Legends Behind the Lens: Fred Aldous The man with a musicians ear took sports television audio into a new dimension By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Thursday, June 25, 2020 - 11:30 am
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The story of American sports television is engrained in the history of this nation, rising on the achievements of countless incredible men and women who never once appeared on our screens. During this pause in live sports, SVG is proud to present a celebration of this great industry. Legends Behind the Lens is a look at how we got here seen through the people who willed it to be. Each weekday, we will share with you the story of a person whose impact on the sports-television industry is indelible.
Legends Behind the Lens is presented in association with the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the SVG Sports Broadcasting Fund. In these trying times - with so many video-production professionals out of work - we hope that you will consider (if you are able) donating to the Sports Broadcasting Fund. Do so by visiting sportsbroadcastfund.org.
___________________________
By Dan Daley
Fred Aldous brought a musician's ear to broadcast-sports audio. That's evident in Crank It Up - a three- to four-minute drum solo composed solely of sound effects from NASCAR tracks and cars and now a fixture on Fox Sports' coverage of NASCAR races - and in the collaborative audio-team effort that he led.
In college, Aldous's instruments were the trombone and the guitar, and his passion blossomed, in the late 1970s, in the recording studio. But he found it far more interesting to be on the other side of the glass, in the control room.
His bridge to broadcasting was a visit to a television station, where, within minutes, he spotted and fixed a monitoring problem the audio team had been experiencing.
The rush of live television was sensational, Fred recalls. Knowing you have one shot at making it right was intense. I was hooked.
Twenty-three Emmy Awards later, the sports-broadcasting industry is glad he did.
From News to Sports
Starting in 1981 at KUTV Salt Lake City, he began mixing weekend newscasts. The stations - and the responsibilities and experience - became progressively larger, and the connections to broadcast sports began to take shape. At Video West Productions, the postproduction arm of KSL-TV Salt Lake City, Aldous mixed Utah Jazz games and other sports events from the company's 35-ft. single-frame remote truck. Then came Mizlou TV Sports, an independent sports-production company that had the broadcast rights to several college bowl games.
I started to hone my sports-mixing chops working the games for Mizlou, he remembers, adding that this was the gig that began his peripatetic career as a traveling A1. They were paying me to travel to cover sporting events. My travel career had begun!
Aldous went freelance in 1986, a move sparked when CBS Sports had come to Salt Lake City to do a skiing event and needed audio support.
CBS liked what I did and started to call me to mix NCAA basketball coverage, he says. This was my start into network broadcasting. It was happening pretty fast because the amount of sports coverage had increased and the broadcasters needed more freelancers to get it done.
Working with CBS, Aldous extended his portfolio of sports shows to NFL; MLB; NASCAR; NCAA basketball; the 1992, 1994, and 1996 Olympics; and a host of other freelance gigs. During that time, he benefited from guidance from Mike Rokosa, who would become director of field operations, and especially from the mentoring he received from Bob Seiderman, CBS's lead audio mixer.
It was a great time in my career, Aldous says. I was fortunate enough to be involved with high-profile events, including Super Bowls, World Series, the Olympics, the Daytona 500, and many NCAA Final Fours with CBS.
When the big moments are happening, Freddie is always going to have the best sound. Fox Sports director Artie Kempner
As his sports portfolio broadened, so did the outlets he was mixing for. He did shows for NBC Sports, ABC Sports/ESPN, Turner Sports, Showtime, and HBO as well as for CBS Sports into the 1990s, when sports on television began to become the media juggernaut it is today.
And a philosophy was emerging, one that would guide the arc of his career. I want the viewer at home to be a part of the audience in the stands, he told the Verge, because the field of play never moves in front of you when you're in the stands.
But it was with Fox Sports that Aldous hit his stride. In 1994, when Fox Sports landed the broadcasting rights to the NFL's NFC conference, he was one of the first hires by Emmy Award-winner Jerry Gepner, who led Fox Sports' nascent NFL initiative, which had to be assembled in a matter of months. As he had done with every other aspect of his career, Aldous learned quickly and innovated.
It was the first time the NFL had allowed us to put microphones on the field of play, he recalls. We put microphones on the umpires. The sound was tremendous.
In fact, it was a turning point in the sound of broadcast sports, as broadcast audio became the way to bring viewers more deeply into a game than ever before.
There were meetings about where the microphones would be placed because size and safety was a concern, Aldous told LineUp in 2014. I have had to work out a balance to keep it interesting to the viewer and acceptable to players and league. There are a lot of sounds that we have to be careful about broadcasting. My job is working with producers, directors, and engineering to figure out what it takes to do something.
Observes Jerry Steinberg, retired SVP of field operations for Fox Sports, What Freddy brought to the sound of broadcast sports was a desire to push the envelope, to bring the sound of th
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Legends Behind the Lens: Fred Aldous The man with a musicians ear took sports television audio into a new dimension By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
