August 10, 2025 • 30 mins
On this episode of CAROLINA Focus with Sharon Thorsland, Jim Szoke and Ed Billick
Profiles in Broadcasting - Sharon Thorsland - Celebrating her 25-year career at WBT
Born/ Raised - is an identical twin. In college a pre-med major .... fell in love w/communications and sports. Her mother a big influence in getting her into radio!
From WNSR in NYC to Grad School at UNC - got a job at Florida State and other assignments along the way.
Jim interviewed Sharon, hired at WBT Summer of 2000!
Listen here for more !!!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Carolina Is, and welcome to Carolina Focus. You're
listening to Carolina Focus on News Talk eleven ten ninety
nine three WBT Mixed one oh seven nine and Sports
Radio ninety two to seven WFNC. Always available as a
podcast over there at WBT. Carolina Focus is our public
affairs show. Well this morning on Carolina Focus profiles in broadcasting,
(00:22):
highlighting a career of a very special person. We're talking
about our own Sharon Thorsland, who this summer celebrated twenty
five years of sports broadcasting here at WBT and with
us this morning. To join in the conversation, sharing sharing
stories with the career of Sharon is our own sports
director Jim Zoki Sharon, Jim, good morning and welcome to
(00:44):
Carolina Focus.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Good morning, Ed, and thank you for letting me be
the only guest that Sharon would approve to come on
our twenty fifth anniversary program. Congratulations, by the way, on
twenty five years.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
It isn't that crazy. I can't believe I've been here
that long. I was trying to think about it this morning.
I was like, when exactly did I art?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Because Jim interviewed me and it was maybe like April.
It was around it was NFL draft time.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
I know you had to be two thousand.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
It was two thousand and it was like NFL Draft time.
And I remember I came up here and went the
wrong direction on Morehead Street before I figured out it
was this direction, and my mom brought me and dropped
me off for the interview and Zochie interviewed me and
everything was great and I'll be in touch whatever, and
I remember following up with them it was like, oh,
I don't work there anymore.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
I was like, what I think maybe you called me?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, I was leaving because at that time, the Panthers'
rights were going over across the road to another radio station.
I guess we'd say WRFCS for five years, as it
turned out. And so one of the last acts I
did was to interview Sharon as a candidate for the
job or one of the jobs within our sports department,
full time job with that, and and then I was
I knew I was leaving to go over there as
(01:51):
part of the Panthers going over there for five years,
But you.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
Still didn't have a gig here or were you doing anything?
Speaker 5 (01:56):
I was leaping, well, I was the sports directord heuse leaping.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, and then I went over to the Fox for
five years to keep doing the Panthers at that time.
Right now they're on that station, but I still work here.
But back in that day you had to kind of
go where the work was. But anyways, I interviewed her,
and our program director at that time called me and
knew that I had done the interviews. I go, my
recommendation is you hired this girl, Sharon Thorsland, who I
talked to last week.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
I go, she's sharp and she'd be perfect for that.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So I'm not saying I got her the job, but
that was my recommendation because he could have ran the
other direction.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Go you're leaving. I'm not. I don't like you anyway,
I don't trust you.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
Let's start way back when Sharon.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I want to know born, raised, where, family growing up,
and then you know, how'd you eventually get into this
kind of career.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I was born in New Jersey, Hackensack, New Jersey. My
dad's from He was born in Manhattan, so they lived
up there, but we moved to North Kina when I
was a little girl, right before kindergarten, So I basically
grew up in Hendersonville up in the mountains, small town living,
and I played sports when I was growing up, but
I didn't like, didn't pursue it in college or anything
(02:58):
like that. So went to North as everybody knows, go
Guitar Hills, Went's Carolina and that's when I became like
a really obnoxious Tar Hill sports fan with you know, basketball,
and really just loved sports throughout then. And I was
originally a pre med major. I was originally going to
be a pediatrician. Was my original goal in life.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
That's why you're interested in the health.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yes, yes, I was going to be a pediatrician. And
my first two years at Carolina, I did all pre med,
did the whole track. And then as I got deeper
into biology and we started dissecting, you know, like into.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
People, and I was cadaver, so I was like, oh,
I just was like, you know what, this just isn't
really for me.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I just got too squeamish, and I'm like, I just
decided I was going to switch gears. And I was
taking a lot of art history classes at the time
and I love that, and I had taken one communications
class and I was talking to my parents about it
and my mom was like, what are you going to
do with an art history degree?
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Like zero?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
So or it would be difficult to find a job exactly.
You know, it's just like, why don't you get into radio?
Like my mom had worked in radio decades ago up
in New York City at w i n S Radio.
She was traffic, not Pam Warner traffic. But so that's
where the continuity, yes, like the trap scheduling commercials.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Still like that.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
She worked at w i n S for years in
New York and she's like, go into radio. I'm like, oh, okay,
so I to Yes, my mom got me into radio.
So I totally switched gears and back then Carolina had
a degree called Radio Television Emotion Pictures RTVMP. So I
switched and got a degree in RTVMP and sent out
(04:34):
a ton of resumes to New York City when interviewed
at w i n S where my mother had worked.
Because my sister I have an identical twin sister, not
everybody knows this is Susan.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Susan. Yeah, it was side story.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Just to make it even more difficult.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
It was really funny.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I have to tell this story because it was really
funny when I was at Panthers one of the training
camp practices. She kaw quick, she's another reporter. Came up
to me and she was like, you didn't tell me
you had a twin. She had gone to Savannah. The
National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships were in Savannah
in July, and my niece runs track and had qualified
(05:12):
to run the hurdles for the championships. So my sister
was there with her, and Sheena is also if she
was a track star at NC State in Florida State
and her son, all of her kids, I think, run track,
but he was there too, so she just saw Susan
and thought it was me. So she goes up to
her and it's like hey, gives her a huge hug, just.
Speaker 6 (05:29):
Like what random lady comes up yes, and she's.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Like, what are you doing here? You didn't tell me
how to kid run track.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Was going on on and on with this conversation where
finally my sister was like, that's not me, I'm not her,
and so it was just really funny that she figured
out that I had a twin the way, so I'm
letting everybody know have an identical twin. So if you
see me out there, and if I don't talk to me,
it may not be me, it might be my sister.
But anyway, my sister got a degree in dance ballet
from New York University and so she's was staying in
(05:56):
Manhattan after graduation. So I decided I was going to
join her up there, and.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
So I did.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
I got a job in radio, but it was continuity,
the scheduling.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
Commercials, and lived in the city.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Lived in the city.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I worked at w NSR mixed one of five point
one and it was great.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
It was great.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
And what did you do for them?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I did the I was the assistant traffic manager, which
was the continuity and you know, worked with the guys. Yeah,
and so I was the one who worked with the guys,
the production guys doing the you know, back then carts,
you know, with the stuff like that too. So so
it was great fun. I adored it, loved it. But
you know, New York's expensive, and then after a while I.
Speaker 6 (06:34):
Was like, yeah, but being a young like that, it
was a fun time though. God, it was great.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
It was phenomenally.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
My sister worked there too, and we just had a
blast living in New York. It was great, fun, great fun.
And but then I decided, yeah, maybe I need to
go back to grad school because after a while, working
got really you know, it's like nine to five not working.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
It got to be work, yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And I was like, where am I going with this?
I need to get a graduate degree. I had no
intention of ever being on the air. That was like
the farthest thing from my mind. I was I wanted
to do production. That was like what I really wanted.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
You're a conversationalist. Do you love to talk? Right?
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And back then maybe I didn't so much, but I've learned.
So I applied to grad school at Carolina and got
in for Back then, it was still URTVMP, but they
were merging with now I think it's Broadcast Community. I
think it's in I think it's in the School of
Journalism now broadcast Communications. But so I got into grad school,
loved it, was doing all the production stuff, loved it,
(07:28):
got my degree there. It was great fun. My sister
then you can see a trend here. I follow my
sister around. My sister got into graduate school at Florida
State to get an MFA and dance, and she started
the right when I graduated from Carolina from grad school,
and I was like, what am I going to do?
So I'm like, oh, I apply for a job and
(07:49):
tell has he And I got a job with Florida
State working with their on campus radio station or you know,
their NPR affiliate sort of like WDAV, WFSU, w F
s U and FSQ, and a little part time job.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
It was awful.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I made eight dollars an hour my first job there,
and it was part time eight dollars an hour. It
was three months and then they gave me a full
time job. But I did a radio show called FSU Headlines,
and I that was my first four into really interview
focus yeah focus, FSU Headlines, and I would go around
(08:24):
and interview professors about you know, research they were doing
or you know, anything happening around campus.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
But it had a sports element to it as well.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
They wanted to have sports and so it was like
my goal in life was to have make sure I
had a sports story every day, even if it was
like in the middle of summer, you know, I was like, Oh,
let's go into the golf coach or whatever, you know.
So that's how I really got into the sports element.
But I wasn't on air. Still, I would write it,
I would produce the whole thing, and I would go
out to w f s U and this guy, I
(08:52):
can't remember his name, he.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Would voice it. He had a big radio voice and
he would voice the FSU had show. Yeah, yeah, he would.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Voice it wasn't technically yeah, but it sounded like him
and he would voice the whole thing. And then that
was back when we had real to real people don't
probably don't know what this is with radio, but we
literally had these like two looked like two big rolls
of tape literally like scotch tape or something, and you
would record on to that tape, and if you made
(09:20):
a mistake, you'd have to find where the mistake was
go in and like mark it on the piece of
tape with a little pen pencil wax pencil, slice it
with the razor blade, tape it back together again after
you took out the mistake.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And that was how we used to produce things.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
So I never had to do I never had to
do that, isn't there? Doesn't it sound terrible as well?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
You had to make you had to make a perfect cut,
so you didn't get that perfectly.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, imagine like it's like the days of white out
when you were typing exactly. So imagine stopping down doing
that physically altering the piece of tape in this case,
and then hoping that the tape would hold too, because
you had to. Like it had like this little track
where you'd put it in where you do a diagonal
cut and then make the second cut to take out
the physical piece of them the picture like a giant, said,
(10:07):
tape like a giant, but it was real real and
then uh, you had like the tape that would connect
the two pieces again and then you may smooth it
over make.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Sure it was there. But it was like literally like
doing a little shop project every time, and.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
If you cut too much you can't.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
You can't because editing a breath or a word or
something now is just like a two second job.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
This you hated they have to do anything like that.
So you're right.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
It would have little jump cuts and things sometimes if
you didn't do it quite right, but you had basically
one shot at it.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Is this where you started getting an eye on sports?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yes, that's where I started because I really enjoyed doing
all the interviews. I loved going I mean I liked
interviewing everybody. Actually, I mean I had some great interviews
with some really unbelievable people when I was there at
Florida State. But that's where I really sort of honed
in on the sports element of it. So and one
day when I went out to have this guy Rich
I think his name was record the show, he was
sick and I was like, oh God, what am I
(10:57):
supposed to do? And they're like, well, you just do it.
I'm like, oh, okay. And he was out sick for
three days and I recorded it and did it, and
you know, it was sort of funny. And when he
came back, he's like, you just keep doing it. So
that's how I fell into being on the air. And
so it was with FSU Headlines and as I was
there for five years, and after i'd been there for
a year or two, I got to know all the
(11:18):
people in the sports department. And you know, Florida State
Athletics is pretty big time, and it used to be
really big time.
Speaker 6 (11:23):
Are you in your early twenties the late twenties.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yes, I moved there when I was twenty five, so,
and so I got in with sports people down there
in the production Seminole Productions, and they started having me
just do everything. They had TV shows they had to
deal with. It's now Fox Sports, but it was called
the Sunshine Network back then Fox Sports, Florida whatever, and
they would they had to deal where they had to
(11:46):
provide a certain amount of shows to Sunshine Network and
they'd have to air it, you know, Sunday morning at
five am or something, but are at ten o'clock Saturday
night random times.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
So we would do all sorts of shows. And so
I started we had I.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Can't remember what they were called, like Beyond the Game
and do all these like I just loved it and
started doing like sideline reporting is kind of stuff, you know,
like the soccer game or whatever, just random stuff like
that there. And that's where I really really got into
sports and had some unbelievable opportunities to interview.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
I mean like I got to interview Magic Johnson, you know,
Lee Corso.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I mean, like all these people that would come through.
You know, it was Burt Reynolds. I got to interview
Burt Reynolds.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
Yeah, we played we played football at floridall.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
He played he played at Floriat No, he was Florida State.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
So Bobby Bowden was Bobby Bowden.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
He called me gal hey gal. He could never remember
anybody's name. This is funny.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Bobby Baden could not remember anybody's name because he had
just this constant stream of people.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I relate to that that would meet as many people
as Bobby Bottom the.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Wors with names.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Oh it's terrible. Yeah, so you were either hey guy
or hey gal, hey gal.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
He was great.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
I'd go to his office with the basketball coach back then.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Pat Kennedy, Pat first Pat Kenny and then Steve Robinson.
Speaker 6 (12:56):
So we're talking what years of these?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
So I moved to tah.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
House in ninety five, I graduated and or ninety I
can't always forget ninety one. I graduated next year to
me ninety four. I graduated ninety four from Carolina from
grad school.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
So the Panthers have yet to be a franchise soon.
Did you ever have your at that point your eye
on coming back to the Carolina.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Now, I didn't know where I wanted to go. I
didn't know what I wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
But in doing all of this stuff that I did
with the sports department there I met all these people
who would come in for the games, and stuff for
ESPN and stuff, and I met not Mark Price. Mark
he's a play by he's a sideline guy and a
play by play guy form ESPN to this day. And
I remember saying, I want your job because he was
doing sidelines back then. And so a guy who was
the head of the sports information department at Florida State
(13:40):
at that time, went to Miami and then he went
on to become the commissioner of communications for the Big Twelve,
and so started knowing all these people at ESPN and stuff,
and he was like, yeah, he's like, you need to
go interview with these people about potentially doing sidelines. And
I did and they were like, Okay, we'll keep you
in our book whatever. And so didn't really think anything
(14:00):
more about it. And then I got married and I
met my husband and he was like, I'm not moving
to tell has he?
Speaker 4 (14:07):
So he was in Atlanta. So I moved to Atlanta
and worked at CNN very briefly.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
Did you know Jerome Genovich there?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
That name sounds really familiar.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Fraternity brother. Yeah, he was with CNN.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I was only there for like eight months before I
came here, and then I was like desperate to get
out of CNN because I was like a broadcast assistant
and it was like logging tape, you know, so boring.
That's why when they had the CNN Sports station, what
was that, I can't remember what that one?
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Yeah, CNN, Yeah, back when they would do all the
shows like.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Yeah, exactly, yes, so I had my sight set on,
you know, trying to.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Everyone has a stick, Yeah, exactly exactly. But yeah, so
that's how and then I didn't like that job. So
I ended up here in Charlotte, following my sister and
again who had moved to.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Charlotte to take you followed her to give.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Again, Yes, but that just worked out that way. But yeah,
so Florida State's where I really cut my teeth on stuff.
I had a great mentor great mentor who taught me
just everything about writing and how to write for you know,
radio and TV too. I did a ton of TV
back then, and it was awesome.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I loved it.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
So, Jim, we had an opening here when you're just
my job, That's why I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
I was. I was exiting to go to WRFX, so
I was vacating. I'd been here eleven years at.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
That point, and I was leaving and but you know,
under good terms. Obviously, when knew the Panthers were going
to another radio station, there was no you know, animosity
or anything. So they entrusted me to kind of because
you know, you've got just a news station by and large,
so they don't really know sports people and how to
do that.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
I think I kind of facilitated.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
The interview with Steve Martin here at that time.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Not at that time Steve had left, but I became
sports director here is when Steve left to go work
for the Hornets full time. So Steve hired me part time.
Steve got hired to be the director of broadcasting in
addition to the play by play for the Hornets, and
so I took Steve's job here because I was like
the first not those profiles in gym, but the first
eight years that the Hornets were I worked every game
(16:08):
because I was part of their network. I would fill
into and play by play for Steve. I would do
the pregame, halftime, postgame so anyway, So that's that connection there,
and then the Panthers arrived, So my timing was a Panther.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
The Hornet started, and then the Panthers came.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
A few years later and then with that we did
it for the first five years here at WBT and
then the second five years at Wrfax before we turned
back here. I shared work with us when those were
on WR Facts, with mister Bill.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
And the gang over there, so so we.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Still, you know, worked together in that way because she
would be covering it for WBT and be at the
Super Bowl and all that kind of So we start.
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Here in April two thousand.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yes, and did you do well?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I was sort of like, I don't think they knew
at that point he was because it was Randall Bloomquest
at the time was the station manager, and he was like,
can you just come here and just help us out.
We've got this NFL Draft show we have to do.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
I'm like, what, Because we had.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Jimmy I'm saying jim Jerry V Jerry Jerry V. Jimmy
V Jerry Jerry, and we had an actual sports show,
and you know, with the producer and everything, we they
would they had a sports show back then. And so
I was back there in the all sports closets trying
to line up interviews and getting sound bites to do
and and I had a lot of connections to with
Florida State. So I were trying to like profiles on
(17:18):
the you know, potential draft picks and stuff. So I
was just sort of working and doing something. And then
Randall's like, all right, we're gonna hire you. And but
he hired me to do afternoon sports because Brett McMillan,
I guess, had been doing afternoons. Then yes, and then
he started doing the mornings. But then shortly after that
started he left to go do NASCAR. So there's like
nobody except me. I think they were just desperate.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
They had hired me, had been Kevin Silvest, but I
think it was somebody in between.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Yes, a guy from Las Vegas. He was here for
all of two weeks. I don't think he was even
here two weeks, maybe for two days. He was not
here very long, and it was not his cup of tea.
It's like peace out.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
So then Kevin Sylvester came in, took over, did mornings
and I did afternoons.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
And he was a Buffalo guy and I think he's
still is he still part of like PGA Radio something
like that.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
He does some of that stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, We've had a number of people that kind of
did it coming gone by Sharon for twenty five years
because Wet McMillan. And as she said, eventually Lafter came
back and then you know, now we've got sharing for
people who don't know, so you know, obviously do morning
and sharing in the afternoon. Then Ed's like our first
go to guy on top of everything else. He does
like if you can do could you fill in mornings?
Speaker 5 (18:22):
Now? Can you fill in afternoons?
Speaker 2 (18:23):
So when one of the two of us is out
is why you hear ed doing sports a lot of times.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
So that's that's how I ended.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I mean, the children are on their way, you're raising kids,
talked a little bit about the family.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
Yes, and now you got your roots here, yes, growing
roots here.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I am Tony and I moved here, like I said,
because I took this job. And I told him, like, sorry, Tony,
were moving. He's like what because he went to Purdue
and he had a job in a firm down in Atlanta,
landscape architecture, that's what his degree was in at Purdue.
So he was working in an office down there and
I was like.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
We're moving to Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
He's like, pardon, so, which is great because he he's fine.
He followed me, and he got a job here with
anyone on his own. So he has his own business
and it worked out beautifully. And we have three kids.
I have twins who are about to go to college.
I'm gonna be a basket case for the next three
weeks here my twins go off to college. And then
I have a younger son that's Sena and Gunner. And
(19:16):
then Thor is my youngest son and he's starting ninth grade.
Speaker 6 (19:19):
So well, your house will change.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Oh my gosh, it's going to.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Do We get a lot of attention now and all
the food.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
Leftovers and bye bye.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah so yeah, So so I got the three kids,
and I started working with the Panthers right before I
had seen a Gunner because, like Zochie said, when he
left and what's over at RFX, I guess maybe I
don't know who recommended me to David Langdon, but that's
the producer for all the Panthers, probably because somebody David
called me up and said, hey, do you want to
(19:51):
do a scotting report, a weekly scotting report for our
pregame show.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
I'm like cool, so and that's what two thousand and one.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
That was probably two thousand three. Maybe the Super Bowl
season all the history you have with yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
It might have been that.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And that's you know, back when Keith Larson was here too.
That was when all this sort of took off with
the sports stuff too, because they sent me WBT sent
me to the Super Bowl with Brett, and I started
doing a hit every day, like with Larsen and stuff,
and so we were always talking Panthers and then anyway,
at some point David Langton called me up to do
pregame stuff and which I enjoyed immensely. And then I
(20:27):
had my kids, and that was a whole nother ball
of wax. When I fell and had that accident, had
my kids so premature. I was in the hospital forever
and I couldn't like walk again because i'd been doing
sidelines for ESPN.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
I forgot that part.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I did start doing sidelines for ESPN when I got
here Free ESPN three, you know, it's like ESPN Plus
or whatever it is now. They actually had an office
here in Charlotte, and my old contact from Florida State
and Miami in the Big twelve hooked me up with them,
and so I started doing college football games. When I
first started working here, too.
Speaker 6 (20:56):
So your mother raising three children and yet not yet.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Yeah, So I started doing college football games.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
The MAC was my conference.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Actually, good All, Bowling Green, Zookie's alma mater, Toledo Marshall
was awesome, Western Michigan the hot Spots, Yes, Northern Illinois,
the Huskies. But I actually got to interview with some
people who went on to phenomenal NFL crews. You know,
Ben Roethlisberger starting with him, you know, and Leftwich, Michael Turner,
Michael the Burner Turner at Northern Illinois. That was when
(21:28):
who is the former Florida coach that and then was
at Ohio State and then he was in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Urban Meyer.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Urban Meyer was the head coach at Bowling Yeah, and
Northern Illinois upset them with Michael Turner at Bowling Green.
So and I had my own Susie Colberg moment at
that game. Actually, I was interviewing some wealthy alumni donor
and he was three sheets to the wind drunk.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
You what the second half of the show, I want
to hear something.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
So I was doing sidelines for three years in a
row where I'd travel to the MAC and it was great.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It was great fun, but you cover you know, two
sidelines that way, because you're covering two schools, so you're
running for one side to the other. And then when
I fell and broke my ankle so bad and had
my kids so premature and stuff, it was like, you know,
everything stopped for a while and just happened that the
Panthers once again came calling and they were like, hey,
would you be interested in doing sidelines for us?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
And I'm like, heck yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
So it was perfect because I only had to be
on one sideline since I couldn't walk very well at
that point, and I only do one sideline, and it
was only home games because back then they used to
have a rule no females on the team plane for
a while.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
And so this is back in the stage.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
Looking at a gym.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah they did.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And so Mike Craft was my counterpart for the road games,
and he worked for the Panthers for years and years
and years also over here WBTV, And so that's how
I fell into my my gig with Panthers, and then
I've been there ever since. Now this is my twentieth
anniversary of sidelines for the Panthers. Wow, I'm all officially
all yeah, well exactly exactly so, and then that's so
(23:06):
that's when I had my kids. That was the first
year that I had my twins at home. When I
was doing silence and only home, it was great. So
I didn't have to travel anymore. I didn't have to
cover two sidelines.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
That worked out beautiful.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Our listeners, I mean, we hear you and we may
see you from time to time. But all the prep
work that goes into just doing that for an NFL team,
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Well Zochie, well the amount of stuff he has a
lot a piece of paper will blow your mind. But
I'm the same way. I I would rather be so
over prepared than not know what I'm doing. So yeah,
I mean you go to locker room a couple times
a week. I do so much homework for my pregame
scouting reports. I mean I spend hours on that. And yeah,
I mean you have you have to pay attention to things.
(23:44):
You can't just like show up and talk. It just
doesn't work that way because you have to know stories
about guys and not just about them on the field.
You want to know them personally as well, so you
can get some interesting tidbits to bring you know, you
want our listeners to learn about these players as people,
not just what they're doing on the field. And then
when you are on the field, you're the eyes and
ears for the listener because they can't see what's going
(24:07):
on in terms of the sidelines, saying for the guys
in the booth, you know, because I'm down there listening
to hear what the coaches are saying, what players are
talking about, see who's doing what over here, who's changing
a pair of shoes, making a glove adjustment, whatever they
may be doing. So I do a ton of prep work,
Like I come to games with like I'm not kidding you,
fifty potential sideline hits him.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
It's all ad libbing, isn't it. It's all right off
the top of your head. I mean, you have to
be Johnny on the spot.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
So I said that the bow on the WBT Morning
show earlier this week. We were talking about something else.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
But I said, it's like it's preparing to add lib.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Yeah, so you do all there, that's a good way
to phrase it.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
In the week heading up or whatever amount of time
you have. Sometimes it's the night before if you got
two games, so you're preparing and you eave all your notes,
but then you have to kind of have a top
of mine when stuff pops up.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
That you can talk.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Like I say all the time, it's like I write
my notes and there's something in the act for me
personally writing stuff out that is it's not like two
weeks ago. If it's like recent days, like I couldn't
have recall and just even without looking at my notes.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
That's what I'm saying. It's in my head and.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
It'll disappear after that game as you get ready for
the new information in the new game.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
But I know you're the same way too. You're prepared
to be able to live.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
I have to because like that's why I have it
all written down. And they do say that if you
actually handwrite things, it gets in your brain. That's why
they say kids with all the phone stuff and on
the computers, that's not where they're learning anything.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
The whole ability to pull vocabulary, to pull appropriate words.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, And like I write out different things, you know,
with topics of what I want to talk about, so
and I bring it with me so that I can
be like and David, our producer for the Panthers, he'll
be like, hey, you know you got something on Cuba
Hubbard And I'm like, oh, yeah, and so we're gonna
come down to you after this next play, and so
I can talk about, Oh, Cuba Hubbard stays after every
single practice and before every single game working on the
(25:52):
jugs machine because he wants to be a complete receiver
blah blah blah. So I've got that in my head
and I have it in my notes, so I'll scan
and be like, Oh, Sharon, what's going on down there?
Speaker 4 (25:59):
And I'm like, oh, I can talk about.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Trevin Wallace, you know, who has a great mentor with
Luke Keigley and Shaq Thompson and talks to them every
single day still. So I always want to have something
because that happens a lot, especially in the preseason when
we're just trying to fill time because those preseason games
are just so rivid.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
So you come up with stuff. So I have so
much stuff prepared so I can have it.
Speaker 6 (26:23):
One of the things that I enjoy what you do
and you do too as well, Jim.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Is you'll highlight or hype up something and I'm saying, well,
that must be important, because I did not know that
that must be critical to their performance.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
I did not know that. Both. You do a wonderful
job that Sharon. I all times I go, is that really? Well,
I guess it is. She's telling us it is.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
I think it's important maybe, But yeah, I think it's
to find out some quirky stuff about guys.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
And then some guys have some really really neat stories.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Remember fa Obada, he was one of our players that
came on the Pathways program from England and you know
he was like homeless and was like trafficked London and
you know ended up in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
I mean, what a wild story.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
And guys do really neat things like JJ Jansen, who
I know you've had on.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
David Chadwick Show.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Guys do some really unbelievable work, you know, on the
community and stuff.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
And so I think there's a lot.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Of really cool stuff that needs to be put out
there besides just what they're doing on the actual football field.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
And both you can evaluate talent, you can evaluate the
physical excess and oh's, but you could also evaluate the
personality and do they have the kind of drive and
kind of resilience to keep moving forward?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I think, oh yeah, I mean you see obviously all
sorts of personalities, especially Zokie's been here longer than me,
and you see so many different types of people come
through the NFL. I mean that's what my focus is
right now. I mean I obviously cover all sports, and
I used to go cover everything. We used to cover
every sport out there, but now it's honed down to
where my big focus that I do.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
I love the NFL. I used to be like, oh, NFL.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
I never paid two cents of attention to it until
I got here. I mean I was to college all
the way, you know, ACC and Florida State and whatever
in college, and now I.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Love the NFL.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I think it's just so much fun to come and
so much fun to watch, and it is. It is
cool and you can you can tell. You can tell
who's got that drive, like a Steve Smith who's gonna,
you know, got that chip on his shoulder it's going
to be successful, versus like a Calvin Benjamin who all
sort of walked around you. You called it, You called
it it factor, Yeah, exactly, the ED Factor.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
Kelvin was an FSU guy, so he was. That hurts
her to say that, but we.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Always laughed too. It was like when we have draft
picks or new free agents. We're like, oh, this guy
a good interviewer. We're having this conversation. I practice yesterday
and I was interviewing somebody and she said, well, this
guy used to be good, but I didn't talk as
much triicle. Yeah, And I talked to this guy last year,
was still in the roster, by the way, and I
was expecting like this big personality and he was like
five second answer guy.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
So you kind of like it's funny.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
In our world, you evaluate the athlete, you also evaluate
who could I go get a really good interview with
that will fit for this week.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Who's a good talker?
Speaker 6 (28:47):
Well, but the job too is building that relationship so
they feel comfortable with you.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
That's that's that's so key because they need to be
able to trust you, and they can they can tell
who's who shows up for a minute.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
And you go every week.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Yeah, when you're there all the time and you don't
you write something inflammatory on Twitter about them and stuff.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
I mean, they get mad, you know, they get ticked off.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
So you do have to and you want to know
what you're talking about, especially as a female in this business.
If you don't know what you're talking about, It makes
me mad when people just you know, because it's like,
you got to know what you're talking about, because players
and coaches in particular, they have a lot more respect
for you if you know what you're talking about, if
you're prepared, if you're knowledgeable about the game and what's
going on and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
So I think that's really really key here on Carolina Focus.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
On this Sunday morning, a special Profiles and Broadcasting is
Jim Zochi and I are celebrating Sharon Thorsland's twenty fifth year.
She's sharing her story, her career.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
To date, and then when we come back, I want
to hear some of those special moments, some of those
great interviews, some of those sideline craziness, weather related and
all that kind of thing. As we continue our discussion
here with Sharon Thortsland, Carolina Focus will be right back
Good morning, Carolina Is, and welcome to Carolina Focus. You're
listening to Carolina Focus on News Talk eleven ten ninety
nine three WBT Mixed one oh seven nine and Sports
Radio ninety two to seven WFNC. Always available as a
podcast over there at WBT. Carolina Focus is our public
affairs show. Well this morning on Carolina Focus profiles in broadcasting,
(00:22):
highlighting a career of a very special person. We're talking
about our own Sharon Thorsland, who this summer celebrated twenty
five years of sports broadcasting here at WBT and with
us this morning. To join in the conversation, sharing sharing
stories with the career of Sharon is our own sports
director Jim Zoki Sharon, Jim, good morning and welcome to
(00:44):
Carolina Focus.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Good morning, Ed, and thank you for letting me be
the only guest that Sharon would approve to come on
our twenty fifth anniversary program. Congratulations, by the way, on
twenty five years.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
It isn't that crazy. I can't believe I've been here
that long. I was trying to think about it this morning.
I was like, when exactly did I art?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Because Jim interviewed me and it was maybe like April.
It was around it was NFL draft time.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
I know you had to be two thousand.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
It was two thousand and it was like NFL Draft time.
And I remember I came up here and went the
wrong direction on Morehead Street before I figured out it
was this direction, and my mom brought me and dropped
me off for the interview and Zochie interviewed me and
everything was great and I'll be in touch whatever, and
I remember following up with them it was like, oh,
I don't work there anymore.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
I was like, what I think maybe you called me?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, I was leaving because at that time, the Panthers'
rights were going over across the road to another radio station.
I guess we'd say WRFCS for five years, as it
turned out. And so one of the last acts I
did was to interview Sharon as a candidate for the
job or one of the jobs within our sports department,
full time job with that, and and then I was
I knew I was leaving to go over there as
(01:51):
part of the Panthers going over there for five years,
But you.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
Still didn't have a gig here or were you doing anything?
Speaker 5 (01:56):
I was leaping, well, I was the sports directord heuse leaping.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, and then I went over to the Fox for
five years to keep doing the Panthers at that time.
Right now they're on that station, but I still work here.
But back in that day you had to kind of
go where the work was. But anyways, I interviewed her,
and our program director at that time called me and
knew that I had done the interviews. I go, my
recommendation is you hired this girl, Sharon Thorsland, who I
talked to last week.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
I go, she's sharp and she'd be perfect for that.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So I'm not saying I got her the job, but
that was my recommendation because he could have ran the
other direction.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Go you're leaving. I'm not. I don't like you anyway,
I don't trust you.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
Let's start way back when Sharon.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I want to know born, raised, where, family growing up,
and then you know, how'd you eventually get into this
kind of career.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I was born in New Jersey, Hackensack, New Jersey. My
dad's from He was born in Manhattan, so they lived
up there, but we moved to North Kina when I
was a little girl, right before kindergarten, So I basically
grew up in Hendersonville up in the mountains, small town living,
and I played sports when I was growing up, but
I didn't like, didn't pursue it in college or anything
(02:58):
like that. So went to North as everybody knows, go
Guitar Hills, Went's Carolina and that's when I became like
a really obnoxious Tar Hill sports fan with you know, basketball,
and really just loved sports throughout then. And I was
originally a pre med major. I was originally going to
be a pediatrician. Was my original goal in life.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
That's why you're interested in the health.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yes, yes, I was going to be a pediatrician. And
my first two years at Carolina, I did all pre med,
did the whole track. And then as I got deeper
into biology and we started dissecting, you know, like into.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
People, and I was cadaver, so I was like, oh,
I just was like, you know what, this just isn't
really for me.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I just got too squeamish, and I'm like, I just
decided I was going to switch gears. And I was
taking a lot of art history classes at the time
and I love that, and I had taken one communications
class and I was talking to my parents about it
and my mom was like, what are you going to
do with an art history degree?
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Like zero?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
So or it would be difficult to find a job exactly.
You know, it's just like, why don't you get into radio?
Like my mom had worked in radio decades ago up
in New York City at w i n S Radio.
She was traffic, not Pam Warner traffic. But so that's
where the continuity, yes, like the trap scheduling commercials.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Still like that.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
She worked at w i n S for years in
New York and she's like, go into radio. I'm like, oh, okay,
so I to Yes, my mom got me into radio.
So I totally switched gears and back then Carolina had
a degree called Radio Television Emotion Pictures RTVMP. So I
switched and got a degree in RTVMP and sent out
(04:34):
a ton of resumes to New York City when interviewed
at w i n S where my mother had worked.
Because my sister I have an identical twin sister, not
everybody knows this is Susan.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Susan. Yeah, it was side story.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Just to make it even more difficult.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
It was really funny.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I have to tell this story because it was really
funny when I was at Panthers one of the training
camp practices. She kaw quick, she's another reporter. Came up
to me and she was like, you didn't tell me
you had a twin. She had gone to Savannah. The
National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships were in Savannah
in July, and my niece runs track and had qualified
(05:12):
to run the hurdles for the championships. So my sister
was there with her, and Sheena is also if she
was a track star at NC State in Florida State
and her son, all of her kids, I think, run track,
but he was there too, so she just saw Susan
and thought it was me. So she goes up to
her and it's like hey, gives her a huge hug, just.
Speaker 6 (05:29):
Like what random lady comes up yes, and she's.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Like, what are you doing here? You didn't tell me
how to kid run track.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Was going on on and on with this conversation where
finally my sister was like, that's not me, I'm not her,
and so it was just really funny that she figured
out that I had a twin the way, so I'm
letting everybody know have an identical twin. So if you
see me out there, and if I don't talk to me,
it may not be me, it might be my sister.
But anyway, my sister got a degree in dance ballet
from New York University and so she's was staying in
(05:56):
Manhattan after graduation. So I decided I was going to
join her up there, and.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
So I did.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
I got a job in radio, but it was continuity,
the scheduling.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
Commercials, and lived in the city.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Lived in the city.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I worked at w NSR mixed one of five point
one and it was great.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
It was great.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
And what did you do for them?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I did the I was the assistant traffic manager, which
was the continuity and you know, worked with the guys. Yeah,
and so I was the one who worked with the guys,
the production guys doing the you know, back then carts,
you know, with the stuff like that too. So so
it was great fun. I adored it, loved it. But
you know, New York's expensive, and then after a while I.
Speaker 6 (06:34):
Was like, yeah, but being a young like that, it
was a fun time though. God, it was great.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
It was phenomenally.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
My sister worked there too, and we just had a
blast living in New York. It was great, fun, great fun.
And but then I decided, yeah, maybe I need to
go back to grad school because after a while, working
got really you know, it's like nine to five not working.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
It got to be work, yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And I was like, where am I going with this?
I need to get a graduate degree. I had no
intention of ever being on the air. That was like
the farthest thing from my mind. I was I wanted
to do production. That was like what I really wanted.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
You're a conversationalist. Do you love to talk? Right?
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And back then maybe I didn't so much, but I've learned.
So I applied to grad school at Carolina and got
in for Back then, it was still URTVMP, but they
were merging with now I think it's Broadcast Community. I
think it's in I think it's in the School of
Journalism now broadcast Communications. But so I got into grad school,
loved it, was doing all the production stuff, loved it,
(07:28):
got my degree there. It was great fun. My sister
then you can see a trend here. I follow my
sister around. My sister got into graduate school at Florida
State to get an MFA and dance, and she started
the right when I graduated from Carolina from grad school,
and I was like, what am I going to do?
So I'm like, oh, I apply for a job and
(07:49):
tell has he And I got a job with Florida
State working with their on campus radio station or you know,
their NPR affiliate sort of like WDAV, WFSU, w F
s U and FSQ, and a little part time job.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
It was awful.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I made eight dollars an hour my first job there,
and it was part time eight dollars an hour. It
was three months and then they gave me a full
time job. But I did a radio show called FSU Headlines,
and I that was my first four into really interview
focus yeah focus, FSU Headlines, and I would go around
(08:24):
and interview professors about you know, research they were doing
or you know, anything happening around campus.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
But it had a sports element to it as well.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
They wanted to have sports and so it was like
my goal in life was to have make sure I
had a sports story every day, even if it was
like in the middle of summer, you know, I was like, Oh,
let's go into the golf coach or whatever, you know.
So that's how I really got into the sports element.
But I wasn't on air. Still, I would write it,
I would produce the whole thing, and I would go
out to w f s U and this guy, I
(08:52):
can't remember his name, he.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Would voice it. He had a big radio voice and
he would voice the FSU had show. Yeah, yeah, he would.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Voice it wasn't technically yeah, but it sounded like him
and he would voice the whole thing. And then that
was back when we had real to real people don't
probably don't know what this is with radio, but we
literally had these like two looked like two big rolls
of tape literally like scotch tape or something, and you
would record on to that tape, and if you made
(09:20):
a mistake, you'd have to find where the mistake was
go in and like mark it on the piece of
tape with a little pen pencil wax pencil, slice it
with the razor blade, tape it back together again after
you took out the mistake.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And that was how we used to produce things.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
So I never had to do I never had to
do that, isn't there? Doesn't it sound terrible as well?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
You had to make you had to make a perfect cut,
so you didn't get that perfectly.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, imagine like it's like the days of white out
when you were typing exactly. So imagine stopping down doing
that physically altering the piece of tape in this case,
and then hoping that the tape would hold too, because
you had to. Like it had like this little track
where you'd put it in where you do a diagonal
cut and then make the second cut to take out
the physical piece of them the picture like a giant, said,
(10:07):
tape like a giant, but it was real real and
then uh, you had like the tape that would connect
the two pieces again and then you may smooth it
over make.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Sure it was there. But it was like literally like
doing a little shop project every time, and.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
If you cut too much you can't.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
You can't because editing a breath or a word or
something now is just like a two second job.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
This you hated they have to do anything like that.
So you're right.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
It would have little jump cuts and things sometimes if
you didn't do it quite right, but you had basically
one shot at it.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Is this where you started getting an eye on sports?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yes, that's where I started because I really enjoyed doing
all the interviews. I loved going I mean I liked
interviewing everybody. Actually, I mean I had some great interviews
with some really unbelievable people when I was there at
Florida State. But that's where I really sort of honed
in on the sports element of it. So and one
day when I went out to have this guy Rich
I think his name was record the show, he was
sick and I was like, oh God, what am I
(10:57):
supposed to do? And they're like, well, you just do it.
I'm like, oh, okay. And he was out sick for
three days and I recorded it and did it, and
you know, it was sort of funny. And when he
came back, he's like, you just keep doing it. So
that's how I fell into being on the air. And
so it was with FSU Headlines and as I was
there for five years, and after i'd been there for
a year or two, I got to know all the
(11:18):
people in the sports department. And you know, Florida State
Athletics is pretty big time, and it used to be
really big time.
Speaker 6 (11:23):
Are you in your early twenties the late twenties.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yes, I moved there when I was twenty five, so,
and so I got in with sports people down there
in the production Seminole Productions, and they started having me
just do everything. They had TV shows they had to
deal with. It's now Fox Sports, but it was called
the Sunshine Network back then Fox Sports, Florida whatever, and
they would they had to deal where they had to
(11:46):
provide a certain amount of shows to Sunshine Network and
they'd have to air it, you know, Sunday morning at
five am or something, but are at ten o'clock Saturday
night random times.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
So we would do all sorts of shows. And so
I started we had I.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Can't remember what they were called, like Beyond the Game
and do all these like I just loved it and
started doing like sideline reporting is kind of stuff, you know,
like the soccer game or whatever, just random stuff like
that there. And that's where I really really got into
sports and had some unbelievable opportunities to interview.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
I mean like I got to interview Magic Johnson, you know,
Lee Corso.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I mean, like all these people that would come through.
You know, it was Burt Reynolds. I got to interview
Burt Reynolds.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
Yeah, we played we played football at floridall.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
He played he played at Floriat No, he was Florida State.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
So Bobby Bowden was Bobby Bowden.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
He called me gal hey gal. He could never remember
anybody's name. This is funny.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Bobby Baden could not remember anybody's name because he had
just this constant stream of people.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I relate to that that would meet as many people
as Bobby Bottom the.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Wors with names.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Oh it's terrible. Yeah, so you were either hey guy
or hey gal, hey gal.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
He was great.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
I'd go to his office with the basketball coach back then.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Pat Kennedy, Pat first Pat Kenny and then Steve Robinson.
Speaker 6 (12:56):
So we're talking what years of these?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
So I moved to tah.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
House in ninety five, I graduated and or ninety I
can't always forget ninety one. I graduated next year to
me ninety four. I graduated ninety four from Carolina from
grad school.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
So the Panthers have yet to be a franchise soon.
Did you ever have your at that point your eye
on coming back to the Carolina.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Now, I didn't know where I wanted to go. I
didn't know what I wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
But in doing all of this stuff that I did
with the sports department there I met all these people
who would come in for the games, and stuff for
ESPN and stuff, and I met not Mark Price. Mark
he's a play by he's a sideline guy and a
play by play guy form ESPN to this day. And
I remember saying, I want your job because he was
doing sidelines back then. And so a guy who was
the head of the sports information department at Florida State
(13:40):
at that time, went to Miami and then he went
on to become the commissioner of communications for the Big Twelve,
and so started knowing all these people at ESPN and stuff,
and he was like, yeah, he's like, you need to
go interview with these people about potentially doing sidelines. And
I did and they were like, Okay, we'll keep you
in our book whatever. And so didn't really think anything
(14:00):
more about it. And then I got married and I
met my husband and he was like, I'm not moving
to tell has he?
Speaker 4 (14:07):
So he was in Atlanta. So I moved to Atlanta
and worked at CNN very briefly.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
Did you know Jerome Genovich there?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
That name sounds really familiar.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Fraternity brother. Yeah, he was with CNN.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I was only there for like eight months before I
came here, and then I was like desperate to get
out of CNN because I was like a broadcast assistant
and it was like logging tape, you know, so boring.
That's why when they had the CNN Sports station, what
was that, I can't remember what that one?
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Yeah, CNN, Yeah, back when they would do all the
shows like.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Yeah, exactly, yes, so I had my sight set on,
you know, trying to.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Everyone has a stick, Yeah, exactly exactly. But yeah, so
that's how and then I didn't like that job. So
I ended up here in Charlotte, following my sister and
again who had moved to.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Charlotte to take you followed her to give.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Again, Yes, but that just worked out that way. But yeah,
so Florida State's where I really cut my teeth on stuff.
I had a great mentor great mentor who taught me
just everything about writing and how to write for you know,
radio and TV too. I did a ton of TV
back then, and it was awesome.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I loved it.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
So, Jim, we had an opening here when you're just
my job, That's why I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
I was. I was exiting to go to WRFX, so
I was vacating. I'd been here eleven years at.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
That point, and I was leaving and but you know,
under good terms. Obviously, when knew the Panthers were going
to another radio station, there was no you know, animosity
or anything. So they entrusted me to kind of because
you know, you've got just a news station by and large,
so they don't really know sports people and how to
do that.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
I think I kind of facilitated.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
The interview with Steve Martin here at that time.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Not at that time Steve had left, but I became
sports director here is when Steve left to go work
for the Hornets full time. So Steve hired me part time.
Steve got hired to be the director of broadcasting in
addition to the play by play for the Hornets, and
so I took Steve's job here because I was like
the first not those profiles in gym, but the first
eight years that the Hornets were I worked every game
(16:08):
because I was part of their network. I would fill
into and play by play for Steve. I would do
the pregame, halftime, postgame so anyway, So that's that connection there,
and then the Panthers arrived, So my timing was a Panther.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
The Hornet started, and then the Panthers came.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
A few years later and then with that we did
it for the first five years here at WBT and
then the second five years at Wrfax before we turned
back here. I shared work with us when those were
on WR Facts, with mister Bill.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
And the gang over there, so so we.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Still, you know, worked together in that way because she
would be covering it for WBT and be at the
Super Bowl and all that kind of So we start.
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Here in April two thousand.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yes, and did you do well?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I was sort of like, I don't think they knew
at that point he was because it was Randall Bloomquest
at the time was the station manager, and he was like,
can you just come here and just help us out.
We've got this NFL Draft show we have to do.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
I'm like, what, Because we had.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Jimmy I'm saying jim Jerry V Jerry Jerry V. Jimmy
V Jerry Jerry, and we had an actual sports show,
and you know, with the producer and everything, we they
would they had a sports show back then. And so
I was back there in the all sports closets trying
to line up interviews and getting sound bites to do
and and I had a lot of connections to with
Florida State. So I were trying to like profiles on
(17:18):
the you know, potential draft picks and stuff. So I
was just sort of working and doing something. And then
Randall's like, all right, we're gonna hire you. And but
he hired me to do afternoon sports because Brett McMillan,
I guess, had been doing afternoons. Then yes, and then
he started doing the mornings. But then shortly after that
started he left to go do NASCAR. So there's like
nobody except me. I think they were just desperate.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
They had hired me, had been Kevin Silvest, but I
think it was somebody in between.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Yes, a guy from Las Vegas. He was here for
all of two weeks. I don't think he was even
here two weeks, maybe for two days. He was not
here very long, and it was not his cup of tea.
It's like peace out.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
So then Kevin Sylvester came in, took over, did mornings
and I did afternoons.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
And he was a Buffalo guy and I think he's
still is he still part of like PGA Radio something
like that.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
He does some of that stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, We've had a number of people that kind of
did it coming gone by Sharon for twenty five years
because Wet McMillan. And as she said, eventually Lafter came
back and then you know, now we've got sharing for
people who don't know, so you know, obviously do morning
and sharing in the afternoon. Then Ed's like our first
go to guy on top of everything else. He does
like if you can do could you fill in mornings?
Speaker 5 (18:22):
Now? Can you fill in afternoons?
Speaker 2 (18:23):
So when one of the two of us is out
is why you hear ed doing sports a lot of times.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
So that's that's how I ended.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I mean, the children are on their way, you're raising kids,
talked a little bit about the family.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
Yes, and now you got your roots here, yes, growing
roots here.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I am Tony and I moved here, like I said,
because I took this job. And I told him, like, sorry, Tony,
were moving. He's like what because he went to Purdue
and he had a job in a firm down in Atlanta,
landscape architecture, that's what his degree was in at Purdue.
So he was working in an office down there and
I was like.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
We're moving to Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
He's like, pardon, so, which is great because he he's fine.
He followed me, and he got a job here with
anyone on his own. So he has his own business
and it worked out beautifully. And we have three kids.
I have twins who are about to go to college.
I'm gonna be a basket case for the next three
weeks here my twins go off to college. And then
I have a younger son that's Sena and Gunner. And
(19:16):
then Thor is my youngest son and he's starting ninth grade.
Speaker 6 (19:19):
So well, your house will change.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Oh my gosh, it's going to.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Do We get a lot of attention now and all
the food.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
Leftovers and bye bye.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah so yeah, So so I got the three kids,
and I started working with the Panthers right before I
had seen a Gunner because, like Zochie said, when he
left and what's over at RFX, I guess maybe I
don't know who recommended me to David Langdon, but that's
the producer for all the Panthers, probably because somebody David
called me up and said, hey, do you want to
(19:51):
do a scotting report, a weekly scotting report for our
pregame show.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
I'm like cool, so and that's what two thousand and one.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
That was probably two thousand three. Maybe the Super Bowl
season all the history you have with yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
It might have been that.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And that's you know, back when Keith Larson was here too.
That was when all this sort of took off with
the sports stuff too, because they sent me WBT sent
me to the Super Bowl with Brett, and I started
doing a hit every day, like with Larsen and stuff,
and so we were always talking Panthers and then anyway,
at some point David Langton called me up to do
pregame stuff and which I enjoyed immensely. And then I
(20:27):
had my kids, and that was a whole nother ball
of wax. When I fell and had that accident, had
my kids so premature. I was in the hospital forever
and I couldn't like walk again because i'd been doing
sidelines for ESPN.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
I forgot that part.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I did start doing sidelines for ESPN when I got
here Free ESPN three, you know, it's like ESPN Plus
or whatever it is now. They actually had an office
here in Charlotte, and my old contact from Florida State
and Miami in the Big twelve hooked me up with them,
and so I started doing college football games. When I
first started working here, too.
Speaker 6 (20:56):
So your mother raising three children and yet not yet.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Yeah, So I started doing college football games.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
The MAC was my conference.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Actually, good All, Bowling Green, Zookie's alma mater, Toledo Marshall
was awesome, Western Michigan the hot Spots, Yes, Northern Illinois,
the Huskies. But I actually got to interview with some
people who went on to phenomenal NFL crews. You know,
Ben Roethlisberger starting with him, you know, and Leftwich, Michael Turner,
Michael the Burner Turner at Northern Illinois. That was when
(21:28):
who is the former Florida coach that and then was
at Ohio State and then he was in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Urban Meyer.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Urban Meyer was the head coach at Bowling Yeah, and
Northern Illinois upset them with Michael Turner at Bowling Green.
So and I had my own Susie Colberg moment at
that game. Actually, I was interviewing some wealthy alumni donor
and he was three sheets to the wind drunk.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
You what the second half of the show, I want
to hear something.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
So I was doing sidelines for three years in a
row where I'd travel to the MAC and it was great.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It was great fun, but you cover you know, two
sidelines that way, because you're covering two schools, so you're
running for one side to the other. And then when
I fell and broke my ankle so bad and had
my kids so premature and stuff, it was like, you know,
everything stopped for a while and just happened that the
Panthers once again came calling and they were like, hey,
would you be interested in doing sidelines for us?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
And I'm like, heck yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
So it was perfect because I only had to be
on one sideline since I couldn't walk very well at
that point, and I only do one sideline, and it
was only home games because back then they used to
have a rule no females on the team plane for
a while.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
And so this is back in the stage.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
Looking at a gym.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah they did.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And so Mike Craft was my counterpart for the road games,
and he worked for the Panthers for years and years
and years also over here WBTV, And so that's how
I fell into my my gig with Panthers, and then
I've been there ever since. Now this is my twentieth
anniversary of sidelines for the Panthers. Wow, I'm all officially
all yeah, well exactly exactly so, and then that's so
(23:06):
that's when I had my kids. That was the first
year that I had my twins at home. When I
was doing silence and only home, it was great. So
I didn't have to travel anymore. I didn't have to
cover two sidelines.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
That worked out beautiful.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Our listeners, I mean, we hear you and we may
see you from time to time. But all the prep
work that goes into just doing that for an NFL team,
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Well Zochie, well the amount of stuff he has a
lot a piece of paper will blow your mind. But
I'm the same way. I I would rather be so
over prepared than not know what I'm doing. So yeah,
I mean you go to locker room a couple times
a week. I do so much homework for my pregame
scouting reports. I mean I spend hours on that. And yeah,
I mean you have you have to pay attention to things.
(23:44):
You can't just like show up and talk. It just
doesn't work that way because you have to know stories
about guys and not just about them on the field.
You want to know them personally as well, so you
can get some interesting tidbits to bring you know, you
want our listeners to learn about these players as people,
not just what they're doing on the field. And then
when you are on the field, you're the eyes and
ears for the listener because they can't see what's going
(24:07):
on in terms of the sidelines, saying for the guys
in the booth, you know, because I'm down there listening
to hear what the coaches are saying, what players are
talking about, see who's doing what over here, who's changing
a pair of shoes, making a glove adjustment, whatever they
may be doing. So I do a ton of prep work,
Like I come to games with like I'm not kidding you,
fifty potential sideline hits him.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
It's all ad libbing, isn't it. It's all right off
the top of your head. I mean, you have to
be Johnny on the spot.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
So I said that the bow on the WBT Morning
show earlier this week. We were talking about something else.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
But I said, it's like it's preparing to add lib.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Yeah, so you do all there, that's a good way
to phrase it.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
In the week heading up or whatever amount of time
you have. Sometimes it's the night before if you got
two games, so you're preparing and you eave all your notes,
but then you have to kind of have a top
of mine when stuff pops up.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
That you can talk.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Like I say all the time, it's like I write
my notes and there's something in the act for me
personally writing stuff out that is it's not like two
weeks ago. If it's like recent days, like I couldn't
have recall and just even without looking at my notes.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
That's what I'm saying. It's in my head and.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
It'll disappear after that game as you get ready for
the new information in the new game.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
But I know you're the same way too. You're prepared
to be able to live.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
I have to because like that's why I have it
all written down. And they do say that if you
actually handwrite things, it gets in your brain. That's why
they say kids with all the phone stuff and on
the computers, that's not where they're learning anything.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
The whole ability to pull vocabulary, to pull appropriate words.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, And like I write out different things, you know,
with topics of what I want to talk about, so
and I bring it with me so that I can
be like and David, our producer for the Panthers, he'll
be like, hey, you know you got something on Cuba
Hubbard And I'm like, oh, yeah, and so we're gonna
come down to you after this next play, and so
I can talk about, Oh, Cuba Hubbard stays after every
single practice and before every single game working on the
(25:52):
jugs machine because he wants to be a complete receiver
blah blah blah. So I've got that in my head
and I have it in my notes, so I'll scan
and be like, Oh, Sharon, what's going on down there?
Speaker 4 (25:59):
And I'm like, oh, I can talk about.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Trevin Wallace, you know, who has a great mentor with
Luke Keigley and Shaq Thompson and talks to them every
single day still. So I always want to have something
because that happens a lot, especially in the preseason when
we're just trying to fill time because those preseason games
are just so rivid.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
So you come up with stuff. So I have so
much stuff prepared so I can have it.
Speaker 6 (26:23):
One of the things that I enjoy what you do
and you do too as well, Jim.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Is you'll highlight or hype up something and I'm saying, well,
that must be important, because I did not know that
that must be critical to their performance.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
I did not know that. Both. You do a wonderful
job that Sharon. I all times I go, is that really? Well,
I guess it is. She's telling us it is.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
I think it's important maybe, But yeah, I think it's
to find out some quirky stuff about guys.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
And then some guys have some really really neat stories.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Remember fa Obada, he was one of our players that
came on the Pathways program from England and you know
he was like homeless and was like trafficked London and
you know ended up in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
I mean, what a wild story.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
And guys do really neat things like JJ Jansen, who
I know you've had on.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
David Chadwick Show.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Guys do some really unbelievable work, you know, on the
community and stuff.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
And so I think there's a lot.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Of really cool stuff that needs to be put out
there besides just what they're doing on the actual football field.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
And both you can evaluate talent, you can evaluate the
physical excess and oh's, but you could also evaluate the
personality and do they have the kind of drive and
kind of resilience to keep moving forward?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I think, oh yeah, I mean you see obviously all
sorts of personalities, especially Zokie's been here longer than me,
and you see so many different types of people come
through the NFL. I mean that's what my focus is
right now. I mean I obviously cover all sports, and
I used to go cover everything. We used to cover
every sport out there, but now it's honed down to
where my big focus that I do.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
I love the NFL. I used to be like, oh, NFL.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
I never paid two cents of attention to it until
I got here. I mean I was to college all
the way, you know, ACC and Florida State and whatever
in college, and now I.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Love the NFL.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I think it's just so much fun to come and
so much fun to watch, and it is. It is
cool and you can you can tell. You can tell
who's got that drive, like a Steve Smith who's gonna,
you know, got that chip on his shoulder it's going
to be successful, versus like a Calvin Benjamin who all
sort of walked around you. You called it, You called
it it factor, Yeah, exactly, the ED Factor.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
Kelvin was an FSU guy, so he was. That hurts
her to say that, but we.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Always laughed too. It was like when we have draft
picks or new free agents. We're like, oh, this guy
a good interviewer. We're having this conversation. I practice yesterday
and I was interviewing somebody and she said, well, this
guy used to be good, but I didn't talk as
much triicle. Yeah, And I talked to this guy last year,
was still in the roster, by the way, and I
was expecting like this big personality and he was like
five second answer guy.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
So you kind of like it's funny.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
In our world, you evaluate the athlete, you also evaluate
who could I go get a really good interview with
that will fit for this week.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Who's a good talker?
Speaker 6 (28:47):
Well, but the job too is building that relationship so
they feel comfortable with you.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
That's that's that's so key because they need to be
able to trust you, and they can they can tell
who's who shows up for a minute.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
And you go every week.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Yeah, when you're there all the time and you don't
you write something inflammatory on Twitter about them and stuff.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
I mean, they get mad, you know, they get ticked off.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
So you do have to and you want to know
what you're talking about, especially as a female in this business.
If you don't know what you're talking about, It makes
me mad when people just you know, because it's like,
you got to know what you're talking about, because players
and coaches in particular, they have a lot more respect
for you if you know what you're talking about, if
you're prepared, if you're knowledgeable about the game and what's
going on and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
So I think that's really really key here on Carolina Focus.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
On this Sunday morning, a special Profiles and Broadcasting is
Jim Zochi and I are celebrating Sharon Thorsland's twenty fifth year.
She's sharing her story, her career.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
To date, and then when we come back, I want
to hear some of those special moments, some of those
great interviews, some of those sideline craziness, weather related and
all that kind of thing. As we continue our discussion
here with Sharon Thortsland, Carolina Focus will be right back
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