Sports In The Making

Dean Walker, Production Executive & Coordinating Producer

Episode Summary

Dean Walker is former Senior Vice President of Universal Sports Network, former Coordinating Producer at NBC Sports and current Sports Production Executive. We talk what goes into launching sports networks, what he looks for in announcers and what his responsibilities were like during the Sochi Olympic games.

Episode Notes

• 2:17 - Why he’s stayed with TV for as long as he has.
• 3:55 - How Dean got into sports television the non-traditional school route.
• 12:25 - What goes into creating a network and how content drives the direction of the network.
• 14:38 - How many sports he’s covered in his career.
• 14:52 - Dean names some of the sports he’s covered.
• 16:31 - What the model for World Championship Sports Network and how world feed productions are designed.
• 19:16 - What the challenge is for presenting a sport for fans that isn’t familiar to them.  Rugby is one of those sports where the fan base in the U.S. is less knowledgeable than those that come from rugby nations, and how it’s produced can have an impact on those newer fans.
• 22:40 - What traits or qualities that announcers need to have when they call non-traditional sporting events.
• 25:09 - How he views Paralympic athletes and non-traditional athletes. 
• 27:29 - What the landscape on how sports will be produced by networks or viewed by fans.
• 30:12 - What his responsibilities were as Senior Vice President of Production at Universal Sports Network
• 33:05 - How Dean was able to implement production for more than 1,600 hours of programming on the network when events were taking place in Europe and Asia.
• 35:35 - How he acquired multiple sporting event for Universal Sports Network.
• 37:19 - What it was like producing the Boston Marathon and what his experience on that event was like.
• 40:45 - How producing the 2014 Boston Marathon had to be focused in the year after the tragedy in 2013.
• 43:14 - What he did on the PyeongChang Olympics for NBC.
• 46:02 - How working on the 2016 Olympics was one of the biggest challenges of his career.
• 47:05 - What he would like fans to know about what it takes to put on a sporting event.
• 48:51 - What the best advice he’s received working in sports television.
• 50:10 - What advice he has for anyone wanting to work in sports broadcasting.
• 52:25 - The importance of being versatile in sports broadcasting.