By: Lathan “Laytin” Gil
November may bring chills, talks of Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the end of the fall semester, but it also brings the START of the basketball season on 107.7 The Bronc Retro!!!
With the fall season in full swing, and the events of the weather being unknown, the Rider Basketball on WRRC2 is always on the air, so Broncs everywhere can follow the games from wherever they are! This year we have three different styles of broadcasters at every game, the play-by-play announcer, color commentator and our new sideline reporter! The play-by-play announcer is exactly what it sounds like, they call all the action on the court, while the color commentary offers insight in between the action; adding their own spin and personality to the game! And let’s not forget our new sideline reporters, whose job is to interview coaches and players before, during and after the game!
This year’s broadcast teams are Josh Yuhas ‘27, CJ Jackson ‘28 and Kadie DiGiuseppe ’27 for Rider Men’s basketball and Nolan McCaffrey ‘28, Nephtaly Cardona ‘30 and Andrew Heckler ‘29 for the 2026-27 Rider Women’s basketball season!
A Lot of Work, Work, Work!
For a nonsports person like myself, my first question is, “How do you prepare for a live sports broadcast” And The Bronc Retro’s Rider men’s basketball play-by-play announcer, Joshua Yuhas ‘27 gives a great answer talking about work ethic and preparation. “I get a call sheet of every player, their hometowns, heights, weights, and high schools, and I find out any achievements they have and I use that while giving my commentary. I use all of that [information] in my broadcast so it can help me explain who they are for people who can’t see them.
For Josh it’s also about research, “I do that about a week before the game. I want to do as much research [as] I can. We don’t have to use everything but at least it’s there. I would rather have too much than too little. Then the day of, we get to the court about an hour and a half before the game starts, we set up the equipment, get connected to the station where we have an engineer, and we just speak. It’s quite easy.”
Back at our studios, the students running the board and engineering the game have just as important of a job. For students like Guy Varela ‘27 you have to remain just as focused as the broadcasters. “It’s essentially like running a student show. Except you just have to communicate with the broadcasters about when they want to go to underwriting announcements and you have to turn on their mics, but it’s very simple.”
The Pre-Show
Right before each and every men’s and women’s home basketball game at Canastra-Hammer Gym, we have a pregame show we like to call The Hype led by Jon Coiro ‘29, and co-hosted by Joe Tattoli ‘27 and Ayden Valdivieso ‘30. I’ll let Jon explain what The Hype is all about, “These shows run for about 40 minutes, and start an hour before tipoff. The purpose of this show [The Hype] is to talk about the past game, preview the upcoming matchup, and interview a bunch of different guests, ranging from our very own radio broadcasters, the TV broadcasters from ESPN+, and even a prerecorded conversation with the head coach of both teams; Kevin Baggett for [the] men’s [team] and Jackie Hartzell for [the] women.”
Listen To Us On The Sidelines
Did you know, 107.7 The Bronc is the first college radio station to implement sideline reporting into its basketball broadcasts. You would think there is a lot of stress and pressure that goes into broadcasting from the sidelines, no? But 107.7 The Bronc Retro sideline reporter Kadie Digiueseppe ‘27 actually says, ‘No’,. “The only real prep I do is focusing on storylines. A big one now is not rebounding the ball well last week, so when I spoke to the coach and some players on the team, I asked them what they did in practices to improve it. I don’t need to memorize rosters like the others [broadcasters] do, but I do focus on the story being told.”
Sideline reporting is all about feeding off the game and the other broadcasters, reporting on what’s happening on the court, and also speaking to the coaches and some of the players before, during or after the game. “Being on the court can give me a view of the game that the broadcasters can’t see from their point of view. After a [commercial] break they may throw it to me to give my thoughts from the angle I saw it [happen]. We are able to do a lot with multiple sets of eyes.”
Unpredictability is a feature of reporting live. And it is also a component of our basketball broadcasts. But Kadie says the stress of the unknown of what is happening on the court lessens with every game, “It comes with practice. Anything we do at 107.7 The Bronc comes with unpredictability. Things break every time and we have to think on our toes. But with practice in these uncomfortable situations you become a pro.”
Having To Use Your Personal Skills.
As with any live broadcast, anything can go wrong at any time. As a performer myself, we are always taught “Something will go wrong at every performance.” So what if that happens live on air during a live basketball broadcast on 107.7 The Bronc Retro? Well according to Josh Yuhas our team is too caught up in the action to even think about it, “When some of the games get [really] tight at the end, so many thoughts go through our heads about what will happen. It gets intense. But we move fast with it. Our processing speed is fast, but we are still coherent.”
Broadcasting sports on The Bronc Retro takes a lot of time from our broadcasters personal lives as well, including broadcasting from and driving to many of Rider’s road games. “It takes a bit of a toll in terms of the increased driving I would be doing to Rider University over winter break, since the bulk of games are during that time. On top of that, adapting to online coach interviews from home instead of the studio has been a tad different. And even if I stayed on campus all break and didn’t have to travel, the prep work is definitely a lot different.” Jon explained.
Listen This Season!
Broadcasting Rider men’s and women’s is certainly fun, but as we learned is a lot of work, however one thing that’s consistent with our broadcast team is that they will be live at every Rider men’s and women’s home basketball game and select road games throughout the season! Listen to all episodes of The Hype and every game this season broadcasted on 107.7 The Bronc Retro WRRC2 online at 1077TheBronc.com and our Apple, Google Play, Audacy and Alexa apps and skills by clicking here. To learn more about this season’s broadcast teams and this year’s basketball schedule go here!