J.B. Long does play-by-play for basketball, baseball and soccer games with the Pac-12 Networks. Daily Bruin assistant sports editor Korbin Placet had the opportunity to talk to Long about his work as a broadcaster, how he ultimately ended up at the Pac-12 Networks and his opinion on the 2015 UCLA football season so far.
Daily Bruin: How did you start working in sports media?
J.B. Long: I worked for the student radio on campus. I was the sports director and I called a lot of football, basketball and a little bit of baseball as a student at Notre Dame. Notre Dame didn’t have a broadcast journalism major or sports journalism, and I didn’t know that was what I was interested in doing at the time. So I went to school with the intention of majoring in finance. I kind of backed my way into broadcasting.
The summer between my junior and senior year I interned as a production assistant at NBC Olympics in Athens for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. So I came back from that to my senior year of finance courses and knew that I wanted to change lanes.
Second semester senior year I interned at a local NBC affiliate, which thankfully was on campus. There I learned the behind-the-scenes of how local news works, and I was able to put together reel tape. I sent out 25 to 30 VHS tapes and waited for a response – hoped for a response. And thankfully I landed my first gig at CBS 4 WHBF-TV in Quad Cities. It was great: a top-100 market, perfect location.
DB: How did you get involved in Pac-12 Networks?
JBL: I was in Florida at the time and worked some games for the Big Ten Network. The Big Ten Network had just launched and I really enjoyed the live broadcasting. I liked going to campus and covering campus sporting events. I knew that was something that I wanted to do long-term. And so when the Pac-10 was going to expand to the Pac-12 that got my attention. I knew that this was happening for two primary reasons. One, for there to be a large enough league to split the divisions and to host a conference championship for football. And two, to begin to expand its media territory.
I anticipated the launching of the network. I started to work towards joining that entity as a goal. I kind of asked my agent to make that our top priority in terms of my next career step and sure enough the Pac-12 did form its own TV network and I was fortunate to be on board for its inception.
DB: Can you talk about your position at the Pac-12 Networks a bit and all the sports that you cover?
JBL: So, as a play-by-play announcer, I am definitely a generalist. I have a wide range of sports that I will and can cover. I think I was hired initially by Pac-12 Networks to be someone who was kind of ambitious enough to take on anything from football, basketball, baseball to soccer, wrestling and softball. That’s how it has played out and that is what has appealed to me working for a college network like this.
In one academic year you get the chance to cover a lot of different schools, a lot of different sports and stories. Many of the sports I knew intrinsically, but there were a few that I had to consciously devote some time and attention to learning. But that has always been an exciting process for me. Even before I came to the Pac-12 Networks, I adopted fencing as pet project of mine, learning the ins and outs of it.
DB: Last, UCLA football is currently ranked No. 7, what do you think its chances are of making the college football playoff?
JBL: I think they are great. They are coming off an impressive performance. I think with each week that goes by, Josh Rosen will look less and less like a freshman and more and more like a sophomore, which is terrific and critical. Around them, teams aren’t crumbling, but they are showing some cracks.
Arizona, obviously crushed by UCLA. ASU, defeated at home by USC. USC has already sustained a lost to Stanford. So there is another leg up in the south division. Utah is now everyone’s darling after their win against Oregon in Eugene. And so, right now, at least in the south, it is Utah or UCLA. But obviously a lot of change in the coming weeks. I thought UCLA’s roster was the strongest in the Pac-12 going into the season with just one giant question – and that was at quarterback..