“As long as the person was respectful to both genders of players, I’d be fine with either.”
“Would you also be fine working with someone you might’ve had a personal conflict with in the past?”
“Meaning, would I take issue if you expected me to work with, say . . . Amelie SanSimeon-Wipf as my co-commentator?” I paused. “Yes. I would have a big problem with that.”
“Why?”
“Her specifically? She’s a glory hound. She’s divisive. She’s not a team player.” And those were the most flattering things I’d ever say about her.
“That’s it?”
I wasn’t surprised that Alan pushed the issue about potential personality conflicts. “That’s all I’m willing to say during an official interview that impacts my future.”
“Fair enough.” Minka passed Alan her notebook. He scanned what she’d written, added something and passed it back.
While I should’ve been happy they weren’t whispering back and forth, it still felt rude.
Alan studied me. “You’ve already signed confidentiality paperwork so I can tell you that we’re hiring for two positions. The first one is for the weekly wrap-up show.”
I smiled. I guessed right. Go me.
“The second position is brand new, created to diversify our broadcast team. We intend to strengthen our brand as the go-to place for local sports, which means we want our viewers to be familiar with their broadcasters. The commentators for men’s and women’s college hockey will be a two-person team; a man and a woman. This concept will launch in the fall, so there are months to build buzz about our new streaming service. The position will entail travel, both preseason and extensively during the hockey season.”
“Which local college teams? You’re already the official broadcast for all the U of M sports programs.”
“We’ll officially broadcast U of M Duluth—UMD—hockey starting this fall. Previously we used their local affiliate as our broadcast, but we are replacing that with our own on-site broadcasting team.”
“When you say travel, and yet you also say local, are you talking about traveling in a vehicle with a news team and the co-commentator?”
“That will be our first choice for events within driving distance.”
I tried to wrap my head around the logistics, but I couldn’t.
Minka cracked open a bottle of water. “If you have questions, please don’t be shy.”
“Shy is rarely a word attributed to me. So you are suggesting that your new co-commentators will cover all of UMD women’s and men’s hockey games. I’m not being flip when I point out that’s thirty-four regular season games—per team, only half of which are played on their home ice.”
“As we’re aware.”
Then it hit me. “Your broadcast team would need to live in Duluth during the season.”
“Yes. We’ve prepared a contingency plan for when the men’s and the women’s teams will be playing simultaneously. Our plan for the first year is to have a secondary unit from here cover whichever game is played on home ice. The broadcasters will travel to the away game . . . unless—”
“The men’s team is playing at home, and the women’s team is playing in Wisconsin, the secondary unit will travel there. Because the goal is making sure whichever team has the winningest record gets the best coverage.”
“Yes.”
Now that made sense. The UMD men’s team had just won the Frozen Four. If Wolf Sports North owned the broadcasting rights, that meant if the team made it back to the finals, the big sports channels would have to pay Wolf Sports North for the right to broadcast. However, it didn’t mean that as a local commentator I’d get a chance to call the games for the biggest championships in college hockey. But both UMD men’s and women’s teams were NCAA champions—the women’s team were five-time champs—so I would have visibility and that could launch me into an even bigger market.
“Like we said, we’ve been vague about this position because it’ll be new to us as well.”
“Does that mean you’ve already decided on the male half of the broadcasting team?”
Alan nodded.
“Does he have any input on who is selected as his co-commentator?”
“Outright? No. We’ll review the short list with him.”
I knew they wouldn’t tell me who they’d picked so I didn’t ask.
“Gabi, while we can’t disclose how many applicants we’re currently considering, we do want to let you know that you are being considered for both of those positions.”
Be cool. Don’t tell them which position you’d prefer. “That’s exciting.”
By their blank expressions . . . had I been too blasé?
“Do you have a time frame on when you’ll get back to applicants . . . win or lose?”