#PeopleFirst Friday: Cody Nelson

As an event manager in CSM Production’s Live Shows department, Cody Nelson knows his way around a racetrack. What may surprise you is how he got his start in racing – as an announcer…at eleven years old.

 “My brother started Bandolero racing. All the races that we went to, they never had an announcer. They had the PA booth, but no one was ever in it,” said Nelson. “I asked my dad who worked at the track ‘Why isn’t anybody up there?’ and he responded with ‘Why don’t you go up there and see if there’s equipment?’ I ran up there, turned it on one day during practice, and just started messing around.”

Being 11-years-old, one might find it difficult to get into sports announcing. Luckily for Nelson, he had a mentor in NASCAR announcer Brad Gillie.

 “I had zero idea what I was doing in the press box at first,” Nelson laughed. “But my dad mentioned to Brad Gillie, who announces for PRN and still has a SiriusXM radio show on NASCAR that I was going to go up and do it, and Brad was all over it. He helped me figure out how to call races and being able to come up with the right things to say during a race.”

 Nelson quickly picked up on some “tools of the trade” from the veteran announcer.

 “There’s a lot of research that goes into it. I had a binder with everyone’s stats, which was one of the easier parts.” Nelson said. “That’s the first thing you do. There’s a car number, here’s their name. You want to know their hometowns, and if they have sponsors, you want to show the sponsors some love for the few hundred people who were in the stands.

 “It’s like studying for a spelling test,” he continued. “I remember one time my mom got frustrated and told me ‘I wish that you would remember and study for tests as much as you do for all this racing stuff you have to remember’.”

 Following his days earning $50 a night announcing as a pre-teen, Nelson would continue to do some PA work during his college years at Texas A&M. He was even able to parlay his announcing skills into his favorite sport, having the opportunity to serve as the Public Address announcer for nearby Sam Houston State’s basketball team.

 “I had a roommate in College Station who worked for the marketing department at Sam Houston State who told me that they were looking for an announcer, and I ended up calling that whole season for them, Nelson said. “Just being in an arena, you really get to hear yourself. It’s cool when you’re on the big speaker outside at a racetrack, but in an arena, getting to hear yourself was the most fun.”

 While he hasn’t announced as much since starting at CSM Production in 2022, he’s always ready, just in case he’s needed.

 “I think I could be a good backup announcer in case anybody goes down, but hopefully that’s not the case.”