Airing out the Airwaves: Why aren’t APA sportscasters in more prominent roles?
July 25, 2003
There’s an old joke in electronic media circles with the punch line that goes, “You’ve got a face for radio.”
But sometimes looks even count on the radio, it would seem. Especially if you happen to be of Asian Pacific American descent.
One APA sports radio broadcaster, who asked not to be identified by his surname, tells a story of traveling outside of California to interview for an on-air position only to be greeted with a cold shoulder once the station’s general manager realized that the tapes he enjoyed so much were created by an APA.
“Before the interview, I was getting a lot of positive feedback that encouraged me to think I had a pretty good shot at the job. But the reception I received was not warm. Nothing was said outright, but I had no question that my ethnicity had something to do with my not getting the job. It was easy to put two and two together,” he says.
APA faces have become common in recent years. Scores of Asian names now dot baseball box scores on a daily basis. The Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki and New York Yankees’ Hideki Matsui are two of the most popular players in baseball and the 7-foot-7 Houston Rockets center, Yao Ming, is the biggest player in the NBA in more ways than one. Just last week, the San Francisco 49ers signed a Japanese player to compete for a job on the team.
But when it comes to describing the action on the field, APAs have been completely shut out. Of all the four major professional sports (hockey, baseball, basketball and football), not one APA has been a full-time play-by-play or color commentator.
“I think there is some fear that if a team does take a chance by hiring an Asian Pacific American face that it will some how upset the sponsors,” says Lee Leonard Wong, longtime host of Sports Talk, a roundtable discussion show that airs weekly on KEST (1450 AM) in San Francisco and KSJX (1500 AM) in San Jose, Calif.
“And I don’t think we’re going to be seeing chances taken in the future. The political climate in the country and in sports isn’t really inviting to groundbreakers these days. … I know of plenty of qualified APA announcers who could do the job. But unfortunately the people who hire for those positions are close-minded. It’s difficult [for them] to imagine an APA calling an NFL game.”
At 31, Robert Buan is in his fourth year of working as close as you can with the Oakland Athletics’ broadcast crew without actually calling the play-by-play action. As the A’s broadcasting manager, Buan, a Filipino American, coordinates game broadcasts and hosts Extra Innings, a popular call-in talk show after each game. His goal is to someday call the action for a big league team.
Buan is already a groundbreaker. The baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., has informed Buan that he is the first APA in history to be an official member of a major league team’s official broadcast crew.
“It’s an honor, no doubt about it, but it’s not something I think about a lot,” says Buan. “I’d like to think we’re beyond the point when such things would matter, but I do consider it an honor. I’d like to be thought of as a baseball announcer who happens to be Asian.”
“If I do make it as a broadcaster, I don’t think it will have anything to do with being Asian — it will be if I can call a good game. But I’m also not naïve. I know the realities of the world.”
On the TV side of sports broadcasting, APA faces are a rare sight. In the Bay Area, Rick Quan is the exception to the rule. Since 1987, Quan, a native of Houston, has been a sports anchor at KPIX (CBS5) on weekends.
But despite his experience and vast knowledge of the Bay Area sporting scene, Quan has been bypassed several times for top anchor jobs at his station. After 16 years, numerous awards and building up a loyal following, Quan is still where he started at CBS5 — on weekends.
“I’m hesitant to use the terms discrimination or racism because they are very explosive. But, yes, it has been frustrating,” says Quan, 47. “For whatever reason, I have not made that next move. But I’m not alone — you don’t see a lot of Asian males in general on TV news. Part of it has to do with conservative station managers who don’t want to mess with the status quo.”
According to some APAs who work in the sports broadcasting field, race still matters.
Bay Area freelance sports broadcaster Ryan Leong, who counts ESPN Radio and Metro Networks among his regular clients, has seen an APA explosion of talent enter professional sports in the past five seasons. Now that APA athletes are making their mark, Leong can sense a backlash.
“The bar is higher for them. When Ichiro came into the league, they said there was no way he could hit big league pitching or stand up to the daily pressures of the major leagues,” Leong says.
“But when he showed that he could stand up to big league pitching, they found other ways to rap him. Ichiro has received a lot of racist treatment and abuse right here in the Bay Area when he has played in Oakland. Especially when he first joined Seattle, he was the target of abusive language and was hit with coins and other objects.”
Wong, who hosts Sports Talk, has also seen the abuse shift to the Asian media traveling with Asian sports stars.
“You hear a lot of comments about the media, ‘Oh, the Japanese horde,’ taking up the space here when they are only here to cover one player. There is resentment,” says Wong.
NOT IN THE FAMILY
APA sports broadcasters have faced other obstacles — convincing family members that sports journalism is a viable field can also take some work.
“I’m sure my relatives would like to see [me] become a physician or dentist,” Leong says.
Quan adds, “Traditionally, I think Asian men have been steered toward more prominent professions. I know my parents had second thoughts when I told them I wanted to work in TV. I think it is possible that we will see more Asians doing sports, but there has to be more journalists developed and promoted before that happens.”
Buan says it’s been his experience that sports are not at the top of most APAs’ list of activities.
“I don’t think there’s been any research, but it’s been my experience that younger APAs between the ages 18-45 have other things they are passionate about,” Buan says. “From my own personal experience growing up in Spokane, Wash., I was into playing sports like tennis and soccer. I didn’t watch sports. It was only until a good friend of mine forced me to listen to Seattle Mariners baseball on the radio that I fell in love with baseball in high school.”
Buan was on his way to becoming a lawyer at Santa Clara University in the mid-1990s when the sports broadcasting bug caught him. Buan was volunteering at the university radio station when the Santa Clara men’s basketball team advanced deep into the NCAA tournament.
“We switched from the regular broadcasting scheduling during the tournament and we were doing some great stuff on the NCAA basketball tournament,” Buan says. “That was the year we had Steve Nash. It was very exciting and I figured ‘Wow, this is fun. This might be something to look into.’ ”
Buan went on to jobs at KNBR (680 AM) and then hooked on with the Athletics in 2000. On his talk show, Extra Innings, Buan takes calls from A’s fans about that day’s game, interviews players and offers his perspective on the game. Several times during the season, Buan hosts live shows at East Bay restaurants with players and fans.
“I’ve never faced any racism from the fans when they meet me in person,” says Buan. “But I sense they are curious about what nationality [or ethnicity] I am. When I listen to the radio, I always try to place a face with a voice and when I do see or meet them for the first time, they always look totally different than I imagined.”
Buan reports the A’s players have never made an issue of his ethnicity. In fact, he’s picked up few habits from the players, especially those from the southern states.
“All I listen to is country music. Garth Brooks, Shania Twain. It’s another reason for my family to think I’m weird,” says Buan, who was born in Kansas and was raised in Northern California and Washington state.
But no matter how much country music Buan listens to, he made a conscious decision to never shield his heritage.
“I decided early on that I would not adopt an air name,” he says. “I was born Robert Buan and I will stay Robert Buan. I’m proud of my Filipino heritage. But I also like to have fun with my heritage. I love the fact that my mom still isn’t really a hundred percent sure what I do for a living or that my Filipino-born relatives can’t pronounce the letter ‘F’ — I think that’s funny.”
Buan someday hopes to become a play-by-play announcer for a big league team, but he is patient.
“If you look back at some of the great baseball broadcasters, most of them didn’t get their big break until they were into their late 30s,” Buan says. “I’m in no hurry. I will just keep working hard.
“I take this serious. I’m not looking for a free ride. I’d rather be known as a great baseball announcer, not that Filipino guy who does baseball.”
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