COLUMN: Inside the truck–more than you want to know
Be warned. This place is a hectic hell, where ‘behind the scenes’ receives a bad name.
It’s the inside of a CBS Sports production truck, one of two which was in Salt Lake City for four days last week to televise six first- and second-round NCAA men’s basketball tournament games.
In this place, technical jargon flows and profanity flies out of mouths when things aren’t going as they should. The ‘f’ word was a particular favorite.
I had an opportunity, along with my brother and a couple University of Utah students, to help CBS during this time.
Our official title was a ‘runner,’ though about 70 percent of my time was spent sitting in the production truck answering phones for Fred, the producer’s administrator, as well as talking with some dude named ‘Carmen from New York’ and telling him when timeouts were called.
In all I did this for about 20 hours, but was able to watch each part of every game — including hearing the off-air candor expressed from the ‘talent’ (another name for commentators Dick Enberg, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, former Orlando Magic coach Matt Guokas, and sideline reporter Armen Keteyian).
In this dimly lit atmosphere were placed three rectangular tables, aligned one behind the other. I was sitting against the left wall of the second table. In front of the first table sits the head honcho, the producer, Bob.
In front of him is an eight-foot-high wall with 64 five inch-by-five inch screens, each showing a different camera angle or graphic. In the middle of the mini-screens were two 24-inch monitors, one with a preview of what was to be on the live shot, and the other with the actual live shot.
On Thursday these guys had a monumental task. Four games were on tap for the day — which could be the equivalent of running a marathon in mid-July.
Compiling stats and rosters for eight teams isn’t easy — especially for the commentators who have to memorize them.
The first game featured Cincinnati and Gonzaga, slated to start at 10:40 a.m. But for the guys in the truck it started at about 9:30 a.m. as they had to rehearse for the eventual 13-hour day and work out any kinks that might exist.
And it was a loooooong day.
A one-hour break to eat and stretch was allotted at the end of Arizona’s blowout over Vermont (about 3 p.m.).
Then it was back in the truck for five more hours to see Central Michigan upset the fifth-seed Creighton Blue Jays and Duke survive a feisty Colorado State team.
On Saturday there were two games, but after sitting through four it went faster than eating a glazed Krispy Kreme.
Throughout these games an unknown language was spoken.
See if you can decipher it: “All right, roll laser, roll laser … Go to Y and pause on W… OK guys, New York is walking our dog … We have a join coming up … Six, five, four, three, two, one, standby, and we’re back.”
Walking our dog? Uh … OK, sure. (Its real meaning is when CBS in New York gives its national audience a live look-in at the game in Salt Lake.)
Bob had some angry and expletive outbursts during Saturday’s games which left me white in the face and nearly wet in the pants.
When the big boys in New York (aka Dan Rather) wanted to cut away from the final regulation minutes of Arizona’s epic double overtime victory over Gonzaga for a news break on the war, Bob exploded.
He turned around and snapped at Fred, who was sitting to my right, which scared the bejeezus out of me.
It would be against journalistic standards to quote Bob verbatim. Just imagine an episode of “The Sopranos,” when things really get sticky.
And from what I could gather, the ‘talent’ could hear everything which was spoken in the truck when they were on-air.
Makes television sound like a glamorous profession doesn’t it?
But that’s how things have to be for this group of about 45 employees which will either make a trip to Albany, N.Y. or Anaheim, Calif. for next weekend’s games.
One person told me they are known as the “number two” broadcasting team for CBS. And they showed why. Somehow they survived all that chatter and panic and produced what would be a perfect broadcast to any outsider.
On live national television things must go smoothly and be quick as a snap of the fingers. Constant communication is an absolute must. If anybody is slow to put a graphic up or communicate, he hears about it immediately. No ifs ands or buts.
But there were perks to taking part in all this, including being within inches of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Arizona coach Lute Olson, and of course, free food.
Heck, I even had the honor of sharpening Enberg’s pencils and bringing Guokas a bottled water.
After Duke’s win over Central Michigan Saturday night, everything was done. Bob stood up, stretched, and with a smile said, “I hope you guys learned a new language.”
We sure did. But not one my mother would be proud of.
To err is human, but on national television you’d better be ready to take some intense heat for it.
Sammy Hislop is a freshman majoring in journalism. Comments can be sent to samhis@cc.usu.edu