The 2015 season is right around the corner, and Blue Ridge Communications will be providing another year of fantastic local high school football coverage.

Bob Capasso is the voice of TV-13 Sports and is now entering his 25th year with the company.The 1984 Seton Hall graduate has experienced first-hand the way that the evolution of technology has been beneficial to the broadcast of high school football."Everything was on big bulky tape back then," explained Capasso. "You'd have to bring the tape back to the studio after the game. Now, we have high definition. Instant replay was much more complicated as well, you had to rewind the tape and find the play. Now it's digital, you just hit a button and go instantly from there."Capasso knew since he was a kid that he wanted to be a broadcaster. However, the voice of TV-13 Sports initially started out in the industry by calling games on the radio-which was also much more difficult to set up years ago, when technology wasn't as advanced."When I was at Seton Hall, our radio station would do all of the men's and women's basketball games," he said. "We'd travel with the team and it was a great experience. I had to deal with a 75-foot coaxial cable when setting up for a broadcast (by himself). You would literally have to run it out of the stadium, from under bleachers. After that, you would have to point the antenna toward the station to get the signal. Now it's all done easily over a cell phone signal."Radio set-up is now a one-man job, but a television broadcast involves a large crew. Each member has a specific, important job."Just like any sports team, our production is a total team effort," Capasso noted. "It doesn't matter what the weather is like, the producers and the crew are there hours before the game starts to set up. Then when we (the broadcasters) go home, they have to break down all of the equipment."Not only is the physical set-up of a broadcast easier now, the broadcast itself is a much better product due to the easy access of information."The research capability is what's changed as an announcer," said Capasso. "The resources available to us are so much different now. Back then, to prep a broadcast as an announcer, I'd have to keep bags and bags of newspapers if I wanted to find scores and stats. I would have a couple years' worth of bags full of newspapers. If you wanted a team's roster, you'd have it mailed a week in advance, or have them fax it out to you. Now in this day and age you can have it emailed in seconds. I can talk to the coach about X's and O's instead of spending all of the time on the phone acquiring a just roster with the spelling of names. The 'information age' has really changed the way I prepare for a game."Capasso's weekly preparation for a Friday football broadcast looks something like this:MondayMonday Evening QB show (and a lot of editing).Tuesday/ WednesdayStart preparation for each game; have conversations with each head coach (includes getting all roster information, thoughts on game).ThursdayAfter his day shift, he goes home and transcribes all of the statistical information on his spotter sheet. Capasso has to submit all of this information to his field director by the end of the night, so all of the graphics, stats, standings, and lineups can be displayed on the TV screen that the viewer sees at home.FridayGame Time! All homework must be done by now!"All of the work we do that entire week leads up to one day," Capasso explained."Being in the atmosphere is one of the best parts. The excitement builds, especially when there's a big rivalry. You feed off of that as a broadcaster and you are truly a part of the whole contest. Being there for the actual game is the best part of the job. You're there and it's happening--live in front of you. You can talk about it and watch the highlights, but seeing the two teams out there that have worked all week leading up to the game, and putting it out on the line is truly special."TV-13's sports department has come a long way behind Capasso, but he really emphasized that the headship across the company is second to none."The great thing about us (TV-13) is that we have great leadership. They've really committed to sport," he said. "They do it because they're committed to the community. We make sure that during football season, we get at least one game per every school. Our management is committed to community. I can't wait. I love the summer, but when it gets to this point of the year, I'm ready to go."