Over the last 22 years at ESPN Radio, a lot has changed. Change is inevitable for every brand and every station, especially over that amount of time. Hosts change. Show line-ups change. The advertisers change. Heck, I still remember when guests called in to ESPN Radio via the Subway Fresh Take Hotline! Over the course of the last 22 years, just about everything at ESPN Radio has changed. Everything that is, except Christine Lisi, who has been providing SportsCenter updates on ESPN Radio every Monday through Friday for those 22 years.
“I got hired in 1995 at ESPN as a production assistant,” she told BSM this week. “I did everything. My last couple years, I worked on NHL Tonight. Then I left briefly and worked in radio in Hartford and I got back to ESPN Radio part-time, and then I just kind of worked my way up. So it’s been a fun ride, you know?”
Lisi provides 18 updates a day Monday-Wednesday, occupying the 10:00 am-6:30 pm timeslot, then provides six updates a day on Thursday and Friday for the 10:00 am-2:30 pm timeslot. The updates are 55 seconds or 70 seconds, depending on the time of day and they always start the familiar SportsCenter music bed, the imaging voice saying “THIS IS SPORTSCENTER” followed by the phrase: “I’m Christine Lisi…”
She’s a master of her craft, trying to cram all the relevant news and soundbites into approximately a minute of air time. She writes her own scripts and will cut her own audio if she thinks it will help her, even after 22 years at the network. She’s almost always trying to look ahead, rather than behind.
“I do write my own scripts and I tend to look ahead unless it’s breaking news. I tend to look forward,” she says.
For example, when we spoke on Tuesday of this week, the big national topic was Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray getting hurt the night before.
“He was injured last night, but I’m spinning it forward to say that today he’s undergoing testing and getting an MRI and the team thinks he has a torn ACL. So I look at it like that.”
Those updates also change constantly throughout the day, depending on what the news of the day is, and Lisi is always ready for her updates to be different than the one that aired previously.
“I write four skeleton scripts or four base updates, and then I will change it throughout the day,” she says. “Like today, there’s a World Cup semi-final so that’ll get worked in. It just depends on what happens that day.
“On a trade deadline day for the four sports, it can be really busy and changing and constantly different. Some of the stuff from my 12:30 update might not be in my 4:30 but it might be, it depends on the news of the day.”
Lisi is constantly aware of what’s happening on the ESPN family of networks. She watches SportsCenter all day long, while listening actively to ESPN Radio. She knows what the hosts are talking about, the opinions of the hosts, and she’s ready to jump in on the air if a host is looking for that.
“It’s a lot of fun,” she says. “Some people bring me in a little bit more than others, but it’s always fun to listen because everybody’s from different parts of the country and they have different rooting interests. So that’s always interesting to hear people’s takes on different stuff.”
Something else has changed over the last 22 years? A lot of local stations are taking out their update features, just assuming that listeners can get that information on their phones. So why have Lisi and her updates remained integral at the national level and survived that way of thinking?
“I think it’s because we give information and I think information is important,” she says. “I know opinions are important too, but I think you know that if you listen to the top or bottom of the hour at ESPN Radio, you’re going to get the days important news for 24 hours because our anchoring staff is really, really good. And I think that’s important.”
“Also, when you’re in your car, you’re not supposed to be on your phone!” she says. “It’s true! That’s a little known fact that I don’t know if people realize. You’re not supposed to be on your phone. So you can get all the news updates and you can get them when you listen to the radio.”
In 22 years, a lot can change – and a lot has changed for ESPN Radio.
But Christine Lisi’s passion, work ethic and importance to the network, have not.
Brady Farkas is a sports radio professional with 5+ years of experience as a Program Director, On-Air Personality, Assistant Program Director and Producer in Burlington, VT and Albany, NY. He’s well versed in content creation, developing ideas to generate ratings and revenue, working in a team environment, and improving and growing digital content thru the use of social media, audio/video, and station websites. His primary goal is to host a daily sports talk program for a company/station that is dedicated to serving sports fans. You can find him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady and reach him by email at bradyfarkas@gmail.com.
