“Hi is this Jacob?”
“Yes,” I replied in a puzzled half-asleep stupor. I was just waking up and the call was coming from a 907 area code.
“Monte Bowen, KTVF in Fairbanks. I’ve got a couple questions for you…”
“Uhm sure”
What’s going on? Who’s Monte Bowen? Why is he calling me at 11:15 on a Monday morning? Where is the 907 area code? Wait a minute, Fairbanks… Alaska? Holy crap, those were call letters weren’t they. Is this a…
Before I could even grasp what was going on Monte bombarded me with questions. How’d you become interested in Alaska? Do you do sports or just news? Does the cold bother you? When can you move up here? Would you be bringing a spouse, significant other or pet with you? Would you expect us to pay for the move?
Whoah, whoah, whoah, Monte. Slow down. I don’t think you realize that I have no idea what’s going on.
My answers were hesitant and brief. There was a timid nervous tone in my voice, like a kid brother being asked how the cotton candy tastes at a state fair live by the local newslady. Can’t you tell I was not expecting this at all?
I totally blew the phone interview.
But hey, even Hall of Famers strike out in their first at bat. Pirates great Willie Stargell did. He went on to hit 475 Major League home runs.
It was the first callback I’d received after three weeks of writing cover letters, sending out resume reels, and mass emailing stations all across the country. I was trying everything. I was emailing news directors, reporters and producers. I was asking everyone I could to look at my reel and give me advice. I wrote cover letters that made sure to address all the specifics mentioned in the job descriptions.
I would spend hours at a time tailoring these cover letters individually to each market I was applying. I dropped Otis Redding, Ray Charles and James Brown references in one to Augusta, Georgia. I modified the old stage qualifier, “Will it play in Peoria?” in my cover letter to their station. In my boldest move, I opened up my first paragraph to Alpena, Michigan by saying the only time I’d ever heard of Alpena before was in an episode of Home Improvement.
How could you pass up a cover letter like this?
Not a single response.
But hey, even Hall of Famers strike out a few hundred times to start out. Phillies great Mike Schmidt had 150 in his first 400 at-bats. He went on to hit 548 Major League home runs.
So I kept my head up and forged on and kept applying. My work at High School Cube was keeping me busy and purposed. They were flying me all across the country to do play-by-play for the NIKE Elite Youth Basketball League, which brought together the top juniors in the country for high profile AAU showcases.
John Beilein, Bob Huggins, Oliver Purnell…
Every team was stacked with D-1 talent. Rosters were riddled with kids with offers from North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA, Ohio State… At one event in South Caolina, I found myself sharing a lunchroom with guys like Kryzewski, Callipari and Izzo. I said “excuse me” to Billy Donovan as I skipped past the salad bar ahead to the desert line. Sean Miller asked me to pass the salt. It was awesome.
I didn’t have time to chat with any of those guys because I was so busy. The games consisted of two 20-minute halves (stop-clock) with a 2 minute halftime and 10 minute intermission-usually less. We would do 8 games a day on most of these trips. It was grueling stuff. Have you ever tried to talk for ten hours straight? There wasn’t a word to waste.
It was on that trip when I was rubbing elbows with college coaching greats when I received a phone call from Kelly O’Mara at WAGM in Presque Isle, Maine. Luckily, I was in the middle of my 3rd game of the day at the time and she left a voicemail. I didn’t have a chance to blow this one.
After the final buzzer rang, the scorer’s table put 7:00 on the game clock and I stepped outside to listen to Kelly’s voicemail.
She liked my stuff. She wanted to talk.
I was fist pumping and dancing and leaping up and down and grinning ear-to-ear. No matter that it was somewhere in Maine I’d never even heard of, it was a callback!!
I had to cut short the celebration and hustle back to the game. When I got back into the gym there was 0:45 on the clock. I scrambled to the table, threw on my headset and began the next game with more gusto than I’d had all weekend. “GoooOOooOOOooOOOOOOD afternoon sports fans, and welcome to North Augusta, South Carolina. Jake Berent here on High School Cube bringing you…”
I let my excitement settle over the next two games, and called Kelly back and arranged to speak with her when I finally had some free time on Monday.
My Sentiments Exactly
I called my good buddy Will Wilson, who’d landed a sports reporting job 9 months earlier in Quincy, Illinois. I called Rick Brown, the guy who taught me everything I knew about broadcast journalism at DePaul. After an hour of encouragement and tutelage on the phone with each of them, I was ready for anything Kelly would ask on Monday.
The extra time I was afforded this go around paid off. I hung up the phone with Kelly beaming with confidence I had nailed it. She told me they were weighing some other candidates and they’d get back to me within a week. “Looking forward to it,” I said.
No more than two days later another phone call came. They wanted me to come up for an in person interview. ASAP.
YABBA DABBA DOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Absolutely!” I said.
No matter that I had another play-by-play gig for High School Cube the next week Sunday-thru-Wednesday in Augusta, Georgia.
No matter that my sister was getting married that Saturday.
I had a 48-hour window to get from Augusta to Presque Isle to Chicago.
Jake Berent 
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