Tag: Mike Sechrist

Janet For Congress?

Viewers loved Janet because she seemed vulnerable. Politics commands a thick skin. Can vulnerable and thick skin coexist? We’ll see.

The emails have trickled in over the last few days. Janet Peckinpaugh is thinking about running for the 2nd District congressional seat held by Joe Courtney. She’d be running for the Republican nomination against Daria Novak (who has appeared on this blog… and was a good sport about it).

I’d better throw in some back story, because as big as Janet was you might not know who she is!

Back in the 1980s the Connecticut television news race was divided this way: Channel 3, everyone else. In this case everyone else was mainly Channel 8. Channel 30 with much less reach as a difficult to tune in UHF station was specklike. Channel 61 wasn’t yet on-the-air.

The company that owned Channel 8 made a decision to get competitive. That was gutsy because WTNH was more profitable than WFSB! It had a smaller audience but also spent a lot less. The owner, Capital Cities Communications, moved their hotshot news director, Mike Sechrist, to New Haven from Fresno. Then they opened their wallet.

Not every move Mike made worked, but one was so successful it trumped everything else (next to hiring me, of course). He hired a young, sweet looking, Janet Peckinpaugh. I seem to remember her coming from Richmond, VA–but don’t hold me to that.

I can’t explain Janet’s success except to say she had that magical “it” that make some people on TV stand out. Actually, Janet didn’t have “it” as much as she had “IT!!!.” She was vulnerable and approachable. She was very pretty but not where women didn’t wanted their husband’s watching her.

With Janet (and a rejuvenated Al Terzi) our audience grew until we caught Channel 3 at 6:00 PM–an amazing achievement.

Helaine and I were friendly with Janet. She was always very nice to me on-the-air and off. We went to her spectacular wedding atop Hartford Steam Boiler Company. It was probably the most glamorous affair I’ve ever attended.

Then, for reasons still not clear to me, Janet left and the station wallowed. Think balloon and pin!

As is often the case in TV her earlier success did not follow her up I-91.

She was later involved in an ugly lawsuit and finally anchored at Channel 30. When last I saw her on-air she was the anchor on infomercials for a mortgage company.

Am I surprised she’s considering congress? Yeah. Not that I think about Janet often, but even if I did I’d never make this leap. OK, I haven’t known her for over twenty years. Everyone changes. Maybe a smoldering political fire has finally come to life?

Maybe there’s something in the DNA of people who do what we do? I have often thought about running for Congress. I have too much respect for my incumbent congresswoman to ever seriously consider that, but the thought’s there in the abstract&185.

We all have dirty laundry. Helaine reminds me of mine all the time. Imagine if your life was poked and prodded at by an opponent who wanted you gone! I’m not sure Janet’s so special in that regard, but maybe.

When Kevin Rennie blogged about this yesterday the mean comments weren’t far behind! Her unquestioned sweetness of the 80s is now questioned.

Viewers loved Janet because she seemed vulnerable. Politics commands a thick skin. Can vulnerable and thick skin coexist? We’ll see.

&#185 – After writing this entry a co-worker called me out for this paragraph. She said I made it sound like I could beat Rosa but won’t. I can see how that might be the impression. Let me clarify.

Rosa DeLauro is unbeatable in this district. Right now you would have to be a fool or extreme doctrinaire to run against her. There’s a reason few who want to serve in Congress do. There are people like Rosa already there.

To me that’s OK because I like Rosa.

God, I hope that’s more clear now.

My 25th Anniversary At The TV Station

Sure, there will be more talented people. There might even be people who will stay longer–though that seems doubtful. But no one will ever be seen by audiences as large as we had in the 80s and 90s.

I remember driving back to meet Helaine after seeing Mike Sechrist in the spring of 1984. “I didn’t get it,” I told her. “They want someone older.”

I’d seen Mike hoping to fill his weather opening in New Haven. It wasn’t destined to be. But, surprise, I did get it–the weather job at WTNH.

I began May 21, 1984. Thursday was my 25th anniversary.

I can’t remember what kind of day it was when I started, but I do know I sat with Al Terzi, Gerri Harris and Bob Picozzi in front of a blank blue wall. We had no real set. All the backgrounds and frames were inserted using chromakey.

I did my first tease before my first weathercast saying a few words and ending with, “Well, how am I doing so far?” It was a line I’d first used on my first day in radio–probably stolen from someone much more clever. Gerri looked at me as if I’d just parachuted in from Mars.

In my 25 years she was one of two anchors who obviously ‘didn’t get me.’ Al, on the other hand, laughed at every joke I told–funny or not. What Al did was like comedy kindling and it helped establish me.

I have survived four general managers (with a fifth soon-to-be hired), ten news directors and scores of producers. I have outlived all the other on-air people at Channel 8 that day in 1984. Considering I’d bounced around radio for 11 years before getting to Connecticut that’s quite a feat.

I don’t know how it came about… these 25 years. It’s nothing you aim for. I seem to remember thinking of WTNH as a good stepping stone, not a final resting place. And yet I stayed.

For a while I filled in for ABC on Good Morning America. Maybe I thought the network would come calling–but they didn’t. So I stayed and stayed and stayed.

I built a very good life first for Helaine and then Stefanie. My parents moved to the area and then moved away. We set down roots. I tried to give back, especially with charity work.

You don’t go to work on day one hoping to stay 25 years. I certainly didn’t. It’s all one day at-a-time and then, all of a sudden, those days begin to add up. Prospective employers look at people who change jobs a lot as having baggage. Once you’ve stayed too long you’re looked at the same way.

There will never be another Geoff Fox in Connecticut. Sure, there will be more talented people. There might even be people who will stay longer–though that seems doubtful. But no one will ever be seen by audiences as large as we had in the 80s and 90s. That tonnage is gone. It’s affect is cumulative over the years.

I have a great job. I enjoy coming to work nearly every day. Even after 25 years no one will ever accuse me of phoning it in. I am a well defined personality and though lots of people like me, there’s also a sizable contingent who don’t.

No gold watch today, I got a plaque. I’m taking off Friday but I’ll be back Monday.

What Is Journalism?

It’s probably a good time to delve into this because there are two interesting journalism stories.

Who is a journalist? What is journalism? It’s probably a good time to delve into this because there are two interesting journalism stories unfolding today.

Who broke the John Edwards affair? The National Enquirer. Ouch, mainstream media. How’d you let that one slip away? And the Enquirer has been all over this story for a while. They also broke the Monica Lewinsky story. This is not your father’s, “Elvis Spotted At K-Mart” Enquirer.

I heard Steve Plamann, senior executive editor of the National Enquirer interviewed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” today. He gladly admitted the paper’s sensationalist bent. They are after all, by his admission, a supermarket tabloid. But, does that disqualify them from being taken seriously or breaking stories?

Should the NY Times follow the Enquirer as they certainly do the Wall Street Journal or Washington Post? Do you disregard them at your own risk? I’ll answer my own question. They disregarded the Edwards story and it doesn’t reflect well on them.

Is the National Enquirer journalism? I think they are, but who makes this judgement?

The second journalistic fork in the road has to do with CNN’s decision to rely on more “one-man-bands” populating single person bureaus. Here’s how TVNewser reported it:

“Yesterday CNN announced it was expanding its domestic presence by opening bureaus in 10 U.S. cities. The press release called it a doubling of U.S. newsgathering. But when a 28-year-old company expands you can bet there will be changes to existing personnel too. And that is the case with CNN.

TVNewser has learned that after the announcement of the new bureaus and soon to be added “all-platform journalists,” nine CNN staffers were told their jobs were going to be redefined. We’re told the staffers are not being laid off, but being offered positions in the new structure.

The staffers work in cities including Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. As NPR’s David Folkenflik reported this morning, “let’s be clear [CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein] is only really talking about adding a handful of new staffers. Others will be redeployed in less-covered places like Columbus, Ohio, Orlando and Seattle.””

Is it less journalistcally pure when a single person covers a story instead of a crew? Is there something lost when a reporter also has to concentrate of his/her equipment during the time they used to be concentrating on the person speaking?

Video gear has become smaller, cheaper and easier to operate. I certainly could report and produce a news story on my own, but would that story suffer? I have colleagues who will argue the story will suffer and other friends, like Mike Sechrist, who truly believes we’re foolish to not take advantage of this technology.

There are a lot of constituencies involved here beyond the public who consumes this journalistic product. I am curious to see how this will shake out. This is a time when journalistic traditions might change rapidly.

TV 2.0

I seldom do this, but it’s my blog! This entry is an explanation and expansion of a comment left in the previous entry by Mike Sechrist.

Geoff:

If anyone had any questions about the revolution going on in our business you just answered them. An interesting piece shot on a $30 camcorder and edited with software that can be found on most PC’s. It may say Meteorologist on the resume but you should add VJ underneath. I wish we could have seen the deli.

A little background on Mike. He hired me in New Haven 23 years ago. He was news director then, but later became a TV general manager, running WKRN in Nashville.

Mike is one of the biggest proponents of VJs, or video journalists. The whole VJ concept is based on the assumption technology allows greater productivity in TV without injuring the product. If a crew is one, rather than two, people, you can cover twice as many stories with the same number of people.

Of course, the fear within the universe of TV employees is, you can cover just as many stories with half the number of people… and what business wouldn’t cut their costs like that if they could?

I remember counting heads in the ABC control room, back when I used to fill-in on Good Morning America. There were better than a dozen folks on the payroll in the control room. I walked into our control room in New Haven on Friday night. Three! Technology at work.

I produced my little travelogue with a minimal amount of equipment. It was not broadcast quality, but it wasn’t terrible. And, for a motivated audience, where content is much more important than production values, my $30 camcorder is all that’s needed.

Mike worked hard to unlock the value of technology for his station. Going forward, I think the real value lies elsewhere. VJ type equipment can allow one or two people to produce narrowly focused, very salable content. Think of the show being the end product, not the station.

The example I often use is a fellow employee at the TV station who’s a prolific knitter. She’s got the skills necessary to produce a daily, weekly or even unscheduled video knitting show.

Unlike the conventional TV model, older content stays online forever (How many changes are there in knitting from year-to-year?), using search engines and word of mouth to attract new viewers along the way and providing a library of revenue producing programming. In computing parlance, this evergreen content is called ‘long tail.’

Because the programming would be narrowly focused, each viewer would likely be worth more to an advertiser (knitting needles, yarn, patterns, etc). The whole concept of comparing CPM for an ad buy is turned on its ear because there are so few wasted viewers.

To a certain extent PhotoshopTV is doing this now. So is or-live, which presents surgical procedures live and recorded on demand, on their website.

Programs like Diggnation or Rocketboom, which are more broadly aimed, do not fit my revenue model, even though they are using the technology as I picture it being used.

There is money to be made for specialists who can produce their own material. It could be a show on ham radio or child rearing or golf or any number of topics. Content rules! If there’s an connective interest and someone selling a product your audience might buy, the rest is academic!

Even better, distribution is much easier than TV or cable, since anyone can set up a website instantly&#185 and bandwidth costs continue to drop rapidly.

Startup costs for a TV station are in the millions… often tens of millions of dollars. Start up costs for these web narrowcasts can be in the thousands, though often, hundreds of dollars!

I’ve been toying around with an idea for a web show myself. All I need is a little motivation. I figure a half dozen episodes in the can should get me started. I already have everything I need to produce it at home!

That’s crazy, isn’t it? I already have everything I need at home.

&#185 – How instantly can you set up a site? My boss bought an iPhone and set up a website to go with it! If he’s spent $25 on the website, he’s gone overboard.

Waitress – Saturday At The Movies

Stef is away today, celebrating the graduation of one of her sorority sisters. Helaine and I decided to go to the movies tonight.

We headed to the Criterion in New Haven for Waitress, starring Keri Russell.

The movie is the story of a waitress, in a loveless marriage, who finds herself both unwontedly pregnant and in love with her married gynecologist.

I suppose this is what’s called a small movie. It is heavily dependent on its very stylized look and really sharp cast. The story is simple and sweet

The movie itself is set in a small, seemingly downscale southern town. Much of the action takes place at a diner which specializes in pies – many expertly baked by Jenna (Keri Russell).

Andy Griffith (around my dad’s age, but looking much older) is excellent as Old Joe, the owner of the diner. More importantly, he is the uninvited elder philosopher in Jenna’s life. He will receive an Oscar nomination for this role.

I’m not sure how to explain this, but Earl (Jeremy Sisto), Jenna’s husband, is the least appealing (most repulsive) character I’ve ever seen in a film, without resorting to over-the-top characterization. He was just realistically creepy – not an easy task.

Helaine noticed Jenna’s love interest, Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion) looked like a young Mike Sechrist. Mike’s a friend of mine.

I enjoyed this movie. Helaine enjoyed it even more. That’s probably going to be typical of many couples. It was a great Saturday afternoon date with my wife and a borderline chick flick.

Footnote:We like going to the movies, and this theater is nice and new. However, the print we saw was terrible. Here is the note I sent to the company that owns the theater.

My wife and I saw the 4:00 PM Saturday showing of Waitress at your New Haven theater. We like going to the movies and we’re glad you’re in New Haven. We’re glad the city is coming back and drove past another theater to get to you.

Unfortunately, the print for Waitress was horrendous. There were horizontal scratches visible for the entire show.

When I told a friend, he described the exact same scratches when he had seen Dreamgirls. Is there some sort of equipment problem in your theater that’s killing the prints?

I’m not asking for a refund. All I want to know is, you’ve gotten my message and you’ll fix the problem.

All the best,

Geoff Fox

Here’s their response:

Greetings!

We are unaware of any print problems in New Haven, and will address the situation immediately. I can assure you though, there is no recurring problem at that theater.

Thanks!

The Stuff You Find

Our house cleaning continues. As it turns out, we hadn’t thrown out financial papers in… well, we’d just never thrown them out and we’ve been married for nearly 23 years!

Helaine stopped at Staples and bought a small shredder. She’s been working her way through our papers, a sheet or two at a time. I pointed out, we could have just thrown them in the fireplace and lit a match!

Here are two interesting pieces of paper – neither of any real value.

The first is the receipt from sending an audition tape to Mike Sechrist in New Haven. This little $9.35 investment turned into my job of the last 22 years. Pretty decent ROI!

The second is a receipt from PEOPLExpress for $23. It was the first real discount airline. You paid for your ticket on the plane! Often, they would board through the ‘normal’ and rear stairs.

Yup, you’d climb in through the tail!

Though it was good, in that it led to lower fares, PEOPLExpress is also responsible for cattle car crowding (and they did it on old DC9s), hub and spoke routing, less than scrupulous adherence to a schedule and the end of gracious service onboard.

I once saw a comedian who said the two most spoken words at PEOPLExpress’ Newark terminal (and old, non-air conditioned hangar) were, “Never again.”



Seven Thousand Three Hundred Five Days

Seven thousand three hundred five days ago, Connecticut still had toll booths on I-95 and the Merritt Parkway. There was no state income tax. Our governor, William O’Neill, was a tavern owner.

Back then, WTNH was a middle aged television station, owned by Capitol Cities Communications – before it bought ABC. It was second place in what was, for all intents and purposes, a 2 station market. A station with an identity crisis, not knowing whether to be Connecticut’s station or just concentrate on New Haven. It was making money hand-over-fist, which tended to minimize their concern.

On May 21, 1984, One thousand forty three weeks and four days ago, I walked into Channel 8 as an employee. If you would have told me twenty years ago that I’d still be there today, I’d have called you a fool. In my 11 years in radio, I had worked all over the country. No job had ever run more than 3 or 4 years – and most were much shorter.

Al Terzi (WFSB), Gerri Harris (who knows) and Diane Smith (WTIC radio, CPTV), were our main anchors. Bob Picozzi (ESPN radio, UConn Women’s basketball play-byplay) was our sports director. Our news director, the guy who hired me, was Mike Sechrist (General Manager WKRN – Nashville). His assistant, Wendie Feinberg (Executive Producer Nightly Business Report – PBS). In the control room, Tom O’Brien (General Manager KXAS – Dallas) and Jeff Winn (Fox Sports “Best Damned Sports…”).

Of all the on-air and management personnel at the station that day, only I am left. I have survived 4 different owners, 4 general managers, 10 news directors and countless dozens of assistants, producers, reporters and anchors.

Still, I often ask myself, where have I gone wrong?

That’s not to say my professional life hasn’t been good. In fact, it’s been great. This is a very rewarding job and the people who watch have been generous in their support, while my bosses have been… well, they’ve been generous too. I just wonder, what if?

Have I missed the bright lights of the big city? Would I have been able to compete at that level?

Today, if I were looking for work elsewhere, would I be taken seriously? A few years longevity is a good thing, but twenty years in New Haven makes it seem like I’ve been unable to escape.

Since I have been at WTNH, only four of the on-air people hired were older than I was at the time – and three of those came within my first year. This is a business of the young… and I say that even though this station isn’t anywhere near as youth obsessed as some others.

I remember early in my radio career, seeing people who’d been in one place too long, who were now just going through the motions. I promised myself that would never be me. I’ve kept my word.

It is still important to me, after all this time, to know whether I’ve entertained or not. There are no gimmes. A bad Friday night 11:00 weathercast can ruin my weekend… ask my wife.

Even tonight, I brought home a snippet of tape because a few seconds of well timed on-air chatter with the floor director seemed memorable. Every show counts. I am never unhappy to go to work. I have never taken, or needed, a ‘mental health’ day.

I still have my fantasy jobs – things I’d like to do and sometimes even dream about. I’d like to do a game show. I’d like to do a sit down fun chat show. I’d like to fill-in again on Good Morning America. Who knows?

I worry about losing a little off the fastball – about someone up-and-coming who might want my job. I worry about a new owner or manager who might not care that I’ve put twenty years in. After all, in the 21st century, company loyalty is something employees have toward companies… not the other way around.

About 15 years ago, my agent said there would come a time when I’d want to shave ten years off my age. I think I could actually pass with that lie. Until recently, I’d regularly get viewer mail telling me to stop coloring my hair… even though it’s never been colored. But, I won’t lie about my age because I’m proud to have the experience and knowledge that only comes with being 53.

I am not sorry that I’ve made it to 20 years. I am not disappointed in what I’ve accomplished. I have a wonderful life. I only wonder where the other paths led.