Q-and-A with FLW host Carlton Wing, Part 2

Wal-Mart FLW Tour television host Carlton Wing Photo by Jeff Schroeder.

December 5, 2001 • Jeff Schroeder • Archives

Carlton Wing grew up in Little Rock, Ark., playing the three major sports: football, basketball and baseball. He says he didn’t really begin to appreciate the culture of bass fishing until he moved to Washington and Utah to begin his career in sports broadcasting.

“You just kind of take things for granted that are always there with you,” he says. “When I was out West, people would find out I was from Arkansas and would immediately remark, `Oh my goodness, that’s just great, you’re from the center of the (bass fishing) world.’ I was just like, wow, I guess it really is something special. And when you look around, the natural resources in this part of the world are just amazing.”

After 12 years of doing live broadcasts of football and basketball at Air Force Academy, BYU, Utah State and Weber State, plus a stint in Spokane, Wash., as sports director, Wing returned to his native Little Rock to become sports director at KARK-TV. For nine years he did the nightly sportscast.

This year, when the Dempsey Film Group asked him to host the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, he jumped at the chance. An avid camper, golfer and budding angler, he relished the idea of doing more comprehensive TV work focused on the outdoors.

“One of the thrills about doing this is the chance to focus on fishing and the outdoors and to get really in-depth,” he says. “It’s a special blessing for a sportscaster to be able to do something that’s in-depth because we’ve generally got just three to three-and-a-half minutes to cover the world of sports in your nightly newscast. With FLW Outdoors, we have an hour every week to go really into what’s going on in the world of fishing.”

Married and a father of three young children, Wing also appreciates the Wal-Mart FLW Tour’s emphasis on promoting family fun, and says that aspect of the sport as a whole will be a major factor in the show’s continued and future success.

“Adults, kids, male, female – there is no barrier in fishing, period,” he says. “It’s a wonderful family opportunity. One of the things that everyone on board this project is trying to do is make it inviting.”

Wing addresses these issues and more in the second half of our discussion with the new face of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour.

Click to see part one of the interview.

Q: In addition to tournaments, the new FLW show will have expanded non-tournament coverage and bass-fishing features. What’s in store?

A: We hope to have a lot of fun with that, really. We will do a variety of features, obviously, of things related to fishing. But we’re also going to do some things that should make it fairly widespread. We want to go into the towns that are hosting all of these events and find out some of the unique things that make these towns special and give people at home a flavor for the sites and where the tournament is taking place. We just had a great couple of stories that we found out about in Florence, Ala. – just really unique stories that are going to be fun for people to see. Also, we were talking to the fishermen and we’re hearing some of the wildest fishing stories that are out there and we’re capturing those on tape.

We hope to be able to educate, really. We’re going to bring out a series called “Fishing 101.” It’s just kind of introductory things that people would need to know if they wanted to start fishing or take up fishing with their families. Nobody should feel intimidated about trying to take up a new sport. So we want to educate them, but we also want to entertain them. We want people throughout the course of this show to just sit down and enjoy the hour together. A lot of fun things will happen. By the time the program is over, if they’ve been entertained, educated and informed on what all’s going on in the world of fishing, then we’ve done our jobs.

We want to introduce them to the personalities as well. We want them to get to know these top anglers, these people who have risen to the tops in their field. We want them to have somebody for whom they can cheer, people that they can really relate to and follow. We want to introduce them to the Michael Jordans of professional bass fishing, of which we have several. We admire the precision of Randy Johnson from the pitcher’s mound and being able to pick a spot at the plate. It’s no different for these fishermen to be able to drop that lure in precisely on a cast as well. You know, very few people in the world can do that. These guys have obviously had to put a lot of work and years of practice. That’s what we’re all about is trying to celebrate these efforts and achievements.

Q: How will the move to PAX TV affect the Wal-Mart FLW Tour show?

A: One of the best parts about being on PAX is that we’re on at the same time every week. You know exactly where we’re going to be and when were going to be there. There’s no hit-and-miss, no guesswork at all. It’s going to be on at 3 o’clock Eastern every Saturday afternoon, and that’s a huge benefit.

Another positive part of being on PAX is the overall philosophy of the PAX network really matches the philosophies of Irwin Jacobs, Wal-Mart, Operation Bass and the sponsors as well. It’s just family-oriented. We’re trying to really bring out a positive image of family activities and what the families can do together and enjoy, both watching and participating. That’s a big benefit of PAX.

Another thing that’s really interesting, everybody’s heard the saying that the sum can be greater than the total number of the individual parts. That only works if everybody’s moving in the same direction. If people are moving in a bunch of different directions, then the sum isn’t greater. It actually would be destructive. But what’s beautiful about this is that everybody from all these organizations – PAX, Irwin and Operation Bass – everybody’s moving in the same direction with this. Because of that, we’re all able to pool our own strengths and really make this a product that should grow exponentially because of all the individual efforts and individual contributions that we can all make. And that’s all the way to the Dempsey Film Group as well. One of the reasons why it was such an easy sell for me to come and work here is because all the people around here are just so family-oriented and friendly and really into to just making ourselves better.

Q: One of the things Operation Bass prides itself on is its ability to break the mold in competitive bass fishing. From offering record cash prizes to breaking down gender barriers with anglers like EverStart Championship co-angler winner Renee Flesh, this organization has pushed the industry immensely forward over the last six years. In a broad sense, how far can this sport go?

A: You can fish from the time you’re old enough to hold a rod until well past a hundred. You can fish forever and anybody can fish. When you think about some of the reasons that people decide not to try something new, it’s usually because there’s an intimidation factor. Well, we don’t want anybody to avoid fishing. There’s no reason to be intimidated. It’s just a couple of quick things to learn, then you can go out there and try it yourself and just enjoy it.

Q: What’s your outlook on the direction this sport is taking, especially as far as TV is concerned?

A: We’ve got 55 million anglers out the in the country. We know about them. We want, obviously, those people to be drawn in even further toward the sport. But we want the family members – the spouses and the children and the brothers and sisters and all – to be drawn in as well. But what we hope to do, especially with our television show, is to make it the kind of TV show that will not only draw in those people, but people who just love the spirit of good old American competition. You get to see people going out there and practicing their craft, performing their craft – one that they have worked on and practiced forever to get themselves to be the best in their field. We want to highlight and celebrate their achievement.

At the same time, the United States of America has wonderful natural resources and beautiful scenes to go out and enjoy. So many times people get so caught up in their concrete jungle. They never step out into the outdoors and see some of God’s creations and enjoy how beautiful it is. They never really get to feel what happens when you go out there and just sit on a lake and look around – the peacefulness that that can provide and how that can give your life some nice perspective. Fishing is a great family activity. One of the things that we really want to do with this is to help bring families together and give them something positive and constructive to do so that they can really take the full joy and meaning out of life.

FLW Outdoors begins Saturday, Jan. 19 at 3 p.m. EST on PAX TV.