Photo courtesy of Clayton Greenberg.
Clayton Greenberg spent most of his life avoiding public speaking. From being a middle schooler who hated reciting poems in front of the class to a law student who steered away from careers in courtroom litigation; Greenberg avoided anything that involved speaking in front of a large crowd.
Greenberg, now a commercial real estate attorney, found a passion for public address (PA) announcing five years ago. Today, he is the founder and voice behind Voice of DFW, a one-person broadcasting operation covering high school, youth and summer collegiate athletics across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
But why would an attorney who dislikes public speaking choose to sit behind a microphone in a PA booth?
It all started when Greenberg’s son’s baseball team at Lake Highlands High School needed a last-minute PA announcer.
“I really wanted to do the music, but Coach Parker didn’t like it,” Greenberg says. “So then I moved on to the PA on the microphone, and I enjoyed it. The microphone was like a shield.”
Covering the baseball team reminded Greenberg of his time as a youth baseball coach and umpire and ultimately gave him the confidence to continue sitting behind the microphone and talking to dozens of families watching their children play.
When longtime Lake Highlands announcer Bob Johnston began to step away from the position, Greenberg began filling in for him.
“I just kind of took over varsity from sophomore, junior and senior year for these kids,” Greenberg says.
Having had a few years of announcing experience, Greenberg decided it was time to reach out to athletic directors at private schools throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Greenberg estimates that 90 to 95 percent of the time, he either did not hear back or was told the school already had an announcer.
Then The Shelton School and Parish Episcopal School contacted him.
“I did all of the Shelton School’s football games and was able to secure all of the Parish Episcopal School’s basketball games last year,” he says.
Greenberg soon decided he wanted to announce more sports. He reached out to Kelly Meiklejohn, head coach of the Lake Highlands girls basketball program, after realizing the team did not have a PA announcer. Greenberg knew Meiklejohn through his daughter, Annabelle, who had played eighth-grade basketball.
The Lake Highlands girls basketball team quickly became one of the highlights of Greenberg’s announcing career.
“I’m very much into gender equality in sports,” he says. “The girls’ sports just don’t get what the boys’ sports have at all.”
According to Greenberg, the girls had never had a PA announcer or music playing during their games. Even visiting teams would walk up to Greenberg and thank him for announcing their names.
“You know, these girls were just so excited and so incredibly grateful to have somebody there calling their names,” he says.
Clayton Greenberg smiles behind the microphone (left) with Steven Brooks (right). Photo courtesy of Clayton Greenberg.
Greenberg made it a priority to announce both teams and pronounce every player’s name correctly. Before each game, he would do his best to obtain the rosters and even use AI to help him with unfamiliar pronunciations.
The response surprised him.
Players from both teams would approach Greenberg to request songs, and parents regularly checked in to make sure he had everything he needed. At the end of the season, the girls invited Greenberg to their banquet, where he was acknowledged for his work.
“It was just kind of a cool feeling,” he says.
While Greenberg initially used AI as a tool to prepare for games, it soon became a bigger part of his work.
After his wife, Ginger, suggested he write a blog about his two careers, Greenberg began thinking about how his work as a commercial real estate attorney connected with his life as a PA announcer. For Greenberg, real estate deals reward preparation, poise under pressure and the ability to adjust when a deal point blows up an jour before closing.
Broadcast, conversely, rewards the same things, just at game speed instead of deal speed.
His instinct to make technology help him do his work shows up on both sides of his life. In his legal practice he uses legal AI software to benchmark contract clauses against market precedent.
This idea is similar to the tools behind Voice of DFW: use technology to work faster and catch more. That reflection pushed him to explore a long interest in building websites.
“I didn’t know how to build websites,” Greenberg says. “I just wanted to do something myself, so I started using a variety of AI.”
He first began with a simple Google Sheet for his game calendar that evolved into Lineup Card Live, a baseball tool he tested throughout the season that holds lineups, rosters and live scoring. Then came Game Day Live, a multi-sport console covering volleyball, lacrosse and other in-season sports with client PIN branding profiles.
Whenever Greenberg encountered a problem with Lineup Card Live, he would make a note of it during the game and afterward, he would take those notes to AI and use the feedback to improve the program.
After signing a contract with Premier Events USA, a tournament host that works with seven-on-seven football, Greenberg created Friday Night Live, a console for football broadcast that includes the score bug, game clock and media cues.
With his announcing work continuing to grow, Greenberg now finds himself busy with announcing, something he never imagined. But, as his son, Copeland, prepares to leave for the University of Missouri this fall, Greenberg understands that his relationship with sports will change.
“This is the first time where he’s moving out,” he says. “There will be a lot more downtime now I’ll have with my son out of sports versus before.”
Greenberg also says Copeland’s departure will give him more time to watch Annabelle play golf and perform with the Highlandettes — something he admits he wasn’t always able to do before.
Unlike coaching or umpiring, announcing has become a place where Greenberg can enjoy the game without the frustration and pressure that once came with it.
“There’s no drama, there’s no frustration, no anger,” he says. “It’s just all pure.”
Five years ago, Greenberg stepped behind a microphone because his son’s baseball team needed a PA announcer. Now, as Copeland prepares to begin a new chapter, Greenberg is finding a new chapter of his own — one microphone at a time.
