and the chances of achieving any significant changes in the often sordid dealings among college presidents, NCAA officials, media moguls, athletic directors, and athletes.
Ronald Smith brings an historian's perspective to bear on the issues and provides an often troubling account of the corruptive power of money, broken promises, misguided priorities, crushed dreams, and academic compromises. Not exactly uplifting stuff, but required reading for anyone who wants to gain a greater understanding of why it's too often true that concerns about the records of a university's football and basketball teams seem more important than the quality of a school's faculty or the educating of its students.
Smith includes a few tables and charts in his twenty-five 'chapters,' but most of his book is pretty dense reading. It's worth the effort to wade through the long paragraphs and pages of gray type, though.
In addition to covering the issues well, Smith includes a thirty-page timeline of significant events between the years 1844-2000. It's an effective, quick-read summary that helps explain why we are where we are in the relationship between big-time college sports and the radio-TV industry.
Smith also includes forty-eight pages of footnotes. If anybody wants to take up where he's left off, the roadmap is provided.
Finally, Smith includes a fascinating, twelve-page 'bibliographical essay' in which he describes how he gathered his information, critiques the quality of available sources of information, and makes suggestions for conducting research. While all of his book is useful and interesting, his 'essay' is perhaps the most useful portion for students, especially graduate students. In fact, Play-by-Play could be an extremely effective 'textbook' in a graduate research methods class. It might also work for courses in radio-TV management, sports in society, economics, and even ethics.
[Author Affiliation]
K. TIM WULFEMEYER
twulf@mail.sdsu.edu
San Diego State University
