Hometown:
Amesbury, MA
Current job:
Educator and reporter.
School of Journalism and Mass Media, U of I, faculty; news and sports reporter for Idaho Public Radio and Inside the Vandals
Tell us a bit more about your career path:
I filed my first story as a news reporter as a college student in 1980 and have been working as a reporter ever since, mostly in the best medium ever devised, radio; but with some dabbling along the way in newspapers, television, and online. I also had a stop as a press secretary and legislative aide in the MA State Senate in ’93- ’95. Graduated from Dean College in ’82 and the University of Maryland in ’84 and ’85.
What drew you to journalism?
Looking back, it just seems like it was always there—a love of broadcasting, news and sports, and things media. I fondly recall: being unbelievably excited when my Dad carried our first color television into the house; the utter joy of listening to Ned Martin call Red Sox games on the radio; discovering Star Trek and science fiction in general; being amazed at the radio adaptation of Dracula by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre; watching Jack Hynes read the news and Bob Copeland do the weather on Boston television; working in college radio at WGAO and WMUC. A whole host of these and other things that go back as far as I can remember.
What are some memorable moments from your career?
Without question the highlight of my professional career is watching students I have interacted with move on to happy lives and success.
In journalism, too many interesting stories and interviews to count. Talking with Gene Roddenberry and Charlton Heston and David Halberstam was fun; so were lots of other interviews. Doing stories on coastal erosion on Cape Cod in the late 80s and a state budget crisis in Massachusetts about 1990 stuck with me. So did covering local reaction to 9/11, COVID. Lots. A simple motto: do the damn news and have a helluva ride.
Who is your journalism hero, and why?
A tie— Ed Murrow/David Brinkley/Peter Jennings. Pros. Brinkley’s 1989 commentary on how the IRS will continue to collect taxes in the event of a nuclear attack is the top shelf in the history of television commentary, no discussion.
You didn’t ask, but: Favorite fictional portrayal of a reporter—Bogart as Ed Hutcheson, Deadline USA, 1952. “That’s the press, baby.”
What do you do when you aren’t working?
When is that, that I’m not working?
Family. Good television. Interesting movies. Books. Red Sox. A whiskey and ginger ale. Hearing from former students. Walking while listening to good audio.
