I recently caught up with Bernie Kim, the coordinator producer at FOX Sports.  Whew, does this guy have the typical broadcast career. Between starting off as a researcher, then being laid-off twice and switching over to do some freelance work, he now has a position of coordinator producer.

Bernie Kim has worked in the television industry for over fifteen years. He attended Syracuse University, studied broadcast journalism, graduating in 2001. He worked at a sports radio show in Baltimore after graduating, then ten months later, FOX Sports Net brought him on as a researcher.

The start of Kim’s career really reminds me of every graduating student out there. Hoping to just be handed an opportunity to prove your skills, but never does in the beginning. He kept up with emails, being persistent on finding a job, while maintaining a radio job in Baltimore. He moved to Los Angeles at the end of 2002 and eventually landed a job a FOX Sports Net as a researcher for the Best Damn Sports Show Period.

After more than two years of working with FOX, he actually left his job to work for ESPN. However, his show got cancelled and he was hired back at FOX as a graphics producer again at the Best Damn Sports Show Period.

After that show got cancelled, he started doing freelance work for CBS and also a production design company, where he helped create a promotional spot for the Big Ten Network. In September 2009, that FOX called Kim again and asked if he wanted to work on a new digital show called Cubed. The show ran for two years, and then stopped production. He then transitioned to their studio production department as writer/producer.

SPARTANS INNOVATE: What made you want to stick with TV, what made you want to choose a broadcast major?

KIM: I’ve always enjoyed sports television and realized that it was a pretty fun way to make a living. Any television, even sports, has a large element of entertainment and I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of captivating an audience. When I went to college, I just wanted to be the local sports guy at a news station, but I ended up getting a job here at FOX and it’s been a great place to grow for most of my career.

How do you think TV will change?
It’s hard to say right now. When you look back in 50 years, you are going to see this grey area of media where smartphones changed everything. Video content will still be around, it just won’t be consumed the same way, and I’m just not sure where they are going to watch. Television is a great product, so I hope we still have jobs!

Yeah, me too, for the sake of our profession. What about the new ways of media? Like Twitter and Snapchat? What’s your opinion on those?
Twitter is great, you can choose any source you want and you can reach a very wide audience, getting information out quick. Snapchat is good too, as long as it’s a reliable source. As long as it’s quality news, that’s fine.

Do you see that being the “new thing”?
Snapchat? Depends, but why not? It seems like a lot of people are using it, as long as people get value from it, I don’t see an issue.

And Twitter?
Twitter is used for information, and it’s a great source for information. There’s a tremendous benefit to get information out quickly, but once again, it has to be quality news and you have to be able to tell what is quality.

Seems like we are kind of in this mobile period where everything is usually consumed on our mobile device. Do you think that will change?
I think it depends. Sporting events… I hate watching sports on my phone. Articles, headline type stuff, and news? Phone is great.

What about newspapers?
Newspapers aren’t as strong as they used to be, there will still be good reporters and people will still be writing important stories. I’m just not sure if it will all just go digital when it comes to print journalism.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.