2024 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Charlie Carlucci Profile: A Legacy Unlike Any Other as a CBS Sports Graphics Operator By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Tuesday, November 12, 2024 - 10:03 am
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On December 17, 2024, 10 new inductees will be formally enshrined in the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in New York City. This is the first of 10 profiles of those inductees, as we celebrate their careers, their impact, and the many ways they changed our industry forever.
2024 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Charlie Carlucci spent more than 35 years redefining the role of graphics operator for CBS Sports. And while, yes, the core of what he did was all about fonts, statistics, colors, and images his key to success, and becoming a Hall of Famer, was his ability to be a good listener.
That was huge, he says. And also important was helping the people sitting next to me. I could never let someone sink I would always help them and let them know I've done this a lot, and this is what we should do.
Those efforts in leadership were not lost by those at CBS Sports, including at the highest level where CBS Sports President David Berson, says Carlucci is in a class by himself as a graphics operator.
Among the many things that stood out about Charlie were his incredible sports knowledge, his ability to continuously adapt to and integrate new technology, and a personality that created calm in the most stressful of situations, he says. Charlie worked across nearly every property at CBS Sports - including the Super Bowl, Masters, Final Four and US Open - and did so at the highest of levels.
Adds Craig Silver, CBS Sports, coordinating producer: Charlie was the most skilled operator of his time. He was expert at the technology of the equipment, and he knew and loved sports as well as anybody. But most of all, he understood PEOPLE. His expertise mixed with his incredible charisma and humor created an atmosphere for success in the graphics room, and helped the members of his team perform at their very best!
Born in Brooklyn in 1954, Carlucci and his family lived there until he was 14 when they then moved out to Wayne, NJ. It was there where he started high school and also his older brother was hired by one of the cable companies in North Jersey. For Carlucci, his brother's career in cable TV opened the door to a career in sports production.
During high school I would work there for him and with him, and that's where my first experience in playing television' as I was covering high school sports and other things for local cable, says Carlucci.
He then attended Manhattan College as an English major, wanting to be a sports reporter. But when he had a chance to spend his summers working for WPIX and two winters in the mid-70s working for Madison Square Garden network while at school he realized he wanted to work behind the scenes. Given that he found himself working on professional productions of professional sports teams while in college led to the occasional awkward moment.
I remember telling the media department professor that I can't make class next week because I'm doing camera at Shea Stadium and I thought he was going to fall off his chair, recalls Carlucci. He goes, what?' and I said, yeah, I got hired by WPIX. So, I would go do a Yankee game at night and then then next day go to school. That was the beginning.
It wasn't long before WPIX hired him permanently and in the mid- to late-70s his goal was to get as much experience as he could. At the time WPIX was home to the New York Yankees, giving Carlucci a chance to work on Yankee games (and while being a Yankee fan) during some of the most exciting years in the history of the franchise. He was doing everything for WPIX, including learning how to be a technical director as well as, yes, operate graphics equipment.
It was a big thrill for me, he recalls of his time working on Yankee broadcasts. I had a chance to do everything, and it was a great place to work.
In 1980, after five years at WPIX, he would have his chance to go to CBS as an opening for a Chyron operator became available. He learned of the opportunity while working at Yankee Stadium when he heard someone had turned down the job.
I asked why they turned it down and it was because there was travel involved and I jumped out of my chair and called my brother who was at CBS News, he recalls. It was 1980 and I asked him who do I talk to? Who do I call?' And that's how I got the job and began a 36-year career as a Chyron operator.
Carlucci's long career in graphics allowed him to be part of the amazing developments that took place due to technical innovations like the move to Windows which transformed graphics devices into computer graphics devices.
I was never a big computer guy and I'm thinking, oh boy, I'm lost I'm done, he says. But that's when it totally changed, and it was a whole different technology. But the job was still the same.
That job, and where Carlucci excelled, was not just operating the graphics devices and making them jump and sing but rather anticipating and understanding what graphics are most important given the context of what is happening on the field of play.
A lot of operators would have no clue what the yardage to go was on third down and that's what I did best, he adds. And I would teach the people next to me who just got out of college how to listen to six different people at the same time and and put up graphics that made sense. But it was such a different process back then, it was much more manual, and I had to be able to anticipate what was going to happen.
When he joined CBS Sports, Carlucci found himself working on the NFL A game which back then featured Hall of Famer sportscasters Pat Summer
