What Else You Got?

After college, with thoughts of becoming a teacher, Mary Saner ended up in New Orleans pursuing a graduate degree in history at Tulane University, but moved to Washington DC to marry her college sweetheart (to whom she's still married) and earned a master's degree in history at George Washington University. Then one day while reading the university's newspaper, she see a job advertisement: the women's athletics department is looking for an assistant basketball coach to also help in promoting sports teams. She loves sports, applies, and gets the job. A year later, she's the Women's Sports Information Director at GW. When announcing a women's college basketball game at GW, two students from a visiting team invite her to join their half-time radio show. She takes a seat at the press table between the young men and put on the head phones. "It's hard to explain what happens next," she says now, "but being in a charged atmosphere, and hearing my voice amplified in headphones while talking about something I'm interested in (basketball) is exciting. The broadcasters ask me lots of good questions. The show moves fast. I laugh a lot - don't remember what's so funny, only that I knew I'd like to try this again. I think I may have hit on what I truly want to do. This experience is enough to get me thinking about sportscasting as a possible career."She goes on to work at a WFMD radio station where she scrambles to learn to read the news, write copy and read it on the air, and eventually to pursue stories on her own. Her award-winning four-part documentary series "Babies Having Babies" helps launch her career, but it's her smoky voice and her fascination with people, from tennis star Boris Becker to Bill Clinton to the woman whose pet bat lives in her sleeve, that keeps it going. A must-have primer for anyone entering the media today.