Toby Nelson does double duty broadcasting tournament games

Observer photo/Bill Pearson     DOUBLE DUTY — Radio and television play-by-play man Toby Nelson, right, alongside his broadcast partner, former Waterville High School boys basketball coach Ken Lindlof, were the announcers for MPBN’s broadcast of the 2013 Class C  Boys State Championship game between Penquis and Boothbay Region last month. Nelson has done “double duty” working for both WZON radio and MPBN television during the basketball tournament since 2007.

Foxcroft Academy alumnus works as play-by-play announcer for MPBN-TV and Zone radio

By Bill Pearson
Staff Writer

    BANGOR — Toby Nelson’s career as a television basketball broadcaster began with an offer right out of the blue. The eager play-by-play man was in the right place at the right time as Maine Public Broadcasting Network was about to televise an Eastern Maine regional championship game and had no one available to provide commentary.
    In 2007, Nelson was covering the Eastern Maine tournament for WZON radio in Bangor. He had just completed broadcasting a game and was located near MPBN’s courtside table when he heard Executive Producer Ed Fowle explain to an associate about the predicament he was in.

    “The next game was about to start and MPBN didn’t have an announcer. I was nearby and heard the conversation. I introduced myself and explained who I was and I got the job.”
    Nelson’s fill-in performance was good enough for him to be asked to broadcast a state final a week later. He’s been pulling double duty at the Eastern Maine basketball tournament since 2007, broadcasting games on the radio for his full-time employer, WZON-AM in Bangor, where he’s the station’s sports director. He also broadcasts games for his seasonal employer — that’s tournament season — for MPBN.
    Nelson has been busy during the third week of February since that time broadcasting both on the radio and television during the tournament. On the tournament’s  first Saturday, he attends all seven games either doing radio play-by-play or doing half-time interviews during the Class B quarterfinals.
    His television schedule doesn’t begin until Wednesday when he alternates the play-by-play duties with veteran broadcaster Brent Stephens. Nelson teams with former Waterville boys’ coach Ken Lindlof whose team won the 1985 Class A boys championship and former Mount Desert Island basketball player Lisa Richards who was standout performer for the Trojans in the early 1980s.
    “The tournament is a lot of work, but it’s also a lot fun,” Nelson said. “You see a lot of great people. This is a part of the state that still cares about high school sports. So broadcasting the games and sharing the young athletes’ experiences is a wonderful experience to share with them.”
    Nelson believes what made Tournament 2013 special was the same thing that makes each tournament special in that it is a time for the state’s high school basketball players to show their talents in front of a statewide audience.
    “We don’t see a lot of the Aroostook and Washington county teams during the season so it’s exciting to see them play the teams in the greater Bangor area,” Nelson said. “This year’s tournament probably stands out among the previous ones because it was the last one played in the Bangor Auditorium. And the last game played between Penquis and Boothbay was certainly a great way to end it.”
    Nelson is WZON’s sports director. He started with the station after WZON purchased WDME in Dover-Foxcroft in 2001. Nelson had worked for the local radio station since he was a sophomore at Foxcroft Academy. He approached Fred Hirsch, who owned WDME, about a job operating the station’s broadcast console.
    Hirsch hired him and told him he could watch the broadcast team setup for a tournament softball game that was to be aired the next day. But Nelson encountered more than he expected in his first broadcasting experience.
    “I was supposed to ride along with crew, but I got a call that morning with Fred asking if I wanted to do the game by myself,” Nelson said.
    After high school, Nelson pursued a degree in broadcast communications at the New England School of Communications located on the Husson University campus. During that time, he learned about the broadcast medium for his professional career. He also had the opportunity to cover Husson basketball and baseball games on the campus radio station.
    “I learned quickly it was a job.” Nelson said. “In the sense the play-by-play work in college was all  extra work. It didn’t count toward my course work, but it was excellent preparation for my career.”
    Besides working for WZON, he is also an instructor at NESCOM teaching courses in play-by-play broadcasting and sports information. He has hired two of his former pupils to broadcast athletic events for WZON.
    Nelson’s broadcaster partner at WZON is Wes Hart who was his student at NESCOM. Hart has learned a lot from Nelson both in the broadcast booth and in the classroom.
    “He is great to work with,” Hart said. “In the classroom, he taught me the X’s and O’s  of play-by-by,” Hart said. “And  working with someone who knows so much about the local teams it has helped me to learn how important it’s to have a good relationship with them. The better the relationship can result in getting more information about the players than their points-per-game average.”
    As WZON’s sports director, Nelson sees the station continuing to broadcast local high school games as well as the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics for the next three seasons. The station abandoned its all-sports-talk format a year ago in favor of an all-talk format featuring the nation’s most popular progressive radio talk shows on 620 AM. On 103.1 FM, which was the former WDME, a new adult contemporary music format replaced the progressive radio talk format in January.
    Prior to Zone Radio purchasing WDME, Nelson broadcasted high school contests in the Penquis region from 1997-2001. He estimates in his time there he was part of over 1,000 sports broadcasts for WDME.    “I still have people tell me how much they miss hearing those games and I tell them ‘so do I.’ It was a wonderful experience,” Nelson said. “We covered a lot of great games and teams over the years. I don’t think I really deserved to broadcast so many great times.”
    As a boy, Nelson began his love of sports as a player. He ran cross country and track in high school. He also played two years of baseball and basketball. Now as an adult, he continues his passion for the games he loved as youth, by broadcasting those contests over the local airwaves.