Interview with Bill Roth
"The Voice of the Hokies" - ISP Sports
by: Justin Cates

Recently, I had a chance to sit down with the “Voice of The Hokies” Bill Roth to discuss his career, what got him started in broadcasting and the state of Hokie athletics.

Q. What got you into broadcasting?

A. I was a very poor athlete. It’s something I knew I wanted to do when I was 9 or 10 years old, I always enjoyed sports and I had the opportunity to get into it somewhat when I was in high school and more so in college. I always wanted to do it, I thought it would be more fun than working and I love sports, I played baseball and hockey and some other sports but I wasn’t good enough to play collegiately let alone professionally.

Q. What kinds of things did you do in college to prepare you for your career?

A. Well, Syracuse has tremendous extracurricular opportunities for students, campus radio, campus television. I had the opportunity to interview coaches and players, put TV and radio programs together, actually do the play-by-play of Syracuse football and basketball, lacrosse games. The folks there are good at letting students do public address at the Carrier Dome and the field house for soccer and high school football playoffs so there were always opportunities. Secondly, the media in that market they have wonderful opportunities for internships for students, so there were so many opportunities as a student to get on the air and learn and make mistakes and develop a passion for it.

Q. How did you end up working here at ISP for Virginia Tech?

A. Well, A the job was open and I had been here, Syracuse had played Virginia Tech in football and so I’d been here and was aware of the campus and the community. Tech is a great opportunity to have radio and television operations because it’s a large state school and the majority of our fans aren’t here. Unlike Syracuse where the majority of fans are right there in Syracuse you need a network of stations in Richmond and D.C. and Norfolk and Bristol and Lynchburg and Roanoke and the Shenandoah Valley. It reminded me a lot of Penn State and I knew how much bigger Penn State was than Pitt. I was from Pittsburgh, and even though the University of Pittsburgh was in Pittsburgh Penn State was bigger and much more popular even though Penn State was three hours away and that’s the way Tech is now. Obviously we’re farther away from Norfolk than Old Dominion but we’re much more popular in Norfolk than ODU is and the reason is because of our alumni but also because of our media operations.

Q. What’s the best game you’ve ever covered?

A. Well, 1995 we had to beat Virginia to go to the Sugar Bowl. This was before the BCS, this was the Bowl Alliance and the Big East champion didn’t get an automatic bid. We had to win the game to get to the Sugar Bowl. We were in trouble, we were trailing going into the 4th quarter and we rallied to win so that would be up there. Obviously the Sugar Bowl in January of 2000 was a great game, the Florida State game even though we lost. 

Q. Who are your favorite broadcasters?

A. Well past was mostly sports types it was Jack Buck and Bob Costas and Vin Scully. Bob went to Syracuse and I know, Vin does the Dodgers and Jack Buck in the past did the Cardinals. Those would be the three. Today I enjoy more news guys, Al Michaels too, I think Al is really talented. Today I spend more time watching news than sports so my favorite broadcasters tend to be more the news side than the sports side.

Q. What other kinds of broadcasting work have you done?

A. During the off-season for Tech I’ve done usually a couple of events a year, I’ve done basically baseball for ESPN, did some basketball for CNNSI before it went out of business. ESPN has an international branch and they do some obscure things, the events are not shown in this country. I’ve done field hockey and kickboxing things like that. You don’t see it here you’ve got to go to India to get the ESPN Asia channels.

Q. Do you prefer to call basketball or football?

A. I really enjoy the atmosphere of Tech football games. We’re getting there in basketball now too which is really exciting. I enjoy football because of the atmosphere. Every play is important and with our program we could score at any point and so it’s a challenge you don’t want to be talking, I made that mistake the other day I had an injury update on Tim Sandidge and they were passing me a note that Tim was having his ankle taped and I was reading it and low and behold that’s when [Chris] Ellis sacked the Marshall quarterback and right in the middle of my sentence. So that’s a difference we’re always in scoring position and it doesn’t matter if the other team has the ball, if the other teams lining up to kick, if we have the ball, regardless we’re getting ready to score and that’s what’s really exciting about Tech football.

Q. What do you think is your most defining call of your career to this point? I know the UVA game is one that came to mind, the Antonio Banks interception return or the Druckenmiller to Holmes touchdown.

A. [Whistles] Oh boy. Druck to Holmes yep. That was a very big play. [Pauses] I don’t know I don’t think about that thing I really don’t. I think that the greatest days are yet to come to be honest. I’m waiting for that great moment to happen. But those two plays were very big in that game. Bryan Still’s punt return against Texas in that Sugar Bowl was big. A couple of  [Michael] Vick to [Andre’] Davis plays. Andre’s punt returns against West Virginia, Shayne Graham’s kick at West Virginia. Vick’s touchdown at Syracuse on an option play in 2000. There have been some great plays.

Q. How much time do you spend preparing for the Hokie Hotline and how do you deal with some of the callers who really don’t know what they’re talking about?

A. Well, we screen the calls that’s the amazing thing and the best get through and people still don’t think we screen the calls. We’ve won 14 regular season games in a row and so when you win Hokie Hotline is really good, it’s easy. When you lose it’s challenging. We lost that game to N.C. State last year and people were livid. I think most Tech fans are really well grounded and understand you don’t win every game, but, they look around and they maybe don’t see Michigan’s 3-3 and Oklahoma’s not even ranked and Penn State is back in the polls for the first time since ’98 and things like that and we’ve been there every year since ’95. We’ve had really good football teams and yet sometimes winning 95 percent isn’t enough for some people so they call you, but I understand that. The other thing that happens is sometimes people bet and we win but not by enough and people get mad about that. You can always sense when someone’s upset about the playcalling . You won a game by 28 points but the line was 30 and they’re calling upset about the playcalling because we ran the ball in the 4th quarter, so you can kind of sense what’s happening there.

Q. Do you enjoy writing the Kroger Roth Report? Is it a nice change of pace?

A. Yeah, I do! I enjoy writing. In fact when I was in high school I was an editor for our student newspaper. And so much of broadcasting is writing whether it’s the TV show or the games so I do enjoy it.

Q. Who was your favorite Virginia Tech athlete that you’ve covered?

A. Rayna DuBose. I think what she went through and her spirit is incredible. I couldn’t do what she’s done and she did it right away. To lose your limbs and lose a promising athletics career and yet act like nothing’s happened and still want to be a part of the team and still go out there and shoot free throws with a prosthetic arm before the games and not be embarrassed by it and want to fit in and have the attitude that she has I think it’s really remarkable. Everyone can learn from Rayna. She’s my favorite. 

Q. How have Tech athletics changed since you’ve been here?

A. Well, we went from having one of the smallest budgets in division 1 to now being a $40 million a year business. Maybe not as big as Ohio State but certainly comparable to ACC schools now. The league change, Virginia Tech getting into the ACC is akin to Hawaii becoming a state. There’s a difference between Hawaii and Puerto Rico. They’re both beautiful, they both have great beaches, but one’s a state and one’s not and we weren’t a player until we were in an all sports conference, and the best all sports conference for us was the ACC. I think that’s been the biggest thing.

Q. What’s the new press box like at Lane Stadium?

A. It’s not done! It’s dusty and there’s lots of wallboard and it’ll be very nice. The folks who designed it in Kansas City also designed Alltel stadium in Jacksonville and so we having played in several Gator Bowls have worked in that press box and that booth and so when they were designing it which was five years ago now I actually talked with the architect who actually was sitting at his computer designing our radio booth, and we talked about, we liked Jacksonville. But, they’ve also done Soldier Field in Chicago and Denver and they’ve done Reliant Stadium in Houston and Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, they’ve done most of the new Major League Baseball and NFL fields. He wanted specifically to know where we wanted patches to the locker room and how we wanted the windows to workand how we want our angles and sightlines and what should be on the wall. Should it be paint? Should it be acoustic tiles? Things like that. And so it was really neat to be involved with the design of it. Because it’s new it’ll be the best booth anywhere college or pro. Next year someone else will have a nicer one but it has all the latest state of the art things you could possibly want.

Q. Best press boxes and worst that you’ve been to?

A. Lane Stadium will be the best. The new ones, Boston College, Rutgers, the new stadiums have the nicer amenities. Instead of one elevator there’s five. Lane Stadium will have seven. The worst, [Pause] Duke. Duke there is no press box. They turn their sports medicine center into a press box on game days and so the radio TV booths are actually people’s offices and the press box where the media sits is a waiting room. Duke football does not have a press box.

Q. What are some of the more unusual travel experiences you’ve had over the years when working?

A. Well, hmm. So many. We’ve had our clothes lost, USAir lost our luggage once so they gave us $50 and we had to go out to an Old Navy to buy clothes, toothbrushes. When we played Oklahoma in football Mike Burnop and I got left behind. For some reason we rented a car. We had just started the talk show, the Point After, and the team left, we were still on the team plane, which was fine it usually takes them an hour to load the plane so we figured we’d make it. We got stuck in traffic and we pull up to the Oklahoma City Airport and we run in and we had gotten all our stuff and there’s the plane taking off. The plane had our radio gear and our luggage so we were stranded in Oklahoma City with nothing. We had already returned the rental car, we had no luggage, we had nothing but our credit cards. We got something to eat, found a hotel, we were stranded in Oklahoma. There have been several times we got aborted landings at the Roanoke Airport where the pilot overshoots and touches down and knows he can’t stop so we go back up again, that’s always fun. At least once a year you go to get on a plane and there’s ice in Roanoke or Blacksburg. Last year we were in New York City after playing St. John’s and we were driving to the LaGuardia Airport at 10:30 and they said Blacksburg was fogged in so the bus turned around and drove all the way from New York to Blacksburg. So you think you’re ready to get on a 45 minute flight and instead you’re on a 10-hour bus ride getting in at 7 in the morning after being up all night.

Q. Compared to the 1999 team, how do you compare this year’s Tech football team because I think there are some similarities but also some bigger differences.

A. I think we potentially can be better, but that team didn’t lose, and this team’s got six games to go maybe seven. I think we’re better at receiver, we have more depth. I think we’re probably better at linebacker. We’re not as good on the offensive line. I think we’re better at punter, it’s probably a wash at kicker right now between [Brandon] Pace and [Shayne] Graham. Defensive line it’s too early to tell. Corey Moore was an All-American and [John] Engleberger was a first round pick. Where Daryl Tapp and [Chris] Ellis and [Noland] Burchette fit in we’ll see. It’s kind of early to tell. And as for quarterback. Michael never lost a game he started here during the regular season. The only game he started and lost was the Florida State game and Marcus [Vick] hasn’t lost a game yet either. The numbers are really similar Michael didn’t throw as much, Marcus is probably a better passer as a collegian. But, this team’s going to play a much tougher schedule than the ’99 team. This team’s got to go to Maryland, it’s got to go to Virginia, Miami’s going to be a top 5 team, they’re going to have to play Florida State to get to the BCS so this team, their biggest hurdles were N.C. State and West Virginia thus far so, they haven’t seen the big mountains yet but we’ll see.