You know you’ve done it.

You’re sitting around watching or listening to a football/baseball/basketball game thinking “I could do a better job than these guys.”

We all do it. That’s what Berkeley, Calif., native Adam Epstein is banking on.

It was that belief that drove the former litigator with a political science degree from Columbia University and law degree from Michigan to chuck a promising career after two years of practice and a nine-month clerkship for a judge in favor of the uncertain world of the World Wide Web.

A year after deciding to act on a recurring topic with friends, the 28-year-old Internet entrepreneur is reaping the rewards of a big gamble as the creator and president of Fancast.com and Alternacast.com – two unique Web sites devoted to those of us who think we too have what it takes to make it as play-by-play announcers, analysts, or talk show hosts.

Epstein’s sites – billed as the only ones that let you become a sportscaster or talk show host – make it possible for wannabe broadcasters to try their hand in the industry and even make realistic broadcast tapes suitable for submission in job interviews.

“We think we’re the best-kept secret on the Internet,” said Epstein, who has seen his fledgling business start with a bang as his site’s membership grew 100 percent monthly from May through October of last year.

The secret may not last much longer. After Epstein began charging for his site’s services last November, his membership shrank to about 20 percent of its high point, but in the following months it has grown steadily to its current level of 2,000 shows per month.

With the average show – lasting as little as a half hour or as long as two hours – attracting 15-20 listeners (according to Epstein), that translates into roughly 30,000 to 40,000 users (listeners) a month.

How do people get a show?

Fancast and Alternacast sell “passes” to members with the following rate structures: $5 per pass, $30 for 12, or $40 for 24 (monthly). A pass can either be a two-hour block of Web site time with as many as 25 listeners or one hour with 50 maximum listeners.

The first two broadcasts are free to allow new users a chance to familiarize themselves with the site’s features, which include a worldwide audience, sound effects, promotional tools, and audience reports (ratings), plus the ability to have interactive shows in which the host can talk to as many as three listeners at once.

The only hardware requirements are a suitable computer system, a 56K modem, and a computer microphone.

Users log on from all over the world, from Istanbul, Turkey, to Augusta, Maine, as almost every sport imaginable is covered by someone. Cricket, rugby, soccer (U.S. and international), bowling, boxing, lacrosse, wrestling and skating are also covered.

“We probably have about 100 or so users in Maine … Mostly in the Portland area, but there are some in Bangor, too,” Epstein said.

Although the sites have few advertisements or ad links and almost no ad revenue – “It’s all word of mouth,” said Epstein – he and the rest of his partners – three investors from New York and six technicians from Seattle – have managed to turn a regular profit.

It’s that fact which has attracted the attention of Internet service providers like America Online (AOL) and Yahoo.

“We’re talking to some of the big boys and we might have a licensing agreement with someone in three to six months,” Epstein said. “I think it’s good that we started when we did, even though things were starting to go south in the industry at that time

“We wouldn’t have learned the lessons we have the past few months. It’s taught us to be disciplined and smart about growth,” he explained. “I’m not sure we would have had this discipline four years ago. If we’d started back then, we might not be around.”

As it was, Epstein took a huge risk when he decided to act on complaints by him and his school friends that there ought to be a way for people to talk about their favorite sports teams and subjects on the Net. Since he wasn’t enjoying his law work, he invested his personal savings along with money borrowed from friends and family into this venture.

“I basically created this as a broadcast service,” he said. “It’s funny because as we’ve grown, that’s become our third most popular feature, right behind straight talk shows and then sports talk.”

Those straight talk shows involve anything from politics to social issues to current events, sexual topics, finance and religion.

Sports-wise, users can broadcast everything from standard (baseball, football, hockey, basketball) games to horse and auto racing.

“We even have a wrestling show where a guy broadcasts fantasy wrestling matches,” Epstein said. “I don’t know if he has a computer game he uses or what, but it’s pretty popular.”

Andrew Neff can be reached at 1-800-310-8600, 990-8205 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net