In The Hot Seat: UCFB sports broadcasting senior lecturer Guy McCrea

Senior lecturer Guy McCrea joined us for our latest episode of ‘In The Hot Seat’ where he spoke about his career in sports broadcasting, which he know lectures on at UCFB.

Guy, who has worked for organisations such as ITV Sport, Sky Sports News and Eurosport in his sports broadcasting career, and is now a senior lecturer at UCFB Wembley in BA (Hons) Sports Business and Sports Broadcasting.

An expert across the sports industry, Guy spoke us through his roles at the Olympic Games as well as in elite cricket and tennis.

“I’ve had the privilege” Guy said, “of being able to work alongside those all-time tennis icons like Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, and on the women’s side, the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova.”

He went on to talk about his passion for sports commentary, and why it is such a quintessential part of the media world

He said: “It is the most immediate form of journalism of storytelling. You are the voice alongside an iconic event.

“But I think the thing is, you’re still ultimately talking to someone, you’re broadcasting to someone, you’re trying to pique their interest. People are interested in stories about people as well. It’s been a big part of my commentary career.

“There’s a big rise at the moment in commentary about use of data, for example. I think it’s important, but I think we should never forget the human-interest value in storytelling, whether that’s putting a news report together, whether that’s presenting a link into your hosting a programme, or whether it’s commentating.

“Whether you’re at the side, you’re at a non-league football ground. That matters to someone just as much as someone winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games, and I’ve had the fortune of being able to commentate many of those occasions as well.

“They all share that commonality at the end of the day. They all matter to people and it’s your job ultimately in broadcasting to connect, try and connect with your audience, with your viewer, with your listener, and get them interested and maintain their interest, inform them as well, and just have a good time about it as well. Don’t forget that. This is just such a joy to work in sports.”

Guy then went on to talk about his time so far as a senior lecturer at UCFB, and what it’s like to bring through and develop the next generation of sports broadcasters.

“The sports industry is amazing,” he said. “It’s never been bigger, but it’s also never been more competitive as well. You really do have to develop a bit more in terms of standing out and bringing your own individual qualities.

“It’s about cultivating those qualities that you’ve got and developing them in what I would say is a pretty, you know, useful environment to do that.”

He added: “This is a great chance to build and find out and start to work out who you are as well. We try and bring that into the modules. We try and make everything as good in terms of a preparation experience for the real world for the industry. That’s what’s driving what we try and do every day here at UCFB.”

He finished by offering some advice: “Once you’re out in the industry, as I tell my students, you should be ongoing, engaging in reflective practice around what you’re doing, but it’s harder.

“I know that myself because you’ve got the pressure to do the job, to perform under pressure. There are other factors involved as well in terms of how you deal with people and meeting deadlines and everything else.”

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