The Scoop - October 17, 2016
Posted by Heather Rutz on Oct 21, 2016
Broadcaster's career followed high school sports' popularity.
As technology allowed area media companies to feed high school sports fans’ appetites, broadcaster Mike Shepp was there to usher in big time coverage of games and atheletes.
Shepp, also a retired English and speech teacher, discussed his career in broadcasting Monday, and told stories from his book, “Game Time.” The book details a career in sports broadcasting that spanned from 1979 to 2013.
Shepp began his career with WDOH in Delphos. However, it was nearly a decade later that he was in on the ground floor of televising high school games, when WTLW made the decision to move beyond its Christian audience.
“They experimented with three games,” Shepp said. “And people loved it.” That began what Shepp called a ‘golden era’ in high school sports, stretching into the mid-1990s. School administrators were cool to broadcasting games, even on tape delay, at first because they believed it would kill attendance.
That didn’t happen, Shepp said, as people came for the live event and enjoyed it so much they wanted to go home and watch it all over.
“I think today, with the West Ohio Sports Network, we have some of the best high local school sports coverage in the state,” Shepp said.
Lima Senior High basketball standout Greg Simpson was the best player Shepp covered, he said.
“There was always a vibe in the gym,” he said. “You never knew who would show up (to watch him play).”
In other business Monday:
The club received an update on the Abilities Rotary Field at UNOH. Construction has begun and some pieces could be added as late as November, depending on weather. If the weather turns, work will resume in the spring.
Chuck Butts is celebrating his 45th anniversary in Rotary.
Harold Bischoff with the International Service Committee updated the club and said a quarterly report will be in the upcoming eSpoke. The global grant for Honduras sanitation improvement was signed off on. It has a budget of $197,001 and multiple clubs and districts from the United States, Canada and Mexico participating. The next step will send an inspection team to Honduras, possibly as early as November.
Bischoff said a separate service project opportunity in Honduras will be available in January. If anyone is interested, they must pay their own way and see Bischoff for details.
Lima Rotary Club will mark World Polio Day Oct. 24 with a community awareness day that will include raising a polio flag in Town Square and a proclamation from Mayor David Berger.