Spotlight: How did covering the 2010 Grey Cup change your career? Natasha Staniszewski: Ya when I was, exactly like you said, covering the Grey Cup and I was out at some sort of gala event or some sort of welcome event or something like that I bumped into the Vice President at TSN, I think we had spoken on the phone previously I had sent him a tape a few months previous looking for some feedback in ways to improve so, he already knew who I was so we bumped into each other and met face to face for the first time. It wasn’t long after that he phoned me and asked if I would be interested in coming to Toronto and auditioning for a materni- ty leave position. And to be honest I hadn’t really been seeking it out and I was pretty comfortable in Edmonton that is where I was born and raised like I said, but the opportunity was presented to me then and I thought I would give it a shot, but the rest is kind of history from that moment on. Spotlight: Once with TSN you became a broad- casting trailblazer. What was it like to be part of the morning SportsCentre show and co-hosting with Kate Beirness, becoming the first regular female duo to anchor the show for the network? Natasha Staniszewski: Well at that point by the time we had kind of got together, Kate and I, I had already been on TSN for three or four years before then so I was sort of a regular anchor at that point as was she and we had already worked many shows together and so when we were put together sort of permanently it honestly didn’t feel really different or anything it was just normal, it was fine for myself to be anchoring and normal for her to be anchoring. It didn’t feel like any big deal to throw us together. We got along well, we had good chemistry, viewers seemed to like us and I know it is significant for sure to have two females working together for the first time on that national show and it is very cool to have been one half of that team, but in the moment it just felt like the most natural normal thing. Spotlight: What advice do you have for females or any readers for that matter when it comes to getting into broadcasting?
“The great thing about working in small towns is that you get to learn sort of everything in a business from the bottom up.”
I mean every single thing you do gets you ready I would say in one way or another. The great thing about working in small towns is that you get to learn sort of everything in a business from the bottom up. So like I mentioned previously I was a videographer when I first started so I was responsible for shooting my own material, editing my own material, writing my own stories, doing the interviews, doing the research all that kind of stuff. Then a little bit later in my career when I started anchoring at Saskatoon I was in charge of building the whole show, what was the lead story, what goes first, what goes second all that kind of stuff. So, I think being in a small town and getting the opportunity to do everything and work with other videographers,
you get to work with produc- ers, you just get to know the industry a little bit better. So, all of those experienc- es helped. I mean a story is a story is a story whether you are writing it about a garlic farm in Yorkton or whether you are writing about Connor McDavid winning the Hart Trophy. It is still a story and you build it the same way. So all those skills you learn in small towns will help you do that much better when you get on the bigger stages.
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AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2021 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2021
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