Posted by Missed Story on February 01, 2009 at 09:45:58:
Found this on 77 Square:
Behind the Mike: Meet the new Jay, same as the old Jay
Mike Lucas October 15, 2008
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After a 16-month hiatus from local television, Jay Wilson had no qualms about getting back up on the bicycle again. Especially since he had spent 27 years as a sports anchor before his self-imposed interlude. And particularly because he had worked 120 events over the past year for the Big Ten Network and "When We Were Young" productions.
Presentation wasn't an issue. But preparation was for Wilson, the former WKOW-TV/Ch. 27 sports director and anchor, who returned to the airwaves Oct. 6 in the same capacities for WISC-TV/Ch. 3. As he learned the hard way, it's one thing to ride the bike and another thing to fill a backpack with the necessities for the nightly 6 and 10 journey.
"Being on the air again wasn't difficult at all and no different than it has been for 20-some years," Wilson confirmed. "But I had forgotten a lot in the last year about all the little things that you need to do -- like editing videotape and writing scripts and coordinating who needs to know what as far as producers and directors.
"That first day, I kept looking up at the clock and I swore they were playing a trick on me because it was moving too fast and I was running out of time. By the second day, I felt very comfortable with being back on the air with a microphone on my tie."
He's baaaaaaack. And the Madison audience is richer for it.
"Brett Favre referred to it as itch. I never had the itch," Wilson said upon replacing George Johnson, who left WISC after an off-camera incident resulting from a traffic stop. "If I would have never done this (anchoring) again, I could have been perfectly happy doing something else.
"My wife, Jill, kidded me all the time. She thought I'd see this great white light come out of the clouds and that's how I would determine my next career stop. Well, I never saw the white light but when this opportunity presented itself, the timing was right, the situation was right.
"It's funny," Wilson continued, "because I've had talks with Tom Bier (WISC station manager) on and off for the last 15 years. It was almost a running joke. Every time my contract was up (at WKOW), we'd talk and we'd get close and we'd do this dance and it would never happen."
Now that Wilson and WISC are finally dance partners, will the viewing audience be treated to the same Jay Wilson that has become a staple in the community? "I'm different from the standpoint that I got to take a step back for a year and really figure it out, 'Is this really what I want to do?'" he posed rhetorically.
"But I think you're going to see the same Jay Wilson because I like being a television sports director. Maybe I just needed to do something different somewhere else. Maybe I just needed a different situation after all those years (at WKOW). But I realized that I still liking doing this job."
Has his perspective changed regarding a sportscast's content? "To some extent, but it still means an awful lot for people in small communities to know that the guys on the TV stations in Madison know that they're out there," Wilson said. "People in Dodgeville, McFarland and Jefferson still like seeing their names and faces on television."
His prep commitment hasn't changed. "My history has been covering high schools as much as I could," Wilson said, "and that's certainly something we want to continue and even expand on. But, to be honest, the first couple of weeks here I've been just trying to find out what door goes where in the (WISC) building. Once we settle in, we can start doing what we want to do."
What he really wants to do his stay relevant as a sports anchor. No small feat. "It's a difficult challenge to make the 6 and 10 news something that people really want to clear their schedules for and watch," Wilson said. "We want to make them regular viewers. But people are taking their kids all over the place at 6. At 10, a lot of people don't stay awake until the end of the newscast."
Given the competition -- the Internet, and all the available cable options -- how do you survive? "By giving people three minutes of all the information that you can pack in, and a little bit of entertainment," said Wilson. He added, "You don't have to be a clown who jumps in Jell-O, or ESPN" to be successful.
One of Wilson's conditions in taking the WISC position was having the freedom and flexibility to continue doing his assignments for the Big Ten Network. Wilson has been grateful for WISC's support in this area. Friday, for instance, he will be on the air for reports from the UW men's basketball event at the Kohl Center, otherwise known as the "Night of the Grateful Red."
In addition, he will be the TV play-by-play voice for many of the Badger games that will appear on BTN. And the cross-promotion will obviously pay some dividends for WISC. In sum, the 50-year-old Wilson has been re-energized with some of the new doors that have opened up.
"That's a huge reason why I ended up here (WISC)," he noted. "Television in general is making a huge transition from analog to digital in February of 2009, and digital opens up a whole new set of possibilities. Especially with Internet delivery of sporting events and information."
To this end, Wilson and his color analyst, Scott Nelson, a former Badger safety, have been doing Friday night high school football games, which have been streaming live on Channel 3000, the WISC Web site. One of their recent matchups involved McFarland and Lakeside Lutheran. And they heard from Leah Hefte, a former McFarland and UW women's basketball player, who watched the game from Shanghai, China, where she's a school teacher.
"We've also heard from people on the East Coast, Florida and California," Wilson said. "That just shows you the potential of the technology. I can't tell you where it's going to all end up. But I'm sure interested in seeing where it goes (with WISC) and what my place in that could be."