Sports In The Making

Chris Farrow - Coordinating Producer, Ross Mobile Productions & Former CP, ESPN College Basketball

Episode Summary

Chris Farrow is coordinating producer for Ross Mobile Productions, a company that packages events for ESPN, FOX, NBC and other networks. He is also one of the former coordinating producers at ESPN helping to shape college basketball coverage and has given many announcers get their first opportunities at the network level. We talk about his career and how he has made an impact on the sports landscape.

Episode Notes

• 1:30 - Where his love of sports comes from?
• 2:05 - Did he think he wanted to work in sports?
• 2:45 - How his interest in basketball translate into him working in the sports industry.
• 3:28 - How he got into the sports the sports industry and later into sports television.
• 6:00 - Was it easy working as a font coordinator (graphics coordinator), What the next steps in his career were.
• 7:48 - Going to the NCAA to work in broadcast services.
• 8:55 - What his responsibilities at the NCAA were.
• 11:50 - What the relationship between the sports tv networks and the NCAA was like when he was with the NCAA.
• 13:20 - How he moved on from the NCAA and got to ESPN.
• 17:05 - The logistical complexities in scheduling personnel while at ESPN Regional Television.
• 18:15 - How he managed approximately 1,000 games per season.
• 20:50 - What it means to him to have helped ESPN grow with college basketball.
• 22:00 - How he has the ability to remember details.
• 23:10 - How he keeps a list of all the music concerts he has been to in his life.
• 24:30 - How Sammy Hagar and Van Halen are his favorite band.
• 26:00 - How Chris was introduced to me to produce a college basketball game in Mexico.
• 27:20 - Chris shares how the college basketball season is put together.
• 28:15 - How he decides on putting a production crew together.
• 30:20 - How he provides feedback to the production personnel.
• 32:35 - What his outlook/philosophy on finding and working with announcers.
• 34:30 - How he coaches announcers with his production company.
• 36:20 - What he believes makes a good play-by-play announcer and the qualities they need to have.
• 37:40 - Diversity is a big part of looking for announcers.
• 38:25 - What he looks for in an analyst.
• 40:15 - As a talent/announcer evaluator, did he go after analysts or did they come to him?
• 42:30 - How he looked for reporters and how it was a challenge to fit them into college basketball.
• 45:15 - What Ross Mobile Productions does as a game packager and how many networks are using packagers.
• 46:50 - What REMI’s and At-Home Productions are.
• 50:40 - What the biggest or most memorable event he’s covered.
• 53:05 - What the craziest event he was ever a part of.
• 56:55 - What he would like sports fans to know about the tv broadcast industry.
• 58:00 - If he were to do any thing else besides sports broadcasting.
• 59:10 - How young announcers or existing announcers reach out to get advice through chrisfarrowproductions.com.