电话游戏

1989年，当93岁的鲍勃·威斯库森(Bob Wischusen)来到太阳城网赌平台(太阳城网赌平台)时，他很清楚自己想做什么. “I was laser focused,” he said. “I was going to be a sports broadcaster.”

就在两年前, the first all-sports radio station in the country, WFAN, 在纽约推出的, Wischusen很着迷. He imagined himself as one of the hosts, and even collected cassette recordings of the station’s best debates. 这是他在bbc的第二天, 他去了WZBC, 学生广播电台, and asked if anyone was covering athletics. 这家电台的另类音乐节目比脱口秀节目更出名，只有一档体育脱口秀节目， 今晚运动. 他被告知，这个节目每周一晚上播出，如果威斯库森感兴趣，他可以加入. 他马上就报名了.

Wischusen encouraged Christian Megliola ’93, one of his two randomly assigned roommates, 去车站接他. 在这学期里，他们遇到了其他想为《太阳城官网》节目做贡献的体育迷. 一个是大一同学, Joe Tessitore, 93年, who was studying marketing at the Carroll School of Management. 泰西托雷的足球生涯在高中时因腿部骨折而中断, and he relished the opportunity to be close to the game again. 演出的另一个成员是92届的Jon Sciambi，他是从威廉大学转来的大二学生 & Mary who’d come to BC to play baseball. The group thrived in the freewheeling talk radio format, 辩论和分析最新的bbc体育赛事，并接听听众的电话. “There was this real good chemistry between us,” Sciambi said. “We had the same interests, the same passions. On-air, off-air, we were always making each other laugh. Just thinking about it now is making me smile.”

More than thirty years later, Tessitore, Sciambi, 和Wischusen已经成为国家体育广播中最成功的三个声音, 梅格里奥拉已经成为波士顿凯尔特人队的高级公关副总裁. Among their many other accomplishments, 泰西托雷在《太阳城网赌平台》做了两个赛季的实况解说, Sciambi will call this year’s World Series for ESPN Radio, Wischusen is the radio voice of the New York Jets, 梅格里奥拉在体育传播中要求最高的工作之一表现出色, 负责一支拥有狂热粉丝群的NBA球队的整个公关部门. 他们都在竞争激烈的领域获得了令人垂涎的地位, but back when they were getting their start on WZBC, they were just kids who loved sports and arguing in equal measure.

“Those were hysterical years,” Tessitore recalled. “Everyone was really talented at a young age. Bob was ridiculously good at hockey play-by-play. Christian was ridiculously knowledgeable about basketball. 和 Sciambi could do everything. 这让我大开眼界. 我记得当时在想， Man, these guys are just excellent.”

今晚运动 在西元前开始发展Megliola所说的“亲密但热情的追随者”. “We had regular callers,” he said. “We were learning on the fly, 但我们很认真地对待新闻报道——没有人喝了几杯啤酒就上了电视. I think it’s unusual for college kids to have that kind of discipline.”

Wischusen将他们节目的质量归功于朋友之间的某种竞争. They were always trying to one-up each other, whether they were on air or just hanging out at the Mods. “If you didn’t know your stuff, if you didn’t bring that knowledge, you were going to get exposed and made fun of,Wischusen说. “It was like a master’s degree in sports.”

None of which is to imply that they didn’t know how to have fun. 有一次, Wischusen, Tessitore, Sciambi跟着橄榄球队去西弗吉尼亚州报道一场比赛. “We flew from Boston to Pittsburgh to Morgantown, 这很荒谬，因为从匹兹堡到摩根敦需要70分钟的车程,Wischusen说. 但我们谁也不知道. 我们订了一架从匹兹堡来的飞机看起来像个会飞的牛奶盒.BC赢了这场比赛，之后，三个人在一个周六的晚上在酒店的酒吧结束了比赛. 和, as is known to happen with college guys, they stayed out so late that they missed the next morning’s flight home.

不过，在大多数情况下，这些人都对自己的事业越来越认真. As graduation neared, a switch flipped for Tessitore. 大学毕业后，他不再认为自己会从事商业或营销工作——他想继续谈论体育. Sciambi也是如此, who’d been cut from the baseball team, 梅格里奥拉和维许森同样想从事体育新闻工作.

At first, things didn’t look 太 promising. 毕业后，梅格里奥拉搬回父母家，在纽伯里漫画公司找到了一份每小时5美元的工作. Wischusen试图在他大学期间实习过的两家广播电台找到一份工作，但没有成功. Sciambi最终在布拉德福德的一家小广播电台报道当地新闻, 宾西法尼亚, 人口9000. 和 Tessitore was going back and forth between Boston and Dallas, 在那里，他找到了一个自由撰稿人的电视工作机会，他希望能变成全职工作.

1993年6月, Wischusen以前的实习主管告诉他迈阿密WQAM体育广播电台有一份制片人的工作. “我从根本不知道这个工作的存在，到大约一周后收拾好行李搬到迈阿密,Wischusen说. He had his foot in the door—but just barely. 他赚了7美元.每小时10美元. “那是1993年，不是1953年——他们付给我的工资就这么少，”他说. But it was a real job at a real sports station. 大约一个月后，项目主管找到了他. “He walked into the control room and said, "你知道有谁蠢到到这儿来干你现在干的事，还不给钱吗, 太?’ 和 I was like, ‘I got just the guy.’”

Wischusen told them about Sciambi. WQAM给了他一个职位，他搬到了迈阿密，在那里他睡在了威斯豪森的沙发上. The two college buddies had essentially the same producing job, 只是不同的班次, Wischusen during the day and Sciambi at night. They both remember the best part of those years the same—the free food. “At every sports game, they fed the media,Wischusen说. “We were a couple of twenty-one, twenty-two-year-olds making seven bucks an hour, 谁可以随时去参加任何职业或大学运动，而且可以免费吃饭. We must have saved thousands in groceries.”

“那简直是天堂,Sciambi说, who earned a new and lasting nickname at WQAM—“Boog,” due to his resemblance to MLB great Boog Powell.

While his friends were chowing down in Miami, Megliola—the son of Lenny Megliola, a popular sports columnist for the MetroWest每日新闻-设法逃离了纽伯里漫画公司，并通过在NECN“露面”开始了他的职业生涯, 这个24小时的波士顿有线新闻网早在一年前就成立了. 他没赚到钱, 但他成功地将这段经历转化为电台的兼职制作人, which led him to several full-time jobs afterward, eventually landing at Boston’s FOX25 as the head sports producer.

与此同时, Tessitore把他的卖命变成了一份真正的工作，成为NBC在达拉斯的一个分支机构的播音员. 几年内，他成为康涅狄格州WFSB的主要体育主播.

“After those first few years out of school, 我开始明白，我们真的有一群特殊的人,梅格里奥拉说. “We all found work in sports journalism, and it isn’t easy to do that. 我开始想， Man, it’s going to be interesting to see where we all go.”

事实上, the crew—a “pretty good draft class,” as Wischusen put it—太k off after its somewhat slow start. 1995年，Wischusen离开了迈阿密, finding work at none other than WFAN, the station that had launched his love for sports talk. 2005年，他加入了ESPN，为曲棍球、大学橄榄球和篮球打call.

Sciambi, 与此同时, 在迈阿密坚持了下来, landing a prime spot in 1997 calling Marlins baseball games for WQAM. 导致, 在许多其他工作中, to doing play-by-play for the Atlanta Braves and, 最近, 芝加哥小熊队. 今年，你会听到他在ESPN电台播报世界大赛，他也在那里宣布 周日棒球之夜.

1999年，梅格里奥拉离开体育新闻行业，在里根通讯公司(Regan Communications)从事公关工作, one of Boston’s most influential PR shops. When Regan 太k on the Celtics as a client, the team’s top brass noticed Megliola’s impressive work, 最终在2015年聘请他担任通讯高级副总裁.

While his friends were climbing the ranks around the country, Tessitore joined ESPN in 2002, delivering blow-by-blow boxing commentary. 在接下来的二十年里, he became one of the network’s most versatile commentators, 宣布赛马, 大学橄榄球, 2018年到2020年, 周一橄榄球之夜. (他的儿子约翰·泰西托雷(John Tessitore)也曾就读于哥伦比亚大学，是该校足球队的投注者. In 2020, during the ESPN broadcast of a BC–Clemson game, Tessitore对他儿子让老虎越位的致命把戏的判罚被证明是一个温暖人心的时刻，并迅速传播开来.)除了为ESPN工作之外，泰西托雷现在还扮演喜剧演员罗布·里格尔的直男 多洞的Moley, a reality golf competition ABC series.

 “It’s been really cool to see everyone succeed,” Tessitore said. “我不知道如果不是因为我们一起在WZBC，我们会不会成为现在的样子. 每个人都是那么敏锐，那么博学——如此早熟的天才，以至于门槛如此之高. We all raised each other’s game.”  

Archer Parquette ’18 is the managing editor at 密尔沃基杂志.