JumboCast takes Tufts athletics to the net

In the bottom of the seventh inning of the opening round of last season's NESCAC baseball tournament, the Jumbos clung to a precarious 5-3 lead over Williams. Senior first basemen Tim Ayres stepped to the plate, and broke the game open, lacing a long two-run triple. A Tufts parent frantically dialed Ayres' home across the country in Irvine, California to deliver the good news. However, when Ayres' mother picked up the phone she was already as excited as the screaming fans. She already knew about the clutch hit, as she had been listening to the game live over the Internet on JumboCast.

JumboCast is the brainchild of Steve Clay, a computer engineer and a 1990 graduate of Tufts. Clay developed the idea of airing live broadcasts of Jumbo sports on the web after witnessing the great reaction received when WMFO, local Tufts radio, began broadcasting games in 1990.

"It was really eye-opening to see how positively alumni and students responded when Tufts sports games were first on the radio," Clay said.

In the winter of 2000 a faltering WMFO transmitter led Clay to jerry-rig a setup that allowed a live basketball broadcast to run over the Internet. Since that first remedial connection, JumboCast has grown into a resource few universities in the nation possess. In fact, Tufts is the only NESCAC school with an organization anything like JumboCast.

"I don't know of any other school that has broadcasts of sports over the web like Tufts has with JumboCast," Paul Sweeny, director of sports information, said. "We are the envy of the NESCAC."

Though Clay credits WFMO immensely in aiding Tufts sports, he is quick to point out the benefits of the JumboCast system.

"We can reach a much larger audience," Clay said. "Even the webcast offered by WMFO can only handle 10-20 people. We're using the Tufts infrastructure and can be heard by a huge audience. We're also in a much higher fidelity. Broadcasts are no longer through a phone line and they sound much more pristine."

Clay attributes the flexibility in broadcasting afforded by the WebCast to JumboCast's success. "The constraints on WMFO's schedule didn't allow it to broadcast a lot of games. We can broadcast anything we want, and then archive it where it can be accessed forever," Clay said. "We were fortunate to have the opportunity to build a sports broadcasting legacy at WMFO for 12 years, but the hope is that with WebCast we can really grow it further."

In his venture, Clay is assisted by two former Tim Horgan Award-winning Tufts Daily sportswriters, Ben Oshlag and Vivek Ramgopal, in addition to Todd Bloniarz, the long-time voice of Tufts football, basketball and hockey on WMFO. Clay himself is a former editor in chief of the Daily.

"Having a dedicated and interested staff only helps us create a great product," Clay said.

Clay is even hopeful that JumboCast will help cure the widespread problem of undergraduate apathy toward sports on the hill.

"We're creating the system before there's a huge demand for it," Clay said. "We're going slowly and trying to do it the right way. We really hope that the resource will increase interest in Tufts sports in general. We even think it can be a huge leg up in attracting athletes who can go to the website and actually listen to or watch an archived game."

JumboCast is not a student organization, nor is it affiliated with the athletic department. Instead, it is an independent organization related to Tufts athletics. It operates on a shoe-string budget, and relies heavily on independent contributions. Though only entering its second year of existence, Clay is hopeful that JumboCast and Tufts' athletics will have a long and mutually beneficial relationship.

"There are so many games we want to cover," Clay said. We see JumboCast as a way to broadcast all sports. We not only want to deliver the most audio and video content relating to Tufts sports that we can manage, but we also want to create a practical, hands-on training environment for Tufts students and alumni interested in broadcast sports journalism."

JumboCast can be reached from the link at TuftsLife.com or directly at www.jumbocast.net. JumboCast will broadcast three live Homecoming events this weekend: the Carzo Cage dedication at 10 a.m. on Saturday, the football game against Bates at 12:30 on Saturday, and the men's soccer game at 1:30 on Sunday