One could argue that television should be left to beautiful people, while radio is filled with – well, whatever you think of either media, I’m sure of one thing: The University of Oregon is represented beyond the normal realm of collegiate athletics.
Oregon graduate Joe Giansante and Jerry Allen have worked their way to the top of the Eugene media – Giansante by sight and Allen by sound.
Giansante has gone from stomping around as the Duck mascot to manning the Oregon Sports Network, guiding football and basketball broadcasts as well as three coaches’ shows – bigger and better than any other university in the nation.
“We do more TV than any other college in the country,” Giansante said. “We have more shows for Oregon sports than any other university in the nation. We are very proud of that. I think it is fun to be able to have a position where you are able to do that, because in a lot of places you aren’t.”
Allen has perhaps the most renowned sports call in the northwest.
“Kenny Wheaton’s gonna score … Kenny Wheaton’s gonna score,” Allen exclaimed during Oregon football’s most famous play – a 1994 Kenny Wheaton interception to seal a Duck victory over rival Washington, which was ranked in the top 10.
Both Giansante and Allen play an intricate but different role in broadcasting Oregon football and men’s basketball games and both have played their part in broadening the knowledge of Oregon athletics nationwide (and it doesn’t have anything to do with the Ducks’ uniforms).
Fighting the misperception
One of the biggest misperceptions that Giansante struggles with is that he can’t separate his current job from his former job.
Giansante spent two years as the Duck mascot nearly two decades ago; however, that doesn’t change many viewers’ ideas that he is continuously biased toward Oregon.
“I think the biggest misperception about me is that I’m just a duck, and that no matter what I’m all-Duck,” said Giansante, who is in his sixth year with OSN. “I actually spend more time studying the other team than I do studying Oregon. And I don’t emotionally get attached, feel differently over a win or a loss.”
That time is approximately 70 hours per week during football season and 50-55during basketball and Giansante believes it pays off.
“It is a function of how much time and effort and money somebody is willing to put into it,” Giansante said. “If you have a company that is willing to spend the time, the money and the effort, then it will look good. That’s one thing I am very pleased about is that our company has allowed us to have the resources to be able to do high-level programming.”
Giansante produces and hosts seven separate shows, including coaches’ shows for football and men’s and women’s basketball, as well as several other special topic shows relating to other Oregon sports. The coaches shows run each week during their season, while there is a separate football and basketball show that relate to the season.
“We work hard at our jobs, but I don’t view it as work,” Giansante said. “I view it as a chance to practice your passion, which is what is great about it. When I get up and go, I don’t feel like I’m going to work.”
And the best part of going to work is calling the game play-by-play, Giansante said.
“Of all the things, that is what you do this job for,” he added. “It’s like taking a test, really, I mean how prepared are you when you sit down and take that test?”
Just a fan
Oregon’s football games at Stanford and Arizona meant Duck fans unable to travel south had a chance to let their imagination combine with Allen’s description to picture the games live. For fans wanting instant play-by-play of those two games, they had to tune into Allen’s call since both games weren’t on television.
Allen has what he calls the privilege of broadcasting for over 30 years, which began in an odd way.
“It was sort of a fluke because I really hadn’t intended on getting into broadcasting,” Allen said. “I was working in a soda shop across the street from a music shop and one of their (disc jockeys) came in one day and I was going through some music and he said, ‘Hey, do you think you’d ever like to be on the radio?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to be a DJ. Who wouldn’t?!’”
The then-junior at Grants Pass High School took the invitation to be the radio station’s “gopher” and said he “just got hooked.” His senior year he was able to get on the air part time and the first month out of high school he was hired as a full-time employee.
“I didn’t go to school for it, I didn’t study for it, I just fell into it,” Allen said.
After working his way through several stations, Allen got the call in 1987 to work for the Ducks. He continues to work at KUGN 590 as the Oregon play-by-play broadcaster for both men’s basketball and football. He also anchors news talk weekday mornings.
“I was hired by the University of Oregon, so I am a staff member there,” Allen said. “When I was hired (Bill Burn) told me, ‘Don’t be afraid to be a fan. You work for the University of Oregon, 95 percent of the people who will be listening to the games are Duck fans, they don’t mind if you are positive about the Ducks.’ At the same time, I was aware that people early on would call me a homer because I sounded so positive for the Ducks.”
That fine line is something that Allen hasn’t worried about in a long time: See the call of the Wheaton play from over 11 years ago.
Known nationally for that call, Allen remembers that as the shining moment in his broadcasting career. It was a time that he went from announcer to fan and it didn’t end up sounding bad.
“It was so automatic,” Allen said of the call. “When that play began I was a professional announcer doing my job. By the time (Wheaton) is a third of the way down the field the professionalism sort of got lost and I became a fan. I got caught up in the moment.
“I get a lot of credit for a great play, when it was really Kenny Wheaton who made the great play. I was just saying what I was seeing.”
Flying away
Both Allen and Giansante agree that the extensive travel schedule is the toughest factor to deal with. Every home and away game for both broadcasters is another event they have to be at, whether it is in the friendly confines of Autzen Stadium or a basketball road trip to Tennessee.
“The traveling is really tough,” Allen said. “It’s fun, there is an element of fun to it. You get to be with the team, in a small way you get to be a part of their family. But you also miss your family too.
“I’ve missed a lot of birthday parties, a lot of sporting events, a lot of school plays, and stuff like that. And that was hard.”
While Allen’s children are grown up, Giansante has two young daughters that are dealing with the process.
“Being away from my family and traveling is definitely the hardest part of the job,” Giansante said.
Kickoff or tipoff?
And what sport is the best to broadcast?
“There is nothing better than the spectacle of a Saturday,” Giansante said referring to football. “Basketball I enjoy so much because there are fewer players … you get to know them a little bit more on a personal basis, you become a little more connected to their successes and failures because you know them so well – you travel with them on the road, there is only 15 of them instead of 105. I think you get connected a little bit more with basketball and live and die with their success more than you do with football.”
Allen agrees that both sports bring a different excitement and energy.
“Each has its season,” Allen said. “What I mean by that is when football starts, I am so anxious for football I just cannot wait for it to get going. Then, by the end of the season, traveling and working, you start to get a little tired – the season seems long. Then it’s like, football has been fun, but it’s nice for a change so you are anxious for basketball.
”
By the end of basketball season, it has been a long season and the traveling gets to you … you are starting to look for basketball to be over, then you can’t wait for football to start the next year. It comes in cycles, you can’t wait for it to get going, but then when it gets to the end of it you are ready for something else to come along.”
The new cycle is in overdrive as basketball season is beginning and football is winding down. Now it is time for Giansante and Allen to put away the football slogans and dust off the basketball jargon, which shouldn’t be a problem since both are just moving along in the next phase of their dream.
