The Daily Orange

A prepubescent Steve Flamisch strode up to the so-called "Super Bowl of high school football" in a shirt and tie, with his hair slicked back.

His peers at Toms River High School South were content to root for their team from the stands, but Flamisch had set his sights on the press box. Thanks to the unfortunate illness of one of the regular announcers, and a positive recommendation from a producer he'd impressed in elementary school, Flamisch convinced TV-21 Sports to let him do the play-by-play.

"At halftime, I ran to the pay phone in the school and called my mother to tell her I was doing the play-by-play," said Flamisch, now a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. "She didn't believe me until she saw it on television the next day."

Flamisch was not so successful, however, in his first attempts to finagle his way into the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and later the Carrier Dome's press box. But these minor setbacks only made him press harder - Flamisch recently became the youngest professional newscaster in Central New York.

He currently splits his time between three television and radio broadcasting jobs that will take him from Democratic Headquarters today to Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo this weekend. Flamisch delivers newscasts for the 27 radio and television stations that air Newsradio 570 WSYR and provides play-by-play for high school and college football on Adelphia 13 Sports in Buffalo.

But it's his news anchor position on Clear Channel's popular station, Rock 105, "The Dog," that he hopes will win him favor with the ladies. "The Dog" paired Flamisch with shock-jock Scorch from 6 to 9 a.m. every day.

Providing a serious newscast between Scorch's sarcastic comments has proven a struggle, but the odd coupling has worked well for Flamisch, said Pete Stojanovski, a weekend disc jockey and traffic reporter for "The Dog."

"They make fun of him and he takes it like a man," Stojanovski said. "He's the only part-timer who wears a suit on his overnight shift. He takes it very seriously. That's why I think he's going to make it - he's already made it."

Flamisch doesn't take well to being called an intern - or a college student - as he has five years of on-air experience under his belt.

His passion for broadcast journalism dates back to when he was just seven years old. While wearing a pair of headphones from circa 1970, sitting in an imagined press box in his basement, Flamisch used to call sporting events for an audience of one - his father - as they watched television broadcasts with the volume turned off.

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