Chuck Swirsky interview

I recorded this interview with Bulls broadcaster Chuck Swirsky, He wrote a book, Always a Pleasure, about his sports broadcasting career.

Why did you write the book?

I wrote it because even if I can help one person, whether it’s encouragement, inspiration, or just the basic staples of our industry, then it was worth it. I’ve been very, very blessed. I’ve experienced challenges, introspective moments, and a lot of joy in this business. I don’t believe in luck, I don’t believe in breaks. I believe in hard work. I believe there’s a journey laid out for us, and along that journey you’re going to go through different things—some good, some difficult—and you have to stay with it. That’s really the foundation of why I wrote the book.

 

You talk about your faith publicly, but the book itself isn’t very religious. Was that a decision?

Yes, that was intentional. Not because I don’t profess my faith (I do, many times) but I wanted to stay within the parameters of my career and how I got into the business. When people read something like this, I think they’re more interested in the path—how you moved from place to place, why you made certain decisions, what you experienced along the way. So I stayed with that. The stories, the movement, the work. Maybe down the road there will be another book that gets more into my personal life and faith, but for this one I wanted it to be about the career.

 

You emphasize hard work a lot. Where does that come from?

That comes from my parents. My mom was an educator; she taught high school and then grade school, and she loved her students. She was a tremendous communicator. My dad was a United States Naval officer, very decorated, very disciplined. So I grew up in that kind of environment. But discipline doesn’t mean what people think it means. It’s not punishment. It’s what I call “freedom within boundaries.” You’re allowed to have freedom, but there are lines. If you go outside those lines, you’re going to pay the price. If you stay within them, there are opportunities there. People go through life sometimes as the constant victim; blaming this, blaming that. Everybody has issues. Life is not a straight line. The competition isn’t with the person next to you; it’s within. And if you understand that, you’re going to be better off.

 

You’ve seen that play out in sports too?

Yes. I talked to a professional athlete years after he left the sport, five or ten years later, and he told me something that really stuck with me. He said in the last couple of years of his career, he went on cruise control. He didn’t work as hard as he should have. He should have trained more, should have pushed himself more. And he said it still bothers him. That’s the thing: we’re only given a certain amount of time. Whether you’re an athlete, whether you’re in broadcasting, whether you’re doing anything else. You have to make the most of that opportunity. Tomorrow is promised to no one. I’ll never forget that.

 

You tell that story about the jazz club; what happened there?

I was 24 years old, working in Columbus, Ohio, right before I came to Chicago. I went to a jazz club with a friend. It was packed, loud, people everywhere; just one of those nights. During a break, the lead singer came over. He knew someone in our group, introduced himself, and started talking with us. At some point he asked me what I did. I told him I was a sports talk show host. And he said, “I’m going to give you some advice.” And I’m thinking, okay, here we go. But then he looked right at me and said, “You better take care of your homework, because if you don’t, somebody will.” And he repeated it. And I don’t know why, but everything just went quiet for me in that moment. I tuned everything out. Because what he was really saying was: if you don’t prepare, if you don’t bring it every day, somebody else will. There are always people behind you who want your job. That stayed with me. It reinforced what my parents had taught me, but it hit me in a different way right then and there.

 

What was it like when you first got to Chicago?

I came from Columbus to Chicago, WCF L, and I did get a raise, but I was way over my head. I was not ready for that market. But the station itself was struggling, and because of that I was afforded the opportunity to make mistakes. We didn’t have a producer. It was just me and an engineer. Every day was a challenge. You’d do an interview and think, okay, I should have done that better. Or how do I connect better? What do I need to change? And you just keep adjusting, inch by inch. It wasn’t polished. It wasn’t easy. But it was a place where you could grow because you had to.

 

How did you move from there into bigger roles?

A big part of it was exposure. There was a radio-TV critic in Chicago, Gary Deeb, and his column carried a lot of weight. Everybody read it: program directors, general managers, people making decisions. He wrote some very flattering things about my work, and that led to opportunities. One of those was the Loop, which at that time was the number one rock station in North America. They had major personalities, they really owned the city along with WGN. They wanted to push the envelope and bring in a sports voice, and I ended up doing both morning and afternoon drive there. That was a big step. From there, I moved around and worked at WGN, WJR in Detroit, University of Michigan, the Raptors, eventually the Bulls. Sometimes I took pay cuts along the way. But I was always looking at opportunity, not just salary.

 

So you weren’t making decisions based on money?

No. Money has never dictated a job for me. I’ve taken pay cuts at different points, to go to Detroit, to do Michigan, to go to the Raptors. But I can’t tell someone else what to do. Everyone has different responsibilities, different situations. What I do believe is that if it’s feasible to chase your dream, you should. Because you don’t want to look back and say, “If only.” And whatever you do, you go to work with energy, enthusiasm, and as a team player. Leave your ego at the door. Ego can be healthy, but if it gets out of control, it can hurt you and the people around you.

 

How do you deal with egos in the business?

There are a lot of them. And I’ll be honest; sometimes I didn’t handle them well. I wasn’t mature enough in certain situations. You have to go through those moments. You go through the fire, and that’s how you become better, as a person, as a leader. If you don’t learn from your mistakes, something’s wrong. I can tell you I was a much better sports director later in my career than I was earlier. When I was younger, especially in Chicago, I was under a lot of pressure and surrounded by very experienced people. You’re learning in real time. And over time, you get better at handling those situations.