Bobcats in the Booth: TXST Electronic Media Students Gain Hands-On Experience Calling Baseball in Alaska

By the time Ben Cameron and Kaden Bessent are ready to go live with their call of a Mat-Su Miners baseball game, they’ve already been preparing for hours—setting up equipment, airing a recorded pregame show, and positioning cameras.

And then there’s a tradition the two Texas State University students developed over their summer of broadcasting games in the Alaska Baseball League: a pre-game trip to the concession stand for a ballpark burger.

For nearly two months this summer, the two Texas State Bobcats traded the river and hills of San Marcos for the mountains, forests, and coastline of Alaska, working as baseball announcers for the Mat-Su Miners, a team based in Palmer, about 40 miles northeast of Anchorage. 

The pair called nearly 41 games as the Miners went 24–13 and won the Top of the World Series to claim the championship of the amateur collegiate summer league. Along the way, the two electronic media majors built video packages, managed the team’s social media accounts, interviewed players and players’ parents, and learned how to turn a YouTube broadcast into something that felt more like a TV production.

“I'd imagine 80% of our audience is family members of the players,” Bessent says. “And so it's less about us calling a game and less about us, and more about connecting the parents to the players being so far apart and making them feel like they're there too. That's a big part of what we've been focusing on.”

Both Cameron, a senior, and Bessent, a May 2026 graduate, developed their broadcast skills with the sports department at KTSW, TXST’s student radio station, which they joined in Spring 2025. Cameron wanted to expand his skills with a summer internship, so last school year he began emailing baseball organizations around the country, including the Miners.

Pete Christopher, the Miners’ general manager, says he assesses broadcast applicants on a grading system that he learned when he was a player scout. “How they sounded, how they carried themselves, their knowledge, their computer skills—Kaden and Ben really stood out,” he says.

Christopher hired Cameron first and then asked him to find a broadcast partner. Christopher says he looks for a two-person broadcast team because during home games, they also serve as the official scorekeepers.

After getting the offer, Cameron knew just who to call. He and Bessent had called only one game together at the time, but he knew they had potential. Leading up to their departure for Alaska, they called high school football and TXST baseball and softball games together, working to develop the chemistry they would need.

“It’s better to have two guys that know each other,” Christopher says. “So, Ben picked Kaden. And I’ve got to tell you, these two guys are two of the best broadcasters I’ve ever had. They were great.” 

The Miners had already begun streaming games on YouTube, but Cameron and Bessent added pregame programming, highlight packages, graphics, music, and interviews. They even created a how-to document explaining their system for next summer's broadcasters.

The broadcast team didn’t just describe the action of the game. They filled the broadcast with stories about the players that made players’ family members feel closer to the action as they listened from afar.

That approach earned compliments from Miners fans and parents and created one particularly surreal moment for the two students when Kevin Millar, a former Boston Red Sox player and longtime MLB Network personality, came into the booth. 

“He's a big sports personality in baseball and we grew up watching him,” Bessent says. “Two of his sons played on the team and so he was nice enough to come in the booth. We interviewed him for a couple innings.”

Much of what they learned in Alaska built on their experiences and classes at Texas State. Both Cameron and Bessent had taken classes with Mark Mederson, assistant professor of electronic media, who stayed connected with them throughout the summer as they navigated their new roles. He followed their broadcasts, offered feedback on their live shows, and traveled to Alaska in July to watch his students work.  

“The job Ben and Kaden had with the Miners is technically an internship, but there aren't many internships that offer this level of an immersive experience,” Mederson says. “They lived with a host family and ate meals at the ballpark. They had the opportunity to literally eat, sleep, and breathe baseball broadcasting this summer. You really can’t put a price on that kind of experience.”  

Mederson encouraged the students to document their summer with photos and videos—two Texas students broadcasting baseball games in Alaska, living with locals, hiking in bear country, and even encountering a moose. Mederson is now working on a documentary about their summer adventure that he hopes to edit during the winter season and later possibly submit to film festivals and the Broadcast Educators Association.

The two students credit their hands-on experiences at TXST and relationships with their professors with preparing them for success in Alaska.  

Bessent spent time as a reporter for The University Star and worked with TXST Athletics as a production assistant and in communications, where he ran cameras and worked in the control room. He also spent three semesters at KTSW. Cameron similarly built his experience through KTSW, TXST basketball broadcasts, and other opportunities around campus.

“If I don't join The Star, join KTSW, any of that, I don't get those opportunities as a student, and then I probably don’t get this gig either,” Bessent says.

His advice to other students is simple: Get involved in student media like KTSW and The Star. “I think that is huge for me, having done basically three years combined of both of those. Those provide great experiences. And then just being involved in your classes.”

Back in San Marcos this fall, Bessent and Cameron are both building on their Alaskan experience. Cameron is serving as KTSW’s executive sports director, while Bessent, recently graduated, is going to stay in San Marcos and continue working one more semester with TXST Athletics helping cover the Pac-12 football season.

The summer experience proved that good broadcasting is about more than calling every pitch. It’s knowing how to keep a listener engaged, even when nothing is happening on the field. Christopher complimented Bessent and Cameron for filling the “dead space” that previously filled the Miners’ broadcasts between innings.

“These guys filled it with pictures and music and all kinds of things in between half innings,” he says. “It takes a lot of prep, a lot of prep to put a broadcast on.”

From gaining experience within student media to cold emailing teams to find a summer internship, Cameron's advice remains the same.

“You just got to take advantage of every opportunity you have,” Cameron says.