You could call Lisa Byington a “trailblazer,” but she prefers another description: “Broadcaster. When I say I don’t describe myself as a trailblazer that’s not denying the fact that I do understand what I’m doing is helping open doors for other women who are coming after myself. I just don’t describe myself that way. If I did I don’t think I’d be able to do my job.” Byington, the guest on this week’s “Tell Me A Story I Don’t Know” podcast with George Ofman, became the first female voice of an NBA team last season joining the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks.
She is also the first woman to call play-by-play for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the culmination of a long-term goal. “I had a dream of working the tournament but as a sideline reporter.” After ten years working her way up through the industry, even doing sideline work on Division II football, she got her chance. “I love that story because a lot of great things have happened to me but people don’t realize what it takes to get to that job.”
Byington was a two sport star at Northwestern but her sights were set on broadcasting. Her first job was at a TV station in Alpena, Michigan, the second smallest market in the nation. She followed that up with a job in Lansing and landed at the Big Ten Network — where she now has an award named in her honor given to the outstanding female student broadcaster on the Big Ten Network’s Student U. Learn more about her journey in this week’s episode.
