Chris Ramirez may seem like one of the luckiest guys around. He travels to local sporting events in the region, gets in for free, and proceeds to spout out play-by-plays to a dedicated audience in the game play action. Did I mention this is not some hobby-this is Ramirez’s career at his company Region Sports Network. However, before you go green with envy, let me backtrack. Ramirez spent years of dedication, grit, and energy developing and building his company. He even volunteered a good part of his time to his passion before getting paid. It was an inspirational journey of belief, passion, and of course sports.
Ramirez was born in Gary, Indiana attended Webster and Glen Park Elementary School, Wilbur Wright Middle School, and Munster High School. Ramirez briefly played football his freshman and sophomore year, but his passions always rested in the discussion and diffusion of sports information. He then attended Purdue Calumet where he studied communications.
“Sports started for me when I was seven years old in 1972. I remember a friend’s mother putting me in front of a Cubs’ game when I was six and having me watch Kenny Holtzman the great Cubs pitcher. The next season when baseball came back on, I was a Cub fan and that started it all. At that point I was all about Cubs, Bears, Blackhawks, and Notre Dame football,” Ramirez recalled.
Region Sports Network, based Highland, is a by-the-moment sports radio show, website, and now publication company that is the hub of all regional sports.
“We have a dedicated staff who are fans first of sports in the region. We are fans who would be following this stuff anyway even if we weren’t doing it for a living. But the fact that we get to do it for a living makes it that much better.” Ramirez commented.
Ramirez saw a void in the sports media field in 1999 and sought to fill it; thus the idea for Region Sports Network was born.
“I remember being in my car on a Friday night in the fall of ‘99 during football tournaments, and I was looking through the radio trying to find score updates because I have always followed high school sports. I couldn’t find anything. I could not find one score on the radio. My buddy called and asked if I had any sports updates, and I had to tell him no. I few days later we came up with the idea to maybe do a show and give out the scores,” Ramirez reminisced.
The journey to sports broadcasting success was neither easy nor quick. The journey started in the late 90s when he switched from high pressure advertising sales to sports media. A Chicago sports broadcaster named Dan McNeil signaled Ramirez’s knack for sports media-he took the advice, ran with it, and has not looked back since.
After interning with McNeil at The Score, Ramirez took his newfound experience to WJOB in early 2000 and volunteered reports and broadcasts for the station. After continuously providing free coverage for the station, Ramirez was ready to negotiate.
“I got with the station manager and negotiated that I would come in and do the afternoon sports update on the air-I would write them, produce them, and broadcast them. I would come in and do the reports four to five times a week in exchange for free airtime every Saturday before and after Purdue football games. I would recap the high school games from the night before and set the table for Saturday’s college games,” Ramirez explained.
From there Ramirez built up a steady stream of sponsors and advertisers and saw his business as a viable opportunity. After WJOB cleared out a majority of their former staff, Ramirez gained airtime where he could broadcast virtually whatever he wanted about local sports and began to build up a base of employees.
“At that point the company started taking off. Not that it has been one joy ride after another; I have had a lot of ups and downs. It allowed me to bank a considerable amount of money at that point and build a company. When new leadership came to WJOB I left the station and worked with a few different ones, and that was probably the best thing to happen to me. Once I got out and had my own studio, I was able to look at working with multiple stations and build up a personal network,” Ramirez said.
As a sports broadcaster, Ramirez has had the chance to cover some of the best games in the area. It is impossible to choose his ultimate favorite sports memory but he does have a few on the top of his list. He even remarked that asking his favorite broadcasting memory is like asking a parent who is the favorite child.
“I was on the microphone for what I consider the greatest game and play in region football history. Also, when I was covering a girls’ basketball game in Highland when the sport was at its peak. There was a player, Jenny DeMuth, who was a state superstar. It was the 2001 girls’ sectional championship game versus Westside. I did a 3:00 radio show on-site that lasted four hours and when tip-off started at 7:30, I literally moved over one seat, changed headsets, and slid over one seat to broadcast the game on TV. It turned out to potentially be one of the top three girls’ basketball games in region history. The game was won in overtime and 3,000 people rushed the floor,” Ramirez recollected.
Ramirez has built a station that pays great attention to detail and never sacrifices professionalism. While there may be many resources for local sports these days with the internet and smart phones, Region Sports Network manages to stand apart.
“We have commitment to put out a quality product. One thing that we have always strived for is to sound every bit as professional as the guys in Chicago. When fans turn on the radio and hear us we do not want them to be able to differentiate between us between the Bears game, the Cubs game, the Notre Dame game, and Region Sports Network covering a Merrillville game,” Ramirez mentioned.
Ramirez takes that same enthusiasm he has for sports and applies it to growing his company. The company has developed over twenty local sports websites that are used daily in addition to the radio stations. Recently, the company has been publishing full cover publications called Region Sports Illustrated and Region Sports Digest. Ramirez only sees the company growing and expanding its audience and network using the mantra-”If you believe in what you are doing never give up.”
“I give credit for being a sports fan and for inspiring me to do this to a former Chicago announcer by the name of Jack Brickhouse. He was the Cubs and Bears announcer when I was kid. To me he is the greatest announcer that ever lived. The Cubs could be down 8-0 in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and two strikes on the hitter, thirty games out of 500 in the last game of the season, and Jack would have me in front of my little black and white TV on the edge of my seat waiting for the comeback. Anytime I broadcast anything, before I go on the air I always think about Jack Brickhouse. I want to do for my audience what Jack Brickhouse did for me,” Ramirez thoughtfully closed.