Monthly Archives: April 2019

PODCAST EPISODE #70: Reflecting on ten years at one station in Atlanta

Podcasts, , ,

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

I began to notice it sometime in the last few years. New reporters or interns would arrive at WXIA-TV in Atlanta, meet me, and ask how long I’d been with the station.

“I’m going on nine years.”

Eyes would widen, followed by a six-letter word that was either being used as a question or a comment: “Really …”

I immediately felt the need to defend myself. These days, having reached ten years, I still occasionally get the impulse. But whenever I do, I come back to a fundamental truism of my outlook about my job:

I just want to keep growing.

Weeks like this one remind me how much. On Tuesday, my work received four Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards. I had won Murrows before but never more than one in a given year. These stories reminded me how much I’ve grown since I arrived in Atlanta ten years ago.

I share similar perspective on Episode #70 of the Telling the Story podcast.

This is a non-traditional episode, featuring the reading of a recent blog post instead of a longform interview with a journalist or storyteller. Those episodes will resume soon, but I wanted to use this one to spotlight the growth we all hope to achieve in this industry. I hope you enjoy.

(more…)

Ten years ago I arrived in Atlanta. Ten years later I still can’t believe I’m here.

Commentary, , ,

My first night in Atlanta, I stepped after sunset onto my Midtown balcony. I leaned against the rail and watched the skyline light up. I spied high-rises, skyscrapers, and the amber glow of windows still alight. A dozen blocks away, a golden spire peeked above the buildings and pierced the night-blue air. I was two days removed from Buffalo, N.Y., four years removed from my first job in Sioux City, Iowa, and two decades removed from the inklings of dreams that became aspirations of working as a broadcast journalist. My new job – as a reporter for WXIA-TV, Atlanta’s NBC affiliate – was days away.

I surveyed the sky, felt the thick Georgia warmth against my skin, and reveled in triumph.

Man … I’ve made it.

I did it again the next night. And the next night. And every night for the next two weeks. Each sunset became a victory lap, a chance to view a city so vibrant it seemed limitless. Professionally I had arrived in a Top 10 market. Personally I had arrived in a city with massive parks, walkable streets, and four pro sports teams. Growing up in New Jersey, I had idolized New York. When I started in TV news, I wondered if I would ever make it back. Now in Atlanta, I had at least reached the ballpark.

And I was thankful. I had sent out more than 40 resume tapes in college before hearing from a station in Sioux City. I had sent another 40 after leaving Sioux City – many during an extended summer of unemployment living with my parents – before a news director in Buffalo called with an offer. I had received tremendous opportunities in Buffalo but wondered if a large-market station would ever take a chance. The industry seemed so brutal, and my experience so tenuous, that I never escaped my own self-doubt.

Finally I could. For the foreseeable future, I didn’t need to worry about where I would head next. I didn’t need to worry about what stories to include in my demo reel. I didn’t need to worry about my career reaching its apex at age 27. From my balcony, I saw a city into which I could endlessly expand.

(more…)

Meet my first news director, a chain-smoking, mullet-rocking legend who continues to surprise

Commentary, , , , , ,

April 4, 2018. Dave Carew. “Happy Birthday, Tedd! Have a great time full of mischief.”

I type the name of my first boss into Facebook’s search bar. I left Sioux City, Iowa 14 years ago, but I often think about the man who gave me my start in broadcast news. His page pops up. Tedd O’Connell. Green Bay, Wisconsin. A black-and-white photo of a newsman in a trench coat.

That’s Tedd. But Tedd’s been dead for more than a decade.

April 4, 2017. Justin Roberts. “Happy Birthday Tedd!! Hope heaven is a party that never stops!”

This seems off. Tedd wasn’t the social media type, and Facebook was in relative infancy when he fell sick years ago. But this wouldn’t be Tedd’s first surprise.

April 4, 2016. Molly Fitch. “Happy Birthday, Tedd. Hope you’re snacking on donut holes and listening to Eminem upstairs today.”

Growing up near New York, attending college near Chicago, I was unprepared for the flat skyline of Sioux City. I was less prepared for my first boss to rock a full-coiffed mullet and a raspy voice born of a thousand cigarettes.

April 4, 2015. Derek Wittenburg. “Happy birthday…..Tedanator with us all.”

For 15 years, Tedd was the Ron Burgundy of Madison, Wisconsin. He flew to Cuba for a story and met Castro. He broke major stories and won major awards. Then he took over newsrooms. A decade removed from his final time on the anchor desk, he landed in Iowa to run a fledgling third-place news station. At some point I should have wondered if Tedd viewed this job as beneath his stature and legacy. Tedd never gave us that choice.

(more…)

BECOME A STRONGER STORYTELLER!

Enter your email and keep up to date ...