February 11, 2010
The man behind the TV at the Olympics
Beginning Feb.12, millions of people will watch live coverage of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. They’ll be glued to their television screens, savoring the excitement and drama of this global athletic competition.
What they see on their TVs will appear so seamless that they’ll be unaware of the giant crew of workers it takes to put the show on the air. People running cameras, technical directors, sound technicians, lighting technicians, electricians, writers, directors, on-camera interviewers, off-camera commentators — and one person, the producer, running the show behind the scenes.
Bill Kunz, interdisciplinary arts and sciences associate professor at UW Tacoma, is one of those producers. Kunz, who has a long resume of television production experience, has worked at eight Olympic Games. In fact, he has been covering the Olympics for various networks since 1984. This year he is producing NBC’s television coverage of the sport of curling, a sort of cross between bowling and shuffleboard on ice.
“I think the biggest thing with curling in Vancouver is that it is a big, big deal in Canada,” Kunz said. “This should make it a lot of fun to cover since the crowds should be quite good.”
Kunz sometimes takes students with him to work behind the scenes. Students accompanied him to the Summer Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and to New Jersey in 2006 when he produced shows on other curling events. This time around, he’ll be taking four students, more than he’s ever been able to take with him before.
Kunz and his team of about 30 people are responsible for both the sports coverage and the studio elements, including the interviews, highlights and other features involved in programs that are on the air as long as three hours at a time.
During his 26-year career in television, which overlaps with teaching, Kunz has earned five Emmys — three for his work at the Olympics in Atlanta, Athens and Beijing, and two for ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
He’ll be there in Vancouver, even if you don’t see him, making curling athletes at the 2010 Winter Olympics seem like they’re right in your living room.
