For students studying Radio/TV Sports Broadcasting in the Spring, 2009 semester, they're enjoying guest speakers who form a who's who among Boston's biggest media stars.
On March 3rd, former WBZ-TV 4 sports anchor Bob Lobel visited with the students, sharing stories and advice from a career that dates back more than three decades.
Lobel said he never had sports broadcasting on his career list. "I received a Master's in Education, and I was going to become a guidance counselor," he said. But the broadcasting bug hit while working for a small radio station in Manchester, New Hampshire.
He even toyed with the idea of selling cars for a living. In fact, he was ready to accept a full-time job at a car dealership when an opportunity came to interview for a weekend job at powerhouse radio station WBZ in Boston.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Within a few years he was promoted to WBZ-TV as weekend sports anchor and then went on to weeknights to form the legendary newsteam that dominated Boston TV news for two decades.
Asked how he became so successful in such a competitive business, Lobel said keep it simple. "You have to BE the audience," he remarked. "You've got to know what your audience wants."
He also learned that he couldn't pretend to be anyone else but himself on the air, even if he knew not everyone would like his personality. "If you can just figure out how to be yourself," he told the budding broadcasters, "you'll have it made."
As for breaking into the business, Lobel said the old rules still apply. "You just have to get your foot in the door. It doesn't have to be the sportscaster job right away. Just get in the door."
And, if he had to do it all over again, would he still do sports?
"If I had to do it all over again, weather would be it," he said. "I love weather!"
If Lobel wasn't enough, Dan Shaughnessy, the legendary sportswriter for "The Boston Globe" visited the same class in early February.
Shaughnessy explained to students that the changing face of media has altered the way the newspaper covers stories. He said there is much more interactivity with readers today than in the past, with readers now able to comment immediately on his columns.
In a recent column, Shaughnessy explained, he criticized New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for appearing in a photograph being fed by his super-model girlfriend. His column talked of the implications of Brady going "soft."
"We had more than 900 replies to that column," Shaughnessy told the students. "And many of them were not kind to me." But, he added, having a thick skin is part of the business and he has no problem with anyone criticizing his columns.
Students also had an opportunity to ask him his opinions about a wide range of journalism topics, including the future of the paper. Shaughnessy said it was doubtful that a print edition would still be published in ten years; he felt the newspaper would become a strict online entity.
When Shaughnessy is not working for the Globe, he is a regular contributor on local and national radio and television reports, further showing how reporters today must integrate themselves in all media.
Radio/TV Sports Broadcasting is taught by long-time WBZ-TV news and sports anchor Scott Wahle.
Curry's broadcasting program is one of the oldest in the country, dating back to 1932.