My Non-compete Expires and I go Back to Work...
ASSOCIATE & RELIEF
PRODUCER
May '92 to October 21st '94
Without knowing I did it... I saved the best place to work in broadcast news for my last "duty station." I started at Tampa/St. Petersburg's WTSP-TV in early '92. For the first time in a quarter century, I found myself working someplace where I actually considered sticking around long enough to retire.
10NEWS has ALL the bells & whistles, and managers (from the President & G-M, Steve Mauldin - the guy in the picture to the left - all the way down) who provide an environment which encourages people to do their best.
The Executive Producer (who was just promoted to Assistant News Director - congrats DC!) is one of the best in the business. That comes from someone Dave Clegern canned in Sacramento when he was the Assistant News Director at KXTV/10. When he arrived at this 10NEWS, you can guess I was shaking in my boots... Penny Loafers this time around.
But irony of ironies: The new EP became one of my closest friends at the station.
That brings me to the first of two lessons I like to share: If you are committed to a career in this business - be nice to everyone. All you pass on your way up the ladder are bound to cross your path again later, when....
Case in point: I met many young rising stars at WTSP. When they get to where they're going, I'll smile remembering the joy I got sharing my skills with and teaching those young journalists about things such as writing, production values, and ethics. I lost count of the times I revealed the cyberzen secret of unjamming stalled computers.
Lesson #2: Timing is everything! That applies to meeting deadlines, getting a job, getting the lead, etc. One example: At Tampa Bay's Ten, I was hanging out in the newsroom on a Saturday. Turned out I was in the right place at the right time. I was asked to produce a quicky "instant" special telecast on 1993's "No Named Storm," a program that won some kind of neat award from SPJ.
I thought I had learned the last of my lessons on October 21, 1994.
That's the day Doctor Stark leaned over my bed in Cardiac Intensive Care and told me I probably would not live through the afternoon, because of a major heart attack. So much for making retirement plans.
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