Broadcasting career Mike Barrett (sportscaster)

mike barrett interviews blazer center joel przybilla in portland @ time of 2006 free agent signing.

after graduating oregon state university, barrett went work radio station kuik-am 1360 in hillsboro calling high school basketball games. became sports director @ kxl-am 750 in portland, flagship station of trail blazers, in 1992. while @ kxl barrett anchored station s morning , afternoon sportscasts working sideline reporter university of oregon football broadcasts.

in 1999, hired portland trail blazers radio studio host , editor of blazers official magazine, rip city magazine. next year, went work radio , television play-by-play announcer wnba s portland fire, role continued until team disbanded in 2003.

barrett named play-by-play announcer trail blazers 2003–04 season, working first 2 years next steve snapper jones. 2005–06 season joined analyst mike rice on blazers telecasts, assignment caused him assume role of straight man loquacious , unrestrained broadcast partner. barrett has said of partner:

rice good, s character, , strip away of cartoon character, , m lucky work him. think calls memorable say. give him room. of traditional broadcasters want own space, upset when analyst gets in , steps on call. m not that. want there fill in blanks , provide information , entertainment.

in addition calling play-by-play, barrett , rice appeared on weekly radio , television show, trail blazers courtside.

barrett wrote voluminously blog on blazers website, offering game reviews , behind-the-scenes perspective on team. barrett recalled origins of on-line publication in 2008 interview:

funny thing when blog started @ summer league 3 or 4 years ago, said write stuff training camp, , kind of strange, saw write in real conversational way, involved people. 1 of odd things stumble , of sudden ve created lot of work yourself. s not bad thing s thing.



takes lot of time, know. , maintain — moderate 95% of comments, see them all, put picture up, headline, s own little newspaper. , s pretty cool journalism anyway. writing has been pretty easy. sit down write after game or after event, positive or negative news, s way of going home , unwinding , reliving it. think lot of writers that. s way of going home , coming down high of night.

wordy, long, start writing. tell me, write paragraph, , said, going, can t. next thing know m @ 2,000 words. ve enjoyed sitting down after kids , wife go bed, sit down, , process through things. helps me remember game better, helps me realize it, next time play somebody, remember not game blog. can go , review if want to.