In Front Of The Camera And Behind The Mic With Chris Wittyngham

Photo credit: Chris Wittyngham

The North American Soccer League’s TV universe has expanded this year to include the CBS Sports Network, which joins ONE World Sports, beIN Sports and ESPN3.com as national broadcast partners in the United States. Each week, NASL.com will speak with one of the people whose words paint the pictures of the beautiful game. Jack Bell spoke with Chris Wittyngham, 23, of beIN SPORTS.

Bell: The first, obvious question: Is there a story behind the way you spell your surname?

Wittyngham: It’s funny, but to be honest I still don’t know and it’s bizarre, I agree. We haven’t been able to get to bottom of that. My ancestry is really bizarre, I’m mostly Colombian. My dad was born in LA to Colombian parents, my mom, too. And we really have no idea where it came in. An uncle was obsessed with that for a while. We’ve done some digging, but haven’t come up with anything and I really don’t know.

Bell: Since calling NASL games on beIN SPORTS is mostly a weekend gig, tell us about your day job.

Wittyngham: It’s really only one other job with AM 790 The Ticket which is the top sports station in Miami. I’ve been there since 2012 and co-host an afternoon show, that’s my primary job during the week. It’s a local sports radio show. We cover all the local Miami sports teams, the Dolphins and the Marlins primarily, but since December it’s been mostly a Miami Heat show because that’s when I started working with the host, Ethan Skolnick, who covers the Heat for The Miami Herald. Mostly it’s us talking about events and games. It’s a good show. A typical sports show. But we only take calls on a limited basis. That’s been a shift around the radio station. We rely mostly for guests from the teams.

Bell: How did the position with beIN SPORTS and the NASL come about?

Wittyngham: When beIN got the rights to NASL games, it was pretty close to start of the season. I got a phone call asking if I might be interested. I went in for an interview. One of the producers at beIN works on motor racing for the network and I had worked with him on a soccer-related project. I guess they asked around the office, my name came up, and I got the call.

Bell: On your radio show it seems the focus is on the Big Three American sports: Football, baseball and basketball. So where does your interest in soccer come from?

Wittyngham: At home growing up we would get together at our house to watch big matches involving Colombia. But to be honest, most of the credit goes to my brother Matthew [a former intern with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers who now works as a statistics analyst at ESPN]. When he was in college he had a group of people who got into watching games from [England’s] Premier League.  I got a cable package just so I could watch games and watch the Premier League review show. From there I became a huge EPL fan. That was also borne out of an interest in the U.S. men’s national team, but it felt kind of funny just watching every four years during the World Cup and really not knowing much about the players. From 2010 I really sank my teeth into the game.

Bell: When did you go from being a fan to being involved on the broadcasting end?

Wittyngham: My broadcast work started in the summer of 2014 when the radio station I work at needed a World Cup expert to go on all the radio shows to discuss the tournament. We had a sponsor who wanted World Cup updates, so I was able to speak about it with some degree of authority. I really came to enjoy and love the game.

Bell: Where did you go from there?

Wittyngham: We took a trip to London that we had built around plans to go to an Arsenal-Chelsea match. My brother is an Arsenal fan. But it turns out we booked the trip without realizing that the game was part of their flexible scheduling scheme. They moved the game to a Monday night, the day we were leaving. We scrambled for another game and ended up at Craven Cottage to see Fulham and Manchester City. We found great seats on short notice, something like the fourth row behind the goal. It was really cool to soak up the atmosphere. That’s when I became a Man City fan. Blue through and through!

Bell: On your Twitter page, there’s a panoramic shot of Wembley Stadium. Was that from the same trip?

Wittyngham: On that trip I had to drag everyone else to go to Wembley. We ended up taking a tour, which is when I took a panorama shot. We also took a tour of the Emirates, of course. But the trip to Wembley was really awesome.

Bell: Which was the first NASL game you called?

Wittyngham: It was the Spring Season game between the Rowdies and Carolina at Al Lang Stadium. Carolina won [3-1] on the road.

Bell: When you do games you call them remotely from Miami. Are there challenges to doing it that way and how does today’s technology contribute to the overall production?

Wittyngham: I don’t think I’ve ever called a game in person, this is the only way I’ve done it so I’m not uncomfortable. There are really only some technical things, like accurately picking out players and when a ball goes into the area from a corner, for example, trying to figure out who’s making the play. The one thing I miss is absorbing the atmosphere, but it comes through because we’re hooked up for sound so you still feel like you’re there. Yes, it’s a different experience but I’m not uncomfortable with it.

I would like to be on site, maybe one day. With the proximity of Miami FC and the Strikers it could work.

Bell: How does technology enhance the presentation?

Wittyngham: I think, first off, the fact that it’s crystal clear HD on a big screen and that we can have an audio feed, hear the crowd and play off it is big. We recommend on air that people tweet to us and send their thoughts on the game. Sometimes they come directly from people at the ground, we can follow the hashtag and it really does bring the audience to life.

Bell: We know it’s relatively early, but can you share some of your impressions of the NASL?

Wittyngham: I came in with no real preconceptions. I have been to a few Strikers games and I have enjoyed them. I think the quality has been great, we’ve had fun games with a lot of goals. And last week we had [Indy Eleven’s] Dylan Mares score the type of goal [at the 1:24 mark here] you’d see at the top level abroad. We had a Minnesota game where Kevin Venegas came off the right side and belted a curler [at the 1:54 mark here], top-level stuff. Really fun soccer, and I don’t think it gets enough attention for quality. The league has been attracting good quality players from the U.S. and internationally.

Bell: Ray Hudson must be the man around beIN SPORTS. Have you had a chance to get any pointers from him?

Wittyngham: I honestly haven’t seen him around much, with it being the offseason for the European leagues. The guy whose brain I’ve been picking is my partner Thomas Rongen. Last week when we had the Indy-Minnesota game, he very honestly told me on the air that at the beginning of his MLS career he thought that Jon Busch was too short to be a top ‘keeper.

But the most fun part for me is how the league does a great job scheduling interviews with the coaches of the games we’ll be doing. We’re able to pick their brains and get their thoughts about what goes on around the league. It’s fun to talk with them. What we do demands hours of preparation, and we try to dig for a little bit extra. We’re looking for quality information.

Bell: Lastly, do you have a favorite sport?

Wittyngham: It would be hard for me to pick one, but it would be 1A, 1B, and 1C among football, basketball, and soccer. I have a very balanced sporting diet.