Nowadays, Fox broadcaster Kevin Burkhardt is widely regarded as one of the most respected voices in the industry. He holds a number of incredibly important hats at the company. But Burkhardt wasn’t always sure that his broadcasting career would work out the way it has.
Burkhardt, who is both the play-by-play commentator for Fox’s top NFL team and the host of the network’s top MLB studio show, appeared on the most recent edition of the Calm Down podcast with Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson.
During the podcast, Burkhardt outlined his path to this point in his broadcasting career, which included working as a used-car salesman before he made it big.
“I just hit a wall and was like, why can’t I get a break? I don’t understand what’s going on,” said Burkhardt of the early portions of his broadcasting career. “So I literally just went through the Sunday classifieds back when the newspaper was still being delivered. And I found a car dealership. I said, you know what, I’ll do that. I had no idea how to sell cars or any of that stuff. I just went in, and the guy said, ‘Okay, sure, you’re hired.’
“I kind of went in and said that I think I’m a sportscaster. We just started talking… I got some opportunities to fill in occasionally at WCBS in New York. And he heard me one night driving home from the dealership and said, ‘Man, you’re really good. You let me know when you get freelance opportunities. Just keep it between me and you.’ He turned into a real friend. This guy by the name of Mike Trevino, who still owns a couple of the dealerships. It became a real relationship, and when I got gigs, he just let me go.”
Burkhardt said he loves telling this story to send a message to the younger generation of broadcasters, letting them know that achieving their dreams is still possible even if they don’t get big opportunities out of college.
“I enjoy talking about it because I enjoy telling young people. I was in the middle of it, trying to figure it out, too. You don’t have to get it right out of college and go to the top thing. Your path can be kind of weird. It was a good learning experience. No doubt, I actually took a lot from it. It was cool.”
[ Calm Down with Erin and Charissa ]
The post Kevin Burkhardt details going from used car salesman to top broadcaster appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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