San Jose State’s new football play-by-play announcer not at a loss for words
Originally published by the San Jose Mercury News Aug. 23, 2011.
By Daniel Bohm
On trips to his local coffee shop, Michael Spero stays away from anything caffeinated. He knows the rate at which words pour from his mouth is already extreme.
As a kid, “I got called disruptive because I talked so much,” Spero said.
But now, still a relative kid at 23, he is turning his gift for gab into a profession, taking over as the radio play-by-play announcer for San Jose State football. Spero will be one of the youngest professional broadcasters in the nation.
Spero’s hiring is more than just a transition from 11 years of play-by-play calls by Mike Chisholm, who accepted a promotion to become San Jose State’s assistant athletic director for development. It signifies a change in what athletic departments may look for from their broadcasters. Spero will be expected to be a jack-of-all-trades for San Jose State — someone who can call games and also engage the Spartans fan base through social media.
“A big selling point for him was that he can use digital media to communicate with fans and alumni,” said Steve Borland, the general manager of Spartan Sports Properties. “He can take something he makes and show it to the world in more than just a radio form.”
Spero was selected from a nationwide pool of some 85 candidates to join color man Kevin Richardson on KLIV 1590’s broadcasts. At San Jose State, Spero will help produce audio and video features for the school’s website and also produce and engineer pregame, halftime and postgame shows as well as coach Mike MacIntyre’s weekly radio show.
“We saw what his potential could be,” SJSU athletic director Tom Bowen said.
Despite all his responsibilities, the job is not full time and Spero, a Kansas native, is living at his grandma’s house in Cupertino. He doesn’t mind, though, because he doesn’t look at sports broadcasting as work. It is something he has wanted to do since he was little.
“I was the kid who when I played Madden football I’d mute the TV so I could broadcast the video,” Spero said.
Spero was never a serious athlete himself. He ran track in high school but said that his basketball shot is embarrassingly bad and he was always too scared to play football — but broadcasting was the next best way to be around it.
After graduating from high school in suburban Kansas City, Spero attended the University of Kansas, where he worked his way up the ranks of the student radio station. He eventually became a lead broadcaster for the men’s basketball team, and his work was featured on ESPN.
“He spends a lot of time paying attention to the craft — I don’t know if I’ve seen anyone better prepared than him,” said Tom Johnson, general manager of KU’s student station, KJHK, for the past five years.
After graduating with a business degree, Spero came west to be the voice of Santa Clara’s women’s basketball team and also worked as a baseball broadcaster at Stanford.
Now at San Jose State, Spero feels at home. Despite being from the Midwest, he has a lot of family here, grew up going to Spartans football games, and three of his cousins graduated from SJSU. His “Uncle Nick” (actually cousin-in-law Nick Lampros) is a sports attorney in Los Gatos who represents a number of broadcasters and is among Spero’s mentors.
“He knows he has to paint a picture for the listeners so they can say, ‘I saw it on the radio,’ ” Lampros said.
MacIntyre has gotten to know Spero during spring practice, and the Spartans head coach likes what he sees.
“I’m excited about Michael,” MacIntyre said. “He’s gung-ho and passionate about it — this is his gig.”
Spero said that Spartans fans should expect a lot of energy but nothing flashy. His main goal: making the action incredibly clear to the listener.
And while he wouldn’t consider himself a homer, clearly that loquacious enthusiasm that sometimes landed him in trouble as a kid will come through in his calls.
“You will know it’s a San Jose State broadcast,” he said, “especially when we’re in the end zone.”
SEPT. 3 OPENER
San Jose State at Stanford, 2 p.m. CSNBA