Radio network looking for 38 teens - Gary Post-Tribune - August 1, 2009

Kids, here's your chance to be in the media. (& maybe be like the next Chris Rongey of WSCR radio Chicago)

Believe it or not, there are young people in Northwest Indiana still working toward that endangered species of a goal -- becoming a member of the media.

Maybe the industry still has a future, after all.

I've been occasionally approached during high school sports season, which begins Monday as several sports officially open practice. The biggest of those sports is football, which has media outlets scrambling between now and November to provide extensive coverage of 30-something schools.

Radio stations have always been a major source of Friday football frenzy in the region, whether it's been WJOB in Hammond or the Region Sports Network out of Highland, which has broadcast on multiple stations on the dial.

The newest local station throwing its hat into the ring has a unique plan to ride football's coattails.

Lakeshore Public Radio (89.1 FM) will premier its first season covering high school football with its weekly Friday night show, "Lakeshore Game Night" with the help of what they hope will be 38 kids.

The station covers 38 NWI high schools with football, including New Prairie and Winamac, and is looking for stringers from each. Lakeshore program director Len Clark wants them to be students.

"I still consider myself a kid," the 45-year-old Portage High graduate said. "We'd like to tap into high school students in multimedia classes and introduce them to the media."

It's a novel and noble concept. Put the weekly Friday coverage of each school in the hands of kids with a passion and love for that school, instead of random guys just looking for extra cash.

"You know how it is -- you can't get a job without experience and you can't get experience without a job," Clark said.

In lieu of not being able to get students, he'll take booster club members or administrators, but the ultimate goal is to get students involved.

Lakeshore's whole Friday package is also quite different than the usual region coverage. There will be no live games until well into the postseason. Instead, the kids getting their first break as stringers will call in after each score and at the end of each quarter to provide scoring summaries and interesting statistics.

"I've been told this is crazy, but I think it will work," Clark said. "It's not outside the box. I prefer to say it's thinking in a different box."

This "different box" of thinking isn't the first time Clark has organized this type of coverage. As manager at WUEV, the University of Evansville radio station, Clark was the co-winner of the 2001 Indiana Sportscaster of the Year, thanks in part to his WUEV-Missouri Valley Conference Sports Broadcasting Workshop.

That workshop consisted of two students from each college competing in the MVC hoops tournament in March. Each would be given a credential and seats on press row. It's purpose was to give those future media members a taste of what they were working toward.

Among the graduates of Clark's workshop are Chicago White Sox pre- and post-game show host on WSCR-670AM Chris Rongey.

"You could tell he was going on to do great things," Clark said of Rongey.

Now Clark hopes to give 38 region kids the chance to be the next Chris Rongey.

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