There is a new Sports Director in town. For those of you who don’t know, J.R. Havens took a job at Bec Communications. Wild Inspire Sports had an opportunity to sit down with the new Sports Director from KX Sports. He is a native from Alexandria, MN and his name is Dan Williamson. You will also hear from another Minnesota native, weekend Sports Director Ms. Tia Streeter. We asked Dan Williamson how he had been getting acclimated to his new role without J.R. Havens. “So far, so good,” Williamson stated, “J.R. picked the busiest time to leave.” At the time of Havens departure for Bec Communications, KX Sports was preparing to televise U-Mary football. “It’s been a busy three or four months, but I’m still alive,” Williamson stated. We asked Dan what he liked about his new sports role. “I like the hours. It’s nice to be Monday thru Friday,” replied Williamson, “It’s also nice to be able to shape a product and have that freedom to cover as much as possible. I like sports and my goal is to get everyone else excited about sports.” We asked Williamson, in his own words, to describe Tia Streeter. “Tia is one of the more talented people I have ever met. She has accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. She had started as an intern this time last year, and in a years time she reached the weekend sports position. To put that in perspective, I had to toil around in another market for three years to get to where she’s at now. She’s so far ahead of the game. She is such a hard worker, so much fun to be around , and very talented. I think she is going to go as far as she wants to go. I’m thrilled to be able to work with her,” Williamson stated. We asked the two KX colleagues what they both bring to the KX Sports team. Tia answered, “Hard work. Dan says I’m a hard worker, but he puts in ten times as much time in as I do. I think we both bring a lot of excitement. We have a lot of fun. We enjoy being here and we want people to enjoy watching us.” Dan added, “I’d say energy, and some youth. Even though we’re both not from North Dakota, we have a lot of the same ideas and values that people here do. Hopefully that shows on camera and shows in our sports casts.” Tia was asked what was different now that the intern tag had been removed. “It’s a lot more work,” Tia responded, “When it was Dan, J.R., and me, we could switch jobs. Now that it’s Dan and I, I have more control and I can do things the way I would like to do things. I feel a lot more part of the team. I love it. No complaints.” After spending an afternoon with Tia and Dan, I felt like I was part of the KX Sports Team. I felt like they were two genuine people who really cared about Wild Inspire and wanted to give us a look inside the lives of KX Sports reporters. We asked where they would like to see KX Sports go in 2008. “I’d like to see us do some things different and some stuff that we haven’t done yet. I’d like to set the bar high. The goal is to do as much as you can while still being accurate,” stated Williamson. “I’d like to see us do a lot of live shots from different games. It’s really great when we get to broadcast games from our station. I would love to do more coaches shows,” Streeter added. We asked if KXMB viewed KFYR as a challenge. Dan responded, “My goal is to look nothing like they do. That’s not a knock to them. I just don’t want to see their show and suddenly do stuff that they do. I hope the viewers can look at them and see one thing, and look at us and see another. I think they do a wonderful job, but I’d like us to be different.” We asked what their favorite stories were of 2007 and Williamson replied Harmon Killebrew. Streeter said a tailgating machine. “That was just something unique to me that you don’t get to see a lot,” she said. February, May, July, and November are sweeps periods where the ratings come out, but Dan an Tia treat everyday like sweeps periods. “Anytime that we’re in front of the camera, it’s show time. It’s like the Super Bowl. We’re definitely a team. I’m only as good as she lets me be. I might be the one anchoring that day, but she’s the one that went around to a lot of games, shot highlights, and got all of her work done. If she’s not able to do that, then I’m not able to do my job and vise versa,” Dan said. Williamson and Havens still keep in contact. Dan feels like he is still growing into his new role. “I had a great teacher and a great friend who is willing to help me out,” Williamson said of the former KX Sports Director. We asked Tia if she looks at Dan like a head coach, and she stated, “Absolutely. I always go to Dan first, because he has the final say. We work really well as a team, but I agree that his opinion is best because he’s been doing this so long.”