Charlie Frankel ’13
This interview was conducted in Summer 2020.
Segment Producer & Social Media Manager for NFL Network
Runnemede, NJ
WFU Class of 2013
Major: Sociology
Minor: Communication & Psychology
DeacLink: What did you study at Wake? What year did you graduate?
Charlie Frankel: I knew I wanted to work in sports, and Wake didn’t have a great major or minor option for that, so I took classes that interested me the most, which led me to Sociology. I graduated in 2013.
DL: Please walk me through your path from graduation day to your current job.
CF: I’ve only been out of school for 7 years, but if you want the step-by-step, this is about to be a novel:
I did not have a job in the sports industry lined up when I graduated, so I began working for my uncle’s company just to make some money and avoid doing nothing. It only took a couple of months before I lined up a season-long paid internship as a team reporter for the New York Jets. (My summer internship the previous year writing for the Eagles team website gave me the needed experience to be hired for this role).
After the season ended, I lined up a part-time, seasonal job working for MLB Advanced Media. These positions overlapped for a few months (long days and fun commutes in North Jersey/NYC traffic!) until I reached a full calendar year with the Jets. At that point, there were no open positions, and they were no longer allowed to legally keep me as an intern, so then it was MLB only.
I began a full-time job as a staff writer for SportsBusiness Daily in Charlotte, NC shortly after MLB season ended. I was told in my interview for that job that after about 18 months, I would have gotten mostly everything I could from the role, so I went into it knowing I’d work there for a year before beginning to look for what was next. Around that time (a year or so into working at SBD), my identical twin brother Scott (who also went to Wake) was moving from the radio department to the TV department at ESPN in Bristol, CT. Two weeks after he left ESPN Radio, he was replaced by me. (If you’ve seen the movie “Beerfest,” I was essentially Landfill’s twin brother, Gil).
My ESPN Radio role was an 18-month contract position. I worked in production, doing a little bit of everything behind the scenes, from producing shows to running the audio board, and everything else in between. I worked on just about every show on the network too, including “Mike & Mike,” “Russillo & Kanell,” and “The Paul Finebaum Show,” to name a few. There were no jobs available in the radio department at the end of my contract, so I shifted to TV.
I only lasted a year in TV at ESPN, because my wife matched into a residency program in the Philadelphia area, and after years of long-distance dating, I did not want to have a long-distance marriage. So, I left ESPN for a seasonal position at NFL Network, based in the NFL Films offices of Mt. Laurel, NJ. There, I worked as an Associate Producer and Social Media Manager for “Good Morning Football Weekend.” I worked for MLB Network on a baseball show for DAZN during the NFL’s off-season (again in social media) before returning to “GMFB Weekend” for a second season in a similar role.
Not wanting to continue on a path of bouncing around from one seasonal position to another, I joined FOX Bet in March in a full-time position as a Social Media Specialist. I worked in the office for one day and have been working remotely ever since, communicating with colleagues who I’ve never met in person through Slack and ZOOM every day.
DL: How much did your studies and general experience at Wake inform or drive your career path?
CF: My experience at Wake was awesome, but it did very little to help me for my specific career path. There were no majors or minors offered in sports media/sports business, and there were only a few classes that I took that had any connection to sports. That said, I do believe I developed a work ethic at Wake that prepared me for every job I’ve had, and I took a couple of journalism classes that have certainly helped me in my career. The fact that I was unable to get into a journalism class until my second semester of junior year made it so that I couldn’t minor in it, even if I had wanted to.
DL: How did you find and apply to the various positions you’ve held?
CF: Jets: Applied online without connections
MLB AM: Applied online without connections
SBD: Networking … Tripp Mickle (Wake grad) spoke to Justin Catanoso’s journalism class while I was a student. I connected with Tripp and stayed in touch with Tripp, because we worked for SBD’s sister publication, SportsBusiness Journal, and I knew that was something that interested me. Tripp, Justin, and Beth Hunt (another Wake journalism professor) all put in a good word for me with the Executive Editor of SBD, which got me an interview, and I was hired after that.
ESPN: It helped just a little bit that my identical twin brother worked there, and they had a couple years of seeing his work ethic/skills firsthand.
NFL Network: Networking … a friend of my father-in-law’s put in a good word for me, which got me an interview.
MLB Network/DAZN: Applied online without knowing I had a connection there, but it turned out that the hiring manager was someone who I had networked with while with the Jets
FOX Bet: Applied online without connections
Network with as many people as you can, in an authentic way. People are generally happy to help if they can, especially if they’re a Wake alum. Reach out to as many people as you can in positions and at places that you’d like to work, and then stay in touch with them a couple times per year if at all possible. Keep an Excel spreadsheet that lists out who you’ve talked to, where they work/what they do, when the last time you talked to them was, how you left it with them, etc. Use LinkedIn to find people, and ask if there’s anyone else they think you should talk to as well.
DL: What is your favorite part of living and working in South Jersey? What is the most interesting thing going on in the art scene there at the moment, in your opinion?
CF: My favorite part of living and working in South Jersey is that it’s close to home. I grew up in the PA suburbs of Philadelphia, and I’m now in the NJ suburbs of Philadelphia. You don’t realize how much you miss the food here until you’re somewhere else in the country. I am looking forward to getting back to Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers games once COVID is behind us.
DL: What is your favorite part about working for _? (Can include perks, specific experiences or anecdotes from the job)
CF: My favorite part about working for FOX Bet is having the freedom to steer things in any direction I want to (within reason). I have a lot of control over the voice and identity of our brand on social media. If I have an idea for a bet boost, it’s typically on our site minutes later. I’ve never enjoyed cookie-cutter jobs with tons of restrictions. This is not that.
DL: What and where is next for you?
CF: It’d be nice to stick around at FOX Bet for a little while! I’ve never stayed in one job for more than 2 years, for the wide variety of reasons laid out above. I’m hoping this is a company that I can stay and advance with. I’d like to be on a managerial level and eventually at the executive level within the company.
DL: Any kernel of advice you’d like to impart to the readers?
CF: Don’t get into sports media unless you’re mentally prepared to work long days, nights, and weekends, jumping from one part-time and/or seasonal job to another, and struggling to move past the “entry level” for several years. It can be draining to go through all that while your friends from Wake who chose other career paths are working M-F 9-5 and making six-figures. You have to be committed, you have to be willing to work harder than everyone else around you, and you have to be outgoing enough to network with people even when you have a job already.