TECHNOLOGY
FOX SPORTS TV GROUP
Andrea Berry
TITLE: Field senior VP, operations, Fox Sports Television Group
BORN: April 24, 1961
EDUCATION: Degree in computer science, Illinios Institute of Technology
CAREER BUILDER: Making the decision to move into field operations. 'I was being a bit facetious when I went to my boss and said I wanted to go in the field and travel around the world like the other guys. I expected a no, but, seven months later, I got a yes.'
When an 18-year-old Andrea Berry visited WMAQ-TV Chicago to get some practice interviewing for internships, she got more than practice: She got the job Nearly 25 years later, she finds herself serving as FOX Sports Television Group's field senior vice president, operations, a role that keeps her busy working on 11 owned-and-operated FOX Sports Networks as well as Rainbow and Sunshine-network stations.
'Coming to Fox and being involved with launching Fox Sports Networks,' she says, 'allowed me to understand what I really knew and how I could implement what I Knew in the past.'
That past is impressive. It was while working as a studio technician at WMAQ-TV that she discovered the buzz from working live, something that continues through to this day. In 1984, Berry made the move to New York and joined CBS as studio technical manager at its New York broadcast center. She later became a field technical manager, working on such events as presidential inaugurations, the Winter Olympics, and NFL, NBA, MLB and NCAA telecasts.
Those efforts led to two Emmy awards in 1991 for Outstanding Technical Team Remote for coverage of the World Series and in 1994 for figure-skating coverage at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. It also put her on a road that would eventually lead to Fox Sports.
After working as director of technical operations at CBS owned-and-operated WBBM-TV Chicago for two years, she joined Fox Sports Net in 1996 as vice president, field operations. She was promoted to her current position in January 2001.
