New Jaguars Play by Play Voice

[davetoliver]

This came as a shocker to me, but Brian Sexton is no longer the pbp voice of the Jags but he's staying with the team. He's called every game in history.
http://www.jaguars.com/news/article-Pre ... d4f20f0730

The Jaguars have moved flagship stations from WOKV (all news) to WJXL (all sports) this season and the new pbp guy is a talk show host on the station, Frank Frangie. He's called college football for a while with Touchdown Radio.

I haven't heard any reason why they made this switch. Sexton is good. Some people don't like him, but that goes for every pbp man.

Most of you probably don't give a rip about the Jags, but I thought it was worthy of a topic.

[Jon Chelesnik]

Agreed -- Brian does a terrific job.

I don't know why he's leaving but I heard a cool story about how he got the Jags job when they were an expansion team. I think its true, though I don't know for certain. Anyway, he was doing radio in Chanute, KS when the station's owners, who also had a stick in Jacksonville, got the Jags rights. Can you imagine going from doing Chanute H.S. games to the NFL? Pretty cool, if true.

[asdf]

Here is the story as told to me several years ago:

Yes, Sexton got his start calling 8-man high school football games around the Chanute, KS area in 1991. After a year or so in Chanute, he moved to Wichita, KS to do a sports talk show. The group that owned the station in Wichita also had a station they owned in Jacksonville. The sales manager in Wichita at the time was transferred to Jacksonville to do sales and was able to land a sports job for Brian at the same station there in Jacksonville. This was around 1993, 1994. While at the station in Jacksonville and still over a year away from the Jaguars even having their first game, Brian talked the station into doing a weekly coach's show with Tom Caughlin and Brian got to host the show each week. When the team and station began a search for the inaugural "Voice of the Jaguars", Brian was part of the search committee. Eventually, Brian was named one of the top people of the search committee and he began taking applications and seeking out potential candidates. After a few months of searching for candidates for the job, Brian got pretty stressed out about it and was very overwhelmed with what he was responsible for. Just before one of the weekly shows with Coach Caughlin, Brian appeared stressed and Caughlin asked Brian what was wrong. Brian told Caughlin that he's not sure what he's doing with this search and that it's a bit overwhelming to look for the perfect guy to call Jaguars games. At this point, Caughlin apparently said "Well, Brian....why do YOU do it?" Brian thought for a second and said, "Ok." Brian went back to his apartment to get an old 8-man football game tape he had from his days in Chanute, KS (an old, dusty, cassette tape) and submitted it to the Jaguars as his application. They kind of laughed at the sound quality of the tape and the fact there was hardly a crowd there at an 8-man football game, but the committee found it rather unique. Brian apparently had good relationships in the media with the owner, the GM and he already had the blessing of the head coach. So, Brian got the job at age 25 as the inaugural "Voice of the Jaguars". It's a rags to riches story having gone from 8-man high school football in Chanute, KS to the NFL (with no other PxP experience in between) in just 4 years.

I don't know the circumstances that led to his removal from the PxP chair, but at least he still has a job with the team. I have to think this was NOT his choice. I really haven't heard much of his work other than a few touchdown calls on radio highlights, but I've heard mixed reviews about his work: Some people think he's good and others think he is terrible, but I guess a lot of PxP guys get mixed reviews from their critics. He's no longer the PxP there, but he had a very nice 19 year run, I'd say.

[sctsports77]

That's one heck of a story...spent several years calling 8-man, 6-man, and of course 11-man. Good stuff.

[garjedi85]

Of course in today's climate, a story like that wouldn't be allowed to happen, since as has been discussed on this very form in relation to the Knicks and other high profile jobs, if you don't have experience at a high level already you can't possibly be good enough to do the job. As one member put it, if you work at a bank hiring a new CEO and you are an enterprising teller, you can't possibly be as good a CEO as the regional VP. Sad, but I fear Brian's story, likely won't be repeated with this mentality apparently consuming our industry now. Which begs the age-old question, how can you get high profile experience if you need it to attain high profile jobs?

[Jon Chelesnik]

how can you get high profile experience if you need it to attain high profile jobs?

You work your way up the ladder. You earn your way to B on your way from A to C.