Courtesy Ledger Telegram

(February 16, 2009) Of all the TV stations in Wisconsin that have carried Bob Brainerd's voice and image during professional and prep sporting events, Eau Claire's WEAU was the first.

His broadcasting career spans about 25 years, including calling Milwaukee Brewers games for Fox Sports Wisconsin and minor league games throughout the state for Time Warner Cable.

But he credits his first job reporting on local sports in Eau Claire as a time when he learned that people demand coverage for local teams, just as they would for the majors.

"After a while I got to see the passion everyone had for it, and I figured it out," he said during a phone interview from his Delafield home.

Brainerd spent the first 8 1/2 years of his career working for WEAU, which has been the longest he stayed at one job.

He credits the mentorship of veteran WEAU sportscasters Jim Crandell and Rick Foy with showing him how to cover local sports.

Crandell has been sports director for two decades at Fox40 in Sacramento, Calif., but remembers Brainerd's early days in broadcasting.

"I remember his energy and enthusiasm," Crandell wrote in an e-mail to the Leader-Telegram. "He loved sports, and was developing the same kind of feeling for TV. I am not surprised he has done so well."

Since leaving Eau Claire in February 1993, Brainerd returned to his birthplace of Milwaukee and held jobs at several TV stations.

"I wanted to come back to my hometown; it was just time," he said.

His resume lists working for multiple TV stations and freelancing for cable companies that broadcast major and minor league games.

Between 1999 and 2006, Brainerd did sideline reporting, a pregame show and play calling for Fox Sports Wisconsin. During that time he appeared at Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Bucks, Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers games as well as WIAA state tournaments.

He's spent the last two years freelancing for Time Warner Cable Sports, covering minor league baseball teams and local sports.

Occasionally, Brainerd gets back to Eau Claire when the Express baseball team plays the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers of Appleton or the Green Bay Bullfrogs.

"When I go back it's like a time warp," he said, adding that Carson Park has changed but it still "feels the same."

Covering UW-Stout and UW-Eau Claire games also gave Brainerd the background in collegiate sports he uses when working for When We Were Young Productions, which produces games for regional cable sports stations.

As a freelancer, Brainerd said, he can either be busy and travel for multiple days or spend weeks without a gig.

"The problem is it is a roller coaster," he said.

But that's why Brainerd said he has to do his homework on the teams before showing up so he can do well when he's on the air.

And whether that next opportunity is covering teenagers or multimillionaires, Brainerd said the excitement is the same for their fans.

"If it's a high school game, treat it as a college or major league game," he said. "To somebody else that is big time to them."