Rick Benjamin

Welcome to RickBenjamin.TV, the home page of one the nation’s best-known motorsports broadcasters, Rick Benjamin. Rick and his companies, Visioncast and the Carolinas Production Group, are already running full-throttle preparing for another exciting year.

Rick’s on-air, consulting, and corporate video work continues to grow under the Visioncast Inc., banner. Rick formed Visioncast back in 2001 after the sale and rebranding of TNN:The Nashville Network, Rick’s broadcast home for six years.

2009 was a record-setting year for Rick and his companies. Rick’s work was seen again on national and international television and heard on national satellite radio, through new partnerships and growth in existing partnerships.

Rick is back in 2010 with SIRIUS XM satellite radio’s NASCAR channel hosting the popular midday show “Tradin’Paint.” Rick and Visioncast are also assisting Racing Promotion Monthly with their annual Daytona “RPM Workshop” where Rick will again host the keynote session and the annual “Auto Racing Promoter of the Year” awards ceremony.

Rick is also the host of all of Mazda’s motorsports series on national and international cable TV, including the Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup, the Star Mazda series, and the Atlantic Championship. Again this year Rick and Visioncast/Carolinas Production Group are bringing Mazda’s motorsports programming to HDNet through an exclusive partnership. HDNet will carry live broadcasts of the Mazda Motorsports series from New Jersey Motorsports Park in June and from Autobahn Country Club in July.

Rick and his companies will also produce and syndicate coverage of the Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup and a new championship-within-a-championship, the five-race “Visit Florida Cup” for the Star Mazda series nationally and internationally. These telecasts will reach a global audience of more than 100 million households.

New to Carolinas Production Group in 2010 will be the debut of the ASA Transcontinental series, the Free State 500, slated to run at Phakisa Freeway circuit on January 31, 2010. This 500 km event for American-style stock cars will air as a two-hour program in national syndication, and internationally in partnership with ESPN International.

Rick is also in the final stages of negotiation with several new clients for additional on-air and production work this season. He plans to return this fall as the host of the Carolina Panthers Wrap-Up show on the Panthers Radio Network of more than 50 stations across the southeast.

About Rick
Rick and his family reside in the Charlotte, NC suburbs, close to the epicenter of the motorsports industry. Rick is a 20-plus year veteran of major-market and national television and radio, and has served as a local news anchor, producer, owner, consultant, and college instructor in addition to his extensive work hosting major motorsports events on networks including CBS, NBC, SPEED, and the Panthers Radio Network. (Samples from Rick's work are featured on his portfolio page.)

In past seasons Rick hosted NASCAR Cup and Busch Series events on TBS, and called road racing events for ESPN. For many years Rick anchored and managed the news operation for TNN’s signature motorsports pregame show, “RaceDay”, which set the table for TNN’s coverage of NASCAR, the NHRA, ASA, and the World of Outlaws throughout the 1990’s. Rick also called NASCAR Busch and Truck events, plus the ASA National Tour, for TNN.

Rick began his work covering motorsports in the ‘80’s, during his long run as a well-known local news anchor in markets coast to coast. He started calling NASCAR events on the sanctioning body’s radio network, MRN, before graduating to calling NASCAR and CART events on the Mizlou (syndication) TV Network. Rick turned to broadcasting road racing in the late ‘80’s, with his work appearing on Prime Network (now Fox Sports Net) and eventually ESPN. Rick was one of the very first broadcasters to call events for Speedvision, now SPEED Channel, beginning with the network’s debut season in 1996. Rick hosted Speedvision’s first NASCAR programming in 1996 and 1997, calling what was then the Winston Cup series using strictly in-car camera coverage.

Rick is a Cum Laude graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication. He majored in Broadcast Journalism with minors in Political Science and Economics. Rick began working professionally as a play by play broadcaster and anchor on radio while attending BU.

Follow the links to learn more about Rick’s companies – Visioncast and Carolinas Production Group – and how he and his associates can help you achieve your goals utilizing television, radio, audio, video, podcasts, web development, and more.