More than 50 years of watching televised sports. I’ve rarely turned off the sound as a result of one or more of the commentators doing a horrible job.Sadly, the NCAA track meet this past week, Jill Montgomery’s constant yapping. The perfect example of somebody that’s trying way too hard.

In broadcasting NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB games….know the sport, know who the athetes and coaches are, don’t mix them up. Don’t go yapping on and on. Likewise with track.

Most important, a sport event is a news event. You’re a reporter. Report the news.

If you’re yapping all the time you can’t pay attention to the news event, thus you reduce your ability to report the news. You miss stuff that the viewer can see happening, and the viewer can tell that you’re so busy yapping about somebody’s uncle that you missed a lap split, you missed a lead change and major surge that broke a race open. Who is that person that just went from 5th to first and is pulling away from a field of 12. Stop yapping and just call the race.

Like the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB. Don’t kill your ratings trying to “appeal to the average viewer”. Drive up the ratings by appealing to the fan.Talk like your audience have been fans for 5 to 10 years, not like they’re 5 to 10 year old kids.

Track meets are news events.

Each event is a news event.

Report the news.

Lap splits, lead changes, etc, are news. Report the news.

Otherwise, plug the audio into the stadium announcers and let them do your job.