Three Rivers hoops expanding reach with live-streaming

The Three Rivers College men’s and women’s hoops programs are getting more eyes on their respective programs this season as the TRC booster club has helped opened the doors for live streaming of Raiders and Lady Raiders basketball.

Dr. Tim Hager, the voice of the Raiders, is in his sixth year of broadcasting; his alma mater admitted he’s had to shift the way he’s told the story of the game to what are now viewers and not just listeners.

“I’m having to adjust,” he said. “You’ve got to be a little more precise because there’s seeing it. In radio, you miss something and the listeners imagination is there. You don’t have to on TV as opposed to radio.”

Hager said he knew radio signals were limited in some of the surrounding areas as he was hearing from people in Piedmont, Van Buren, Bloomfield and other towns that wanted to know what was happening with the Raiders.

“Everybody wants to watch it on their phone now,” he said. “It was technology driven. A lot of people had made that transition already, a lot of high schools.”

With the level of Lady Raider hoops at what it is, Hager said people wanted to be able to watch and follow along with the team.

Hager said the numbers are already impressive in just the short time of the broadcast.

All games can be found on the TRC YouTube page but one thing Hager said he’s also seeing is people watching the games the next day as well.

“It’s new but we’re getting positive feedback,” he said. “We had players watching before. I’ve had players’ parents contacting me.”

While Covid wreaked havoc on most things, one area where it promoted growth was in live-streaming.

Hager said he does Zoom calls months for work and meets with his boss from Springfield while sitting in his living room.

“It’s changed the way we do things,” he said. “It was coming but it put it on steroids.”

The next chance to catch a broadcast is 2 p.m. Saturday when the Lady Raiders host Rend Lake but Hager admitted the best is yet to come.

“It gets more exciting when Region 16 heats up,” he said.