No distance too far: Charlotte FC’s radio voice turns life’s passion into career

If you’re a Charlotte FC fan, you’ve probably heard of Jessica Charman.

At the very least, you’ve heard her voice — the one that rings out color commentary on the club’s official radio broadcast on WFNZ 92.7 FM, alongside play-by-play steward Will Palaszczuk. The two have been covering the club since its first match in February 2022.

Among the goosebump-bubbling calls provided by Charman:

After Charlotte FC’s first goal: Charlotte FC ties it up, and Adam Armour in the history books. Forever.

After the equalizing penalty goal that ultimately led to a magical exhibition win over Chelsea in Charlotte: They’ve been first to every first ball. They’ve been first to every second ball. They’ve fought. They’ve battled. And you said it, Will: The ball does not lie!

After Ashley Westwood’s goal against Toronto that kept CLTFC’s playoff hopes alive and could qualify as one of the team’s most electric goals of the season: Bangers only for Charlotte FC.

Charman, 29, is one of the few full-time female broadcasters in Major League Soccer. The Middlesex, England, native now lives in Atlanta, a long drive to the stadium every weekend that she says is worth every mile the “pinch-me” feeling living her dream provides. And when she’s not commentating, she’s coaching the boys’ and girls’ soccer teams at Trinity Christian School.

When asked why it’s important to her to coach both teams — as well as how she has the bandwidth to do so much — Charman doesn’t need a second thought.

She also reveals, in part, what brings her purpose.

“People say, ‘Oh, you’re such a role model to young girls,’” Charman said. “And it’s like, ‘Yes, but if we’re going to change society, I will have to be a role model to young boys as well.’ Because it’s great for young girls to look up to people. But if we really want equality, and we really want it to be normalized, then boys need to also see it as a positive thing that there are women in this space, right? We want to see that both men and women enjoy a female in this space.”

She continued: “I don’t want to be the token female that everyone looks up to or judged as, ‘Oh, you’re a great woman in sports.’ I just want to be a great person in sports. Because if we’re not seeing it as a person, then we’re going to see that it’s more normalized. So eventually the goal is not, ‘Oh, you’re one of the few female commentators.’ It’s that, ‘Oh, you’re just a really good commentator,’ you know?”

The Charlotte Observer’s Alex Zietlow spoke to Charman about her remarkable path to Charlotte FC, which hosts its 2024 season opener Feb. 24 against NYCFC. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Jessica Charman on living a dream, Reading FC and Bend It Like Beckham

Q: I read somewhere that as a young kid, one could find you either watching a Reading FC game or listening to one on the radio, wanting to be a part of that world. I feel like a lot of journalists/commentators share this story, of idolizing the art of recounting the game as much as the game itself. So my question: Do you take some sort of pride of carrying the mantle, of filling the shoes of your previous broadcasting heroes?

A: Oh, absolutely. A lot of people assume that doing TV is the goal. And I’m not going to say that it’s not. I do some TV stuff now, and I really enjoy it. But radio is so dear to my heart that with the SiriusXM stuff as well, I really take pride in the fact that I do radio. Because I actually think, and I’m sure some will disagree with me, but I think a lot of people will say radio is 10 times harder than TV. Because TV, you have the images telling you the story. You can lay it out. You can let someone interpret it. But when it’s radio, you are the eyes. You are the ears. Every sense, you have to take over.

Radio is like a huge connection in my family because a lot of my really good memories with my dad (Andy) — my dad is still alive, by the way (laughs) — we share that passion. A lot of good memories of my childhood are listening to the postgame shows. Listening in our house to the away games and letting the voices of those teams share my perception of the game, and shape it.

People tell me how natural it came to me doing radio because Charlotte FC was my first true radio calling. I’d done a lot of livestreaming and TV; I’d never done radio to the same extent. People say how naturally it came, but I think it came naturally because I’d listened to hundreds — literally hundreds — of games on the radio before. So I knew the ways to pause. I knew about the different wordings to use, and things like that. So I think doing radio is very special because of that connection to that team, being something I wanted to do growing up.

Q: I want to get you from your hometown in England all the way to Charlotte FC. I was told to ask about ... Bend It Like Beckham?

A: (Laughs.) People talk about visibility, and how important it is to have role models, and to see yourself in the media. And that’s something that wasn’t very common in terms of female broadcasters at all, or female footballers. So Bend It Like Beckham, for me, was the first time I sat down and watched a film and saw my community there, right? I saw female football players. At the time I was still very young; I was playing with boy footballers, which made it even more special. Because I saw women’s teams, which was something that wasn’t really reality for me. So I remember watching that. And there’s a part of Bend It Like Beckham where they all get the soccer scholarships and move to the U.S., and that was, seriously, a light bulb-on, finger-snapping moment of, “Oh my God, they can do this. They can get a career out of this.”

Playing collegiate soccer at Clayton State, becoming a goalkeeper

Q: So you grow up playing soccer and earn a full scholarship to Clayton State in Atlanta. Your brother, Matthew, was three years older than you. You at one point early on in primary school played on the same team. What was that like?

A: One time, in primary school, so I guess elementary school, they needed a goalkeeper, and I was just old enough to try out. So I played with my brother for a year when he was in Year 6, which is the last year of primary school in England. I was in Year 3. We played on the same team, and he was my defender. I always think of how cool that must’ve been for my parents (Andy and her mother, Elizabeth) to see their daughter and son playing on the same team together for their school.

Q: I’m sure that was amazing for them.

A: A dad then complained about that. That’s one of my favorite stories growing up. A dad was worried that I might get hurt. A dad of one of the other boys. My dad did not give a s---. (Laughs.) He was like, “No, she’s tough as hell.” But my parents got called into the principal’s office and were told, “Hey, we got parents who are concerned that Jessica’s going to get hurt playing with the boys.” Like literally. If that doesn’t epitomize growing up in the ‘90s, early 2000s as a girl playing soccer, I don’t know what does. We’ve made a lot of progress. I’m very glad we’re not in that world anymore.

Q: You also broadcasted games while at Clayton State. So you’d literally play the game, scrape up your knees and bruise your body blocking shots, and then head up to the press box immediately after the game to call the livestreamed men’s game, which is where you got a whole bunch of experience that has helped your career take off as fast as it has.

Still, you graduate, and then four years later, you’re at Charlotte FC. Could you tell me how that happens?

A: So I got a “real job.” It was 9-5 to an extent, but it was still in soccer. I was an event manager for a nonprofit that works for soccer accessibility in Atlanta called Soccer In The Streets. It’s a really cool job. ... Still, I wanted to be a soccer broadcaster. So fortunately, I was still able to get some reps (games to comment) on the back side. I had a really good mentor, who’s the color commentator on radio for Atlanta United. He’s called Jason Longshore. He would hook me up with reps whenever I could get them. I think I took about a year off because I was just so busy with everything, and I was having some paperwork stuff with my immigration process, and I took off a year of commentating.

I found a letter, actually, from Jacqui Oatley, who is a pretty famous English female commentator. Like, the first ever to do Match of the Day in England. She works with NWSL now, which is super cool. But she wrote me a letter on my 21st birthday. ... And I was cleaning out my spare room or whatever, and I found the letter, and I remember reading it and being like, “Why am I not doing this anymore? I wanted to do this, why have I stopped?”

And I sent Jason a text that day, I was like, “Jason, I got to do some reps ASAP.” He got me D3 college reps. I did them. And eventually, he was able to get me my first professional game, where I did an Atlanta United 2s game. ... Did some of those games. And just added college after college. ESPN Plus. College after college. I’m talking driving all over, whether it’s Chattanooga, Mercer, down to Florida. I put a lot of miles on my car.

Note: She got told of the Charlotte FC opportunity and accepted without Googling how far Charlotte was from Atlanta. No distance had been too far before — and it wasn’t again.

Advice to the next generation of aspiring broadcasters

Q: If you could give advice to someone who’s trying to go into broadcasting, what advice would you offer?

A: My first piece of advice is, “Make sure you really love it.” Because you need to really want to do this, otherwise it’s going to feel like bloody hard work for not a good reward. Everyone assumes this media industry is glamorous. Everyone assumes it pays really good money, and you know, you get all of these exclusive benefits and you get to interview the players and all these things.

And look, are there some really cool things I get to do? Yeah. But it’s not all glitz and glamour unless you make it into the very cream of the crop, the very top top top. The (NBC presenter) Rebecca Lowes of the world. So I think No. 1, make sure 100% this is what you want to do before you set your mind on it, or your heart on it, because it’s not going to be easy. And No. 2, find a mentor. I think having a mentor who has been there, done that is so important. My mentor is brilliant.

Would I have loved to have a female mentor growing up? Absolutely, because I do think it’s a different experience. So one of the things that’s really dear to my heart is mentorship. Anytime there’s an opportunity to talk at a women in sports seminar ... that’s huge to me. I want to help others see that it is possible. I think that’s really important.