How “Out of the Box” became a hit in the softball media space
Listen to a few of their game broadcasts and you might have a hard time believing that Tom Canterbury and Gray Robertson have nearly a generational age gap between them. Catch a handful of their podcast episodes and you might find it surprising that the pair’s friendship only dates back a few years. Yet it’s that very friendship, and the resulting chemistry, that has driven the duo to the forefront of the softball media space.
Canterbury and Robertson first partnered as the radio broadcast team for Alabama softball games, traveling with the team and presenting Crimson Tide softball to listeners who weren’t able to make a lengthy trip or couldn’t get out to Rhoads Stadium for home games. The pair travels with the team, and in 2019 even called the Tide’s games during their run to the Women’s College World Series semifinals.
A veteran broadcaster, Canterbury is the elder member of the team. During his time as a student at Alabama, Canterbury began working with the campus radio station. “Once I realized that I wasn’t going to be probably athletic enough to play, I decided that I was going to talk about and report on it,” he recently recollected with a laugh.
With a day job that is also in the media industry – he’s the promotions director for iHeart Media in Tuscaloosa – Canterbury certainly knows his way around the trade. He also is deeply involved with Alabama athletics; in addition to his long-time role at the softball mic, he serves as the public address announcer for Crimson Tide soccer and runs stats for several other sports.
Robertson is a new college graduate, having finished his final few credit hours in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. A journalism and creative media major during his own tenure as an Alabama student, his skill set does not betray his youth, nor does his own resume behind the microphone. Part of the SEC faithful through-and-through, Robertson is the son of parents who work in the sports production and management industry, and he says he’s never missed an SEC football championship game thanks to his parents’ positions.
“I remember, in fifth grade, my rec league team did not make the league championship,” Robertson recounted. “But they were streaming the game on a local channel, so I asked the commissioner of the league – my friend’s dad – if I could do it on TV with him. He said ‘sure’, so we did it.” That was the beginning of his own career in media. An online radio show followed, a platform that Robertson maintained throughout high school even after a multi-state move. During his senior year in high school, Robertson’s high school started their own production network with funding from alumni and covered the school’s various sports programs.
By the time Robertson got to Alabama as a student, Canterbury was already well-entrenched in his various roles across Crimson Tide athletics. Robertson’s “audition,” of sorts, to join Crimson Tide productions actually saw him fill in for his future broadcast partner for a pair of softball games, before the duo paired up and tested their chemistry on a third. While the effort had its quirks – “it wasn’t perfect,” Robertson noted with a chuckle – it sparked the beginning of what would become a long-term partnership.
Now nearing the second anniversary of their podcast, the guys credit Alabama superfan Emily Pitek with the origination of the idea. “She mentioned it on Twitter, and we responded with some ‘maybe’ GIFs,” Robertson said. Then, following the success of other endeavors like In the Circle and ESPN’s 7 Innings, the pair began to discuss the idea more seriously. The potential for a niche of using their knowledge of Alabama to discuss the Crimson Tide, as well as their gameday preparation to knowledgeably discuss other SEC teams, was an appealing prospect.
While both Canterbury and Robertson tried to give the other credit for large portions of the success of Out of the Box, the endeavor is undoubtedly a team effort. “We’ve worked together for so long now that it really works out well,” Canterbury said. Robertson also noted, “We’ve got a routine during the year. This day is x task, that day is something else, things like that. And then we record. It’s just a lot of fun.”
One of the first major projects unveiled under the Out of the Box label played to the hosts’ strengths. In the Bama U Bracket earlier this year, Canterbury and Robertson ranked several Alabama softball alumni in a bracket-style format and opened the floor to voting. As social media voters chimed in for their portion of the balloting, Canterbury and Robertson enlisted some panelists to complete the expert-voting portion of the bracket. Progressively, the field was narrowed until an ultimate champion – Jackie Traina, determined to be the program’s greatest star in the eyes of the voters – was crowned. The “tournament” caught on on social media and proved to be popular with alumni and fans alike; several hundred people voted in the championship poll.
As their popularity has grown within the sport, Canterbury and Robertson have also branched into other opportunities across the softball world. One such happening came about when Robertson spent this past summer in Florida, serving as the play-by-play commentator for the inaugural year of the Florida Gulf Coast League. Robertson gained widespread acclaim for his work in Florida, ultimately being dubbed the “Voice of the FGCL” and helping increase the league’s profile in its first year of existence.
The latest podcast project is an encumbering one, but one that also carries a level of accomplishment with its completion. Beginning in late October, Canterbury and Robertson began to create their own version of SEC Media Days, softball-style. “Media days doesn’t exist for softball, so why not create our own version?” Robertson said. As part of the project, the pair sat down with each head softball coach in the SEC to discuss their teams and preparation ahead of the 2021 season. After compiling the interviews into a 4-episode miniseries to showcase their home conference, the first episode was released on December 1st and the remaining pieces of the series are set to debut within a matter of days.
In contrast to the frequent unpopularity of the softball rule for which the podcast is named, Out of the Box continues to grow in popularity and it, along with Canterbury and Robertson individually, should be fixtures on the softball media circuit for some time to come.
