Interview with Josh Bullock, ISP Sports Everyone at Virginia Tech knows how wild and exciting games at Lane Stadium can be. And arguably the most anticipated part of the entire game is waiting for the Hokies to run through that tunnel with Enter Sandman blaring throughout the stadium. Hokie fans have all experienced the pandemonium in the stands, but do you ever wonder what it’s like down in that tunnel? Josh Bullock, associate general manager for the Virginia Tech ISP Sports Network, has access to that tunnel before games to bring sponsors and clients in to thank them and show them up close what their money is supporting. This is the type of thing that helps form a bond between an advertiser and their sponsors. Bullock made the move to the Virginia Tech ISP Sports Network in the winter of 2004, leaving his position as an account executive for Clear Channel Communications in Cincinnati. Clear Channel is where he gained all of the advertising sales experience that he brought to ISP. Prior to his job at Clear Channel Communications, Bullock worked full time as a recruiting assistant for the University of Kentucky football program. He also graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in sports management. Bullock was kind enough to share his experiences coming up as a young media professional in the hectic field of advertising and sports marketing. Q: How did you become involved with the University of Kentucky football program? Bullock: It was actually luck. I needed to do an internship to graduate for sports management, so I called up the associate athletic director for football and asked if he was looking for any intern type help and that I would be willing to do anything to help them out and help myself get an idea of how the football program was run. Luckily he said they needed someone, so I did an internship for a summer before I graduated. After my internship I volunteered for free just to keep involved. I worked hard and did anything and everything they asked me and it eventually led to a full time job as an assistant recruiting coordinator with the football program. Q: What types of things were you responsible for in recruiting these potential future University of Kentucky football players? Bullock: The coaching staff was always extremely busy, so I was responsible for planning recruiting trips. I also interacted with the student athletes, their families, coaches, anybody that was involved with that student athlete. I talked to them on the phone, wrote them letters, and mailed them information. It was basically my first real sales job; I was selling the University of Kentucky to all the student athletes. It was really gratifying to see someone who you recruited commit to the university and watch them go through four years of college from start to finish. Q: What led you to Clear Channel Communications in Cincinnati? Bullock: After almost four years with the Kentucky football program I realized at that point in my life I needed some other experiences because I had risen pretty much as high as I could go. I obviously wasn’t going to be a coach so I realized I needed to get out into the business world and get some real sales experience. Q: What did your position as an account executive at Clear Channel entail? Bullock: I started basically at the ground sales position at Clear Channel. Clear Channel had four AM stations and four FM stations in Cincinnati and I was selling on the FM side. I wanted to try and get to the AM side because that had sports programming, but there weren’t any jobs available there. I sold for two FM radio stations, just regular advertising, 30 and 60 second spots, live mentions, and event sponsorship sales. It was basically trial by fire, I had to learn on my feet how to sell, how to deal with people, how to deal with advertising agencies, local businesses, as well as large national companies. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but it was the best experience I could have because if I wasn’t selling something I wasn’t getting paid. Q: How did you decide you were ready to make a change and leave Clear Channel Communications? Bullock: Working a straight commission job for three and a half years where your income fluctuates on a monthly basis I was at the point where I have to get something with a base salary. I figured I had gotten the sales experience I wanted so I decided to get back into sports. I wanted to go directly from Kentucky and stay in the sports field but I couldn’t exactly find the right sports related job right away. So I decided to take the Clear Channel job knowing that when I get the sales experience I need I wanted to get back into sports. Q: How did the opportunity at the Virginia Tech ISP Sports Network present itself? Bullock: While at Clear Channel I got to know the senior vice president of corporate sales and marketing for the Cincinnati Bengals. So I thought here’s an opportunity where maybe I could jump from Clear Channel radio to the Bengals to sell sponsorships with them. He didn’t happen to have any job openings, but he knew one of the senior vice presidents of ISP Sports. The senior VP with the Bengals recommended me to the senior VP with ISP Sports and told them if they had any openings that they should interview me. He forwarded them my resume and I actually got an interview with ISP Sports in the winter of 2004 while they were in Cincinnati for the Conference USA basketball tournament. The interview went pretty well and I found out there was a job opening in Blacksburg as an Associate General Manager. A week later I went through an additional telephone interview and was then invited down to Blacksburg the ensuing week to tour the facility. So I went down to Blacksburg and visited the facility and met the Virginia Tech ISP Sports team. I realized this was a pretty good opportunity for me with Virginia Tech having such a huge fan base, as well as getting ready to make the move into the ACC. So in about six to eight weeks I went from deciding to look for a new job to accepting a job as the Associate General Manager with the Virginia Tech ISP Sports Network. Q: How does your role as an associate general manager with ISP differ from your previous role as an account executive with Clear Channel? Bullock: Well, in this role with ISP I have a little bit more management responsibilities. Advertising sales is still a majority of my responsibility, but I now have to assist the general manager with various things, whether it’s helping him with budgeting items or sales that are not related to advertising. I’m more involved with actually running the property and making sure its running properly, where at Clear Channel my only job was sales. Q: What is the most enjoyable part of your job with ISP Sports? Bullock: Probably the most enjoyable part of my job is the access that I have to the teams at Virginia Tech, especially during the games. We’ll often bring clients down on the football field or basketball court during games, which gives them a new and exciting perspective. So, having that rare, intimate access is what’s fun and rewarding for me. Q: Do you get to travel with the teams to away games? Bullock: This is another great perk that we get. When the football team travels away, ISP gets four seats on the charter, whether it’s on the bus or on the plane. What we’ll try to do is take some of our top clients with us to let them see behind the scenes and see how the team travels and how they prepare for an away game. We bring them into the locker rooms before games and during halftime so they have access that not many people have. This is what we pass on to our biggest sponsors to say thanks for your business. Q: What was it like traveling back with the team from the Boston College game after such a devastating loss? Bullock: After a loss like this it is virtually silent on the way back to Blacksburg. Once the games over the guys do their interviews, shower, turn in their travel bags, grab some food and then jump on the bus to the airport. So, after there’s a win there is a lot of celebration and everyone’s happy and having a good time, but after a devastating loss like this the mood is pretty depressing. Q: Does a loss like this ever strain your relationship with sponsors, more specifically the sponsors making the trip with you? Bullock: Well, what we have to get across to our sponsors is that no matter what our record is, where going to sell that stadium out, fans are still going to love us, still going to love the Hokies and still be engaged in everything that we do. Obviously its better when we win, it’s more exciting and an easier sale, but we are always talking the passion that our fans have. So, we always have to be reminding people that when the chips are down we’ll be fine. At the end of the day what matters to our sponsors is that our fans will always be there. Q: Do you see yourself staying with Virginia Tech ISP Sports in the long run? Bullock: If an opportunity to advance with ISP were to come, it would probably mean moving to another property as a general manager. I have accepted the fact that part of being in this business is you need to be somewhat flexible until you get to a spot where you want to stay for a long time. I’m not high enough up to where I am going to be at a job for say 10 years, but I am working to get to that point. Q: Could you become a general manager here at Virginia Tech? Bullock: Well, my general manager now at Virginia Tech is fairly new just like me, so I don’t foresee him leaving, allowing me to run the property. Q: What suggestions do you have for a student that may be potentially interested in a job with ISP Sports down the line? Bullock: There are really two ways to go about getting experience that would relate to what we do at ISP Sports. The first would obviously be an internship with us at ISP, which if you can get would be very beneficial. The second way would be getting experience with an athletic department. The more well rounded you are with your experience, the more marketable you are to a potential employer.
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