Morgan Kilgo | Broadcast Reporter
The Baylor Lariat has always been there when you can’t be, and now, thanks to Baylor Lariat Radio, Baylor fans never have to worry about missing a football, basketball or baseball game again.
The operation began a year ago after Thomas Mott, a junior from Spring Branch asked his boss if he could call and cover Baylor basketball games through radio.
“I went to our old boss, Paul Carr, and he basically said that if you can figure out how to broadcast inside the Ferrell Center, then I’ll get the equipment and we can try to get a little radio program going,” said Mott. “That was about a year ago and ever since we’ve built it up.”
With Carr’s support, Mott convinced his best friend Jakob Brendenburg, a junior from Georgetown, to do the radio show with him.
“Thomas and I met each other freshman year living in the same freshman dorm hall,” said Brendenburg. “We got to know each other and found out we both wanted to get into sports broadcast and we had this opportunity where we could work together.”
The duo called their first basketball game in the spring of 2016. They would go on to call an entire season for Baylor football. Along with live-game coverage, Mott and Brendenburg do a sports podcast every Monday night called “Don’t Feed the Bears.”
In the Fall of 2016, Mott and Brandenburg expanded their team to cover more sports.
“I came in as a sports writer and the previous sports editor mentioned the sports podcast,” said Jordan Smith, a sophomore from Cypress. “I was like, that’s pretty cool, and I had always wanted to do baseball commentary. That was basically my entrance into radio.”
Along with calling play-by-play action at baseball and women’s basketball games, Smith is also in charge of the radio’s branding.
“Now that I’m the sports editor, I maintain and run social media ads, I create events and I make sure everything works and is aligned with scheduling and equipment —things like that.”
Mott and Brandenburg will be studying in New York City this upcoming fall and while they will both miss calling football, they are excited to pass the torch to Smith and the rest of his team
The next time you can’t make it to a Baylor football, basketball or baseball game, don’t forget to tune into Baylor Lariat Radio at https://mixlr.com/baylor-lariat-radio/.
