Photo by Tom Angel

Sports Director Calls the Shots

Mike Baca found his calling early. At age 4, his mom says, he decided he was meant to become a sports broadcaster. “I want to be that guy talking through the radio, talking about sports,” he announced. And, he says now, “I never deviated; I’ve always wanted to do that.”

Baca (BA, Information and Communication Studies, ’94) is KPAY sports director, responsible for much of the content on the Chico-area talk radio station’s affiliate, SportsFan 101.7 FM. He provides play-by-play for the Chico State Wildcat basketball and baseball teams. The reality of sports broadcasting has definitely lived up to his childhood fantasy: “I love what I do. There are days I feel most at home when I am calling a game behind a microphone.”

Baca’s path to that coveted spot behind the microphone began when he was a child in the Bay Area listening to basketball and baseball on the radio, but things really came together when he was a student at CSU, Chico. He chose the media arts option in the information and communication studies major and took screenwriting and journalism classes to hone his writing skills, a key part of success in broadcasting, he says. He began a news internship at KPAY in 1992 and stayed with the station until his graduation in May 1994.

While Baca loved all aspects of radio, both he and his KPAY news director noticed that sports was where he shone. “In sports broadcasts, I’d be really energetic, and in news, I’d be monotone and without a lot of energy. [The news director] wanted me to read news like I was doing sports,” he says with a smile.

Baca’s first job out of college was as news director at a small news station in Ukiah. After a year and a half in Ukiah and jobs in several other markets, Baca got a call in January 1997 from KPAY, offering him the sports director job. He jumped at the chance to move back to Chico. When Baca first got to the station, it provided play-by-play for only 20 Chico State men’s basketball games. By 1999, Baca had expanded the coverage to all the men’s and women’s basketball games and all conference baseball games.

Ten years later, he still loves sports and covering Chico State games: “I can call a double-header for six hours for Chico State baseball, and if the Dodgers are playing that night, I’ve got to watch that game, too. Even after a tough loss, I never feel like I’ve got to get away from sports for a while.”

Good news for all the local fans of the man who has become the voice of Chico State basketball and baseball.

Anna Harris, Public Affairs and Publications