“The biggest difference is just the philosophy of television news as it applies to sports. It doesn’t have the importance that it once did. When I started at Ch. 5—and this is pretty much standard for all the stations in town—we had eight or nine guys in sports. And today, we have two right now at Fox 19. And all the other stations are the same way.”
“Since I started, all the staffs have been cut in half.”
It just means that at Fox 19, as well as other local TV stations, doing more with less in the sports department has become the norm. As Dan Hoard, the former Fox 19 Sports Director said, no one is willing to do more than Rufus.
“Rufus would joke that it’s because he has no life outside of work, but that’s not really it,” Hoard said. “He busts his tail every day because he is uber-competitive and takes tremendous pride in making sure that Fox 19 has the best TV sports coverage in town.”
“Different sports anchors have come and gone but Fox 19 has always provided good coverage. Rufus is the constant.”
Sports coverage has also taken on a different meaning to news directors and the media in general. If you want sports news, turn to ESPN, not the local news.
Rufus admits the internet has caused a lot of the cutbacks in local sports coverage as well.
“Sports was bigger back then [when he started in the late 1980s]. Some of it has to do with the immediacy of the internet and some of that stuff,” Rufus commented. “Advertisers spend dollars elsewhere now. Back then it was either the newspaper, radio or TV. Now, there’s not as much of an incentive to cover sports on TV.”
But that doesn’t mean that with less incentive to cover sports that stations are suddenly cutting back on hours for their employees. In fact, many stations have completely cut out overtime pay.
“I can honestly say I’ve never worked under a 40-hour week,” Rufus said. “Typically I work 50 to 60 hours a week. Now, that’s nothing compared to a Marvin Lewis, or some people that I cover, but I think for the everyday person, they’d be shocked to realize you put that many hours into it, because, especially the way the staffs have been cut, now, when I’m here by myself and the Bengals have a 10 a.m. press conference, I go to that and work through the day and night until after the newscast.”
And with these cutbacks, Rufus and Brian Giesenschlag, the only two full-time Fox 19 Sports employees, are stretched beyond their means to cover as much as they can. Being a part of the media can subject you to some criticism. Fans are miffed that you don’t cover enough high school sports, or there’s too much Bengals coverage on. (And I’m guilty of the fight for more NASCAR coverage)
Last year I was in the pack of folks who chatted with Brad Keselowski at Kentucky Speedway on Friday afternoon. Fox 19 photographer Dan Wood is hiding behind the video camera, and I'm on the right, wearing the aqua colored shirt (Photo from Getty Images/Yahoo! Sports)
Rufus explained his side of the stories behind the scores.
“There are a lot of 12-13 hour days that people might not realize what goes into a three-minute newscast,” he said. “People question, ‘Well, why didn’t you cover this high school game?’ They have to realize we don’t have the resources to do that. Believe me, if I could cover all the games I’d love to have them covered.”
And he’s not lying either. Rufus and Giesenschlag scour the web and the Enquirer for high school games to cover. They try not to always cover the same schools either. Sure, some are bigger and draw more crowds than others (the GCL South is one) but it’s important to cover as many teams as possible.
That still doesn’t stop folks from complaining about not seeing their school on Fox 19.
“The biggest struggle is the time,” Rufus said. “I think more often than not the complaints we get, the complaints that are sent to the sports department are that we don’t cover enough of little league or girls sports. I wish we could cover all that, but you have a three-minute sportscast and you try to weigh what the importance is to the most people.”
“It’s hard to justify going to a girl’s soccer game where there’s maybe 40 people in the crowd,” he continued. “If the school’s fans don’t attend the games, then why would my viewers care about it if fans of your own program don’t show up?”
“That’s not a knock on the schools but we have to weigh what we think our viewers think is the most important thing. Obviously the Bengals and the Reds always take precedence over everything, but during high school football season, high school football takes priority on Friday nights. There is nothing bigger on a Friday night in the fall on Fox 19 than high school football.”
In fact, on Friday nights in the fall, reporters will travel to various high schools and broadcast live from two or three places. The man who is behind the scenes organizing it all is Rufus.
But even though his job is seen as pretty cool by some, he warns that it’s not all glitz and glamour. Even though he spends some time with athletes and high-profile coaches, it’s not always what you see when you flip on the TV.
“I do get to spend time with athletes or whatever, but, believe it or not, it is a lot of work, a lot of hours. I think that’s the thing that most people probably don’t realize is that to do it right and if you want to be successful, how many hours are involved,” he said.
“Being able to spend time with Carson Palmer or Joey Votto or Butch Jones is cool, and it can look glamorous from the outside but there’s a lot of hours that go into it that aren’t glamorous. Sometimes the hours are fun but they can be draining,” he admitted.
Yet there’s a reason people get into the job.
While Rufus isn’t planning on writing memoirs any time soon (and if he was, I feel I’d offer up my services to write something. After this week, I’ll already have half the book written) his best advice for those seeking jobs in the sports media field is advice that applies to any job seeker really.
“You get into the business because you love it, you love what you do. So don’t go in with expectations that you’re going to be a star, that you’re going to get rich, or that you’re going to be running with a lot of athletes, because athletes don’t want to run with you.”
That passion and dedication has made him one of the best producers that most of his colleagues told me they’ve ever worked with. But at first, it’s tough to get a read on Rufus. For some funny stories on the TV legend, tune in tomorrow.
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These stories are probably well out of order and hardly make any sense, far from what I first planned on, but hopefully you get to see a little of what goes on behind the scenes at Fox 19, and you gain a snapshot of the man who makes a lot of it possible.
By the end of the week I hope to have brought together all these aspects of Rufus and hope that you can see him the way those of us that have worked with him see him.
Dan Hoard said it best when he told me, “No one deserves [a story] more than Rufus. I’m glad you’re doing it.”
Have a good Wednesday night, and be sure to visit tomorrow.
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