b'The Producer and the PandemicHow a CBS Sports producer tells stories when he cant travelBY TIA SWANSONT thephoneafewJune, a young father who was out of the house be- station found a way to keep going, to keep creating.hats my son, Blake Ber-son says by way of intro- fore Hunter left for school and back for a late dinner.What we did in those first few months.thats duction, as a sweet, high- A longtime producer with CBS Sports, who special- some of the best stuff we ever did, Berson says now, pitched voice says helloizes in making features that run from two minutes torememberingbacktothosedarkdayslastspring intoan hour, he typically traveled at least twice a monthwhenon the flythe station relearned its busi-secondsbeforeBersonto interview sports stars past, present and future. ness, switching to Zoom interviews, editing across himself manages it. WithAnd then the pandemic came and that old lifethe internet, finding and telling stories that did not a new baby occupying his wife, Alison, and his 3-year- ended.Amanwhoworkedforasportsnetworkdepend on the previous nights games or the previ-old son, Hunter, home from preschool for the day,woke up in a world without sports; a man who trav- ous weeks stars. Our group and our company really Berson is on childcare duty for this phone interview. eled the country in search of interesting people andgalvanized over the situation.Welcome to the new working life of a televisionstories was suddenly stuck at home, unable to in- Berson has been on exactly one plane ride in the producer. teract with any of the folks who would ordinarilylast year; he hasnt been in the same room with one In the old days, Berson was a man on the move,populate his films. of his subjects since last February. He hasnt shared the kind of guy who graduated a few months earlyBut, of course, the world needed those stories moreoffice space with his colleagues either. A man who so he could take his first job in January rather thanthan ever. And so Berson and his co-workers and hiswas once on the road for a month producing short 14/ matters magazine / spring 2021'