Wyland an on-air staple for 3 decades
When the Travers was held at Saratoga yesterday it marked the 31st time local TV broadcast journalist Rodger Wyland has covered the big race.
In fact, the 1986 running of that event, when Wise Times upset Broad Brush, was Wyland’s first local assignment.
Not many other local journalists can claim to have been covering Saratoga for all of that time.
Wyland remembers that first one took place on August 16, so we’re a week and a half past his employment anniversary date.
But, the Travers is as good a time as any to celebrate Wyland’s 30 years locally, particularly when they’ve been filled with so much good work. And, yes, really filled. Since coming into our region, after working for six years in Altoona, Pa., Wyland has been first the back-up sports anchor to Bob McNamara at WNYT (TV
13) and, then, as the station’s lead sportscaster when McNamara gave up the position in 2001.
Wyland has also been a staple on area radio with a popular morning sports talk show that now runs for two hours every weekday on WTMM (104.5 FM).
And, if that isn’t enough, he’s also does play-by-play work for UAlbany football and basketball games.
Oh, there’s any number of appearances hosting banquets or general public speaking engagements to heap on his very full plate.
Without any doubt he is our broadcast world’s version of James Brown, the hardest working man in the business locally.
And, certainly, among the best.
Thirty years and he’s good as ever, if not better. It’s clear he hasn’t lost anything on his broadcast fastball. He’s still, somehow, fresh every day on the air. Still topical and still relevant about sports both national and local.
Like everyone in the profession, he elicits opinions about his work. Most like him, some don’t.
The biggest knock is that he is a “homer” for
UAlbany sports because of his work for the school.
“I do get some of that,” Wyland said in a recent interview. “But, I never short change Siena (the area’s other Division 1-level program). I know our local fan base. I cover both equally. If anything, I give an edge to Siena.”
Some of that anti-Siena perception probably came from an adversarial relationship he had with former Siena coach Fran McCaffery.
“I don’t know (why that happened),” says Wyland. “I think a lot of the older guard got in Fran’s ear to tell him that I was the UAlbany guy and that he shouldn’t associate with me. But, Fran and I were better as his time went on (McCaffery was at Siena for five years) and we’re good now.”
And Wyland and current coach Jimmy Patsos have what Wyland terms a “great relationship.”
That pretty much describes Wyland’s professional relationships with everyone he’s encountered.
He’s opinionated, but mostly non-confrontational.
“I’d say my style is pretty conservative,” he says. “I don’t rant much (on his radio show). I try to engage our listners as much as I can. I try to localize
as much as I can (a variety of local coaches and personalities appear regularly). I give my opinions, but try not to say anything crazy. I don’t say something over the top just to promote phone calls.”
Mostly, he projects an easy-going, friendly demeanor whether in person or over the airwaves.
When he does interviews he asks relevant questions and gets out of the way to let his guests do the talking.
And, his guest list is extremely extensive, and includes coaches, athletes and a variety of beat journalists both from the local or national scene.
Those connections definitely pay off.
Wyland worked regularly at Giants training camp when that NFL team had its preseason preparation at the UAlbany campus and, over the years, developed a solid relationship with former team coach Tom Coughlin.
It all helped Wyland to get an on-field exclusive interview with Coughlin moments after the Giants beat the New England Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl.
“As Tom (Coughlin) was leaving the field, I made a beeline for him, but he had a big guy named Murph,
his security guard, who was charged with getting him off the field ... there weren’t supposed to be onfield interviews, only later in the press area,” Wyland relates.
“But, I saw an opening (in the crush of on-field bodies) to get in there. Murph knew me from preseason camps and gave me the nod to say he was going to let me in. So, I was walking off the field with Tom, said `Hey, coach, congratulations.’ He looked at me, recognized me, and asked how I was doing. He let me get in a couple of questions that took, maybe, a minute.
“I was the only one who got that immediacy with him. It gave what we were doing there (in Phoenix) credibility. It made our entire week there worthwhile.”
He ranks big events like covering the Giants and Saratoga among his favorites, but says he enjoys local events just as much.
He lists covering the 1988-89 Siena men’s basketball team among his most-enjoyable assignments.
“When they went to the NCAA Tournament for the first time and knocked off Stanford in Greensboro, N.C. (in the tournament’s first round) ... Mike Deane was coaching ... that put
Siena on the map,” he says. “That was a highlight of mine, for sure.”
You would never know that, though, from his onair persona. He turns in as enthusiastic and professional an effort covering Pop Warner football or high school basketball as he does when he’s at the Super Bowl or the NCAA Tournament.
He has done all of that locally since Ronald Reagan was just in the second year of his second presidential term, Tom Selleck was starring on TV in Magnum P.I. and Mike Tyson became the youngest boxer to capture the heavyweight title.
When he came here the Albany-Colonie Yankees were in just their second season, Doc Sauers was still UAlbany’s basketball coach and that program was still on the Division III level, and Greg Koubek was finishing his junior season as a basketball standout at Shenendehowa High School.
He never envisioned still being here 30 years after that, never envisioned covering 31 runnings of the Travers.
“When I first came here I thought I was on a fiveyear plan,” he says. “I figured I’d be here five years, get some more experience and, then, try to get to the
Pittsburgh market which was closer to my home.
“That never happened. One year led to another and, suddenly, I became entrenched in this area. WNYT has treated me very well. My radio work, between the talk show and the play-by-play work, is a close second. My wife (Kelly) works in the business (an on-air radio personality on WGY and a TV journalist for WNYT) and my kids are happy here.”
And, so is Wyland, who is as vibrant and energetic in his mid-50’s as he was when he first landed in our area.
“Fortunately, I’m in good health and still have a lot of energy,” he says. “I plan on doing TV for as long as they’ll keep me, and radio can be very long-term, too. Plus, I still enjoy doing the play-byplay work.”
It means that will have the good fortune to have him with us, providing sports news, interviews and insights for many years to come.
So far it’s 30 years and counting for Wyland, the voice of our area’s sports’ scene.