As the Memphis Redbirds descend on their downtown diamond this month, there’s one AutoZone Park veteran who won’t be in the lineup. Instead, he’ll be perched high above the dugout in a dark room in the press box filled with TV monitors and a/v equipment. Perry Cain has directed the Redbirds’ in-house TV productions since 2000, when the team hired Running Pony to install and operate the ballpark’s video system and manage the crew of camera operators and video technicians. As one of the primary technical directors for the game broadcasts, Perry heads a crew of ten, calling for the camera shots, instant replays, and animated elements that fans see on the giant scoreboard screen and on TV monitors in the concourse and suites. He’s loved and respected by the crew for his calm demeanor, quick wit, and humble attitude. “The crew members are what makes it fun,” Perry says. “We laugh and joke, and hope the fans have as much fun as we do.”
Perry was born on Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. As the son of a World War II veteran who was then an Air Force master sergeant, Perry moved quite a bit during his childhood (“Eleven different schools in twelve years”, he quips), until the family finally landed in Memphis. It was during a stint in England that he caught the broadcasting bug, listening to “pirate radio” stations in Europe. After graduating from high school, he went to Harding College (now Harding University) in Arkansas where, he laughs, “I crammed four years of college into five,” and got to work as a disc jockey and station manager at the school’s radio station KHCA. “We used to joke that it had less power than the common household lightbulb,” says Perry.
Perry’s first professional broadcasting job was at KATV in Little Rock before returning home to Memphis and settling in for a long tenure at WMC-TV. Some of his first duties were as studio camera operator on popular live shows including Magiclandand studio wrestling, where almost anything could happen. “During the first wrestling show I ever ran camera for,” Perry recalls, “all of a sudden I look around and there’s a live bear standing next to me!” Yep, a real live wrestling bear.
Eventually Perry worked his way up to directing live news and other programs, and in the mid-90s became the station’s main post-production editor. Along the way, he got to direct and edit a number of special programs and documentaries, and even found himself sharing a stage with the Pope during an assignment in Rome.
After joining Running Pony, Perry not only directed Redbirds’ games, but also Memphis Grizzlies and University of Memphis basketball games (during their years playing in the Pyramid) and U of M football games, the Southern Heritage Classic, and The Liberty Bowl (all of which he still directs today). And as Running Pony’s Senior Avid Editor and longest-tenured employee, he brings his wealth of experience into the edit suite as he puts together dozens of corporate videos and commercials each year. His talents have resulted in Perry winning six regional Emmy awards.
Perry has been married to his wife, Judy, since 1989. They have two sons: Bradley works for the digital department of the New York Times, and Mitchell is a junior at Harding University, studying electronic media production. Mitchell is already following in his father’s footsteps: in the summers, he’s one of the camera operators at AutoZone Park, taking his dad/director’s instructions and learning the game from a true broadcasting MVP.
