Traditiooooooon, Tradition!...Tradition!

Ah, Fiddler on the Roof. What a great play! Saw that a few years back on Broadway when Alfred Molina was Tevye. Good Times!

Anyway, I'm a man about tradition. I absolutely love having things that you do and treasure for years. At home, my best friends and I had a tradition that we'd go to Wendy's and then hang out at one of our houses on Friday nights. The Yankees have the Pinstripes, and haven't changed in all their years playing baseball. At Ithaca, I would always do a fist-pound with my broadcast partner before a game.

Here in Los Angeles, I have a new tradition. Every Wednesday, I have a class from 2:30 to 5:30 and then another one at 7. That hour and a half in between has become the Mike, Bryan and Jennifer dinner party. Every week, the three of us, and sometimes other friends of ours, all go have dinner at one of LA's fine fast food establishments.

Yes, it is awful for our health, and we probably should just bring our own dinner down to the Pendelton Center. But, come on! How boring is that? All three of us are loving this tradition. This week, we elected to go to Panda Express for some quality Chinese food. Last week was Wienerschnitzel. The week before that, Koo Koo Roo. We've also hit up Carl's Jr. It's been a great time.

Traditions are very valuable in my life. I love having two great friends that share this with me. Those 90 minutes have become something I look forward to every week!

Citi Cable 3 Packages

Hey Everyone!

So after some tinkering with problems on the web site, we finally were able to get the videos up and running for the past two episodes of The Sports Desk. The good news is that three of my packages aired during these two episodes, and now, you can view them as well! I know your excitement is overflowing, but I thought these all came out pretty well and would appreciate any feedback you have.

Here is the link to the first episode: Episode 31.09

In this episode, there is a package I did previewing the football season for El Camino College. The school is a junior college in Torrance and has always had a very strong football team, similar to that at Ithaca. In fact, they are currently ranked #1 in the state of California for Junior Colleges! The intro. to the package begins at 13:10 in the video if you want to jump ahead.

Here is the link to the second episode: Episode 32.09

In this episode, there are two packages I did. The first is a preview for South High School's volleyball team. The squad had a solid year last season and is off to another good start this year. They have some good players I mention in the package. The intro. to that package begins at 1:50 in the video. The other is a highlight package from South High's football game against Burroughs High School. There were some pretty good plays in this game. The intro. to it begins at 14:02 in the video.

When you click the link, it will open to a page with a description of what's in the episode and will open in a video box on the bottom. Not positive if it works on a Mac, but it definitely does on a PC. If you want to watch in full screen, right click in the video, go to zoom, then click full screen.

Once again, any feedback you have is appreciated. I am really interested to hear what you all think about the work I've done so far and what I could possibly do to improve on it. You can either comment right on the blog by clicking the comments link at the bottom of the post, or you can e-mail me (mhpbroadcaster@gmail.com) or write on Facebook, or whatever! I hope you enjoy!

The End of the Beginning

Preseason Hockey is over and done with after the Kings played their final game today. It was against the Ducks again, though this one was in Anaheim at the Honda Center. I was fortunate enough to be able to go and help out in the radio booth as well as see another new sporting venue. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised how nice the arena was.



The actual seating bowl is very intimate and not one seat was too far away from the ice. There are three levels of seats: The main level (lower level), club level (middle level) and upper level. There were also two different sets of suites, with one of the rings at the back of the main level and the other at the back of the club level. The scoreboard is pretty big and has all the important info. There are two LED ribbon boards circling the whole arena at the top and bottom of the main level, and an HD board at the top of each end of the arena. Overall, it was just what you'd want.




The concourses were the most surprising. They all had very nice tiled floor and were extremely clean. There were also windows at different points that offered nice views of Anaheim and the surrounding area. While the food choices were not as varied as say Angel Stadium or Staples Center, they had a bunch of good selections. Overall, it was a just a very nice arena.



As for the game, the Kings lost 5-4, but it was an exciting game to watch. Each team was basically trading off goals and making it difficult for the goalies. I wish these two teams played each other more early in the season.

I put a picture of my plate at dinner tonight, which was glorious (the food was better than it looks in the picture). Eating in the press room at a game is without a doubt one of the best parts of being a media member. Here's the menu from tonight's pregame meal:

Salad w/ Blue Cheese Dressing
Soup (didn't try it but it was pork something)
BBQ Pork Chops
Blackened Chicken
Baked Potato Bar
Macaroni and Cheese
Corn on the Cob
Brownie Dessert (they also had Churros, Pretzels, and Popcorn in the Press Box)


The Kings' first regular season game is on Saturday, October 3rd against the Coyotes. I've never been to a season opener before, so I'm really excited for all the festivities that will go along with it. Until then, enjoy reading!

Volleyball and Only in LA

Not much going on over the last few days. Yesterday, I covered a volleyball game at North High School in Torrance against Palos Verdes Peninsula High. I just finished editing a package this week for The Sports Desk that has highlights from that game as well as South High's game against Bishop Montgomery on Tuesday. It also features postgame sound bytes from players and coaches. I will post the video when it goes online next week.

The last two episodes of the show have a combined 3 packages that I made, but the station is having some trouble getting the video up online. Once they do, I will post links to them. I appreciate your patience!

As for the rest of the weekend, I will be up early here on Saturday to listen to Ithaca's football game against Utica on the road. The Pioneers are a much better team this year, so the game should be a good one. If you haven't listened to a game yet, you should. 92 WICB puts on a great broadcast from pregame to postgame, and I'm proud to have called games on the station for two years. Take a listen Saturday!!

Finally, I have done a bit of observing over the last week or so around the city to try and determine some things I've never seen before. While I'm sure you can see some of these things outside of LA, I haven't, so they're on this list. Here it is:

Only in LA will you...
1) Sit in annoying traffic at 2:15 on a Thursday or 3:00 on a Tuesday
2) Eat a chili cheese french fry burrito

3) Not move while sitting in a car behind people at a green light
4) Constantly see beach balls being bounced around you when you try to watch a baseball game

5) Not receive a golf pencil at a baseball game when you buy a scorecard
6) Have a waiter named Johnny Smash ask you if you want to "Pack a Bowl"...Apparently, this is ordering a bowl of soup at Bob's Big Boy
7) Have to pay to park just about EVERYWHERE you go!!
8) Be less than 5 miles from Downtown and barely be able to see the skyscrapers

9) Be able to order Donuts and Chinese Food in the same place

10) NEVER SEE RAIN!!...Ok, maybe you will see rain in LA, but considering I haven't since I've been here (50+ days), I'm putting it on the list.

It Feels Like October

On Tuesday night, I saw one of the best baseball games I've ever been to. The Yankees defeated the Angels 6-5 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Everything about the game and the trip to it was well worth it. I'll give you a brief glimpse of my day.


I went to the game along with my roommate Matt and our friend Bryan. Three of our other friends from the ICLA Program also came but arrived later. We went to a TGI Fridays nearby the Stadium and had an awesome early dinner. Happy Hour specials galore here! I'll spare the details, but it was very good and inexpensive!


At the game, we were able to park relatively close to the Stadium. The best part was that it was only $8, a steal compared to $15 at Dodger Stadium, Staples Center and the Home Depot Center. The Stadium itself was very nice and a great place to watch baseball. It has a new feel to it, but not brand new like the new stadium in New York or others built in the 21st Century. Great views, a good tribute to Angels history, excellent variety of food, detailed scoreboards and loud fans.



We got to go down low right next to the field for batting practice, something you can't do at Dodger Stadium unless you have tickets there. Besides seeing a guy get nailed in the head with a line drive that caused some serious bleeding, it was a great time. We saw many of the players up close, and I got a ball signed by Ramiro Pena. I then took a stroll around the Stadium to see all the many things it had to offer.



As for the game, it was very exciting. The atmosphere was like it was a playoff game, as it should be with both teams competing for home field advantage in the postseason. There were many Yankee fans that did a great job cheering against the Angels Fans. The Yankees built a 5-0 lead through the first half of the game, but then relinquished it. It was tied at 5 after 8, but there were great moments of suspense and big plays throughout the game.



In the 9th, Brett Gardner singled, stole 2nd, and scored on a sac fly by A-Rod to give the Yanks the lead. Enter Sandman! Mariano Rivera came on to closer the game out, getting some help from Jorge Posada on a clutch strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play. Yankees win! We all had a great time. For the 19 bucks we paid for tickets, it was definitely worth it and then some!






To check out the majority of the pictures I took, see my Facebook album!

Rest of My Weekend

Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of days. This was another busy weekend as I was basically running around the entire city of Los Angeles. First of all, a belated L'Shanah Tovah to all of my fellow-Jewish readers out there. I hope everyone had a great holiday, and I wish you all a happy, healthy, and sweet new year!

Saturday, I interned at my third Kings game of the week. The rival Anaheim Ducks were in town for a preseason affair and were sent packing with a 4-1 beating from the Kings. The team's top draft pick this past year scored twice, which got a roar from the crowd. It was a fun game to work at, and I did my usual helping out of providing out of town score updates, letting the people in the press box know the announcers' three stars of the game, etc.

I spent some of my time walking around the Staples Center just to see the place as a whole and what it had to offer. I've posted a few pictures below, but check them all out on my Facebook album.

Staples Center Ice

Seating Bowl with 3 Levels of Suites

View from the Press Box

Inside the Press Box

The Main Concourse

The highlight, though, was that there were 25 or so people from the Ithaca LA program that came to the game. During the 2nd intermission, with the good graces from radio play-by-play announcer Nick Nickson, I brought over a bunch of them to check out the broadcast booth and meet Nick. For those who don't know yet, Nick is an Ithaca alum as well, and he was very excited to meet some of the current IC students. On the other side, everyone who came over enjoyed meeting him and color analyst Daryl Evans as well as seeing where they work every night. It was a pretty cool experience!

On Sunday, I went down to Torrance to do some serious editing for this week's show. I edited together two packages. One is a highlight package on this past week's Football game between South High School and Burroughs High, which is actually located in Burbank. The other is a preview package on this year's South High girls volleyball team. Both came out pretty good in my mind. Once links to both of those as well as my El Camino College football preview package are posted online, I will definitely post them up here.

Finally, I was graciously invited last night to have dinner at the house of two friends of my mother and uncle, Bob and Gloria. They live in Thousand Oaks on the complex of the Sherwood Country Club, which is a very nice golf course. Among others that live there are Broadcasting Hall-of-Famer Vin Scully, Pete Sampras, Paul Anka, and Wayne Gretzky used to live there along with Lenny Dykstra. Bob and Gloria were excellent hosts, provided me with a tour of their lovely home, featuring a ton of sports memorabilia, and a fantastic dinner. Thank you both once again for a great time and one of the best meals I have had since I've been in LA.

As for this week, I will be going to the Yankees-Angels game in Anaheim tomorrow night, classes on Wednesday, covering North High's volleyball game Thursday, doing some editing Friday and/or Saturday, and interning at the Kings-Ducks game in Anaheim on Sunday. I'm very excited to see Angels Stadium and the Honda Center this week! I only wish I was able to go to Las Vegas to see the team play on Saturday against the Avalanche.

Well I Guess This Is Growing Up

Lyrics from the song Dammit, which Blink 182 played last night during a tremendous encore of an even better concert!! I am so happy that I was able to attend the show with my roommate down at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine. Blink 182 headlined a fantastic show that also included Fall Out Boy, The All-American Rejects, and Chester French.


Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

While LA traffic prevented us from seeing Mr. French, we did get to see most of AAR, and all of the other two bands. The Rejects are a personal favorite of mine and they didn't disappoint with many of my favorite songs. Swing, Swing was played as was I Wanna, The Real World, and Gives You Hell, which closed out their performance. Tyler was very vocal with the crowd! Gotta love AAR!


All-American Rejects on Stage

Fall Out Boy was next. They had a cool set-up with light-up "F O B" letters in front of the drums. They played many of their big hits as well. Some of my favorites were "This Ain't a Scene," "I Don't Care," "Sugar, We're Goin Down," and "Dance, Dance." I wasn't sure what to expect out of them, but they were really fun to listen to, talked a lot with the crowd, and had some nice guitar playing. I was very impressed by them!


Fall Out Boy on Stage

Then came Blink 182, which showed it was going to be impressive right out of the gate. They played three straight songs without stopping. Their set-up included some awesome lighting and multiple video screens in the background. They played a total of 22 songs and were on the stage for about an hour and a half. You should check out the complete setlist. Just unbelievable!


Blink 182 on Stage

Their encore included a ridiculous drumming session by Travis Barker where he drummed on a platform that elevated in the air, went on angles, and even spun!! It got a tremendous roar from the crowd. "Dammit" was fantastic. It included an amazing intro and sounded even better with the whole crowd singing!


End of the Blink 182 Encore

Overall, this was probably the best concert I've been too. Granted, I haven't been to many, this just blew me away with how great it was. The venue is pretty big. It seats about 10,000 or so and then has a giant grass area which can hold at least 6,000 people if not more. The place was absolutely packed yesterday, and the sound was awesome with everyone cheering and singing. Definitely worth the price of admission and something I hope I can do again.


Packed House For the Show!

Another Exciting Kings Game and A Big Decision

Tonight was my second Kings game of the preseason, and once again, it was a thriller. The Kings were down 1-0 for most of the game and couldn't seem to get any good scoring opportunities. Then, with 9.5 seconds left, Kings captain and Ithaca, NY native Dustin Brown scored to tie the game and send it to overtime. After the Kings killed off two penalties in the extra frame, the contest was decided by a shootout. Unfortunately for the Kings, Jason Demers scored in the fourth round to win it for San Jose. However, the game was still really exciting.



This game was a bit different than almost all of the others I will be working at this year. Tonight's game was played in Ontario, California at the Citizens Business Bank Arena instead of the Staples Center in LA. The arena is home to one of the Kings' minor league affiliates, The Ontario Reign. They are in the ECHL, which is like the AA version of minor league hockey.



The arena and team are very new, with the building opening last summer and the team having their inaugural season last fall. The place seats about 9,000 or so for hockey and is very nice. There isn't a bad seat in the house, the press box has a good amount of room, the fans were into the game, and the people there were very kind. I'm glad I got to experience a "home" game away from the Staples Center.



There is a big decision that I will have to make as well after what was presented to me this evening. I have been offered a spot to do play-by-play for the Reign's home games this season and they will be broadcast online. This is a great chance for me to get a good start in the broadcasting industry. However, the position is like an internship and not paid, and to do it, I must remain in LA for the entire season (through April). Therefore, I would need a job by the end of the semester.



So, here's where you all come in. In this situation where I am faced with a difficult decision, I would like to turn to my loyal readers and see what you think is best. What do you think I should do here? You can either comment directly on the blog, send me an e-mail at mhpbroadcaster@gmail.com, or speak to me in person. Either way, I appreciate any advice you might have.

Hockey's Back

Tonight was the first preseason game for the Los Angeles Kings as they hosted the Phoenix Coyotes in a split squad affair. Half of each team played at the Staples Center in LA and the other half at the Jobing.com Arena (worst name ever) in Phoenix. So, I got to spend my first night at the Staples Center and experience what I'd be doing for the season, the arena, and the team. It was a great experience.

View from the Broadcast Booths

Before the game, I followed around the Kings' radio play-by-play announcer Nick Nickson and color analyst Daryl Evans and got a tour of parts of the building. I saw where the broadcast booths are, and they are actually separate from the press box. The booths are together in the middle of the upper section of seats while the press box for writers and other staff members is up at the top of the arena. The view from the booths was just about perfect for hockey and there was plenty of space as well. Great place to watch a game!

The Kings' Radio Broadcast Booth

I also got to see the press dining room, known as the Chick Hearn Press Room, the Kings' locker room, and the postgame press conference room. The "event level" of the arena by the locker rooms was just renovated along with the rooms themselves. While it's smaller than the new clubhouses at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, it is still nice and creates an intimate atmosphere for the team.

Retired #'s and Championship Banners

During the game, I basically help out the broadcasters by providing any additional information they might need. I'll keep track of the out-of-town scores, confirm any scoring changes, and provide one of the Kings' media members with the broadcasters' three stars of the game. After the game, I will go down to the locker rooms to do interviews with players and the head coach and then edit the audio for use on the postgame show. I'm really excited to have these responsibilities and observe a professional radio broadcast.

Staples Center Scoreboard

As for the Staples Center, it is quite the venue. Being only 10 years old, it is expected that it will be very nice and modern. The biggest thing that stands out to me is that there are 3 levels of suites. That's right...3! In between the 200 level and the 300 level, 3 rings of luxury boxes ring the arena except for one end where there is a giant bar/club area.

Three Levels of Suites!

There are multiple LED boards around the arena, and the scoreboard was clear. The concourses were very large, clean, and had many different food options including McDonalds and California Pizza Kitchen. And the seating bowl, while big, seemed like there wasn't one bad view of the ice anywhere. Definitely a place I'd want to go to watch a game. Fortunately, I'll be watching at least 20 or so over the next few months.

First Sports Desk Package

After much anticipation, my first sports package for Torrance Citi Cable 3's The Sports Desk has been posted online. I have embedded below the episode of the show in which my package airs. If you want to see just my piece, you can skip ahead to time marker 14:35 in the video, which is the intro into my story. However, feel free to watch the whole show to see some of the other stories/teams we cover in Torrance.

Bonnie Prickitt is the host/producer of the show and is a great person to work with. I hope you all enjoy the piece. PLEASE feel free to comment on the video either here or directly to me! Anything is appreciated!!

So, without further ado, here it is! If you want to make it full screen, just right click in the video, go to zoom, then click full screen.

***If for some reason the video won't work through the blog, you can access it through this link.***

Crazy/Awesome Week Coming Up!!

Before, I discuss the insane week ahead of me, I just wanted to point out that I have put up a full album from the LA Galaxy game yesterday. You can view it here!

Okay, onto this week! This marks the official beginning of the NHL Preseason and the Kings have three game "at home" during the upcoming week. Why is "at home" in quotes? Well, Thursday's game is being played in Ontario, California, which is about an hour east of downtown LA. This is the home of one of the Kings' minor league affiliates, the Ontario Reign. The Kings will play the Sharks there on Thursday. The other two games are on Tuesday at the Staples Center against the Phoenix Coyotes and Saturday against the crosstown-rival Anaheim Ducks.


I will be working in the broadcast booth at all three games, assisting mostly the radio broadcast team of Nick Nickson and Daryl Evans. However, I will also be helping out TV broadcasters Bob Miller (announcer from The Mighty Ducks) and Jim Fox and possibly some of the out-of-town broadcasters.

The other big event this upcoming week will be a concert I'm attending with my roommate on Friday. Blink 182 will be playing at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine (about an hour south of LA) as part of their reunion tour. But the excitement doesn't end there. Also playing are Fall Out Boy and one of my personal favorites...THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS!! It should be quite the concert. Being someone who doesn't go to concerts often, it's pretty exciting when I finally get to go to one!



Aside from that, classes Wednesday, as well as our first Media Industries seminar class on Monday night, editing the rest of my volleyball preview, as well as highlights from the South High School football game vs. Burroughs High this coming Thursday! Then, next Tuesday, I'm going to see the Yankees play the Angels in Anaheim! With both teams battling for home field advantage throughout the playoffs, it will be an exciting game!! Should be busy, but very fun.