Exclusive interview with Chip Carter

Chip Carter, on the right.

Chip Carter, of Tampa Bay FOX 13, is not just  the channel's sports director, he's much more beyond that. He has been part of the most sensational sports events in the past two decades ever since he joined the channel in 1988. Chip is a graduate of The University of New Hampshire and he won an Emmy Award for a racing television special.  Surrounded by great sports players, cameras, and fans, Chip Carter takes his job seriously! However, his love for it is so broad that, to him, it's not really a job; it's actually gathering up with friends to talk sports!

1. How did you come to be the sports director for FOX 13?
 I was working in Knoxville and was hired to come down here, whats funny is that on my first year wedding anniversary, my wife and I came to Tampa and I told her then that this would be a nice place to work.
2. How was it like when you won your first Emmy Award? Can you share with us that fascinating story?
The cool thing about winning an Emmy is that your work does not compete against others in the state, the work has to compete against a high standard and if it doesn't meet that standard -- you don't win.  Television is a total team effort to make everything look good takes a lot of communication; the first Emmy I won was for a half hour racing special that a lot of people were involved with so that was really cool to see it all come together.

3. How is your schedule like each time  you are covering the Super Bowl?   

Great schedule -- unbelievable to be there, I think I have covered something like 12 or 13 Super Bowls...long hours though, because we are covering it for every portion of our 8 hours of news a day so that means, morning, noon and night...its not unusual to work 90 to 100 hours during Super Bowl Week.

4. What was one of your most memorable moments out of all the NFL seasons that you have covered?
Has to be the Bucs Super Bowl, to be in San Diego covering the team with Jon Gruden as the coach was a lot of fun -- !

5. What are some of your favorite Tampa Bay Rays baseball players?
I don't really have a favorite player, we spend a lot of time with all of them....its just a really good group of guys to deal with.....they are really personable, know that we have a job to do and just make it fun to do it.  Having Joe Maddon as the manager, I think sets a really good tone and that makes it a lot easier I think.  We are actually really lucky with the coaches we have here in all of the sports USF with Skip Holtz and Guy Boucher with the Lightning and Raheem Morris with the Bucs, they are all very dynamic, good to deal with -- have great personalities...and know how to work with the media.

6. You're evidently a very professional and highly respected sports anchor. How is the dynamic between you and your fans everytime you see them during sports events?
Covering high school football we get a great conversation going with viewers that come up to say hello...I LOVE that -- that is why I am in this job really to share the sports experience with people...if I could invite the entire market into the studio with me, I would -- thats what I feel like I am doing when I am standing in the studio is just telling friends what happened at the game, relating a story and giving them the compelling parts of it.  I don't take anything for granted in this job, you have to work hard to be good at it and you have to work hard to maintain your reputation -- viewers don't have to watch Fox, I know that they have choices so our staff -- we have the largest sports staff in the market, works very hard to make sure that we are their choice when it comes to sports news on anything in Tampa Bay.  Its not a job really, it just doesn't feel like a job....its more of a chance to sit down with friends over a pizza and talk sports....thats what I hope we are creating.  So when viewers come up to say hello or say that they watch us all the time....I always make sure to give them a huge thank you because it really is appreciated.

7. Are you and your family still active in the Golden Retriever Rescue of Mid Florida Program? Can you share with us your experience with it? 
We have 3 golden retrievers at home....Fletcher is the one we adopted, when we got him he weighed 55 lbs and wasn't housebroken -- didn't really know how to behave in a house.  We think he might have been chained because he just paced in a circle around the family room. The Golden Retriever Rescue of Mid Florida starts the process of finding these goldens new homes and I know the work the foster homes put into the effort is a key part of that process -- the foster home is the first home the golden has and they use that time to figure out his personality, take care of any medical issues etc...just a key part of the process.....and then when we adopted him...I really think he just feels as if he finally has his permanent home.  We use to do a lot more volunteering in terms of personal effort and time with the group -- but as we continue to live here, we branched out to hook up with the Tampa Humane Society -- (Cathy Bellatin) does a great job with them...as well as other organizations.....I try and push as much as possible the work  GRRMF does....in terms of the yearly calendar and their needed donations.....using the contacts that I have to keep the mission of that group upper most in people's minds, same thing with the Tampa Humane Society as well.