An Interview with Greg Hassler

For the first snippet from my book, I thought it only fitting to share a bit from my interview with my good buddy Greg Hassler, co-owner of 1450 KOKO/98.5 KWKJ in Warrensburg.  Hass and I have known each other for 20 years, since my days as sports information director at Missouri Southern and later here at the University of Central Missouri.  We've shared a lot of laughs on road trips together and I have always found Greg to be an honest man who loves his job and loves his teams.
I asked him about a couple of his favorites from his time in the booth.  Here are his responses:

MY NEW ADVENTURE: SHOW-ME SPORTSCASTERS

Well, friends, I'm embarking on a new adventure.  I am writing a book I have tentatively titled "Show-Me Sportscasters".

For 15 years I worked in sports information, 12 years as a director.  I developed media guides, wrote news releases and feature stories, produced game notes, provided statistics at sporting events, and served as host to countless media.  

One group I worked with always amazed me during sporting events:  the play-by-play announcers.  I was always amazed at how they could remember the names that matched the numbers and how they could recall this information in real time (actually in really fast time).  Of course, I knew they did their homework before the event--checking stats, finding nuggets of information, examining trends and so forth--but the fact that they could so poignantly articulate what was happening and draw on their preparation just fascinated me.

I have also always been a fan of the back story.  “Batman Begins” and “Captain America:  The First Avenger” are two of my all-time favorite movies.  While I am not a fan of the Star Wars prequels, I watch “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” at least once a month.  When I decided to begin this project, telling the back stories of some of my favorite sportscasters from across my home state just seemed to make sense.  As a sports fan, it is the type of book I would like to read because it is through the eyes of these gentlemen that I often get to “see” the game (if I’m listening to the radio) and that I get to really know the players and coaches who make it happen (if I’m watching on television).  As an educator who teaches sports broadcasting, this is the kind of book I would want to assign for my students who are interested in being on-air talent.

Over the next few months, I'll be posting audio clips from my interviews as a means of sharing the experience. I hope you enjoy.