Art Beresheim

I started working for ESPN in August of 2014, engineering their live remote broadcast from venues around the city.

I was quickly promoted from just a remote engineer to the remote broadcast coordinator in 2015. My responsibilities included managing the install and testing of all the internet/isdn/pots lines with ISP’s around the Chicagoland area. I was also in charge of doing all the site surveys of new locations that the station has never broadcasted from.

I was let go from ESPN in January of 2020, after Disney had sold the license to the station to Good Karma Broadcasting in October of 2019. I was let go during the transition because I was too expensive, not because of my performance.

Generally, during my time with ESPN, I was the face of ESPN AM 1000 for a lot of these bars we were doing shows in. I would be one of the first ones that contacted them after the liquor company had sold our show to the bar. I would first walk the bar through our show requirements during a site survey. Then manage and test the installation of the lines with the ISP, and finally was the last one to say thank you for having us after a successful broadcast.

I also managed the companies expenses for all of these lines we were ordering for these broadcast. I constantly monitored that the lines were only active for 1 month of service. If we were billed incorrectly I would spearhead the dispute with the ISP. Disney audited our radio station in 2018 and I was in charge of combing through decades of ISP expenses. I found over a dozen open lines that the company was still paying for that we had not used in years before I started with the company. I saved the company thousands of dollars a month after that.

The remote broadcasts themselves are pretty straight forward. Working alongside a producer, the shows usually have only 2-5 mics.  It is a fun gig but it can be challenging in some venues.  Balancing the PA for the crowd in the bar, while not getting too loud to make the crowd/room noise to loud for the people listening on the radio, can sometimes make me wish I could tell the bar to be quiet.

Some of the bigger shows I have done at ESPN have included:

ESPN AM 1000’s 20th anniversary show, which had the entirety of the talent all on broadcast at once, 13 microphones. This show was a pretty big pain because I did the whole thing on a 16 channel Mackie Mixer and a 6 channel headphone amp.

The Christmas Parody show is also a huge hit, where they feature local fans to play their ESPN parody songs they have created live on the air. This includes having fans come with instruments such as acoustic guitars, banjo’s, and drum machines.

One of my most memorable shows was covering the Chicago Cubs Victory parade. I had the best seats in the house, and the back of my head was on TV!

I have worked many ESPN shows including: the Waddle and Silvy, Mike & Mike in the Morning, Cap and Company, the Carmen and Jurko Show, the Jay Cutler Show, The Mike Ditka Show, Game Day Live with JD and Mongo.

Below are a few pictures of these broadcasts.