OUR PEOPLE
Sports Broadcasting Veteran Making Impact at Cronkite By Kaleb Martinez In 2009, Mark Reda and his son took a tour of the Cronkite School. A decade later, Reda is back as a lecturer at Cronkite, coordinating the production streams of almost 100 ASU athletic events for the Pac-12 Network. He leads a team of students who help produce the events, giving them valuable, hands-on experience while receiving class credit. Reda taught as a faculty associate before joining the faculty. He established an extracurricular club for Cronkite students who produced a show that aired on FOX Sports Arizona. At the time, he was a coordinating producer at the network. The show was called “Sun Devils 101.” Today, it is known as “Cronkite Sports Report.” Cronkite student C.J. Chayrez, who worked with Reda doing Pac-12 Network streams said Reda, “was always there to give me direction.” What he learned from Reda helped him land an internship with Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
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The Cronkite Journal
2018-2019
Reda has 35 years of experience in live sports broadcasting, including eight years working with iconic sports broadcaster Vin Scully of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He worked for FOX, CBS, Turner and ABC on events such as the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, British Open, and NBA and MLB post season. As a producer, he was in the broadcast booth for the 1998 inaugural season of Arizona Diamondbacks baseball, working for FOX Sports Arizona. His experience on both sides of the camera — as reporter, director and producer for several networks — give his teaching unusual depth, said Cronkite Associate Dean Mark Lodato. “He was the perfect person to go to when it was time to start this live streaming experience,” Lodato said. “Mark has a wonderful demeanor and personality that mesh well in a teaching environment.” Being part of sports journalism at
Cronkite is something that Reda said he “will look back on very fondly.” However, he is not done yet. “There are a lot of things in the next two to three years that are going to be happening here that will be very interesting,” he said.