It all started as a student in a television production elective class at Mahwah High School for Jared Greenberg. Largely surrounded by seniors, Greenberg was a freshman enamored with sports and athletics with a yearning to develop the skills necessary to compete at a high level.
While he affirms that he struggled both academically and on the playing field, his penchant for professional sports remained, frequently consuming them by listening to the radio and watching ESPN and other sports coverage.
One day in class, Greenberg’s high school teacher was told WRPR 90.3 FM, a radio station affiliated with Ramapo College, was looking for high school student volunteers to operate the board and schedule music to play over the air.
Greenberg was eager for a way to stay in the landscape of professional sports, and took full advantage of the chance. On his first day at the station, Greenberg, then-14 years old, was driven by his father on a Sunday afternoon and distinctly remembers turning on the station’s FM transmitter. In that very moment, he realized broadcast media was the industry which he desired to work in.
After some time passed playing music on the air, he approached the management team at the radio station about hosting a sports talk show, an idea the station was open to and gave him the chance to pioneer. He then asked to call play-by-play for some of the college’s basketball and baseball games and was subsequently given permission.
“Once I took advantage of that opportunity, everything kind of clicked for me,” Greenberg said. “I could turn my passion for watching and talking about sports into a career… and [the] focus for my entire life changed.”
Greenberg’s decision to matriculate at Hofstra University was at the suggestion of CBS Sports and YES Network broadcaster Ian Eagle, who he met at 15 years old while credentialed at a professional sporting event.
During his time on the island, he worked a majority of the football and basketball games as a play-by-play announcer on 88.7 WRHU-FM, the college’s award-winning campus radio station. In the summer preceding his first semester at the school though, Greenberg drove from Mahwah, N.J. to Hempstead, N.Y. to participate in the station’s required training class. Four years later, he graduated with over 200 live game broadcasts under his belt, along with additional experience producing sports talk and morning drive programming.
“I spent more time at that radio station and [was more] involved in that radio station than anything else on campus,” Greenberg said. “I understand that education is important and classroom work is vital, but I think the most important step to success in this industry is gaining practical experience. I think what gets undervalued at college radio and TV stations is real-life, real-world experience.”
Near the end of his time in college, Greenberg worked as a public relations intern with the New York Giants. That experience was short-lived though, as the statistician for radio play-by-play announcer Bob Papa did not show up to a home game, leading Greenberg to be asked to fill in on short notice. Greenberg did his best to quickly adapt to the experience, and remained in it for several years thereafter.
“Just learning from Bob Papa and Carl Banks, and I got to work with Chris Carlin who was often filling in for Bob or doing our postgame show; it was the most surreal experience,” Greenberg said. “….I’ve been a close mentee and friend of Ian Eagle for years, so to have two of the very best play-by-play voices in football [and] just [get] to be so close to [them] and learn from them has really been priceless for me.”
Around the same time in his career, Greenberg worked with the Newark Bears, an unaffiliated Atlantic League team, in which he served as the team’s media relations manager and broadcaster for all road games. He had previously been with the organization in high school as a broadcast associate, working directly with lead play-by-play announcer Dave Popkin to gain exposure and experience covering professional sporting events.
Up until this point in his career, Greenberg was focused on working in radio largely because it was the medium from which most of his experience derived. Yet his early chances to work as a sideline reporter on select television broadcasts at Hofstra University made him more sentient of potentially working in television.
As a freelance reporter at News 12, Greenberg was responsible for being on location and acting as a full-throttled multimedia journalist. He would then sometimes be asked to host the sport segment on the news at night.
“I was still only covering sports, but it was obviously through a different lens literally and figuratively,” Greenberg explained. “….With a newcast, you’re being told you’re on at 10:20 and you’ve got 90 seconds to deliver all this information you have. It’s a lot different to fit it in that short period of time. Also, you can’t be a second late because if you’re a second late, you throw off the entire newscast.”
Greenberg assimilated back into working at a sports network when he was hired by the Madison Square Garden Company to host programming on the now-defunct MSG Varsity channel. Additionally he worked as a play-by-play announcer for the Northeast Conference on ESPN and as a digital host for the New York Giants.
“I loved the idea of doing some studio hosting; some play-by-play; some sideline reporting; [and] some anchoring in a studio in terms of a news broadcast doing sports,” Greenberg said. “I loved the idea of doing so many different things.”
Greenberg returned to working in radio when he was hired by SiriusXM as a host on its NBA radio station, contributing to various programs including Out of Bounds, FanDuel Fantasy Basketball and Off the Dribble.
“I think it’s sometimes difficult to remember that what you find interesting or what you want to talk about is not what the general public or the mass audience wants to hear or listen to,” Greenberg said.
“I think it’s a really hard balance; there’s no exact science on how to figure that out…. This is a really special art form that if you’re going to be good at it, it takes a lot of energy and time to invest in how to really capitalize on all of that.”
As a child, Greenberg always wanted to be a professional basketball player. Instead, he resorted to covering the game and received a chance to do so with the league itself when he signed on with NBA TV in 2005 as a voiceover artist.
During his job interview with NBA TV, he remembers being told that he would never be on television with the network and that if he were to be hired, it would be to strictly perform voiceovers for game highlights and other programming.
“You’ve got to be great at the job you’re hired [for], but never satisfied with the position you’re in and always reaching for more without overreaching,” he said. “….For me, that was a position of me being motivated.”
One year later, Greenberg was being utilized as a fill-in television host, a role that expanded when the network was purchased by Turner Sports in 2012 and subsequently moved to Atlanta.
Previously, Greenberg never foresaw himself moving away to advance his career, as he was working in the industry’s top market; however, the opportunity to work with Turner Sports was simply too good of an offer to pass up.
“I had never been to Atlanta prior to auditioning for the role I got,” he said. “It was a weird feeling. I was getting a promotion but I’m also leaving the number one media market.”
Within his first week of employment, he was pulled aside by Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley to be formally welcomed to the family. It was a moment that had profound meaning and impact for Greenberg as he sought to assimilate into his new lifestyle.
“You walk into the studio here in Atlanta on any given night and it’s a who’s who of some of the greatest players of all time,” Greenberg said. “It’s just a chill atmosphere, and one of the biggest things about Tuner is that they don’t put up [with] or hire, quite frankly, any of that diva mentality.
“Everybody is so low key, and that tone is set with Charles Barkley who is… the face of all of this. He is the most approachable, giving person you could ever imagine for being a household name.”
Over the years working with Turner Sports on both TNT and NBA TV, Greenberg has hosted The Jump, NBA GameTime, Making The Call and, of course, Shaqtin’ A Fool where he was famously picked up on set by Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal. Greenberg seeks to accentuate the perspectives analysts bring to each program with the goal of making the content appealing for viewers.
“You can’t just ask a blanket question to an analyst or set them up in a blanket way,” Greenberg said. “You have to learn to play to their strengths [and] set them up for things they are passionate about to get the most out of them. That’s just been a really cool experience.”
As a television host, Greenberg relies on his preparation to be able to adapt to various scenarios, whether those be on a hard or soft news basis. The same premise applies when preparing to work as a sideline reporter for the NBA on TNT. The essence of the role itself was explained to him by the late Craig Sager, a standout sports reporter known for his flamboyant outfits and effervescent personality.
“You talk so much about relationship-building in every industry you go into, but particularly in this one, it truly helps you to succeed,” Greenberg said. “….I try to maximize my time on the ground that you couldn’t simply get from googling or opening up your local newspaper. I want to give that perspective.”
Through his sideline reporting, Greenberg is more or less able to localize the national coverage because of the incomparable access the network receives through relationships with players and team personnel. Whereas regional broadcasters often have a direct connection through their team by virtue of the nature of their employment or ownership of the regional sports network, national reporters usually have no affiliation to a particular team, giving them more latitude in topic selection and delivery.
“A lot of the time, they’re not there to report the news; they’re there to be an infomercial for that organization,” Greenberg said of regional broadcasters. “For us we have the leeway to tell the story as it is without worrying about any P.R. consequences.”
Greenberg combines both his television hosting experience and reporting acumen as the host of the newly revamped NBA CrunchTime on the NBA league app. Over the years, there have been many networks that have tried to institute whiparound coverage. NFL Red Zone hosted by Scott Hanson is uniquely positioned because of its longevity and ability to show every touchdown from every game, as the sport of football has bursts of action. Conversely, the action is relatively continuous in basketball and the bursts are not necessarily predictable, so it is fundamental Greenberg be able to pivot at a moment’s notice.
“It’s not even just the nonstop action,” Greenberg explained. “It’s how different we are from football, and I think it’s important for people to understand that [who] are asking why [we don’t] do this every night. At 1:00 on Sunday, there’s six or eight games going on simultaneously every [week]. For us, the calendar and the schedule changes every night.”
Tonight, all but four NBA teams are active, meaning that Greenberg will be live on the NBA league app bringing viewers the most urgent action on NBA CrunchTime. There have been several iterations of Greenberg’s “passion project” over the last six seasons, airing on various different platforms. In this new format, the program will try to appeal to all types of basketball fans, whether they be focused on sports betting, fantasy sports or gaining a pulse of the action around the league as a whole.
“We’re going to have the opportunity… to deliver people what I think is a new way of watching sports and understanding the consumer,” Greenberg said. “It’s us really learning who that consumer is of our content…. We’re going to deliver you the very latest and the biggest moments as it’s happening in every game. When the schedule is right for us, we’re going to do it as much as we can.”
Being aware of movement in the industry helped Greenberg understand the direction of Turner Sports and how he could help facilitate its goals, and these were aspects of his interview and subsequent audition that surely helped differentiate him from other candidates.
Appropriately preparing for on-air work and professional interactions has rounded Jared Greenberg into a multimedia reporter and journalist eager to improve at his craft every day on the job that has given him a chance to cover the NBA All Star Game, NBA Finals, NBA Summer League and countless numbers of marquee matchups. He is grateful for all of the opportunities he has been afforded throughout his time in sports media, and looks to inspire young professionals to pursue their dreams through persistence and adaptability.
“Something that’s taken me a really long time to be half-decent at is being a good person to the people around you,” Greenberg said. “Even though this is such a big industry and there’s so much going on and there’s so many moving parts, really it’s a small industry…. Somebody knows somebody who knows you and has access to you. Be a good person, treat people respectfully and understand that you can’t step over people to get to where you want to go.”
Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
