Life & Work with Jacob Tobey

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacob Tobey.

Hi Jacob, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve wanted to be a sports broadcaster since I was around 10 years old. I have always been into performance: I have been a musician since I was in middle school. I sing and play guitar and played the drums in countless jazz and concert bands growing up, so performance has always been in my blood. I then fell in love with sports and when I realized I wasn’t going to be a professional athlete, I wanted to still get as close to the game as possible. So, when I would play sports video games, I would announce the games to myself as practice. I then started a radio station with my friends in high school and started to announce the baseball and soccer games. From there, I went to Suffolk University in Boston where I would major in broadcast journalism, anchor a sports show at our student TV station for three years, become the General Manager of the student radio station and announce games and do a sports talk radio show for that, then ended up having two amazing internships covering the Celtics for CLNS Media and working for the Patriots Radio Network. 2 months after I graduated college, I got my first job as the Weekend Sports Anchor at Channel 2 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, worked there for two years and then moved to Denver in August of 2020 to take the same position at 9News. I also started working with Fox Sports and the PAC-12 Network as a college basketball play-by-play announcer.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In the sports broadcasting business, the road is anything but smooth. My first job was 1600 miles away from home, in a place where I never thought I would step foot in (Oklahoma). I had to be away from my family and friends and I had to/still do work weekends and holidays. It’s a big sacrifice to be away from family at Christmas time or to not have a “regular schedule” that your friends have. Also, these jobs are super competitive. It’s hard to get to where I am at my age. Everybody wants to be a sportscaster and work in a big market. The growth to becoming skilled and compelling on TV is such a journey. You have to be able to take constructive criticism, really be comfortable watching yourself back and asking yourself how you can get better. Going on TV is hard and people don’t really have an idea of how much research and work goes into a sportscast on the news or a broadcast of a game on Fox Sports or ESPN for example. It’s tedious and if you aren’t prepared, it will show. Learning that preparation is a hard thing to do. But the love for the craft/job keeps you going and it makes you want to get better every day.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
A typical day for me when I anchor the weekend sportscast at 9News: I get in at 2 and start putting in our show rundown (the order of news items/games I will talk about) for our 5 pm newscast. I then start to write my scripts and plan out what I am going to say. I also have to edit all the videos in the show, whether that be game highlights of a game I am going to talk about or a video of a specific news item (like Russell Wilson getting traded to the Broncos, for example). We usually get about four to five minutes for our segment. We have three shows at 5:20, 9:50 and 10:20 pm.

When I work during the week as a reporter, I either am at a game that I’m covering (we will go live from stadiums/arenas) or I go out and find unique feature stories. Those I shoot and edit myself. The types of stories range all over.

With my work on Fox Sports/The PAC-12 Network, I am one of their college basketball play-by-play announcers. So I call the game with an analyst. It takes a lot of preparation to be ready for that type of broadcast: pages of notes, talking to players and coaches prior to the game, watching the teams’ previous games, etc. I get to the arena two hours before tip to make sure I have everything in order and so I can talk with our broadcast team about what will go on during the game.

With all my work, I think I am known for having a lot of energy and having a lot of fun. You can tell when you watch me that I love my job. I think I’m most proud of my versatility. I can be a studio anchor, a reporter, a play-by-play broadcaster, an editor, a writer and a videographer. That is what sets me apart from others. My passion is also something that comes through the screen.

Also, I mentioned that I am a musician: I sing and play acoustic guitar at gigs around the Denver area! I play a lot of pop, country, blues acoustic covers and some original songs as well! I play at places like Number Thirty-Eight and the Woods Restaurant at the Source Hotel.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
My hard work mentality. I get it from my dad. He was a Massachusetts State Police officer for 25 years and held his own construction business on the side. He taught me what hard work is. I feel like I have worked so hard for all of the things that I have accomplished in my career. It’s taken working free internships, showing up early and staying late for my college TV/radio station gigs, staying late at 9News to work on a story, not going to bed until 4 am to prepare for a game I’m going to call, reaching out to mentors to critique my work and have real and thoughtful conversations about my progress as a broadcaster. Watching my sportscasts and broadcasts back, dissecting everything I did right and wrong. I owe that all to my dad.

Contact Info:

• Email: jacob.tobey@9news.com
• Website: https://jacobtobey.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobrtobey/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JacobRTobey