Aug. 15, 2007
By Adam Lucas
During Rick Steinbacher's last stint with the Tar Heel Sports Network, he had a foolproof way to prepare for every broadcast: he went to work.
Steinbacher last served as the color analyst on Carolina's radio broadcasts during the 2005 season. The job dovetailed nicely with his day job as the operations czar for the football program. In that capacity, he was involved in every aspect of the program, which served as the perfect platform for his Saturday duties as the color analyst. For every player, he had a ready anecdote. For every strategical decision, he had been privy to much of the gameplanning.
"The benefit of being in the office every day was that I had a lot of inside information that really benefited the broadcast," Steinbacher says.
The Greenville, S.C., native had honed his radio skills during a previous job with the network--serving as sideline reporter and color analyst--from 1994-99. He'd proven to be a natural, supplying just the right balance of wit and insight. His return to the booth in 2005, teaming with Jones Angell to form a three-man booth with Tar Heel institution Woody Durham (entering his 37th year as the program's radio voice), looked like a long-term solution to Carolina's football needs on the radio.
But less than a month before the 2006 season opener, Steinbacher was named the school's associate athletic director for marketing and promotions. It's a job with sweeping responsibility, especially on home football gamedays. Jumping from football operations to the marketing of the entire athletic department meant there would be a steep learning curve, so Steinbacher stepped out of the booth.
Now, he's ready to step back in. After a one-season hiatus, Steinbacher will rejoin Durham and Angell on the air this fall. The perpetually upbeat analyst is prepared to balance two difficult jobs.
"If I hadn't taken a year away from the radio last year, I'd be concerned about doing both," he says. "Now I know I'm ready to do it. Tar Heel Town, for example, is open three hours before kickoff. For the first two hours, I'll be there. Then I'll disappear into the radio booth for the third hour. It helps that I work with great people. Michael Beale, Bonnie Clarke, Greg Driscoll, and Brianna Santeramo will do a great job on gameday."
Casual fans sometimes believe being on the air is as simple as talking about the game like a fan in the stands. By virtue of his previous experience, Steinbacher already knows a trade secret familiar to radio pros: doing it well is challenging.
Preparation is as essential in the booth as it is on the sideline. Then there's the matter of booth chemistry, where everyone must know the right time and place to insert a preferably pithy comment that delivers some form of analysis. Thanks to Steinbacher's previous experience, the on-the-job training will be minimal. The timing should come back quickly--for example, he already knows the optimal time to provide analysis is between the moment Durham calls the tackler and the time the quarterback prepares to put his hands under center.
"How many three-man booths have you seen on television that haven't worked?" Durham says. "That's because they didn't have that intangible among them. It felt like they showed up for the production meeting that morning and that was the only time they talked to each other all week. The feel we have for each other personally allows us to do what we do, and Rick's knowledge of the game and of Carolina football will be a great fit."
Add sideline reporter Lee Pace, and the UNC gameday broadcast team has almost 60 years of radio experience. And while the return of Steinbacher will get most of the attention from fans, Durham highlights another aspect of the broadcasts.
"Jones has gotten awfully good," he says. "He's responsible for pregame, halftime, and postgame, and he brings us out of breaks. He sets the scene for us--he might have noticed something Rick or I missed. His improvement has really gotten my attention. He's done a very good job."
So it's simple, right? Steinbacher will just waltz up to the booth in time for kickoff and lean on a team of radio veterans to carry him through the broadcast.
Not quite. Without the day-to-day crutch of his football operations job, he expects to prepare even more intensely for the 2007 season than any of his previous radio duties.
"I know I'll have to do a lot more preparation," he says. "I'll read more articles. I'll listen to all the podcasts. Before, I've always had the coach's perspective on things. By studying more, I think I'm going to learn more about the players' perspective.
"The biggest thing in my job is knowing that you might be talking to a million listeners. A lot of them are die-hard football people who know everything about football. A lot of them may not know the difference between a linebacker and a fullback. My job is to bring something for both groups."
Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven will be released on September 1. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.
