My Life After News

This is a posting by Ron Futrell, long-time sports and news anchor in Las Vegas.  Ron worked at KTNV for nearly 25 years.  We worked together for six of those years.  He now has a site called LocalsLoveVegas.  Even though he posted this on the comments section, I thought it was worth reprinting here in a separate posting.  Thanks, Ron. JD

Life on the “streets” aint all that bad. I say just take the aggressiveness that you learned in TV news and apply it in whichever field you choose.

Nice article, and some great thoughts there, John.

My website and my radio show will become my versions of Gorilla Journalism. It’s nice not being under the constant shadow of management telling you what to say and when to say it. Certainly, the “security” of TV was nice, but that is all relative. The business has never really been secure on a personal level and that always kept people motivated. Nothing wrong with that, we all knew that was the nature of the biz. What is happening now is nuts. We have been giving viewers reasons to turn away from us for years, now with the economy and the sinking ratings, the face of journalism will change forever.

“Protect yourself at all times”. That’s usually the last thing a boxing refaree says to the boxers as they get set for the opening bell. Use that motto in TV news. Always have a plan B. Management is inconsistant and usually reward their favorites, over the most successful. They also tend to live by the idea that “power is more important than success”. If you are willing to bow to every whim, you may do well, but you give up a lot. For many of us, the longer you’re in the business the tougher it is to be submissive to management. After a while the Kool-aid doesn’t taste so good, expecially at stations with a long history of failure.

TV News will find it very hard to downsize fast enough to survive as we know it, in this tough economy. Dinosaur? Perhaps it’s too early to use that word, but the internet is getting more attention because it is immediate, grass roots, user friendly and it CONNECTS WITH VIEWERS, on a level that TV news can only hope for. TV news has never been “real”. Very few anchors can look “real” while reading a teleprompter and the phrasing and attitude of TV news is still so old and stale that there is an automatic barrier between the anchor and the viewer. On the rare times that that barrier is removed, look for management to step in and take action because they have now lost control of content, and they certainly cannot trust a little ol’ anchor to know what he/she’s doing. I know why my kids don’t watch TV news, nothing about it is real and it does not come close to connecting with them.

I’ve rambled, but learn to enjoy life on the streets, and don’t look back. But, if you do want to get back into the biz, think FREELANCE. That is the present at many stations and will probably be the wave of the future. Pay me to read, connect, and have fun. Don’t need the bennies, don’t need the 401k plan….but I will be real. Protect yourselves at all times!

Tags: broadcasters, JohnDalyConsulting, LocalsLoveVegas, out of work journalists, Ron Futrell, TV news

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 1:29 am and is filed under Ron Futrell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.