Ep#65 High Speed Motorsports Broadcaster & IndyCar Radio Ryan Myrehn

Host: Jon

Okay, here we go. Focus. Speed. I am speed. One broadcaster, no others. I eat broadcasters for breakfast, breakfast. Maybe I should have had breakfast. Breakfast could be good for me. No, no, no. Stay focused speed faster and fast, quicker than quick. I am

Host: Jon

From Indy car to F1. If you're looking for a broadcaster who knows his way around the track, including an AWS deep racer track. My next guess is used to being on the radio and in the spotlight, bringing you the latest news and updates and stats. Now, before I bring on Ryan Marine broadcaster, open wheel racing, AWS deep racer, don't forget to hit that light subscribe and notify. Please join me in welcoming Ryan Marine to the show. Ryan, thanks so much for joining me.

Guest: Ryan

Hey John, great to be back with you,

Host: Jon

Ryan. I feel like we're old friends like buddies. We just actually had a chance to meet each other again. Since what, 2019 at the AWS, uh, San Francisco summit.

Guest: Ryan

Yeah, that's right. It was good to catch up with some old friends. Certainly you among them. They're in San Francisco. Great to be back doing the AWS deep racer thing in person once again. And it's been a little while, certainly since, uh, 2019 at reinvent, I think was the last time everyone was all together.

Host: Jon

Yeah. So speaking of deep race or 2019, you and I were actually on the floor together. You were come, wait, wait, wait, what is your official title? I mean, what do you call somebody in your status doing the like commentator? I think NFL commentator, but you're really more than that.

Guest: Ryan

I don't know the answer to that question. I've been trying to figure that out. I wear so many hats. I've got so many different employers that do so many different things. I'm not quite sure I talk a lot. That's the one thing I am positive about. So I don't know something like a host or an MC or a commentator, whatever you wanna call me. I'll answer to just about anything.

Host: Jon

I, I imagine you wearing the deep race or jumpsuit, right? Mm-hmm <affirmative> with a Velcro name patch or a title patch. Take it. I'll put it on today. I'm this, uh, today I'm <laugh>,

Guest: Ryan

I'll tell you there have been sometimes doing some of the motor sports work that I do where I've been at a racetrack working for two or three different people. And I have to look down at what shirt am I wearing? What logos on my shirt to remind me what job I'm doing in that moment. It's an occupational hazard.

Host: Jon

Ah, that's awesome to give everybody a little bit of backstory reinvent. 2019 was the deep racer. What was actually the last in person summit before 2021, Ryan was there. I'm gonna stay commentating, uh, with another colleague for the deep racer events. I was actually a track boss and timekeeper doing those Ryan. And I really didn't officially get a chance to, like we knew each other sort of somewhat. We had to share some pitchers, but then 2020, when I was hoping, hosting deep underground here in my basement, I believe Ryan, you commentated on a couple of those.

Guest: Ryan

I did. I did because everything went virtual, all of a sudden that we were trying to find new ways of doing things. And your deep ER, underground was kind of a, an interesting hybrid between virtual and in person. You had the physical cargo around and uh, people could submit there, their models virtually. So yeah, we got plugged in doing some of that stuff. And like you said, we go back to 2019 and reinvent. But, uh, it was really interesting that that 2020 at just everybody in every industry, I was a part of basically had to reinvent themselves in one way or another. And I have to say that, that your, that, that deep race or underground was a really clever way of, of handling the situation. It was a ton of fun to be a part of. I think we shared the mic on a couple of the calls for the, uh, the virtual finals that we were doing for deep racer that year. And it was a bit surreal to be doing so much work from my house or from your basement, I guess you probably know the feeling, but, uh, it was fun. It was great to be back at it, although there's no, no way to replicate the, the feeling of being at a summit in person. So that's why it was so much fun to see so many people in San Francisco, a few weeks back.

Host: Jon

So a colleague of mine, David Smith, we came up with an idea of doing this and hosting it. I reached out to an old partner of ours PTP technologies and say, Hey, would you send us your tile track? I wanna set it in my basement. And one thing after another, uh, the track got better. The improvements got better. The surrounding got better. The streaming got better. And then Ryan, I got a chance to step into your shoes and be the actual commentator. And I, you know what, I had a learning curve because I, I, and I'm sure you know, this, you tend to talk a lot, fill those gaps and you keep going, keep going. And you don't realize that you should just pause a little bit and let the other person talk.

Guest: Ryan

Well, there is something to that. And, and even sometimes the pause, it don't let anybody talk, just let the moment speak for itself. Right. And, and that is the, the curve. I think, you know, you, you're always reading the, the, the comments, even if you probably shouldn't and you know, you inevitably, you talk too much for one viewer and you talk too little for another, right. And, and you just gotta kind of find that yourself, but you know, it is definitely part of the development curve and, and you got thrown into it. You didn't get to, to work out the kinks kind of in a small environment. I mean, you had a pretty decent audience right. From the get go. And so you were learning in front of a lot of people, which is not the easiest thing to do.

Host: Jon

I was learning trial by fire. Yep. And Ryan, I don't, I don't consider myself anywhere near your performance and your statue. I, to be honest with you, you have a great, uh, I don't know, a cadence would whoever you're on and it's just quickly back and forth. You done, you've done a couple wood Blains under, and it was just, I loved it going back and forth. And we hosted the knockout rounds. In fact, right here from my basement where I am sitting, I was live streaming it, pulling all the streams and coordinating it with you guys that were doing all the commentating and moving things around. It was a constant live production, but it worked out great.

Guest: Ryan

It's one of those things. There's so many moving parts and pieces, and so much goes into it even before the cameras come on. Right. And the logistics of a live show. And so many times you'll go into one of these things and you'll wonder, do we have all of our ducks in a row? Is everything lined up the way it's supposed to? But it seems like somehow some way you always end up pulling it off in the end, I'm sure at some point that's gonna backfire on me. And I shouldn't have said that we're gonna go down spectacularly in a big ball of fire or something like that. But it, it seems like some way somehow the, the people who do this, they, they find a way to make it happen behind the scenes. And then, you know, for those of us who are, who are out there talking, we just try and keep plowing on. And if there's problems, I know that our group is working to get 'em fixed and, you know, hopefully we can, we can just get through it and, and make it as fun of a show as possible.

Host: Jon

Okay. Right. I wanna talk about your back story. Where are you located? I think this plays a key role into some of the things you're doing. And then I wanna talk about all the races that you are, and I wanna use the word commentating on, but I I'm, I'm just gonna have to use that as generic that you're actually there live. So where are you located?

Guest: Ryan

Indianapolis is home. Yes.

Host: Jon

Okay. How did you get involved in all this and all these races? And I, I wanna hear some of them, cuz I think there's more than we can count on the hands on all the places that you're commentating or groups you're working with.

Guest: Ryan

Boy, it does seem that way sometimes. So yeah. Indianapolis is, uh, one of the major hubs for motor sports globally, certainly in the United States, but I think globally too. And it's one thing I, I lived overseas when I was young. And one thing we learned really quickly is you say Indianapolis, even in Japan, where we were living and more often than not the person you're talking to, if they know nothing else about the state of Indiana or Indianapolis, the city, they will say, oh, the Indianapolis 500. Well, you know that that's a big part of the, the culture of this town and it's actually fitting, we're speaking now here at the beginning of the month of may, which is traditionally, uh, the, the month in which the Indian 500 happens it's Memorial day weekend pretty much every year since 1911, except for 2020 when it had to run in August.

Guest: Ryan

But this is race month and this is something that everybody, it seems like in the motor sports world around the world knows and people, even outside of racing, they know that. So, uh, I was exposed to racing very early. My dad was a, a big fan and I remember some of my earliest memories are of watching races with him as a young child. And, uh, as I grew older and started to think about broadcasting as a profession, I pretty quickly narrowed down the niche that I wanted to be involved in to something involving racing. So it didn't necessarily have to be one series or another, as we've learned, it doesn't even have to be real race cars, even little, one 18 scale, autonomous cars counts. And I've had a blast chasing this dream over the last decade or so, as far as my employers, I mean, well, AWS we'll start there because that's how we came together.

Guest: Ryan

And it's a funny story. I was working at a sports car event. So another one of my employers, SRO America, uh, I was, uh, the pit reporter for their TV broadcast at the time. And one of the dignitaries who was at the track to give the command, to start engines, the traditional drivers start your engines right, was CJ Moses of Amazon web services. And so we got to talking a little bit and he must have remembered me because a few months later I get a Facebook message outta the blue from someone whose name I do not recognize. And normally I wouldn't even look at this, but for some reason on that day I did. And it was CJ, basically trying to gauge my interest as they were starting to unveil deep racer in 2018 at potentially being involved. So that's kind of how that started, but, uh, briefly other employers I've been doing the, the us broadcast reform of the E this year I work for in the IndyCar radio network. So I'll be working the, in Indianapolis 500 at the end of the month. And, and I was just down in Alabama at, uh, the most recent indie car race. And I think that's mostly it I've done some work for this group called the, in the autonomous challenge, which are full size autonomous cars, uh, going around real race tracks. That's been kind of fun in the last year or so too. And then just a bunch of odds and ends where I can, uh, throw it into the mix.

Host: Jon

You're gonna be at the Indy 500, 500 right at the end of the month. Okay. What AWS events I'm curious are, will you be at, because it's nice to see you're a staple at these along with Blaine, you know, finding you at the track and Blaine at the track, kind of bring it all together in the excitement.

Guest: Ryan

It's really nice to hear. And it's been very gratifying to hear that from so many people involved because this is quite frankly not my subject matter of expertise. I'm not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination. So to be welcomed as much as I have been by the AWS community and the deep RER community at large has been really, really nice. So, uh, events I'm going to, I know I'll be in Atlanta. I know I will be in Chicago, New York, uh, boy, there's a handful more, uh, this year that I'm planning on going to, and some of the other ones escape me off the top of my head, but at least those three, for sure. Uh, Chicago, if I didn't say that I will be in Chicago. Um, yeah, I should have, uh, done my research before we started,

Host: Jon

But that's all right. I'll put you on the spot. Oh, the you, this is why it's not recorded like, uh, planned ahead of time. Right?

Guest: Ryan

<laugh> exactly. I remembered a few more. I'll be at re Mars in Las Vegas and then a reinvent of course at the end of the year.

Host: Jon

Okay. So I was planning or hoping to be at the Atlanta one change of plans. I'll be in Miami, sorry, sorry. I hope to be in the Chicago. I'll definitely be in New York, uh, re Mars and reinvent. So we will see a lot of each other this year. Hope you don't mind.

Guest: Ryan

I like the sound of that.

Host: Jon

<laugh> uh, speaking of that, I actually have to share something and you and I were talking at the San Francisco summit. I was actually tapped by AWS to go to Berlin. It didn't work Al and the reason is because I guess of all my deep race or underground, deep racer stuff and live streaming. And I, the, my question is how much of an imposter syndrome do you get when people ask you to do these things? And you're like, wait, I have no expertise. I mean, why are you asking me? How do you feel being? And they're like, yo, you're the subject. I want you to commentate on this race.

Guest: Ryan

It was very intimidating initially, especially if you go back to reinvent in 2018, when everything was new and when they hired me and I agreed, everything was still not public knowledge. And I had to sign an NDA and everything because they weren't ready to put this out in public. It was going to be unveiled there at every event. And so even, even with the NDA sign, they really didn't share a whole lot of information with me. I basically showed up knowing there are going to be miniature autonomous cars that somehow drive themselves around the track. And I need to talk about them. That was about all that I do. And I was really concerned that I would be exposed as a fraud or not someone who doesn't know enough about the subject matter to, to do the job. And, um, luckily I had a bunch of really good people helping me out with that.

Guest: Ryan

Uh, uh, Alex Bush and Sally Ravel, who were in charge of deep racer at the time, they were really great helping me get up to speed. Uh, Blaine was a great resource really early on and he's become a great friend. Uh, Joe Fontain, who's now running deep racer. I think he would've been involved at that time, but there were a lot of people that were able to explain things to me at like a fifth grader level, so that a simple motor sports broadcaster could be able to perceive what we were doing there. And then my job was just to try and turn this into something that was entertaining. And thankfully people seemed to have responded nicely to it. It's been a really fun process to the point where I feel like I understand enough of it now, where I'm not going to be exposed, but at no point would I ever suggest anybody come to me for suggestions on how to train your model, that would be best left to somebody else.

Host: Jon

Oh, I better check that off. One of my questions for you. I'm sorry. We can't get to that. <laugh> that's all right. It sounds like you put a lot of preparation into your announcement or the plan, which I like, because I do that myself. What does your traditional going into any type of event look like? Do you do some what I'm imagining I'm a huge NFL fan and I've only seen a couple of motor races, but I, I imagine somebody going through and reviewing all the players that are there, who's it gonna be on the track? Where are they at? What position? Yeah. What are they doing? Maybe some enhancements. They made planning into it. So it's not just walking in that day and be like, okay, I'm gonna commentate. You know, what's your planning look like?

Guest: Ryan

Well, the goal is to make it sound like I've just walked in and I know everything off the top of my head and I'm not ready to get off of notes, but to pull the curtain back a little bit, that's absolutely not how it works. And by and large, there are some people with an incredible memory and they don't need to have things written down, but they are few and far between, uh, for me, there's a lot of prep that goes into, especially on the motor sports side, on, on the TV and radio broadcast that I do, that I, that it needs to happen in the build up to erase deep racer. There's a little less of that, to be honest, because especially if I'm showing up at a summit, you don't know who's going to be there. Now when we get to reinvent and you have a list of finalists, there are some results that I can compile.

Guest: Ryan

So I have some talking points about the individuals there, but if we're talking about, uh, the motor sports aspect, I mean, I'm spending dozens of hours, if not more than that, every ahead of every race, updating notes. So I have some historical information, all right, this driver performs at this level at this track. Um, uh, I have probably an 800 page word document in nine point font just of hundreds, if not thousands of racing drivers and their background. Yeah. And I, this is what I work on in the off season, actually. So the idea is if somebody shows up in a series, I cover in the middle of the year and I'm in the, my busiest time and I have no time to go back and, and put all their information together. I at least will have something on somebody ready to go. So I can just plug it into my notes and I can show up and have two or three talking points about, just about any racing driver in the world at this point, that's kind of the, that's kind of the goal.

Guest: Ryan

Right? Um, and, and there's just a ton of that that goes in, uh, part of the note taking process. It's not necessarily, so I can even look at it. It's, it's the process of putting the notes together that gets the information lodged in the brain. Uh, but, but the most helpful thing about it is honestly the stress level goes down going into a broadcast because I know if I need something, I have it, and I know where to find it. And it's not gonna take me a long time to get there. And, and I think that is really the key thing. And any major broadcaster, whether it's football or soccer or basketball or racing, anyone that you like, I guarantee this is the same process that they're going through. The idea again, is to make it sound as seamless as possible. But I promise there's a great deal of effort that goes in before you ever show up.

Host: Jon

Do you have other people helping you? And the reason I'm asking is because Ryan, I know during the knockout rounds I was there, or I was in your background and your ear feeding, you were typing you information and sending you through the stream. You're like, oh, we found out this let's drop you to this. Do you actually have some help in most cases? Or is it just you gathering all this live? You're like, okay, I gotta quickly grab this.

Guest: Ryan

Um, it varies. It depends. I, some of the broadcasts I work on are bigger productions. There's a bigger staff that can help with things like that. And others, I really am on my own, certainly in, in the build up to it. I like to prepare my notes myself. For the reason I talked about earlier, there are ways you can kind of outsource some of the, the information entering the, the data entry part of it. But for me, that's a big part of the, of the process to get the information into my head, uh, typing it in is really valuable to me. So I'm not super keen on doing that when I'm live with an event, you know, sometimes yeah. You'll, you'll get a producer talking to you, but on the radio side, for instance, I mean, we pretty much self produce ourself. Um, there, there's not a whole lot of input that we get when I'm in the booth for TV of, of sports car racing for SRO America.

Guest: Ryan

Our biggest asset is our pit reporter. She'll go around if she hears us. I wonder if what we're seeing, if we're seeing this Lamborghini slowing down, is it because of the contact we saw earlier? Do they have some damage? Well, she'll hear us say this. She'll head down to their pits. She can ask, and either she'll give that information on air or she can just shoot us a text and we can work it into the broadcast pretty quickly. So there is an element of that where people can help us live. Quite frankly, the, the most help I get is probably during the deep broadcast and that's where I need it the most. So it's a good thing.

Host: Jon

So Ryan, with, uh, events opening back up and being in person are, I, I'm assuming you're attending a lot more, but are you still doing some virtually from home?

Guest: Ryan

Yes, it's, it is interesting. The, the world has changed and I think eyes have been opened to how much can be done with a fairly inexpensive home setup and good internet. That really is the key to everything in this day and age. And I was really lucky. One of, um, one of the people who handles production for the TV broadcast that I worked on, this was back in 2019. He said to me, invest in fiber internet, get a good home internet connection. That's the way this is heading. And this was pre COVID, right? So, I mean, he was spot on and I'm glad I followed his advice. I did exactly that. And so when it came time to do these deep breaker things virtually, I was pretty much ready to go. Similar story. I was talking about doing the us formerly E broadcast, uh, the, the electric single seater world championship, and same thing.

Guest: Ryan

They came to me pretty last minute, but I knew I had the connection that I needed and I had a decent set up at home. They sent me some equipment. And, uh, so I I've been doing that remotely, although I've actually had to do that on the road a couple of times this year, because I was already committed to some other events and their events take place other places in the world. So as long as I don't mind not sleeping and staying up all night, there's ways of making that happen. And, uh, I've been able to do that a few times and we'll have to a few more before the year is up. So it is a healthy mix, I think, more and more, even in your traditional sports, uh, the, the broadcast are going to be done remotely more often just to save money quite honestly, which is a shame in a lot of respects when it comes down to actually calling the event, the race or the game, or what have you, it doesn't make a huge difference. If you're doing TV, you're calling it off a monitor. Anyway, they really don't like it. When you talk about something they're not showing on the screen, that's a great way to get your producer angry at you, but where it hurts is the ability to create relationships with people. And the time spent going around talking to the athletes that you're covering, getting their stories. Uh that's where you miss out on not being on site.

Host: Jon

Yeah. In person. I definitely you can't, uh, you know, supplement the in person right. At all versus the virtual, because you're only commentating on what you can see, but you find out so much more information. We were just at the San Francisco summit. And I can tell you in just the two days alone, the energy and the excitement and the buzz that was going around of all the in person and all the interactions that happened, I must have generated and created like 10 to 20 pieces of content and podcast recording and everything from that event alone that I would've never gotten into two days by itself here, just online dropping people messages.

Guest: Ryan

Right? Exactly. There's no, there's no replacement for it. Like you said. And you know, my favorite thing at those summits, many times, I sometimes you do see people you've encountered before people who've competed before, but a lot of times there are new people coming through and the conversations you have with these people have given me talking points for years to come. I, there, there are a few examples of people I met at summits in 2019, and I'm still telling those stories on the broadcast. And I never would've gotten them if I wasn't there on site.

Host: Jon

Yeah. Oh, speaking of telling stories on the broadcast, I, I gotta go back to San Francisco. You were featured on Swami's keynote. Correct. I saw you on screen. You come on.

Guest: Ryan

That's what they tell me. I, I didn't see it. I wasn't at the keynote, but yeah, I had a couple people mention that that was really neat. Actually. I think it's a video that we used, uh, before reinvent last year that we updated with a little bit of, of new audio for, for 2022. Um, but it was neat to, to get to work with the folks at ink Watts narratives. They do a lot of the deep breaker TV. If you guys have watched that they're the production company that's behind that. And they do a really good job. Um, their, their staff is really quite remarkable. And so, uh, last fall, they rented out, um, worldwide technologies Raceway, formerly gateway, motor sports park, near St. Louis. And we did a whole day of filming for this, you know, couple minute long video. It's amazing how many hours go into just a few minutes? I know, you know, this well, John, but, um, anyway, it was really neat to be there on the track and they got some really neat shots. They had a drone and everything and, and put together this cool informational video, which I guess they could still use here, you know, for, for the 20, 22 season. And, uh, it seems to have been well received. And I think there's something about having the deep racer stuff, but at an actual race track that, that brings some of this stuff together.

Host: Jon

I liked it. I liked the introduction of the open day, did the graphics, but I'd like seeing you at the track rather than, you know, kind of just sitting behind your desk doing a quick recording. I think it made it a little more, um, you know, visual for everybody that, you know, they want to get involved in deep racer here, you're at a track. You, it was like home for you, you're in your natural element.

Guest: Ryan

I had only been there, I think two weeks before for the indie car race that was there. So yeah, it did. And actually fun facts for a little while. At least I, um, on that, that track is mostly known for its oval, but there is an infield road course as well. And I raced there in 2012. And for a little while I held the Mazda Miata track record at that track. It's since been beaten, but for a little bit <laugh>, that was my claim to fame.

Host: Jon

Anybody taking notes on this when they want to interview Ryan, you know, as a commentator that he held, you know, just write it down now because that's a good talking point later.

Guest: Ryan

Absolutely. No question about it.

Host: Jon

So Ryan, I'm located in Pennsylvania, you know, the Pocono 500 Coca-Cola 500 area. Have you been there?

Guest: Ryan

I had to try. That's exactly right. I've been to Pocono. I went to the NASCAR race, one of the two NASCAR races they have, and maybe they're down to one now, but for a while there were two a year. Yeah. And I went to one in 2007 and then I covered the indie car races there in, I wanna say would've been 18 and 19, so I've been on a handful of occasions. It's a neat place.

Host: Jon

Okay. Fun fact. I actually drove a race car there. Really? Yes, you can. You can get a real race car experience. Yeah. Uh, so there there's no, uh, odometer on it. You can only tell by the actual RPMs and where youre at, and then you go back to the chart and you see where you're at. I think it was about up to a hundred sixty five hundred seventy miles per hour. And let me tell you what, we had 16 laps, they messed up. Somehow we were supposed to get a, they gave us only seven. So they took us back out. They gave us extra lap. It was, it was actually really cool to race these around. You had nobody in the car with you, you were allowed to pass. If you got the flag to pass mm-hmm <affirmative> and when these cars stick to the track, they stick to the track. Like there's no way about, they want to turn that way. They are going that way. And if you've ever known, like, you know, obviously a tricky triangle, they have the tunnel. Yep. And there is a little bump there. Let me tell you what I wish they didn't have it, but you can feel it. You can feel it, go down through that. Just a fun fact. I actually got the race one. It was pretty cool.

Guest: Ryan

How do we not talk about this before?

Host: Jon

Uh I'm well, you know what? I kind of, I can't give you everything about me. I gotta beats you a little bit. This is, it was probably fun. The coolest experience. This was way back. I'm gonna say this was early 2000. Maybe I don't somewhere right around there. I was in my early twenties. <laugh>

Guest: Ryan

Okay. It's eyeopening though. Isn't it? What the speed feels like and, uh, you know, hundred 60, 1 65, that's hauling the mail, but that's a far cry from what the pros are doing. I mean, I think the, the cup guys will top out close to 200 around that place on the front straightaway there. So yeah, it, it gives you some perspective of just how, uh, how talented the, the professionals are.

Host: Jon

Oh yeah. It was, it was definitely a surreal experience. Folks, if you're not following Ryan yet go to Twitter, follow Ryan, Ryan, what's your Twitter handle?

Guest: Ryan

It's my name. So good luck spelling it. But, uh, Ryan is the first name. The last name is pronounced Marine. It's spelled M Y R E H N. Uh, thanks to relatives from Finland for that one ancestors from Finland. Um, then anyway, good luck with that. But yeah, Twitter, Instagram, you can find me on both and try to do my best to update folks on, uh, my travels around the country and around the world, chasing race cars, both big and small,

Host: Jon

Right? And before we wrap things up, say, I want to get started what you're doing. How do I get into this? Because really do I just start like doing a little podcast at home and commentating live on the monitor? How can I get to where you're at?

Guest: Ryan

It's a good question. And it's one that I really enjoy answering. Actually, one of my favorite things is to have aspiring broadcasters reach out and I can provide some hopefully, uh, interesting and, and helpful advice. It kind of depends on what, what age you are. So if you are in high school or in college, my suggestion would be, be, get involved if you can, in student media. So so many high schools, these days will have a student radio station or television station or newspaper get involved in all of them. Being a good writer will help you on air and vice versa do as much as you can. And, and even if sports is where you wanna go, don't just do sports cover news. That helps you be more well rounded. You know, if you're working at the radio station, help out the productions team, help out the music, staff, picking out the new music, just understand how the industry works and get as many reps as you can.

Guest: Ryan

It's just like trying to become the best fuel goal kicker. You can be. You can read about it, you can read what the technique should be, but you can't get better unless you're actually doing it. And I think broadcasting or sports writing, um, they're both kind of the same in that regard. And so if you're a little bit older and you're not in school, there still are avenues. And I think right now, it's never been easier to break in because of podcasting because of YouTube because of internet streaming, go out, find a local high school game. If you wanna do a basketball game, right? Just go sit in the corner of a gym with a recorder and record yourself, calling a game and then go listen back to it. It doesn't even have to go out to anybody, but you're getting the practice. And then crucially, you have a tape.

Guest: Ryan

That number one, you can listen back to and give yourself an honest critique of how you can improve. And then number two, if it is good, now you've got something you can send to a potential employer. And actually that was a really crucial step for me. I was working in sports radio, but not motor sports specifically. And I got that advice from Kevin Lee, who is, uh, a broadcaster covers, uh, primarily indie car racing, some sports car racing on TV for NBC. And I reached out to him, Hey, what can I do? And his, that was his suggestion. So I did, I got myself credentialed to a couple races. I went and stood in the, in the stands and recorded myself calling races. I went down to the pits and recorded myself, calling pit stops, and it never went anywhere, but I had something so that when I wanted to get a tryout with indie car radio, I could send them, Hey, this is what it would sound like if you gave me a shot and apparently it was enough.

Guest: Ryan

And they did so that those are the things I would suggest. Just find ways to get involved, get practice, do a podcast. It doesn't matter if you only have three listeners and two of them are your parents. You're, you're still getting your practice and you're getting better. You know, same thing, go find a game to, to call, go write a blog. I mean, there's so many ways that, that you can get the, the experience and in this day and age, if you do a good job, people will find you. And there are people who have transition from doing something like that into a big time media role, because people have found their content and, and it's good. So those are my suggestions. Um, again, I, you can find me on Twitter and, and Instagram at Ryan Marine. You can send me an email, ryan@ryanmarine.com. If this is something you're interested in doing, please let me know. I'll do my best to help. Anyway, I can,

Host: Jon

Speaking of help. Anyway, Kim Ryan, I'm thinking one time, I gotta come down to the track with you and, you know, yeah. Walk the pits with you, put you on the spot. I'd love to chance to see you in action and just follow you and take some notes because sure, a as you realize, I didn't start out doing this. In fact, I'm a, so was a solutions architect and the whole pandemic kind of changed things. Or I started creating content left and right. And I've really transitioned. I just started putting stuff out there or whatever it was. And I just kind of transitioned from that. I'd love to follow you on the track and take some notes.

Guest: Ryan

Well, I will be in upstate New York. It's probably in my closest trip to you. Uh, I think that, yeah, I have to look at the calendar, but I'll be at Watkins Glen, a fantastic track in upstate New York a little bit later this year. And I'd love to host you. If you wanna come out to the track and show you around. And if not, there we'll find another time. All it's, it's certainly something I would love to do.

Host: Jon

Let's connect offline. Find out when that is. Maybe we'll do a improv recording, nothing really planned. I I'll, I'll do a quick one with you and on the track. And maybe I'll give it a chance to give it a whirl and commentate. I know no racers, but I enjoy it. So this will be like you walking into the deep racer thing. Yeah. And with like two sentences and I'll be walking in with one I'm at such and such Speedway with Ryan Marine. <laugh>

Guest: Ryan

Hey, it'll get you in the door. That's that?

Host: Jon

That work. All right, everybody. You know what? This has been an excellent podcast and recording. I I'm glad Ryan, that I got a chance to sit down with you and talk anything and everything from commentating, how you got involved into it to deep racer folks, Ryan Marine. Thank you so much for joining me, man.

Guest: Ryan

John, anytime. Thank you.

Host: Jon

All right. This has been a pleasure. Thanks for joining the John Meyer podcast. I've been your host. Don't forget to hit that light subscribe and notify because guess what folks we're outta here.