Today we’d like to introduce you to Brent Martineau.
Hi Brent, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story started when I was a 11 or 12 years old. My youth league coach was also a radio personality in Rhode Island. I was very interested in watching the local sports personalities or listening to them on the radio. I read the newspaper (just the sports page) daily. Steve McDonald was my coach’s name. He would become my mentor in the industry. At that age, he would pick me up at 5:30am on Sunday mornings and I would help him write scripts and I would get to practice doing radio sports reports. That’s when I knew I wanted to get in the business. From there, I studied Radio/TV and Journalism at Ashland University. My first job – after sending 100 tapes – was a part time gig in Alexandria, Louisiana at KLAX-TV. After six months, I accepted a job in my hometown of Providence, Rhode Island at WPRI/WNAC as a sports producer/reporter. After a couple of years, I moved to FOX23 in Albany, New York as the weekend sports anchor. I really learned a lot in my five years in Albany and that led to this opportunity here in Jacksonville back in 2008.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The bumpy road of the business seems like the only way or at least, the best way. Those are the growth spots of life and in the business. As mentioned, I sent 100 tapes out of college and I had two opportunities – the one I took in Alexandria, Louisiana and a promotions opportunity in Zanesville, Ohio. At that time and to some degree still now, getting into the industry was and is the hardest part. The first real adversity in the business for me was getting passed over for a the weekend sports job in Providence. I thought I had a chance, but I was young. That was my hometown, but I knew to grow in the industry I had to leave to get reps and advance my career. My mom still doesn’t watch that station because they didn’t promote me – haha! Even in Jacksonville, I was in the mix to be the sports director and get a promotion multiple times, but wasn’t chosen at those times. It’s part of the journey and the growth.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m the sports director at our tv stations in Jacksonville, Florida (WJAX/WFOX). My role is to lead our sports department plus anchor evening sportscasts and weekly shows. I also do a daily sports talk show on our Action Sports Jax 24/7 Network. I host several Jaguars based shows and do sideline reporting during the Jacksonville Jaguars preseason games.
I’m most proud of the people that have bought into what we do and helped us grow as a sports department in Jacksonville. I’m proud of their commitment to our growth and proud of watching them grow internally and externally as they’ve moved to new adventures. I’m also very proud of what we’ve done to make local sports relevant in the last 20 years in Jacksonville. We have gone from one minute of sports during newscasts to 160 hours of annual local programming to starting a 24 hour streaming sports network and now will launch a local sports channel over the air in the fall of 2026.
I think that growth and station wide commitment to local sports makes us very unique.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I think we could be in the middle of a big shift, almost cyclical shift in our industry. The regional sports networks have mostly gone away and that could bring the emphasis back to local sports. It also will open the door for local stations to carry more professional games and right now, live sports in our industry is king. I think people thought streaming would have a major impact on television, but I think the expectation we now have is that free, over the air television is still going to be a valuable commodity for viewers. I also have a strong belief that youth sports and high school sports is going to continue to grow and there could be more opportunity for that content to live on local channels.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.actionsportsjax.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actionsportsjax/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ActionSportsJax
- Twitter: https://x.com/ActionSportsJax
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionSportsJax
