From the latest Sports Media Watch Podcast, prolific play-by-play announcer Alex Faust joins Jon Lewis and Drew Lerner to discuss his career in sports media.
The full podcast can be listened to below (Faust interview begins at the 9 minute mark).
Faust on ouster as voice of the Los Angeles Kings
It was a shock in a lot of ways. Not only the fact that I had never been let go from a job before, so I didn’t know how to process that and all the emotions that came along with it, especially knowing that I wasn’t going to be working with the TV crew that I had grown so close to.
It was a shock as well because when I signed in LA, so much was made in the interview process — and in subsequent years there — of, they wanted it to be a long-term proposition. And I had every intent of making it a long-term proposition. I had put down roots there, bought a house there. And it’s a business at the end of the day, so it happens to pro athletes, it happens to white collar workers, it happens to blue collar workers. It is just a fact of life that sometimes businesses have to pivot when there are challenges thrown their way.
I know what the realities are in the business right now, especially for regional sports networks. And at the time, the Kings’ rights deal was up and I was just a casualty of that. They decided they wanted to go with a simulcast. This was before they inked a new rights agreement with Bally Sports.
But yeah, I guess at the end of the day I was the only one from the crew let go. Everybody else was brought back this season. It’s disappointing, and I still wonder if the economics were a little bit different or if circumstances were a little bit different, whether it would’ve just been status quo. But life moves on and you can’t spend time dwelling on the past, especially when it’s out of your control, and especially when the reasons aren’t ones that you necessarily love or agree with.
On if he wants to be the voice of a team again
It’s actually a question I’ve asked myself because, in some ways what happened with the Kings, while it stung and it still stings a bit, it afforded me a luxury that you don’t get in this business very often, and that’s time. It’s time away from full time in a sport with a team to explore other opportunities. In this case, an opportunity to fill in a little bit with another team.
But for now, I’m just enjoying the ride … being a national voice you get to parachute in, do the game, and go home and kind of wipe your hands clean of it. With a team there’s an emotional component to it. There’s an emotional investment. Even though I wasn’t from Los Angeles, you get swept up when you’re working every single day, when you’re at the rink every day, when you’re building relationships with coaches and players. Never mind the crest on the front of the jersey, you are apart of that family, apart of that organization. You’re vested in their success. So it’s a very different feeling than being invested in the success of a network.
On prepping for an NFL game versus a college game
When you’re embedded in the NFL, it’s like drinking out of a fire hose. There’s so many resources available to you. It’s almost, in a way, easier than prepping for a college game because there’s so much coverage and every stat you need is available to you. There are no different leagues to go to for different stats, it’s all in one place. There a fewer players to prep for, you’re talking about a 53 man roster as opposed to a hundred-something on a college roster. It’s a completely different experience.
On his decision to leave Twitter/X and thoughts on social media
For a long time it served a purpose, and I think right now with the way that that platform is being run, I don’t necessarily agree with some of the upper management decisions, and as a “customer” I guess I felt it was my right to stop patronizing a business.
For a long time I was on social media as a way to connect. When I first started, we’re going 10-12 years ago, I was mostly in college hockey. I was still in college and it was a great way to connect with that niche, because it’s a very small community, the college hockey community. There were very few places to get solid information and that was such a great way to connect with people that were covering the same sport.
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