1st TV INTERVIEW

          If my first interview had been an omen of how successful my interviewing career would be it would have been disastrous. There was no special set for the noon news so my interviews were to be done on the six o’clock set. I would sit in one chair and my guest in the seat next to me. The set resembled a large bulky ship. Delivering the news felt a lot like giving a sermon. There were no Teleprompters. Frankly I don’t know if anybody expected much from my interviews.

The first day I invited the owner of a strip club, Club Juana to be my guest. He had begun having his “girls” wrestle in mud. Seminole County didn’t like it. I had to find out from him why. I asked the first question. I think it was something like “When did you start mudwrestling?” Mike Pinter went to answer but he began to choke. He choked and choked. The camera crew seemed stricken. They had never seen anything like this and there had been no interviews before this. He choked throughout the entire interview. He never caught his breath. I finally had to ask the crew on camera to get water. I thought my first interview might arrive DOA.

I asked the questions and I answered the questions.
Both of us were extremely relieved when the interview was over. There would be many times in the years to come when live news and interviews would take me by surprise and I would have to think on my feet very quickly. Perhaps this was my training for that. I continued interviews on that set until Bob Jordan decided that the noon news with Steve Adams doing weather and my doing news and interviews warranted a news set of its own. We got one. It was small but cozy. It did not have the formidable appearance of the traditional news set. Certainly I felt more comfortable and I think my guests did as well. I had no idea that first day of interviewing, that before I left TV and radio news I would have done more than 900 interviews. So many stories and many of them held big surprises. This is what I will share with you. When you set out to attempt to help someone tell his or her story you have no idea what can happen.

HEADING IN A NEW DIRECTION

 

This blog has the earliest posts I have written  at the end. That  means the most recent ones I have written are at at the top. Because of that I thought I would explain again what this blog is all about. This is why my early career at Channel 35 and at WDBO radio are at the bottom. This new section begins my TV career at Channel 9 WFTV.

 

Now I work with Video Heritage, a company that tells people’s stories through interviews, photos, videos and music. http://www.visualimpactfla.com/videoheritagedivision.html

However, my background is telling stories in other venues. Most of that time includes as an interviewer/anchor at both WFTV ABC affiliate and WMPG CBS affiliate as being a radio talk show host and producer at four radio stations. In addition, I have been a Volusia columnist for the Orlando Sentinel and produced and hosted videos for the state of Washington. This blog is my adventure in storytelling. However, because many people who read this blog lived through these experiences with me I welcome your comments. I have worked during the most exciting time in the history of Orlando, of TV and radio news. Please feel free to add your story to the comment section at the end of each blog.

        THEN THERE WAS THE PHONE CALL

CLIFF PINE & ME

This was one of those life altering times when you make a decision that will truly impact the rest of your life. Cliff Pine a friend and an executive at Channel Nine told me at lunch one day at The Hungry Bear that a new news director at Channel Nine wanted to talk to me and that I should give him a call. I did and we met a few days later. Bob Jordan fresh from anchoring the news in Mobile Alabama was the new news director, hired by general manager Walter Windsor.

BOB JORDON

I will never forget that meeting. At the time the ratings for the news at channel nine were the lowest of the three network affiliates. Bob was going to take the station in a new direction. He talked about his plans and as I listened I became a convert as many would become after me. If you hooked your wagon to a star, in this case Bob, you would go higher than you would have thought possible. His arrival, the dramatic changes in TV news, the growth of Orlando were all happening at the same time. The stars were aligned. Although Bob wanted to hire me to anchor the Good Morning America local “cut in’s, he also wanted me to anchor the noon news. But what really sold me was that he hit my “Sweet Spot”. I was going to do interviews for the noon show and some interviews would air on the evening news. There it was! A chance to have my career grow in the area I loved the most: interviews.

There were certainly arguments against my going. They came from colleagues “Are you kidding? You would give up a job at the number one radio news station in Orlando to work for a station with low ratings where employees in the news division came and go quickly. I would give up being the king pin of this highly radio news operation to go to TV where there are no “serious journalists” they said. I had to process it. I had a few prayers to say. Eventually as always it was the little voice inside that made the decision. Is it a gut feeling? God? My higher self? Who knows? I made the decision and with so much faith in Bob Jordan I took the job for $20 less a week than I was making at radio.

That was a huge factor as a single mother with no current child support who was still living in public subsidized housing in Sanford, Bob wanted me do an audition first. I did on a Sunday night with no teleprompter and a case of nerves. The director of the newscast David Hill who would later became a good friend told me to just relax. On the way home I gave it a lot of thought. I had not done well. I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave WDBO to take this job but if I did I wanted it to be my decision not a decision made by Bob Jordan because I was not good enough. I did the second audition. Bob called. The job was mine. On an early October day in 1976 I walked into Malcolm’s Hungry Bear to tell all my fellow newscasters that I would be leaving WDBO to go to Channel Nine. There were audible groans from these men who had become my friends. They were sure I had made a bad decision. I had a week to get ready. In a million years I would have no idea what lay ahead of me. If I had I would not have slept as soundly as I had making up for many hours of lost sleep. My decision would not only change my life but my boys’ lives as well. I have never regretted m decision.

CHANGE WAS ON THE HORIZON

The summer of 1976 was a busy one not just for me but for all news media. Suddenly Florida politics were in the spotlight. Jimmy Carter’s win in the March primary was considered by politicos as the real turning point in the election of ’76. His unexpected win in Florida was the beginning of his being taken seriously as a candidate for president.

CBS radio news called me in the spring with an offer. Would I be willing to cover the state-wide races and ballot issues in Florida? Would I? Of course. CBS would pay me $75 for each editorial that would air nationally on CBS radio. It was not a straight news piece but my “take” on what was happening state-wide. That meant talking to candidates and political insiders as well as pollsters. It would finally be my take on the issues and candidates that would be my editorial “Florida Election’76.

 I was deep in interviews on whether the “Government in the Sunshine” amendment to the state constitution would be passed. It did and was an historic event for Florida. Although Lawton Chiles was seen as a “shoo-in” for a second term as senator what was the sentiment about the race between the outsider Jimmy Carter and Vice-president Gerald Ford. Would Watergate influence how voters felt?

I would record my editorials in the evening when the studio was quieter. Sometimes I would drive home to Sanford to make dinner for the boys and me and then drive back to the station with the boys in tow so I could record the editorial. I was happy with my job; I had no wish to vie for another job. However, WKIS, WDBO’s news rival called. I went to talk to them. The news director made me an offer, more money a chance to do some co-hosting of talk radio with Gene Burns. I was tempted. The general manager of WDBO was shocked when I submitted my resignation. “What can we do to keep you”, he asked. I couldn’t think of anything off hand except perhaps the chance to anchor TV news. Carl Hallberg immediately made an appointment with WDBO TV’s news director Brian MacFarlane. The interview was dismissive. When I told him that at some point I wanted to anchor an evening newscast he literally laughed at me. “A woman as a co-anchor for nightly news? It will never happen”. He emphasized the word “never”. He did offer me a chance to be part of a news panel that taped a program once a week featuring a newsmaker. I went to WDBO studio every week although I continued to be employed at WDBO radio. The fact was that I had not really given much thought to anchoring the evening news on TV. I had given it some thought but like the WDBO TV news director, I didn’t give it much of a chance of happening.

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WHO I INTERVIEWED MOST OFTEN

 

 

When people ask me who it was I had interviewed the most often they are often surprised at the answer. It was President Jimmy Carter, but those interviews took place before and after he was president. One of the duties of a radio or TV news director or assignment editor has is to plow through all the press releases of “stories”. These were not the interviews that the newsmen picked up on the police and fire scanners or the news tips that were often the start of great news stories. Press releases are sent for the benefit of someone. There is a hotel opening, a ribbon cutting for a new business, updates on the accomplishments of office holders, a famous personality coming to town, usually to promote a product. Most big newsmakers try to avoid the media not court it. Political candidates have to build a base of power by showing up in towns, villages and cities throughout their district. Think about all those stops you are attempting to build as a base to run for president. No one knew this governor of Georgia. We dubbed him “the peanut farmer” because that had been his business.  Governors don’t have an easy time of it, especially in states where they had not served. But this is how “the peanut farmer” built his base.. We reporters took turns covering him; it’s your turn today. What was the story? His views on current foreign events. However, his chances of ever becoming president and having any say in international affairs appeared slim to none.

              Governor Carter was pleasant and gracious. He didn’t forget our names or stations we represented. Sometimes as reporters were gathering for the “press conferences, “those of us who didn’t have TV cameras and lights to adjust talked small talk with this man who was going to become our next president. The political campaign we reporters had once dismissed as “his chances are those of a snowball in hell” went into high gear. One of the most interesting events in my storytelling career happened March 9^th 1976.

              We know from recent elections how dirty the race for president can become, and certainly there ocassionally times of excitement but not much can beat the spring of 1976 when it came to excitement. This man we journalists(for the most part) had been so quick to dismiss as an outsider, someone with no political base, certainly no experience in foreign policy came out of obscurity to win the Democratic primary and .of course, eventually the presidency. An early win in New Hampshire  made all the politicos sit up and take notice. It had appeared in the very beginning to be a very crowded race but there were several who dropped out before the primary, some who withdrew during the primary, and still others under consideration just flat out declined. Jimmy Carter was smart. In the same way he showed up early and often in the states with the early primaries. At the end his showing in the primaries was so strong and so unexpected that nobody could stop him, not Ted Kennedy, George Wallace or Scoop Jackson. Carter waltzed into the Democratic convention with 40% of the primary votes and ; no other candidate even had percentages in two figures. One northern and western group of Democrats formed an ABC coalition Anybody but Carter. It was based on their belief that as a Southern governor he would be too conservative. It is interesting from the standpoint that once Carter became president he was considered one of the most liberal governors of the 20^th century.

              It was the excitement of his unexpected popularity that brought the national media to Florida in March in record numbers. Florida was certainly an early primary but he had already beaten George Wallace in  the south in the mid 70’s where Wallace was very popular. I showed up as one of the local radio reporters. I am sure there were other radio and TV  reporters from Orlando there but it was such a chaotic scene I don’t think we ever ran into each other. National network reporters oh yes!and the networks sent in the big guns. In many cases, they sent their evening anchor or at least a very well versed reporter in politics. To say I was intimidated is an understatement. The networks had all set up elaborate sets complete with  lighting, audio, make-up and an entire support staff of both the technical and the editorial. I was more than a little star struck. My job was to find out what was happening on the floor of the hotel that Jimmy Carter had made his Florida headquarters. This meant the hotel was Carter’s headquarters on March 9^th when the results came in. This was not only where the results would come in but this is where Carter would make a speech and regardless of the outcome each network would do an entire roundup based on polling as well as their insight into the stampede this Georgia farmer was creating. I had to get interviews on my tape recorder as well as go out into the parking lot and after making hurried notes give an update each hour on what was happening in the hotbed of this now exciting race for the White House.

              There were security people everywhere. Although I had my credentials every time I went out to the parking lot to send a feed back to the station I had to be frisked leaving and returning. Of course, when it came to putting microphones in the ring when some politico had  a statement to make, this time I couldn’t compete with the thirty or so microphones already in place. I managed somehow to get get close enough so at least I got material they could edit into soundbites back in the newsroom. I looked stupid; I was wearing headsets carrying a tape recorder and aimlessly wandering the room getting a “feel” for what the prognosis was for the  outcome of this very important primary. My batteries gave out. I don’t remember now if I didn’t have any as a backup or my tape recorder simply stopped working. I paniced.

              Earlier that day after Carter had breakfast in his suite all credentialed reporters were asked to meet in the living room of that suite. It was there that we were introduced to Carter’s staff. Someone rattled off their names and exactly what the duties were of each staff member. These were thee go to people. One of the staff found me wandering around the floor obviously frustrated trying to pound my tape recorder into service. My news director Jim Martin would not be happy if I didn’t get the interviews, especially with Carter who maintained his winning rapport with the media by granting short off the cuff interviews to everybody including little local radio reporters. I finally sought out one of the members of the staff, someone I remembered from the early morning brief in. Would he help me? He asked me what I needed. He took my tape recorder and he tried to make it work. No it wasn’t that the batteries were dead. Something else was wrong. Where did I go now?” Come with me” he instructed me. I followed him around; he carried my ailing tape recorder. Finally he tapped one of the network engineers.” This little lady needs help. Do you think you can help her?: Of course, he could all the media wanted to have a good rapport with the staff. I was so thankful.” Barry, you have been so helpful how can I ever thank you?”. He dismissed it but later when I was obviously flustered trying to get interviews, write copy, and run out to the van to send back reports to the station. Barry found me. “You look like you could use some food. Come with me”. He took me to a special section of the floor cordoned off for the staff behind a screen. He brought me a sandwich, a bag of chips and a drink. We are talking high end croissant sandwiches. I was so grateful and just being able to sit down was a blessing. There was no seating available.  Of course, he was kind enough two give me an interview as well. It was clear from the briefing in the morning that he was “a big wig” on the staff. Of course, that night when the returns came in and Carter had  beaten Wallace there was bedlam. This was a huge upset. There are many political observers who said this was the turning point of the 1976 political race. Before I left that night I made sure I gave many thanks to Barry who had really taken care of me and probably pitied this hayseed reporter tossed in with the big boys and yes 95% of the reporters, newspaper, radio and TV were men. Right up until I left whenever he saw he would ask how I was doing,did I need any help. Imagine my surprise then when I saw his picture in the papers the next day. Hamiton Joden, right hand man to candidate Jimmy Carter. For two full days and evenings I had called him Barry and he never corrected me. That mystified me right up to his ascension in the White House as President Carter’s right hand man. The press trashed him. They said he was ego driven, hard partying, with vague references to what have been drug fueled parties. It was two years later that I finally wrote to him in the White House. Why I asked would he allow me to call him the wrong name especially when the press said he was someone with a big ego., A week later the letter arrived in the mail with a White House seal. I don’t have the letter handy. It is buried in a trunk that contains all the promotional material since I started in TV.  Hamilton said that at the time that he met me at the convention I seemed to have more than enough to take care of so he was happy to help me. He closed by saying that if I were to come to Washington he would carry my tape recorder all over the city. I never went to Washington. The media war on Hamilton raged on. Hamilton Jordan was one the most savvy media people in recent history..a champion whiz kid..a political animal

              It was in 1990 when I was doing talk radio in Orlando that I was once again interviewed the peanut farmer now former  President Jimmy Carter now an author and pushing environmental causes. I told him the story about Hamilton which he enjoyed. He told me that one of the regrets that he had when he was in office was how Hamilton was portrayed in the media. He was the nicest guy he said. The stories about his being a big party boy just weren’t true. Hamilton had been the head of the women’s tens federation after his time in Washington;  President Carter told me Hamilton was suffering from cancer. For someone who knew nothing about radio I had learned a lot but I continued to have no manual dexterity. It is the people who don’t have to help you but do anyway without ego even making him call him by the correct name..Hamilton died in 2008 but I won’t forget him or his kindness .

The Big Stories of the 70’s and 80’s

There was an ongoing story on the power of Disney World, power that meant it was so self contained so self governing that even murder stories on Disney property went unreported until Disney had finished its own investigation. There was an ongoing war between the Orange County Sherriff’s department and Disney. It was so acrimonious that during one investigation a war of words almost led to a war of fists. The investigation was ongoing and I am not sure that anyone ever came up with the final answer. How much power did Governor Claude Kirk give Disney to entice them to build Disney World in Florida? As the years since Disney arrived in Central Florida it became more and more evident that Disney was almost a completely self governing entity. There are reporters today who are still gnashing teeth about access to stories unfolding in Disney World. No cameras allowed on premises unless cleared with the PR department. If you were a reporter working on a story you had to check in with PR and then a staff member would follow everywhere you wanted to go. Ignore that directive and see how many roadblocks would be put in your path as you tried to cover that story as well as ensuring stories.

The Rommie Loudd story actually spanned years. At the beginning of the story I was a radio reporter, later as an anchor I watched as the story continued. I think you could say that the Rmmie Loudd story parallels that of Lance Armstrong. A young African American worked his way up from a tough upbringing in a bad neighborhood to becoming a football player whose career finally took him to becoming a linebacker for for the Boston Patriots.

While being a linebacker for them, some may remember this famous episode.

Craziest Fan Interference Ever -

Old Boston Patriots

His path then took him on one that no other African American football player had taken. He became the first full time African American coach for the Patriots and then Director of Personal Development. But Rommie Loudd dreamed big. He wanted to put together a team of investorsi Orlando who would own an NFL franchise. The price tag was way too high. Instead, the investors bought a franchise from the Worldl Football League. The Tangerine Bowl became the home of the Florida Blazers. This is where the story became murky and left not only journalists scrambling for the bigger story but also federal state and local investigators. Many of the investors were Orlando businessmen with spotless reputatons, other investors names were not released and when they finally were released they were those of people whi had criminal backgrounds. Then there were drug fraud and imposter charges. As Rommie Loudd’s dream deteriorated it was replaced by a prison term. In prison he traded his football credentials for that of a prison preacher. It was in 1988 that I interviewed Rommie Loudd newly released from prison in his Central Florida apartment. I don’t remember what he said during the interview, only that here was a different persona, humble, repentant. As often happens, Rommie Loudd disappeared from the media scrutiny. The story of his death in 1988 from diabetes garnered only a small mention if any in the media. All of this was simply part of what radio news was about in the 70’sand 80’s. I am so grateful that I was part of it then before the budget cuts, before hard news gave way to conversations between the morning teams involving rock and music stars. Real news didn’t disappear all at once. Some stations did better at holding on than others. WDBO has been the one that has held on the longest. If I am giving short shrift to other radio news operations I apologize. But back to my transition. I was learning everything I could. I even enjoyed being the talk show host on weekends when calls tended to be more about the best way to cook sauerkraut from scratch to regular callers who just called in because they were part of the crew. Had I lost my interest in telling stories that revolved around people? No. It had simply taken a back seat in my life. But it was the best training I could ever have to what lay ahead. One weekend I received a call at my home in Sanford ( I was still commuting to Orlando). Would I be interested in working for CBS network news. I was so shocked, at such a loss for words (Yes, it did happen occasionally) I could barely hold up my end of the conversation. “Think about it this weekend”, the network executive said. “ I think you would really like working for us. The pay is good. So are the benefits.” He ended the conversation by saying that he would call me the following week and that he would like me to come to New York “to talk” I was shaking when I hung up the phone. I felt like Robert DeNiro in the film where he utters that famous line “ You talkin’ to me?” Had my career really taken such a turn in the road? Now I had to make a decision that even a year ago I had no idea I would be asked to make. Somewhere deep inside of me I knew that regardless of how flattering the offer was..and yes, appealing, I couldn’t accept it. There was no way I could uproot myself and three boys and move to New York where I had no friends or relatives, no support system. The boys would not want to live that far from their father. No, the answer was already forming in my head but I had a weekend in which I could simply savor the temptation.

TV TALK SHOW HOST TO UNEMPLOYED 

WHERE AM I HEADED NEXT?

There I was in July of 1974, no job, no child support from an ill ex-husband and in Orlando, where there was no market for talk show hosts.

In 1974 you had to wait three weeks after losing your job to file for unemployment. The boys and I ate a lot of strata, tacos, hamburgers; trips to our favorite eating haunt the Ranch House were on hold.

So what now? I knew that going from hosting a TV talk show at Channel 35 to TV news was a big jump, but I prayed maybe one of the TV stations would hire me. The news directors at channel 9 and channel 2 told me “No, we have our woman”. This was said with no apologies. However, when I called WDBO channel 6, the news director Jim Martin, told me that yes he had an opening and could I come the next day for an audition. Could I?

I spent hours trying to figure out what to wear; it was an important part of being  a career woman; slacks and pants suits were out because they were not considered proper professional attire for a woman ; in fact, at that time  there were restaurants that would not allow women to dine if they wore either. So I needed something professional but not too colorful. I have no idea what I chose.

The next day when I called to confirm and get directions the switch board operator told that there was no Jim Martin at the station. I was in a panic. Was this some kind of hoax? I knew I had heard correctly. After a moment she said, “Oh, I know who you want. Jim Martin is the news director of WDBO “radio”. RADIO?

WDBO was a small somewhat run down building, from which the radio news  considered to be the best in Orlando, emanated. When I met Jim Martin, he was a pleasant no nonsense kind of guy; when he led me into a tiny room adjacent to the studio, I had no idea what this interview would be. He found a small section that wasn't jammed with equipment and asked me to sit down. “What”, he asked,” do you know about radio news?” There was no answer to give other than “nothing”.

He gave me a quick overview. It meant covering all kinds of news stories: fires, murders, robberies, trials and reporting on them quickly and accurately. It meant recording interviews on a tape recorder and sending the interviews back to the station. It meant doing live reports from the scene of a breaking story. It meant transferring tape from a tape recorder to a reel-to-reel machine and then transferring that material to cartridges. It meant doing news at two minutes before the hours, ninety seconds of news which including playing some the cartridges recorded by me or one of the other reporters. It meant doing up-dates at the bottom of every hour if your job was anchoring rather than reporting. It meant at times anchoring a fifteen minute block of news at noon and 6 pm.

My head was spinning. Was this when I should tell him I had no manual dexterity, had never worked with tape, didn't like to drive, especially not fast? I chose to simply listen. He gave me news copy. I was to type these stories into a newscast that could be delivered in ninety seconds.” I’ll give you a chance to do a report at the top of the hour,” he said. I sat down and I typed. To this day I could not tell you what was in that newscast except when I went into the studio to deliver this newscast I  have never been more nervous. He gave me a signal at the exact moment I was to begin reading. I had read fewer than ten sentences when the DJ took over the mic. That was it! The newscast was over.  It would have been hard to comprehend that day that I would deliver newscasts of ninety seconds that contained three stories and a taped interview.The rules were different here.

This was a far cry to the half hour talk shows and   one hour specials with no commercial breaks . That was what I had just left when Channel 35 collapsed.  Of all the things I have done in my life radio news t is one of the challenges that I am the most proud of meeting. I don’t know how I did it, but I learned and I learned fast. I would have no way of knowing that my mistake of thinking I was talking to the news director of a TV station rather than the news director of a radio station would change my life and be the very best thing that could have happened to me. I didn't know that the on-air men DJ’s and newsmen who all had deep bass voices would feel that they were being invaded. A woman at WDBO? What was next pink curtains on the windows in the newsroom? There were no women mentors in my career but there were men who really helped me, knew when I was stumbling but  with some humor helped me to just "keep on truckin". I remember them all fondly the DJ's the late Perry Moore, the late Scott Harris, Clive Thomas, Jim Turner, the newsmen Tom Fallon, Larry Gibson and the man who was one of the finest mentors I had in my entire career, the late Jim Martin. That night I thanked God but it  seemed to me that he had gotten his wires crossed. Of course, that couldn't be right. I had not been clear enough in my prayer. TV TV not radio! God doesn't make mistakes. Landing that job at WDBO was the best thing that could have happened to me.

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When I left that day I didn't think I had the job. I didn't know that radio stations were under the gun just like TV stations. They had to have women on the air not just behind the scenes. There weren't many women who knew anything about radio news. Jim Martin probably did not have a large field from which to choose. Had I known that, I might not have been as shocked as I was when he called that night to tell me I had the job.

I hadn't even needed to apply for unemployment. That night I took the boys to the Ranch House but the directive remained the same, an ice cream soda or a dessert but not both. I slept better that night than I had in two weeks. To this day I don’t think my sons, my friends, nor  my parents knewhow fearful I had been that I would not be able to be a mother and a career woman. 

PASSIONATE ABOUT STORY TELLING

WHY ME!

For all the young men and women graduating today with graduate and undergraduate degrees in Communication, they may be wondering given their talent why it can't happen for them. I have several answers. First of all, it is being in the right place at the right time. Despite all the battles I had to fight as a woman trying to break into a field that was totally male dominated in the 70's, there was an open door. The FCC was requiring radio stations to have on-air "talent" in the same proportion that existed in the population. What a break for women and minorities who had been shut out or a world where all the men sounded like Walter Cronkite and looked like square-jawed airline pilots. I read that small blurb in the Orlando Sentinel and I saw my chance. 

I tell young people today read, watch the news, and find out what the trends, what is happening that could affect you. I didn't have any experience, Guess what? Nobody did. Men applied for jobs in radio news. It helped if you had a degree in journalism but frankly none of the men I knew in radio in Orlando had that. If you had a great a voice and you were a news hound who knew how to get your facts straight and you were willing to work more for the passion than the money you could probably get a job. Central Florida was made up of 50% women; stations needed to have 50% women on the air. Here I am! 

What allowed my career to take off like a rocket so that in five years more people knew who I was than the governor was there were only three stations from which viewers could choose. Channel 35 went belly up because at the time it was a UHF station. Viewers had to go to the back of the television and change the antenna. Cable hadn't really arrived so if you were watching The Price is Right at 5, you probably kept the TV on the same channel for the news. The lead in program was crucial. 

Next TV was just beginning to be a big deal. For years stations aired newscasts because the FCC required them to do so to retain their licenses. Now it was becoming Must Watch TV. Why? Video replaced film. Breaking news could now go on the air immediately. The mini-cam was revolutionary! Stations had to pay hundreds of thousands to make the transition. The programming had damn well be riveting. The people who brought you the news now became important. There was competition to get the most talented people on the air and by the way it certainly helped if you were African American or a woman, just like on the West Coast it paid to be Asian. So I saw the future of radio and TV and I wanted to be there. 

My advice is don't go to the place that is already overcrowded; go where there is a need. Finally you have to have the passion and be willing to work harder than you thought you could. In my case, I was always torn between being the single mother of three sons who needed me and the demands that had to be met at the stations. (For more than a year and a half I had a newscast and a radio show to do every day.)Now when I look back I don't know how I did it. I don't know how I had the energy to balance the demands or how I somehow mustered up the courage to be physically kicked out of a men's club while attempting to cover the story. No women allowed! For me it meant the passion to tell the story was stronger than the embarrassment. But oh the storytelling opportunities that lay ahead: interviewing all the famous people who came to Orlando, going to Hollywood to interview TV stars, going on movie junkets where interviewers were treated like royalty and you partied and interviewed movie stars. Where I had the chance to interview Henry Kissinger on a breaking national story; where I would interview all the bestselling authors, where I would be a professor at a college where I interviewed the leaders in media and technology, where I would write profiles of people who touched my heart for The Orlando Sentinel. I never would have known when I set out on my storytelling journey because it was my passion where it would take me. 

So here is the last piece of advice, when you love something and you follow a dream you never know all the places it can take you. Be open to the possibilities. I was telling a story when I stepped on a stage in a high school in Rutland, Vermont and tried to tell the Christmas story of the shepherd who followed good king Wensalus on his wintery journey that my own journey was right there in those footpaths.

                                         

THE PLACE TO LEARN

As a radio reporter and talk show host my interviews were diverse. First of all, chasing down stories for radio was the most difficult job I ever had. It also taught me more about journalism than I had learned in college and it terrified me. Suddenly, I was driving to fires, accident scenes, and murders and just like all the other TV, radio and newspaper reporters was pushing my way to somebody with information and shoving in a microphone in his face. I had to get the story right, get it fast and then get it on the air (two way radio in the news van) or back to the station where I would copy the information on my tape recorder to reel to reel tape. Then I had to transfer that to tape cartridges which would be played at the next newscast. If it was necessary to get an interview from the scene back to the station quickly because it was a breaking story I would have to go to a land line and then unscrew the phone cover, hook it up to my tape recorder and feed the interview back to the station. The pace was so hectic that at the end of the day I didn’t know if I was on foot or horseback. I hated to drive. Now I was speeding to breaking news stories. I was more afraid of being killed in a traffic accident than I was being pulled over by a cop, but both were very much on my mind. I had to get all the names right and that included the people being interviewed, any victims and the exact nature of what had happened.  My first day on the job I sped in the news wagon to an overturned tanker on I- 4. I couldn’t park the wagon anywhere near the scene. I had worn heels that day but never again until my TV days. I sloshed through some wet land under I-4 got out my notebook and tape recorder and then jostled and I mean jostle my way through the other reporters who might be friendly colleagues other days but on breaking stories you were just was another jackal in the pack. With the exception of two female TV reporters, the other reporters were men and they didn’t give an inch.

Competition among radio stations back then was fierce. There was more prestige among radio reporters than TV reporters. I was in awe of everything I saw having already been a news junkie. Somehow I reached deep inside of me for that “women who run with wolves” thing. I was going to be a good reporter no matter what. This was all happening just two years after I left my previous life as a corporate wife and mother and because I was a type A personality then as well, I had immersed myself in Dr. Spock and Ladies Home Journal.

I came to enjoy covering the stories, anchoring newscasts but hours spent on my feet transferring tape to reel to reel to tape cartridges took a toll on my back and my stamina. I loved trials. Those were my favorite and made me wonder if maybe I had missed my calling not being a lawyer. But not really, I was learning to become a better story teller. Sitting in a courtroom hearing how a member of a motorcycle gang “Crazy Joe Spaziono” hacked up a girl’s body and threw it in a dump, watching him as the testimony continued, his indifference then his anger, watching the other members of the motorcycle gang parade in the courtroom, seeing sobbing victims’ relatives. I had to take notes on my observations. Nobody was giving interviews. During a break or a lull in the proceedings I had to run to the payphones (yes, pay phones, folks) and maybe wait my turn to use the phone, unscrew the phone head, hook up the microphone and feed the observations I had recorded.

In a particularly high profile trial like that of Tommy Ziegler accused of killing his wife and her parents in his furniture store Christmas Eve, I had to call the station often during the trial to give live updates. Yes, I was getting my feet wet in one pond of storytelling but I hadn't seen anything yet. Cue the sharks!

NOT ALL STORIES ARE CREATED EQUAL

When I say that storytelling is my passion that storytelling took many different forms in my life. When I was a radio reporter I was usually on a scene getting details in a very short time to tell listeners what had happened. These were usually   a minute more or less in length. They fulfilled a purpose to keep people aware of current events.

Let’s take one story however, and see the many forms of storytelling it presents. You interview the fire chief at a fire and perhaps eyewitnesses. After the newscast it is discovered that the fire at the business was one in a chain of fires in businesses in the last month. Let’s go back to the fire chief but now we are asking more in depth questions. Were these fires related? Were they set? If they were set is it correct to say this was the work of an arsonist? Probably. Now we go to the store owners. Were there circumstances related to all the fires? We tie these together if they should be put together. Let’s not jump at what could be a big story, or not... A lot of research. When did these fires start? Is your conclusion different than the fire chief or other fire officials now called in on this story? Any disgruntled employees/ What about people who were seen in the crowd at every fire? Injuries? Must talk to anyone injured? What did they notice before the fire broke out? Is it possible the buildings had fire code infractions? If so does that tie the stories together or not? You ask and you ask and you ask and for what is now an investigative piece your questions and the answers won’t appear in a newscast for maybe weeks. You are attempting to build a story. Sometimes you come up with nothing other than a rash of fires.

I remember when I lived in Seattle I lived in a suburb that has experienced many fires of home in a short period of time. People were scared, like me, who lived only two houses away from a house that burned to the ground. We wanted answers but sometime answers have to wait until the information is correct. Finally, a big story, a national story of a young man who loved fires, who was somehow legitimately on scene. He was the son of a prominent business man. Now another huge expanse of stories on what causes a young man to become an arsonist. What should people look for in their own neighborhoods that might give them a clue of what to look for in someone’s behavior? So a simple story may stay a simple story or sometimes it becomes the story investigative journalists dream about. Reporters rush to the scene of a violet death. Maybe it’s the work of a serial killer; maybe a suicide, usually not even reported by electronic journalists.

In my career, I had both. I was not working in the news in Seattle when the arsonist burned down dozens of homes. I have had interviews which lasted an hour and interviews that lasted four minutes, not because the story wasn’t newsworthy. Sometimes it was big news, but a newscast only lasts a half hour. Take out the commercials, all the other news and you are left trying to find the absolutely best questions that will evoke an answer that doesn’t side step the question. Try that with politicians and you can think they don’t speak the language because they sure as hell didn’t answer the question. This is why even though I became well known as the first woman to anchor an evening newscast in Central Florida, my love is radio and TV talk show where I have more time. That is why the noon news propelled me to local stardom, longer interviews and becoming the place where any famous person visiting Central Florida came to be interviewed. Is it difficult to get them to come? There certainly can be competition today among stations netting the newsmaker first but when I was anchoring the news it was live and therefore I was able to get some genuine information; if a show is taped there may be great pressure to edit. Always something I tried to remember yes, someone is granting you an interview but everybody has something “to sell": a book, a movie, a cause, people’s support at the polls. Does the interviewer get what she wants and is the guest pleased with her goal.