Aaron Marks doesn’t fully consider himself a reporter. He does local play-by-play, as well as pre-game shows for Virginia Tech, and local high school sports. To him this is not reporting, but to many sports fans, this is the most important type of reporting. If it weren’t for him, they would not be able to follow their favorite local teams when they are unable to actually attend. Marks may not realize how important his job is, and what his job means to people.

Q: What is your current job?
A: I am a sports broadcaster and sports talk show host for ESPN Radio in Blacksburg. I broadcast high school football and basketball. I also host weekly shows on high school football and a Virginia Tech football pre-game and post-game show.

Q: How did you get this job?
A: Through hard work in school, preparing the right way by being involved in the sales side of media, and I also like to think I’m a little lucky for having found this job. I e-mailed their sports director last March when ESPN Radio came to town asking if I could simply help out as an intern, but when I told them I had sales experience they asked me to come on and work for them.

Q: Is there room for promotion in the job?
A: There is room for the promotion but I will probably have to move to another market to achieve it. Our network is growing and there are more jobs becoming available at stations in our other markets (including Charlottesville, Norfolk, etc.). In six to eight months I will have the opportunity if I want to move into a sports director or general manger role at one of these stations.

Q: Is this what you always wanted to do?
A: That’s an interesting question. I am on the path to doing what I have always wanted to do and I am in probably one of the best situations I could possibly be in. I want to be a fulltime sports broadcast and/or sports talk show host. To get there, for now, I am broadcasting but also involved in the sales side of the job. Sales isn’t my favorite thing to do, but I understand it’s very important to know how to do that in this field. It will always increase my salary if I’m part of the sales team on top of the broadcast. So yes, I have always wanted to be a broadcaster and I’m starting to live that dream.

Q: What is your dream job?
A: I want to move up in my next job working for a college a professional organization as their broadcaster, but for now I know that’s pretty impossible so like I said, I’m happy with it.

Q: Do you consider yourself a reporter?
A: Yes I guess I do, but not as you would typically see a reporter. When someone says reporter I think of someone who writes for a newspaper, goes out and gathers the facts, and writes a story. I kind of do the same in that I must go out and gather the facts by reading history and holding interviews. Then I tell a story in the form of a play-by-play broadcast. If I didn’t have the skills of a reporter my broadcast would be pretty dull, so I have to be a good reporter to be a good broadcaster.

Q: Your job is in radio, but you have done work with VTTV and the CT. Why do you stay involved in different medias?
A: I just happen to be fortunate to have landed a job in radio, but that doesn’t mean I will close off other mediums. I want to continue to work on my skills as a writer and in television. I hope in the near future to be able to use those skills as well. Radio is a great time and I hope I stay involved with it for a long time but that doesn’t mean down the road I can’t be involved in a T.V. show on the side or write a sports column for a newspaper. That’s actually where I really want to end up. I really look up to guys like Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon. These are guys getting the job done in newspaper, television, and radio and they make a lot of money doing it!

Q: Do you feel it is important to have experience in all forms of media?
A: Extremely important…especially today. A good example comes the other day, a gentleman came to me about working for his website. Working for his website will involve writing news articles, broadcasting play-by-play on internet radio, and working on a television show that is tied in to promote the website. He came to me because he knows I have the ability to work in all of those fields and I could be an asset to his company. Many companies are doing this now. Websites are no longer just websites. They are radio stations, television stations, and they are putting out newspapers.

Q: What is your advice to people trying to get into journalism, in any form?
A: Get involved with everything. It’s important to know how media is related, but it’s even more important to figure out what you want to spend eight or more hours a day doing for the rest of your life! Also, it is really important to understand the business side of media and how sales works. You don’t even necessarily have to be a sales person, but know what is involved and how everything works.