Don Munson, Clemson Athletics director of broadcasting, has served as the Voice of the Clemson Tigers since 2004 when he started covering the baseball team. He later took the mic to provide radio and online commentary for Clemson’s football games in 2014. Basketball followed in 2018.
Munson shared with the Greenville Journal what a normal workday is like, how COVID-19 changed his job and what the greatest misconception is about being a sports broadcaster.
What is a normal workday like for you?
There’s not really a normal workday. Game day is very different than a non-game day. Pre-COVID-19, I’m in the office Monday-Friday [and] prep is different for each sport. Your day changes around it. During COVID-19, you can do more at home.
[To prep] I get game notes from the sports information office at Clemson and the opponent. I receive the notes 24 hours before a baseball game and on Mondays for football.My days change up during basketball and baseball season because they play more games a week.
On a football week, I’m in the office at 9:30 a.m. and I’m over at the press conferences and the team meetings on Mondays and Tuesdays. I also have Coach Swinney’s radio show on Monday nights.
On Wednesday, I do my spot boards, which have all the offense and defense on different boards.
On Thursday, I update all the stats on the spot boards and add any little tidbits with all the facts I want to mention in the game.
I also attend practices Monday through Thursday, but Thursday’s practice is my favorite because Clemson runs all 10 scripted plays twice, so you get an idea of what they can do against an opposing team.
On Friday, I finish any boards I need to and do a stadium walk-through. I also travel if it’s an away game.
On Saturday, I always show up five hours prior to kickoff so I can walk the field and get a sense of what the weather’s going to be like. At an away game, I eat with the team and see the coaches for the last time before the game. Every broadcaster has a different routine and that’s mine.
When you get into November, you have basketball and football crossing over and radio coaches shows to do. It may be more hectic to some people but it’s fun to me.
How has COVID-19 changed your job?
I do a lot more prep work at home. I’m still allowed to go to practices and occasionally to a team meeting. I get tested all the time, but I don’t like to be around the guys as much because I feel like I’m putting them at risk.
During this past season, I did road games from a studio. I was calling them off a monitor. Having to call a radio game from television is not the easiest thing because a picture tells a thousand words and in radio, you have to say a thousand words.
What is the biggest misconception about what you do?
Probably the time and effort that goes into it. I don’t think most people understand everything that goes into it.
Also, that you’re always over there rubbing elbows with the team. I’m fortunate that at Clemson the head coaches at every sport have given me an open-door policy. You earn their trust and respect their distance and what they do as a job. My job is to not question what they’re doing and just tell what I’m seeing. I just tell the play-by-play and hopefully, I do it well.
To listen to Don, tune into WCCP 105.5 FM in Clemson or WYRD 1330 AM in Greenville, or visit ClemsonTigers.com.
A Day in the Life is an occasional series profiling the people in our community doing the ordinary – and extraordinary – jobs that need doing. Whose life should we get to know next? Email suggestions to sherry@communityjournals.com.
