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ABOUT BRAM WEINSTEIN |
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After growing up in
Silver Spring, MD and attending Springbrook
High School, I wanted nothing more then to
cover sports in my hometown. The 2006 season
will be my seventh as Redskins Beat
Reporter, first for the all new Red Zebra
broadcast
group, also known as Triple X ESPN Radio.
This job is a fulfillment of my dreams as a
child to cover the team I've grown up
watching.
I attended The American University and graduated with a
degree in Broadcast Journalism in 1995. I
was one of the original interns at
Sportstalk 980 when it was The TEAM, AM 570.
What an amazing experience it was to be part
of a fledgling station with a chance to
learn my wares watching the likes of Andy
Pollin, Doc Walker, Dan Miller, Scott Linn
among many others as I embarked on a
whirlwind career that eventually would bring
me back to the area. I also had the honor of
interning at WUSA Channel 9 under Warner
Wolf. He’s a throwback refusing to use a
teleprompter. Warner was an amazing ad
libber even though technology allowed him to
forgo having to call highlights off the top
of his head.
My first job out of college was at CNN Washington. I was a
professional lackey, spending my days
logging discussions on the US senate Floor
and when I was lucky, I got to check out the
Ruby Ridge Hearings. CNN was an amazing work
environment being around so many established
journalists, beginning to understand what
indeed constitutes news and how best to
interview guests. With sports being my goal
though, it became a job just to yank myself
out of bed to watch another 8 hours of
debate on a Farm Bill. Hitting myself over
the head with a 2 X 4 seemed more
appropriate.
In January 1997, I got hired by KHAS-TV in Hastings
Nebraska, an NBC affiliate. I was a general
news reporter, but was acutely aware that
their weekend show had no sports anchor, so
I accepted the job figuring I could beg my
way into that slot. Because I was willing to
work seven days a week for no extra pay then
the slave labor they offered, I got the gig.
A month into my new stint as news
reporter/weekend sports anchor, the weekend
anchor/weatherman left for another job. One
month into my professional career I was
anchoring a 30 minute local newscast by
myself, literally. Shooting the video,
interviewing the guests, editing the tape,
writing the stories, forecasting the
weather, and of course showing highlights
from some high school volleyball match in
the middle of nowhere. What a mistake for
KHAS, but what a boon for me!.
Two years later and a million resume tapes ignored
nationwide, I hauled my junk back to DC
hoping to find some work locally. I sent my
resume tape to Cable News 21, the now
defunct news operation for Montgomery County
local cable. I was hired to do stories for
free, which happily I did while searching
for some real work. One of my assignments
was to cover the High School all star game
at the MCI Center, the Capital Classic. By
happenstance I ran into Andy Pollin who told
me to shoot a tape over to him because the
station needed update anchors for the
weekends. So I went to my basement, got out
a karaoke machine and taped updates. This
somehow worked, and I was hired to do the
weekend updates for the Saturday programming
including “Better Golf with Phil Hawes,” and
“The Phil Wood Show.”
It wasn’t long before the main sports anchor at Cable
News 21 moved onto an affiliate job, so I
moved into his role anchoring a 7 minute
daily sportscast. This coincided with me
doing traffic reports for WMAL, and an ever
growing role as fill in update anchor at
Sportstalk 980. At one point, I was
permanently doing the morning updates from
6-10AM along with the Cable News 21
Sportscast at 6:30. So my day started around
4AM and ended around 11PM after I would go
shoot video for the following day’s
newscast. In hindsight, I’m surprised I’m
not dead. .
In January 2000, some changes came to Sportstalk 980 and I
was ready to join the station full time. I
was initially hired to be a full time update
anchor, but Rich Cook the Redskins Beat
Reporter left for a reporter job at Channel
7. Operations manager Tod Castleberry had no
choice but to give me this job considering I
wouldn’t let go of his leg until he did.
Five years later, a lot of mediocre
football, and I couldn’t be happier.
Covering the Redskins has been a dream come
true. In August of 2002, I began “The Bram
Weinstein Show,” on Saturdays from 11AM-1PM.
After co-hosting with former Skin Brian
Mitchell in the spring of '06, I
decided to leave Sportstalk 980 for the all
new Red Zebra group. Tod Castleberry and
Bennett Zier would once again be my bosses
and confidants. They have given me the
opportunity of a lifetime, to do what I love
doing, but this time on the official
station of the Washington Redskins. I'm now
a co host of the official pre-game show, I
will be roaming the sidelines for news and
information integrating myself with the
famed booth of Larry Michael, Sonny
Jurgensen and Sam Huff. I'll also have a
very active role in all Redskins dedicated
programming including a daily 12-1 PM show
featuring Larry. And trust me, I'll be back
on the air doing my thing with "The Bram
Weinstein Show" soon. |
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