AZ media 4.0: Tim Ring talks about sudden, unexpected departure from Channels 3, 5

A little more than 30 years ago, 19-year-old Tim Ring walked into the WGN studios in Chicago and began his broadcasting career.

Now, at the age of 50, he’s starting over again.

An independent broadcasting source told The Athletic that Ring’s position as sports director and weekday anchor for Channels 3 and 5 was eliminated last Thursday by the Meredith Corporation. The corporate downsizing ends a 10-year career at the stations for Ring, who started at KTVK Channel 3 in May of 2009 and then became sports director at both stations after the 2014 merger.

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In a Wednesday morning phone call, Ring told The Athletic he was “scared but emotionally fine.” As to what led to his departure he said, “It’s time for a new challenge. … It was a wonderful 10 years, and I’ve had a blast. It’s been a fantastic experience for me this past decade. I couldn’t ask for a better town or city to work in.”

“Certainly it’s not something I’ve been through a lot in my career,” Ring added. “Knock on wood, I’ve been fortunate. … I don’t feel I’ve worked a day in my life. My emotions? I could not more proud of the work that we did during our decade there. I wouldn’t change a thing. I walk out of there with my head held high knowing I have a lot to offer, and down the line I’m looking forward to doing that. I’m excited to see what the future brings.”

Ring had been the bell cow at Channels 3 and 5, not only serving as sports director and weekend anchor but also hosting the stations’ Friday night “Varsity Zone” and a Sunday night sports show, “Instant Replay.” It’s expected that anchors Joe Pequeno and Mark McClune will take over those segments in some capacity.

A year ago, Ring adeptly transitioned to a philosophical content change the stations after management decided to move away from traditional highlights and scores and emphasize feature stories.

“In retrospect I thought it was an interesting change,” Ring said. “We decided to try to keep up with the changing times. Viewers as consumers weren’t necessarily waiting for local news to find out information anywhere. They didn’t need to wait for local news to find out if their teams won. They certainly didn’t need to wait to find out the scores. And in many cases they were not waiting for highlights.

“We evaluated what we could do to give people a reason a watch and kind of pivoted to more unique storytelling. We got away from the 30-second Diamondbacks highlight or the 30-second Bruce Arians sound bite. We still covered big stories and all the games, but on a Monday or Tuesday, rather than do a typical sportscast for two minutes, we’d find compelling stories and give two minutes to those stories. It might be an autistic Little League player or, last month, I did a story on a Horizon (High School) baseball player who had recovered from cancer to play his senior year.”

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Ring said he wants to stay in the Valley. His wife, Fay Fredericks, is a news anchor at Channel 15 and the Valley, he said, has become home to their three children. Ring said he will reach out to Channel 15 about opportunities; layoffs have left Craig Fouhy as the sole anchor at the station. Sports talk radio is another possibility. Ring has been a regular fill-in at Arizona Sports 98.7 and already has been told he’ll be filling in for vacationing hosts this summer.

“I really enjoy the possibilities of radio,” he said. “If that were ever a professional relationship that could be consummated on a full-time level I’d certainly welcome that opportunity. … I will reach out to everybody. I have three kids staring me in the face, and I owe it to them to reach out to anybody and everybody.

“There’s no door I will not knock on. I think I have a lot to offer. I’d like to think I can still get the job done in some form or fashion.”

A conversation with Greg Schulte

Greg Schulte is in his 22nd season as the Diamondbacks’ radio play-by-play voice and has called, by his estimation, about 3,300 games. The Athletic caught up with Schulte to ask about his future, the past, Game 7 of the 2001 World Series and a bottle opener.

How much longer do you think you’ll be doing this?

I signed a five-year contract, and I have three years remaining. I don’t know. I’ll be 70 when that comes to an end. I’ll have 25 years in. I’ll kind of judge it. Maybe I’ll cut back on travel … if they want me at that time. But it’s been a nice run. I’m really not looking into giving it all up, but the travel has gotten a little bit more tedious over the years as time has gone on.

70 and 25 are nice round numbers to retire on

It’s kind of why I took a look at it. If there’s any time to retire … it’s still not an old age in this day and age, but 25 years in. I do want somebody else to have the opportunity to do what I’ve been able to do for such a long period of time. It’s an elite job. It’s one of a handful of jobs in major league baseball. There aren’t that many. There’s 30 radio play-by-play guys, so I’ve been blessed for 22 years. Every day I come to the ballpark and I wonder what I’m going to see.

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Did you think when you were hired before the 1998 inaugural season that this would be your final job?

I can remember thinking and hoping that I get through the first year and they’d like me enough to bring me back a second year. When I was a kid, back then you had a game of the week, and that was on a Saturday. And usually, it was Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese calling a Yankee game. We were big Cardinals fans. We grew up in northwest Illinois and I’d listen to the radio nightly on KMOX in St. Louis. They had 50,000 watts come booming in so I grew up on Harry Caray and Jack Buck, and when I finally realized I wasn’t going to be a major league player I thought, “Boy, I’d love to have Harry Caray’s job. I want to be a St. Louis Cardinals play-by-play-guy.”

Not many people can say a boyhood dream has come true

I know that, and I’ve been told that. Believe me, I preach that. Hang on to your dream because it can come true.

Did you wake up the morning of Game 7 of the 2001 World Series and start thinking what you might say if the D-Backs won, or was it spur of the moment?

You don’t know what’s going to happen. Thom Brennaman and I were splitting innings that day, and it just so happened that the ninth inning was mine. … The one thing I was thinking about in the ninth inning as we were starting to rally was I had been told there were a lot of people outside the stadium and they had been listening to the game on the radio. I knew there were people driving by. I could picture myself driving on the freeway and I could see the lights of Chase Field shining and knowing this is Game 7 of the World Series, so I was thinking about the people driving the car. So “honk your horn, stomp your feet, celebrate” … nothing scripted, it just kind of fell out of my mouth.

I think I have that call on a bottle opener at home

I thought Gonzo (Luis Gonzalez) bought those all up. He gave me a few. It’s one of those things. You open a beer or whatever and the call is played.

What a call

Speaking of Game 7, for some reason I was unaware that FOX color analyst Tim McCarver made one of the great calls in broadcast history just before Gonzalez’s game-winning bloop hit off New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.

McCarver, noticing the Yankees have brought their infield in with one out and the bases loaded, says, “The one problem is Rivera throws inside to left-handers. Left-handers get a lot of broken-bat hits in the shallow outfield, the shallow part of the outfield. That’s the danger of bringing the infield in with a guy like Rivera on the mound.”

The very next pitch Gonzalez floated a single over Derek Jeter’s head and into the grass just beyond shortstop and the Diamondbacks were world champions.

(Top photo courtesy of Tim Ring, left, interviewing Mario Andretti)

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