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If people are talking about a Wisconsin sports event, trending reporter JR Radcliffe is on it

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2 months ago

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If people are talking about a Wisconsin sports event, trending reporter JR Radcliffe is on it

Trending sports reporter JR Radcliffe has a small hand in just about all aspects of sports coverage at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He’s worked in game coverage, chatting with players and coaches for the Packers, Brewers, Badgers and Bucks, but he also connects with fans through hosting podcasts (specifically for the Brewers and Bucks), video, live blogs and whatever random news item surfaces in a given day.

Get to know JR Radcliffe:

Start with your origin story; how’d you get here?

I drove here.

That joke is lame

Oh lighten up, it’s brilliant.

Anyway, I’ve lived in Wisconsin almost my whole life. My parents tell me that I used to sit at the top of the stairs and wouldn’t go to bed until I knew Paul Molitor had extended his (39-game) hitting streak back in 1987, so this is really something that’s been a part of me from the jump. I went to college in Indiana and got a job covering high-school sports for CNI Newspapers/NOW Newspapers (we had many names over the years) inside the Journal Communities family in greater Milwaukee. I did that in some capacity for 14 years.

I was connected to my current sports position in 2018 when the newspaper started pursuing the “trending” concept more aggressively, and that’s when I officially joined the main Journal Sentinel newsroom.

You put ‘trending’ in quotes; how do you feel about that title?

Honestly, I can’t shake how silly it sounds, but it perfectly explains what I do. If something is trending in Wisconsin sports, that’s what I need to write about. It could be attendance trends at American Family Field, the biggest nonconference games in Badgers history, podcasting with Gorman Thomas when there’s a new movie about the 1982 Brewers, interviewing a fan who successfully named 27 types of cheese in 30 seconds during a midgame Bucks promotion … I’m all over the place.

I also just think of myself as the utility player. I’ve had the privilege to go on the road to cover both the Brewers and Packers when colleagues are unavailable and have been helping with Badgers football coverage this season. I’m comfortable doing just about anything, whether it’s standard game coverage, speaking on mic or on camera, or diving into something silly and irreverent.

It sounds like a lot of fun?

An absolute blast. I love this job so much and I’m so lucky to have it, and I hope my enthusiasm for it comes through when I write. It’s not always the most serious work, of course. Sports mean a lot to me and to readers, but it’s fairly superfluous in the grand scheme, and my role is even less serious than others. I’m in awe of my colleagues across the newsroom who are crafting life-changing journalism, and here I am over in my sandbox ranking the best walk-off wins in Brewers history.

There’s plenty of serious newsgathering in our operation, but the volume of people finding our site just by Googling questions … I think people would be shocked by how big that audience is. So we spend a lot of time trying to answer questions that people are searching for, hopefully with a fair amount of context and knowledge. There’s a lot of “service journalism” where we really just want to give people the basic facts about a person or event, and then there’s a healthy dose of entertainment (or nostalgia), as well. I think the latter is probably my strength.

How do you balance whatever fandom you have with the neutrality of covering a team?

I think I’m pretty good at compartmentalizing and legitimately experience the games differently when I cover an event, but the truth is, I don’t know if I can ever completely weed it out. There was a time when that would be a cardinal-sin thing to say, and of course I still believe in and uphold the standards of decorum and professionalism. But I also think what makes me perfectly suited for this job — essentially writing with the Wisconsin sports fan in mind — is the experience I have in that realm myself.

I’m curious about the subjects I cover because they’ve always been near and dear to my heart, even if my relationship has changed with this job. I can reference previous generations of Wisconsin sports teams because I cared about those teams (for better or worse). I wouldn’t have that knowledge and that reverence if I had spent my whole life being neutral. I’ve lived in three parts of Wisconsin (Northwoods, Fox Valley, southeastern Wisconsin), and this state is deeply important to me. Just ask my wife, who rolls her eyes every time I jump out of my chair at the thinnest Wisconsin reference on a broadcast.

What are the best parts of the job and what are the drawbacks?

I think it’s pretty cool to wake up every morning and not exactly know what you’re going to write about that day, and I think the position itself has helped us tell stories that we simply wouldn’t have tried in previous decades. I’ve had some amazing experiences, including traveling to last season’s Packers playoff games, and that stuff is just unreal. Any job gets old for the people who do it every day, but I feel like I’m shielded from that because it’s something different all the time.

I also do love the podcasts I get to host, especially with Brewers reporter Curt Hogg. We’re from different generations, but we have a great time each week talking baseball.

As for drawbacks, I think part of me would still love the idea of settling into my own beat and following one team as my primary expertise. But the job I have now enables me to keep pretty normal hours, stay in town most of the time and stay heavily involved in the lives of my two kids (that’s a whole separate circuit of sporting events!). Plus, there’s also some charm in being the utility guy and having a little bit of knowledge across the sports landscape. I’m the perfect guy to sit next to at a sports bar (if I ever find time to, you know, go to a sports bar).

So what do you do with the spare time you have?

I feel like I’m essentially touring the youth soccer fields of greater Milwaukee as I watch my kids play. I also host trivia nights on occasion, often for my friends but sometimes otherwise. We used to play bar trivia all the time before COVID, and when that went away, I started hosting over Zoom and then brought that into the real world.

You’re a guy who’s written a lot of lists, so give me a quick list of five things you still want to say about this job.

  • Curiosity is so important. If you have the question in your head, other people will, too. Once you know what to ask, then you can have some fun figuring out the best way to answer.
  • I know the 2019 wild-card loss in Washington haunts Brewers fans, but that was one of the greatest times of my life. Riding scooters late at night around the National Mall and then covering playoff baseball? I’ll never forget that.
  • I wonder how many people in our paper’s history have been credentialed to cover a Bucks playoff game, Packers playoff game, Brewers playoff game, Badgers NCAA Tournament game, state high-school football final, state high-school basketball final and … a Republican National Convention. Sometimes I cover more than just sports!
  • I’m going to be reckless and say I think Wisconsin pro sports is going to get another championship in 2025.
  • I’m so proud of our newspaper and the work we’ve done.
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