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A Beta-cam Trip Down Memory Lane

I recently saw most of my TV career flash before my eyes on one of the last working Betacam tape decks in Southern California.

It was a humbling experience.

Most of my earliest work, saved on 2-inch tapes or old 3/4-inch cassettes, is gone. So the world will be deprived of seeing my first awkward attempts to master the art of TV reporting when WPRI in Providence hired me from the wire service UPI in 1978. I managed to save a few 3/4-inch videos from my later stints in West Virginia, Miami and Atlanta. The rest were saved on Beta, the high quality format we thought would never go away. And then it did. This was my last chance to save some history.IMG_0547

The pile of tape boxes filled the back of my Mini Cooper. It took several days to screen them all. As the Grateful Dead once sang, “What a long strange trip it’s been!”

I once dreamed of being a globe-trotting network correspondent. I got my first chance at WBBM-TV when I was sent to Poland during martial law in 1982 to cover a shipment of humanitarian aid from Chicago.

Reporting from Poland for WBBM.

Reporting from Poland for WBBM.

With the guidance of producer Bob Andresen, I ended up doing an award-winning documentary on martial law and the Solidarity labor movement, including an interview with Lech Walesa. I was also part of the team that covered Cardinal Bernardin’s elevation in Rome.

NBC report from Bahrain.

NBC report from Bahrain.

I attempted to follow up with a stint as a national correspondent for the NBC-owned stations in 1986, traveling with then-vice president George H.W. Bush to the Middle East.

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With Bill Balleza in Houston.

Next stop was KPRC in Houston, where I anchored the 5 pm news with Bill Balleza. With the creative leadership of our producer, Kathy Williams, we took the struggling little show from worst to first. In addition to being a great friend, Bill taught me the secret of a successful anchor partnership: “They pay you to do half the show; not more than half, not less than half, just half.” I still give that advice to anchor teams today.

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Anchoring at WCBS with Reggie Harris in 1989.

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WCBS Noon News with Brian Williams.

At WCBS in New York in 1989, I had the opportunity to work with other great anchors. Brian Williams, of course, is still with us. Sadly, Reggie Harris is not. Finally, I made it back to my home market of Southern California through a twist of fate. A Columbian passenger jet had crashed on Long Island and the KCBS News director saw me anchoring overnight coverage of the crash. I told him I had just found out I was pregnant and he hired me anyway. My first co-anchor, Hosea Sanders, announced the birth of my son on Action News AM.

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My husband stars in wildfire live shot from our house.

Later I was teamed with Chris Conangla, a super-talented guy who made it fun to be on live TV at 6 am. In 1993, the Altadena wildfire came within a few feet of destroying my home in the Pasadena foothills. My husband Bill made his Action News debut in a live shot with Tritia Toyota as the flames moved closer.

The legendary Bill Keene!

The legendary Bill Keene!

I also got to work with the legendary Bill Keene, the man who invented traffic reporting on TV and the reason why I love coaching traffic reporters to this day! I also got another trip to Rome with LA’s Cardinal, Roger Mahony.

Reporting from Rome for KCBS.

CBS News Up the the Minute.

CBS News Up to the Minute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had some national exposure on CBS News Up to the Minute, filling in alongside Troy Roberts who ran his own teleprompter! Then I joined a crazy cable experiment called “America’s Talking.” AT was probably ahead of its time as the first interactive network. There weren’t many people in 1994 who could be on their computer and watch TV at the same time. I co-anchored “In Depth,” a two-hour live news and talk show, winning a Cable Ace nomination as Best Anchor for coverage of the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. Chris Matthews was in Washington and I was in Fort Lee NJ.  To Chris, I was probably just a bump on the road to getting his own show.

"AT In Depth" with John Gibson.

“AT In Depth” with John Gibson.

Later, the show went bi-coastal with John Gibson in Fort Lee and me in Burbank. I also filled in on the morning show, which had a format remarkably similar to “Fox and Friends” today.

The prototype for Fox and Friends?

The prototype for Fox and Friends?

When it reached 40 million households, AT became MSNBC and Roger Ailes took his programming ideas to another start-up: Fox News Channel. I got more national exposure on Politically Incorrect and was briefly a guest anchor on CNN, but I really wanted to be home in LA.

With Hal Fishman on KTLA News at Ten.

With Hal Fishman on KTLA News at Ten.

Anchoring KTLA News at Ten was my dream job. To this day I don’t understand why it didn’t last. We were #1 in the ratings. Viewing the beta cassettes of the work more than 13 years later, the high quality of the program speaks for itself. They say Hal Fishman changed his toupee and his co-anchor every three years and I guess my time was up. I also got to mix it up with the morning crew once in a while. I think Sam Rubin and I could have done a great talk show together.

Move over, Regis and Kathie Lee!

Move over, Regis and Kathie Lee!

I love doing TV news and talk. I miss it every day. But during my time at KCBS and KTLA I discovered my love of teaching at USC, first as an adjunct and then as a full-time faculty member. Today it’s pretty hard for me to turn on a national or LA newscast without seeing at least one of my former students. The lessons I learned from all of these experiences are a central part of my talent coaching.

Getting a bigger laugh than Chris Rock on Politically Incorrect.

Getting a bigger laugh than Chris Rock on Politically Incorrect.

My career started out at a TV station that was shooting news stories on film and I’ve ended up coaching talent performance on multiple platforms. I spend a lot of time thinking about the implications of reaching the audience on small, handheld mobile screens.

On CNN with Bill Hemmer.

On CNN with Bill Hemmer.

But first I’m going to make sure my personal highlight reels don’t fade away. They’re being transferred to digital hard drive. Which, of course, will last forever, right?