MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Are you ready for football? We’re kicking off a new season of Friday Night Football Fever, and this year we have something new. Montgomery Catholic is partnering with WSFA 12 News to televise every game live. They started planning for this nearly a year ago, and now it’s game day. The pressure to get ready is immense.
“A little bit of panic, a little bit of excitement, this is something we’ve never tried before,” said Daniel Harbin, Montgomery Catholic’s technology director.
“Our team is very excited, very nervous, to be honest,” said Justin Castanza, Montgomery Catholic president and live commentator. “As you know, there’s a lot more going on behind the camera than just showing up and talking.”
This is all new to the Montgomery Catholic broadcast team.
“We’ve been doing radio for eight years and have gotten better over the years,” said Castanza.
Now the Montgomery Catholic team is ready to take on television.
“It took about six months and cost $30,000 worth of equipment,” Castanza said.
“I used to always manage our Facebook Live, our live streams and commercials,” says Brittany Bradley, Montgomery Catholic’s marketing director. “This year I’m looking at the commercial aspect. I’ve learned how to set up and create commercials, how to air them and all that good stuff.”
“I just had to learn how to transport a whole shipment,” Harbin said. “It’s a lot of equipment to transport and set up properly. Getting it all set up correctly was a challenge.”
“It will be nothing new for us to talk about football,” Castanza said. “It will be new for people to see what we are talking about. On the radio, you can cheat a little bit. You can delay it to fill in gaps. That is no longer the case.”
All rehearsals are over and this team is ready for kickoff.
“We’re taking eight people with us, two cameramen. Brittany is running the graphics and computers and I’m running the switchers,” Harbin said. “We also have some backup people.”
“I’m super excited,” Castanza said. “I can tell you that I have a lot of confidence in this team.”
When you watch the Knights on TV this year, remember that the teams are on the field and the team is televising this game. Tonight’s game against St. James will be broadcast on WSFA 12 News and wsfa.com. This season, the rest of the games will be broadcast on WSFA 12.2 and wsfa.com.
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