Sports media career turned La Conner native into true globetrotter

It goes without saying that Jim Bergem thinks the world of La Conner, the hometown that helped launch a wide-ranging career that has taken him to the far reaches of the globe.

Bergem, the 1986 La Conner High student body president, calls Spokane home these days. But given that he has made stops in Taiwan and Malaysia while working in media and marketing, the Inland Empire seems just a stone’s throw away.

Bergem credits a lifelong love of sports, plus support from family and his La Conner teachers, with encouraging him to venture beyond the banks of the North Fork of the Skagit River.

“My memories there are limitless,” Bergem, whose family has run Al’s Landing for decades, told the Weekly News. “Mainly all the salmon barbecue family reunions at the river, Duane Bretvick’s accordion trio entertaining us as true Norwegians, and, of course, swimming in the freezing Skagit River.”

Later Bergem would not hesitate to plunge head-first into the often turbulent current that swirls around sports media and promotion. It would lead to his meeting basketball Hall of Famers K.C. Jones and Lenny Wilkins, baseball icons Ken Griffey, Jr., Ozzie Smith and Ichiro Suzuki, and television personality Vanna White, among other headliners.

His early potential was tapped by La Conner High English teacher Kathy Shoop.

“She assigned many creative-writing opportunities – yes, opportunities,” Bergem recalled. “This was big in preparing me both for college and a career, and she was a tough grader. No easy ‘As’ from Mrs. Shoop. She truly made you earn it.”

Norm Hoffman, then a La Conner teacher and administrator, steered Bergem to his alma mater, Washington State University, home of the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication, one of the top journalism programs in the country.

Hoffman was aware of Bergem’s interest in sports journalism and felt WSU, which trained many Seattle-area reporters and legendary broadcaster Keith Jackson, would be a good fit.

“He then did one step better,” Bergem said. “He drove me and my WSU-bound classmate Bob Peth to Pullman. I was amazed, one, that he would do that for us and, two, that I fell in love with a middle-of-nowhere small town that gets dumped on annually with snow.

“I think it was destiny,” he added, “and I have been a die-hard Coug ever since.”

Bergem broke into radio while at WSU, working for country station KCLX in Colfax.

“I knew nothing about country music,” he said, “but luckily they did a lot of local sports from tiny schools I knew from the State ‘B’ Basketball Tournament in Spokane. I also got in on the last era of true record-spinning and reel-to-reel tape machines.”

From there, Bergem moved to Prime Sports Northwest, the precursor to today’s ROOT Sports.

“There, I did everything, from audio and camera to hauling cable and setting up for live TV football, basketball, volleyball and even swimming,” Bergem said. “This led to an opportunity to do PA (public address) work for WSU Athletics, mainly halftime promotions and announcements, part of the marketing wing of WSU Sports.”

That set Bergem up for a sales and promotions internship with the Seattle Mariners. He joined the club in 1993, along with new manager Lou Pinella, who would lead the Mariners to a regular season record 116 wins in 2001.

Bergem would return to WSU and complete work on his degree in broadcast journalism in 1995. With diploma in hand, he joined the CBS television affiliate in Lewiston, Idaho as a reporter, anchor and morning host. He covered the 1997 Washington State Rose Bowl team, with his interview subjects including head coach Mike Price and quarterback Ryan Leaf.

In 1999, Bergem was named media director for High 5 Sports Marketing in Seattle. He headed up the Bellingham Bells Collegiate Baseball League and then worked in Jacksonville, Florida for another account, the Southern Elite Hockey League, as director of sales and marketing.

He puts the latter position in the “it’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it” category.

“One team part-owner,” among his phone contacts, Bergem explained, “was Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kim Alexis.”

In December 2000, Bergem rejoined the Mariners for a six-year run as an account executive. In that role, he was invited to walk the red carpet for the 2001 Major League Baseball All-Star Game gala.

The game itself was an event Bergem will not forget. He saw Cal Ripken hit his final All-Star homer and baseball goodwill ambassador Tommy Lasorda take his famed tumble while manning the third base coaching box.

Five years later Bergem was hired by Hotel Deca in Seattle as its senior sales manager. But it was not long before pro sports lured Bergem back into the fold. The Seattle Supersonics brought him in as a group sales specialist in 2007. During the NBA team’s final season in Seattle, prior to its move to Oklahoma City, Bergem frequently worked special events alongside budding superstar Kevin Durant.

Though the Sonics left, Bergem stayed. He worked as an account executive with Risan Athletics in Kirkland until 2016.

Still, the media life beckoned. So, he packed for Asia.

“I made the move to Taiwan to get back into media on recommendation from a WSU buddy living there,” Bergem said.

It was after moving to Kuala Lumpur that he hooked up with a contractor engaged in marketing videos. That proved a stepping-stone to a travel-themed radio gig.

“There was some music, but lots of talk and interviews,” he said. “They paid us to attend events, openings, tours and the like. I’d probably still be there if the bosses and a manager not had a huge falling out. The manager took all the laptops, microphones, the whole system really, and left town with a sizable amount of money, too.”

Bergem came back to the U.S. and in the fall of 2019 was named director of ticket sales for the Spokane Shock of the Indoor Football League. COVID-19 was not in the game plan at that point. But it ended up putting a kibosh on the 2020 season.

Bergem quickly rebounded, landing a position with Amazon, for whom he had previously implemented an analytics program for employee schedules and overtime.

Still, Bergem is confident the final buzzer has not sounded on his sports media career.

“I will continue to keep an eye on sports and media opportunities,” he vowed, “because that’s what I do.”

Listening to Bergem, it is easy to understand why.

“Working in professional sports,” he said, “I saw up close and personal how much sports mean to so many people. The excitement of meeting a favorite player, to being seated in the ‘best seats,’ to sharing games and memories with family and friends.

“Sports is still the one thing that brings the most unlikely of people together,” Bergem continued. “Sports cross all boundaries – race, religion, politics and social status. When a team wins big or is just on an exciting streak, communities come together like nearly nothing else.

“Working in that atmosphere,” he stressed, “is – and will always be – priceless for me.”