Oak Leaves, Spring 2012

Page 23

BEN LIVINGSTON ’08

ADAM LEFKOE ’04

Radio Station Sports Director

Sports Anchor

University of Pittsburgh

Louisville, KY

“If you’re not having fun how can you expect listeners to have fun?” asks Ben Livingston, a junior at the University of Pittsburgh and the sports director of its student radio station 92.1 WPTS. “The way to do it right,” he says, “is to enjoy yourself and be excited to go into work every day.”

When Adam Lefkoe traveled to games with the AFS Varsity basketball team, he would often joke around and “fake broadcast” the action. “You’re kind of good at that!” said his friends. Today, he’s even better. Adam is currently the sports anchor for WHAS TV in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as hosting his own radio show.

As well as working at the student station, Ben also produces radio shows at least twice a week at 93.7 The Fan, a CBS radio station in Pittsburgh. Add to that his double major in English writing and economics statistics, and Ben is a busy man. At the student station Ben is in charge of sports programming, covering all Pitt athletics. When he’s not assigning regular shows, he’s sending reporters on the road, coming up with games for the station and mentoring the station’s hosts. Over at 93.7 The Fan, Ben can be found on Thursday and Friday nights behind the glass running the control board, “making sure the commercials play so we don’t lose thousands of dollars,” advising hosts and handling technical issues as they arise. Ben is well aware of the stereotype of sports talk—the “Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame?” kind of chat—but he tries to find a way to spice the show up, he says, and do something people will enjoy by being unique and different. “It’s very much about making sure the host is ready for the show,” he says. “You don’t want to get them in a bad mood. If they’re touchy about a certain subject, you don’t want to push it. You just need to give them the tools they need to do well.” Being captain of the Varsity wrestling team at AFS helped prepare Ben for his current role, he says. “It’s very hard when you’re in charge of a student organization to motivate people, so I think being in a situation like that and being in a place that encourages you to let people do their own thing and helps them generate their own interests has really helped a lot.” One teacher in particular at AFS helped Ben pursue his interests, and that was Upper School English Teacher Kristine Long. “She noticed a passion I had but was shy about,” he says, “and she encouraged me to pursue it.” By his senior year, Ben was a fixture on Smith Field, calling out play by plays and keeping the crowd entertained at Varsity softball games. “Having someone reach out to me and really encourage me and make the dream happen was unbelievably big for me.”

“I anchor and go out in the field and do reports,” says Adam. “I’m working constantly, but it’s enjoyable for me because I love telling stories. I think that part is sometimes lost in sports journalism. I write everything myself and feel a lot of ownership.” Adam credits AFS, and Upper School English Teacher Don Kaplan in particular, with honing his ability to write. “It’s what’s most important in my profession, and at AFS I really learned how to write. That’s helped me a lot.” Coming to AFS in tenth grade, from public school, Adam was struck by the warmth of the community. Determined to be open to everything, Adam, who describes himself as “definitely a clown” in high school, also took pride in his work. He remembers Jordan Burkey’s physics class being the first place where he wasn’t afraid to say he was smart. In his senior year Adam played Varsity basketball alongside such notable alums as Jason Love, Andrew Jones and Aaron Cohen. Excited about the idea of a career in sports broadcasting, Adam applied to the Si Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. Though he didn’t make the cut initially, he did get into Syracuse, and after a hard-working freshman year was admitted to Newhouse. After a post college stint at a rural TV station in Hastings, Nebraska, Adam felt ready for anything. “When you work at a small station you do everything. I was lead reporter, lead fill-in anchor, sometimes even the news director.” After picking up several awards and putting together an impressive highlight reel, Adam got the job in Louisville, which he describes as an incredible sports town. “You’ve got the Kentucky Derby. It’s one of the birthplaces of boxing. And it’s a city that really cares about sports and about the people that cover sports.” That’s not to say he won’t try to come back to Philadelphia after his contract is up in a year and a half. “I’m definitely thinking that might be a possibility,” says the diehard Phillies and Eagles fan.

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Oak Leaves, Spring 2012 by Abington Friends School - Issuu