First female anchor to lead 'Naperville Sports Weekly'
A recent college graduate will join the relatively small team of women in sports media by becoming the first female anchor for the weekly sports broadcast of Naperville's community TV station.
Allie Kaleta, a May graduate of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, will lead the prep sports highlights show "Naperville Sports Weekly" on NCTV-17 when it starts its 11th season at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
She joins an NCTV team of five other sports staffers and several videographers who cover all varsity boys and girls sports at six high schools in Naperville, Lisle and Aurora: Benet Academy, Metea Valley, Naperville Central, Naperville North, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley.
Nationwide, women write or create 11 percent of sports content, while men produce 89 percent, according to "The Status of Women in the U.S. Media" 2017 report by the Women's Media Center. The same report found that women made up 9.8 percent of assistant sports editors in 2014 - down from 17.2 percent in 2012 - across 100 American and Canadian newspapers and websites.
Elizabeth Braham Spencer, NCTV executive director, said she was pleased to hire New Lenox native Kaleta to be the show's seventh anchor because of her solid education in sports and in broadcasting. While at Loras, Kaleta spent two years producing and anchoring a biweekly sports program covering the school's NCAA Division III teams.
"We see huge potential in Allie as our anchor and producer," Spencer said. "It's an extra bonus for her to be a woman for us. We want to have a strong role model for our female athletes."
Kaleta said she sought a career in sports journalism to combine her loves of watching, playing, officiating and scorekeeping sports with her enjoyment of English and writing.
She grew up learning the ins and outs of football and baseball from her dad, who coached and played. She played basketball, softball and volleyball, ran track and did cheerleading herself.
"And I enjoyed knowing the background information of how players work and how plays work," she said.
Kaleta grew up seeing Erin Andrews on ESPN and Sarah Kustok on Comcast SportsNet, viewing the female broadcasters as something of career role models and thinking, "Why can't I be just like them?"
"To me it was never that a woman can or cannot be in this field," Kaleta said. "It was more I know I enjoy this and it was something I wanted to pursue."
In the early days of Spencer's career spanning several topics of broadcast media, she said she grew accustomed to being the only woman. She hopes female journalists like Kaleta will help change that at NCTV and elsewhere.
"It's about time that more women are in the media as a sports role," Spencer said. "We haven't had a female anchor or (sports) reporter. We're thrilled to have that."