We are Looking Forward Our Way from Studio

C and the 511 Studios just south of downtown Columbus.

Hi, this is Brett. With me, as always, is Carol.

How are you? I'm good and I am so excited.

Today we have an incredible guest with us,

but I finally get to ask him the questions instead of him asking me the questions.

So let's welcome Rodney Dunigan, managing

editor and weekend anchor for WSYX, ABC, Channel 6 and Fox 28 here in Columbus.

Well, thank you all for having me.

I'm very excited about this.

Like I was saying before we started, this is actually my first podcast experience.

We love that we do.

So I'm a bit nervous standing or sitting

behind the mic here, so I'm just waiting for the questions.

And just as you had no pity for me

when I'd say, oh, I don't really want to be on TV.

Yes.

So, listeners, let me give you a little bit of background.

When I was the director of a nonprofit, I

quickly learned that any news coverage was great news coverage.

So few nonprofits really have an actual media marketing budget.

We're not out there spending lots and lots of dollars.

But once in a while I would get a call

from Rodney Dunigan, who would say, Carol, I have a question.

I'm on my way.

And needless to say, the next thing I knew, he was in my office.

So Rodney and his videographer would be at my door.

But I have to say it was always a pleasure to work with him.

He is incredibly talented, intelligent,

savvy and fair in his reporting, and he gets it.

I would sit there and I could just see the

wheels turning when I was answering his questions.

So I'm really excited to welcome him to

our studio today and get to ask him questions.

All right, I appreciate it. I'm ready.

I'm ready. Okay, we're good.

We're going to let the listeners know

right now that we do have a video camera in here with the TV station.

So if you hear some noises in the

background, as I want to give the camera, then person, technically, I don't know

what you're going to call because I don't want to say the wrong thing.

Give him the opportunity. If he wants to make more noise, he can't.

Okay, great thing.

So if we set that up, we're good. Okay.

And speaking of surprises, Carol, you guys didn't know that the camera was coming.

No, I shouldn't be surprised.

Brett and I have this joke going that I

invite all my friends to do the podcast because it makes it easier.

But this is pretty exciting. So thank you.

Yeah.

Well, you came to Columbus as a Chicago native, but also by way of several other

cities, which is not unusual where you were reporting.

Can you give our listeners an overview of your background and the reporting

experiences you had in various parts of the country?

Okay, well, I'll take it all the way back to Jackson, Mississippi.

And I have to tell you my College story.

First off, again, I'm from Chicago, and at the time, I knew that I wanted to get into

the media somehow, but I just didn't know exactly how, if I wanted to get into

radio, if I wanted to do TV or what sparked that.

I just always had an entrance.

I think when I was a kid, I had a babysitter, believe it or not, that her

husband used to always watch the local NBC station in Chicago.

And five and 06:00, before my mom came to

pick me up, we would always watch the news.

So as a kid, I was always interested.

That was the first kind of spark.

And then I started listening to the radio

and I figured, hey, do I want to be a reporter, an anchor?

Do I want to be a radio DJ?

So that kind of sparked my interest. Cool.

So my mother had a College advisor at her Church that told me about a small private

school in Jackson, Mississippi, Tugaloo College.

Wow.

I'm sure you guys have never heard of Tugaloo.

Small private school, thousand students,

and we're talking thousands with those who live on campus and off campus.

So very small school.

And at the time, we didn't have a radio station, TV station, anything like that.

So I did the school newspaper.

That's kind of how I started off.

And I had a buddy who knew that I wanted

to get in the media, and he actually worked at a local TV station there in

Jackson, Mississippi, during production, working in studio camera.

So he told me about a part time gig they had working the morning studio camera.

I would come in at 03:00 in the morning work from three to 10:00 in the morning.

So as a College student, that's something that you have to think about because

especially on the weekend, that's prime party time, right?

I'm putting that in my head going, you're a College student at 03:00 A.m..

So let's just say that I did have some late nights from time to time.

I'm a College kid.

So I segue that I started out in

production working early morning studio cameras Saturday, Sunday.

And I kind of segue that into an internship in the newsroom.

And I went from an internship to an AP position, which is an associate producer.

And I would edit tapes, I would write from time to time.

And then eventually my senior year of College, I got a job anchoring, not

anchoring, but producing the weekend news for the station there in Jackson.

It was the NBC station, and they would let

me do some on air reports from time to time.

I was the crime stopper reporter, like the crime of the week.

So that was my entryway.

And then from there, I got a job there in town, my first

official reporting job at the CBS station there in Jackson, Mississippi.

I graduated on a Sunday and started my first official reporting job on a Monday.

So that typically doesn't happen.

So I was very excited about that.

And I worked for two years there in

Jackson, Mississippi, at the CBS station as the capital reporter.

Jackson, Mississippi is the capital of the state.

So I would do a lot of political reporting.

That's why I got my kind of feet wet.

And that which was an interesting experience because as a kid fresh out of

school, I really didn't understand much about politics.

So I'm trying to kind of learn to get my feet wet.

Talk about jumping in the deep end.

Exactly. This is true.

So from there I went to Dayton, Ohio.

So that was my first Ohio experience.

I was working in Jenna, Ohio, in the Green County Bureau.

I was what you call a one man band in the

business, which means I wrote my own video, I shot my own stuff, I edit it.

I even did my own live shots.

So it was a lot of work, trust me.

But it was good because it gave me kind of an overall view of being a reporter and

trying to understand what photographers go through.

And it was crucial for timing because what

a lot of people don't understand with television.

I'll just give you guys a little kind of preview.

Before I came over here to this podcast.

I had an 11:00 shoot this morning for a story that I'm working on.

And the story is for 05:00 tonight.

So a lot of people don't realize how quickly we can turn stuff.

And you're thinking like if you had 11:00 shoot, you're here at 01:00 for this

podcast, how are you going to get that story on 05:00?

I'm not worried at all.

It's just like once you have that time management down, you can handle it.

So that helped me out.

So from Dayton, Ohio, I went to Nashville, Tennessee.

I worked at the CBS station there for five

years and I did some more capital reporting there.

Nashville is the capital, obviously, of Tennessee.

And I did some education reporting as well.

And it's funny, I'm a parent now, but at the time I was 25

or so and I didn't realize the importance of education report.

Initially when I got the beat, I was like,

oh, my God, this is going to be the most exactly what am I going to do?

But in the process, I learned how

important it is because education is just so important to number

one, families and the future of families and just school districts.

Those scores on school districts can

dictate how much your house is going to cost.

So I mean, it really has a ripple effect.

So I learned the importance of that.

And from Nashville, I went to Memphis,

Tennessee, where I anchored the morning show for four years.

And I did it's funny.

I kick started kind of a feature report that we used to

do called Cool School, because I kind of understood the importance.

And I would go into schools and kind of highlight the positive things going on if

they had programs to kind of sink you to College or maybe if the school won the

state Championship in football or basketball or something, we would kind of

highlight some of the cool things going on.

So that was a great way to get ingrained in the community.

And from Memphis, Tennessee, love took me to Tampa, Florida, because I met my wife

in Memphis and she got a job in Orlando, Florida.

And before we got married, I said, okay, well, I'm going to come down to Florida.

So I came down and found a job in Tampa,

and I was doing some general assignment reporting there in Tampa.

And general assignment reporting is just

typically just everything that could be education, that can be politics, that can

be crime, whatever's going on in the community.

That's what general assignment.

And from there, I came here to Columbus, Ohio, where I've been for four years now.

And I anchor the weekend show.

And I do a little bit of everything.

I do some investigative reports here.

I work for our Ohio State football show.

You can call the Football Fever.

We have a pre and post game show. So we do that.

So I'm involved in that.

So I do a little bit of everything here, and I'm definitely enjoying it.

And since I've been here in Columbus, me and my wife, Jackie, we

came here solo or as a duo, as you can say.

And now it's four of us.

We have a two year old little girl and a one year old boy.

And we love seeing the stories on Facebook.

The whole city is following Jackie and Rodney on Facebook.

But so what you did in terms of changing from all the behind the scenes to on air

reporting and the different areas, politics, education,

through all of that, you've increased your skills in doing this job.

How has the business changed?

What's going on differently today than when you started in College?

Well, I think the main thing, just like in many industries, is just technology.

I think technology has morphed the business.

I'll give you a great example.

When I was in Jackson, Mississippi, let's

just say I was trying to find a contact for a story.

I would actually people out there listening.

Some of you may remember these things. A phone book.

Yes. I would actually have to go on a phone

book and find addresses, phone numbers, and they would

actually be there and they would be accurate, believe it or not.

So that was something.

And if I was driving to a location, I would have to use MapQuest.

At the time, I think MapQuest was new.

So I would go on the Internet and find my

addresses through Map Quest, or I would actually have to pull out a physical map.

Believe it or not, I couldn't go to my phone.

I would have to pull out a physical map and map out where I'm going.

And trust me, if you're going

into some county or city that you have never been to in some small, tiny road,

using a map is not the easiest thing in the world to do.

Trust me, those.

05:00 deadlines are a lot harder to meet.

This is true.

And just the telephone that I have right

here, it has made the job just so much easier.

I mean, I've had times where, let's say if my photographer was a few minutes late to

a shoot or if he was shooting something else, I would actually shoot an interview

on my phone or shoot different video on my phone.

So it just makes it so much easier.

But with technology, there are some drawbacks as well, too, because just like

many other industries, you have cut Zack, too.

I mean, you would have huge newsrooms with

different sports departments and different investigative units.

And now a lot of the business, which

again, like more industries, is like doing more with less.

So we have a lot more of that doing more with less.

So

it's in some ways a positive the technology, but in some ways a negative

because you're taking away those resources that a lot of folks are used to.

But as far as just developing the news and finding contacts and putting together

stories quickly, technology is a huge plus.

I'll give you one more thing, too.

And this used to drive me nuts, me and my wife nuts, when we would watch a movie.

And I'm sure you guys have actually seen this before.

And you could see this in movies 1015 years ago.

Let's say you have breaking news of fire, and the crew would show up to the fire.

They would hop out the live truck and they

would turn on the camera and they would be live.

That used to drive me nuts, because years ago that was a fantasy.

You actually couldn't do that.

You had to drive a live truck there.

You had to set up a huge mass that would go up in the air, you know, 1015ft.

And you would have to set the live it would be a process of seriously,

a fast live shot would take you 20 minutes to set up.

But now that's actually a reality.

I can hop out of the truck and be live in 30 seconds.

So it's just amazing how things have kind of changed.

So it's almost like a foreshadowing.

So sometimes when I see stuff on movies

now and I think that can't be reality after what I've seen in this business in

the last 1015 years, eventually it could be, yes.

I think the best story I have was dealing with the World Wide Web.

I was working at Ohio State at the time, and OSU was a hub of the beginning web,

and you turn your computer on and suddenly the world is there and you're like, oh, my

gosh, you're putting in questions and you're getting answers.

And it's amazing to see how the information process technology has taken

and how we are able to get information so much more quickly.

Definitely.

Well, unbiased coverage has become a touch point for us all.

It also is kind of a tagline.

It's not necessarily a reality.

How do you maintain your neutrality in your reporting and what steps do you take

to ensure that your story can be as complete as possible?

Well, I tell you what I think when people

because in the last few years, you've heard the thing like fake news.

That is the slogan, so to speak, from a local news perspective.

And I can only speak from a local news perspective for us.

It's just so unfair.

And the reason why I say that people don't realize the difference

between cable TV talking heads and local news.

Let me give you an example of cable TV talking heads, which is what you see on

literally every network, be it Fox, MSNBC, CNN.

It doesn't matter. You have three or four people there.

You have a moderator.

They throw out questions and they let them fight.

And sometimes it can be skewed, depending on the station you watch.

You have some stations that are Liberal, some stations that are conservative.

I'm not necessarily going to say on Mike who was who, because I guess that's just

in the eye holder or the eye of the listener.

So I think that's where a lot of that comes from.

As far as local news, it's really not difficult to stay right down the line

because I think that we are not entertainment.

When people look at cable news, it's more entertainment.

We are providing a service.

I truly believe that as local news

reporters and we are a part of the community.

Just like Carol said, when I come and do a

story with you, I want to be fair because I'm going to see you again, and I can

potentially see you with my family at the grocery store.

We don't come in and light a fire and leave right?

We want to provide a service.

We want to provide information to people.

So it's really not that difficult to stay down the line.

And I try to be in my reporting fair.

Sometimes we may have a difficult

interview or difficult story to highlight, but in doing that, I try to be fair.

I try to give you your side of the story.

I never go on air with any sort of

negative information without getting another side to say, hey, this is what's

going on, and this is what this person says.

We have to be fair.

And I think the industry in general is

just getting a bad name because of what people see on cable news.

If you really sit down and concentrate on what's going on on local news.

And it can be fair.

Obviously, I work at Channel Six, but you can literally look at every other station.

And I think that everybody here locally is

providing a service we want to whether it be severe weather coverage, whether it be

what's happening in the community, what's happening at your schools.

I think we're truly trying to

connect with the community and to provide that service.

I really think that people have lost the

context of journalism and true reporting.

I don't mean true meaning if the story is true or not, but reporting information and

facts as opposed to, as you said, entertainment.

I often get really aggravated on the cable

shows when they do, they throw out a question and everybody has sort of their

answer, but there's no follow up, there's no clarifying what they meant.

There's not that information and making

sure that what you're sharing is going to be good for the person who's listening.

And that really, I think, is some of the difference in what's going on exactly.

Another example, just talking about coverage.

I know a lot of folks don't want to hear

about crime and here in the city of Columbus, unfortunately, the last few

years we've had kind of an uptick in violence.

It's been a record year, last year and the

year before for murders, unfortunately in the city.

And we have to report these things because

we have to report what's going on in the community.

But I also think it's important

as a member of the community to show what's positive and what's being done.

If I cover a crime story, which I do from

time to time, obviously, I like to highlight also programs and people that

are trying to make a difference, trying to make a change.

This neighborhood may be going through something.

I'll give you a great example.

I talked to a guy all the time that runs a

program in Linden called we are Linden, and we hear about negative things in that

community all the time, unfortunately, but we don't highlight people like that.

His name is Ralph Carter. We don't highlight people like Ralph who

are in the community, trying to connect with kids, trying to lead them on the

right path, trying to establish mentors, to kind of help them along, to

find them employment, to kind of pull their families up.

So I think it's important that if we go

into a community that we show what's positive in that community too.

And I think that's another disconnect between us and cable and us and network.

Let's say if there's a major happening in the city and you have NBC News, ABC News

coming in, especially over the past few years, it's been a lot of things, a lot of

controversy, be it protests over different things, be it covert.

Obviously, that's been a big battle.

I think a lot of people see Cable News Network.

They'll come into a community and light a fire and leave.

Right?

And that gives the media, because that's the word, the media a bad name.

And we're not the media, we're journalists.

We are you.

When I go to a neighborhood and cover something, I live here.

I live 15 minutes from basically every story I cover.

For the most part, I'm 1520 minutes away.

My home is so this is my community.

So unfortunately, from time to time, we have to cover negative things.

But I definitely want to highlight the

positive and what's being done to change the community for the better.

Well, I think that negative story

over and over again has been seen in the city of Whitehall, for example.

They have always had a bad reputation in

regards to just underdevelopment crime and such, and they have had a hard time

getting at it, but now they're taking strides to do so.

I think every community can have that problem.

If the media just drops a grenade there,

as you just said, and walks away, it's like, you guys take care of it.

We did our job by fusing things up.

It's not fair, right?

If somebody's coming in and dropping little bombs, all of you are now

responsible for trying to kind of clean up the mess that they've left behind.

Right. When our office was in Whitehall, people

would always say to me, oh, you don't want to drive down to Whitehall.

It's terrible. I'm like, are you kidding?

I love Whitehall.

They have done a marvelous job, and they are a dynamic community.

I'm a product of Linden.

I grew up in Linden.

I was born in Lindon, went to school in Linden, loved it.

Still love that community.

And people don't want to hear about crime

in London because they're tired of their neighborhood getting bashed.

Exactly.

Yeah, very cool.

So we talked a little bit about that

notion of technology making a huge change, not just in terms of the Widgets or the

gadgets that you have to use, but also in getting that information.

It's almost like, can you ever get all the information?

How do you make sure that you've got enough?

Or is it just one of those, like, I got what I got?

And when I get more, I'll report more?

Well, I guess it really just depends on

what you need, because honestly, when you look at us, television is a lot different

from, say, the newspaper because we have time constraints.

And I think a lot of people don't realize

that typically a story on the news is like a minute and 30.

That is the typical package of a story.

And I think a lot of people don't realize how quickly because the attention span be

it with social media and what people see on Facebook and Instagram, they're used to

short bites and short clips, so we have to keep things short.

So me, when I'm doing a story, I just try

to focus on what's the most important, what's going to grab people's attention,

whether it be a certain sound bite or a certain sort of video.

I always try to figure out what's important and if we have some additional

information, that's for the web, that's for the Twitter.

I'll tweet that out.

I'll put that on Facebook or I'll direct you to the station.

I was just going to ask you, do you see

people following up and getting more information?

Yes. Good.

Okay.

You're getting that feedback and you're seeing it being utilized.

That's great.

And that's something that our management and a lot of stations, they push.

I'll give you a great example.

Yesterday I was out at OSU Pro Day, so we were doing that.

And me and Miles Harris, he's one of our

reporters at the station, we were doing like a Facebook Live because they were

trying to it's just giving people different Nuggets.

Hey, what's going on here?

And you can see this going on live.

A lot of Ohio State fans.

So a lot of people are going on Facebook and engaging.

Hey, what's going on? How's this player doing?

So it's about dropping Nuggets and you talk about another difference with

technology and how the business is changing.

It never stops.

There was a time where the news was on at noon 5611 and that's it in morning show.

But now literally news is 24/7.

So you have to give people information.

If I'm covering the story, I have to tweet it so people know, hey, Rodney's on the

story, let me follow him on social media and let me tune in at 05:00 to watch.

So it's like it's literally nonstop.

Wow, that's scary. It is.

Really.

So how do you mentally take a break from that then?

Honestly, you got to. Right?

You have to, because it's just and I have to pull myself away.

Sometimes I'm forced to just because of the family, the kids.

If it weren't for the kids blessing.

Isn'T it, when you think about it?

Because I would be a lot more plugged in

because that's something that my wife gets on me all the time.

I'm in the bed at night and I'm looking at

emails and I'm checking Twitter to see what's going on.

Checking Facebook. So sometimes you do have to disconnect.

I try to, at least on my off days, I'm off on Mondays and Tuesdays.

I try to disconnect. I still watch the news.

I may watch the Five and 06:00 show on those days, but other times I try to

disconnect because it can just bog you down.

And just seeing the I don't want to say negativity, but it is, though.

Mostly news is negative. If you think about it.

The constant barrage of bad news. Bad news.

Yeah. It's not just that it's negative.

It's emotional.

Whether it's positive, negative, sad, happy.

I think that's what kind of pushes me on social media is it doesn't stop.

And it's constant.

I don't know how people oftentimes I would

hear folks, especially for LinkedIn and LinkedIn coaches, would

say, oh, 15 minutes in the morning, that's enough.

Like 15 minutes.

I just barely look at the first page of what's on my LinkedIn.

I don't know how people can continue to do that.

But again, I think that's why it's

contingent upon us to reflect those positive things.

We can't just like I said, if there's crime in the neighborhood, we need to

reflect what's positive in that neighborhood.

If there is a situation where you have, let's say, a fatal fire or something, what

is the community doing to back up that family or support that family?

What sort of shining light can you give to people or even what the viewer can do so

they at least feel good about helping to get over that minute of story?

Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Well, as we just covered right now, this is a tough business.

Yet there are so many young professionals

ready to take their chances with careers in media.

What advice do you have for young

journalists with critical decisions that they need to face with this, and you've

laid out a great picture of what the lifestyle is.

So how do they break into the field?

Are there critical steps they should take in their training in the early years, or

is it really kind of an OJT on job training?

A lot of it, too.

Well, I tell you, honestly, most of it is on a job training.

I tell people this all the time.

I don't care what school you go to.

You can go to some of the best journalism schools in the country.

University of Missouri, Northwestern, Syracuse, those are the big names.

It doesn't matter.

You aren't going to really learn the job until you get on the job.

When you have to confront a public official who's done something

wrong, when you have to knock on a mother's door who just lost their child in

an accident, you aren't going to know what it's like until you do it right.

As far as breaking into the job, I think

the most important thing I always tell people is just to get in the door.

And what I mean by that is you have a lot of kids who want to be the first thing you

want to be, especially when you're talking about television.

I want to be an anchor.

I want to see my name in lights.

I want to see my face on a Billboard.

I want to be an anchor.

That's my number one.

Don't tell anybody you want to do that.

I'm truthfully, honest.

When I tell people this, right, anybody who works in TV, you have to have an ego.

And this is what I tell anybody who says

they work in television and they say they don't have an ego, they're a liar.

100% fact, they're a liar.

Because if you didn't have an ego then you would write for the newspaper.

You want to see yourself on TV, right?

You have to have that confidence to be able to watch it on TV.

I'm going to be truthfully.

I love journalism and we'll get deeper into this.

But I'm just trying to be 100% factual with you.

I like seeing myself on TV. I do.

And everybody who works on television, they like seeing that.

We really like seeing Jackie on TV, too.

I do, too.

So I would tell young journalists.

Yeah, don't tell anybody you want to be an anchor.

We know, first and foremost, get in the door.

Like I said, I started out in production,

and that a lot of times is the easiest in the television business.

It's just the easiest way to get in the door because those are entry level

positions that they can kind of train you relatively quickly.

So just get in the door.

Once you're in the door, you can do whatever you want to do.

Because I'm an employee.

I can literally follow a reporter out on the story.

I can hang out with the producers.

I can learn how to write.

So just get in the door and be willing to do that.

And then when you get there, be willing to work.

Be willing to let's say, if I work in production, well, let me see if I can get

an internship in the newsroom and learn how to write.

That's another thing, too.

You have to realize that you're a

journalist and a writer, probably a writer.

First and foremost, you need to learn how to write.

So you need to learn how to write for television, because

writing for television is a lot different from writing for newspapers.

And I think a lot of people don't realize that, too.

A lot of people, when they get in the

business, they write like it's a Press release or newspaper.

It's totally different. You have to be a lot more conversational.

You have to be a lot more relaxed.

So I think that's it and just be willing

to deal with criticism, because you're going to get criticism from the public.

You're going to get criticized at work.

So you just have to have thick skin, trust

me, thick skin, because you will get emails and calls about everything.

And just be willing to realize that you're going to have to dedicate your life to

this if you really want to rise in the ranks.

If you really want to work in a big city in New York, Chicago, I mean, a lot of

times, even though the business is changing, it's not like it was you would

have to bounce around to a bunch of different cities to work in La.

Now you may have to work in two cities and then you can jump to La, but it's going to

take some moving and it's going to take some dedication.

You're going to have to give up some of those weekends.

You're going to have to give up some of

those holidays with family at 03:00 a.m. Yeah, you may have to come in at 203:00

a.m. So, I mean, it is a lot behind it to get to that point of being an anchor.

I mean, you can get there, but

every anchor has put in a lot of work to get to that point.

There are no overnight success stories.

No, there are no overnight.

When you were talking at the beginning of

the podcast about all that you did in your years running up to being here

with us in Columbus, I worked with students and interns at Ohio

State for 30 years and loved seeing students do those internship positions.

I actually had a student who begged me for an internship and then realized that

internship was going to interfere with OSU football Saturdays and dropped out.

And I go, okay, but don't come to me again for another internship.

That's not going to happen. But you know what?

I will tell you this, though.

I appreciate that.

And this is why.

Because you need to realize this is not for me.

Exactly right.

Why waste your time?

Because this is what the job is.

You're going to miss OSU football.

Speaking of that, again, I'm the co host for the Football Fever.

Since I've been here in Columbus, I've actually gone to one OSU game.

Right. Literally one game.

So that showed you I would love to go to a game.

Love to. But I'm at work.

You're working. You're working through it.

I think, too, that when I was introducing you and I was

saying that you would get it, when you and I talked, you would get it.

It's not just because you've had years of experience.

It's because the thought process you are going through.

When you and I talked about issues of older adults finding jobs and there were

critical issues, I knew you were thinking through that process.

So many times I would talk to a reporter, print or TV or radio, and they had two or

three questions for me that I knew they really hadn't thought about the question.

They had no clue how to do follow up

questions to it, and they really weren't listening to my answers.

They just wanted to ask the next question.

And that's what makes you so much better at your job.

And I think that's what people appreciate

is that they know they're getting the information they want to hear.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

I think a big thing for me is just

especially when a story just having that focus, you need to know what the story is.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of folks and I think this is more younger journalists,

I would say, because this is something that I struggle with.

I would come when I first started the business, I gave myself 20 questions.

If I would go out on a story, I would literally write down 20 questions.

These were the 20 questions I was going to

ask regardless, regardless of what the answer was.

Now I literally don't prepare.

I literally don't write any questions down because I know what the story is.

I know what I want to ask.

I know the story is and I want to have more of a conversation.

I think you will get more out of your

interview subjects when you just have a conversation and you don't.

I mean, obviously, there are key questions that need to be asked.

But I know that because I know the focus of the story.

I don't need to necessarily write it down.

Exactly.

And that takes years of experience.

And I think that that's what an internship or some kind of a professional opportunity

does for a young person when they're getting started.

It's not that they can't do it, but it may

not be obvious to them that they need to do that.

They need to do that research and really think through the questions and have them

on piece of paper on the top of their head, wherever.

But be ready to

make it worth the listener, viewers time to listen to the interview.

Exactly. Very cool.

So we aren't going to delve real deeply into elections, but that's been one of the

questions we've had on this podcast program is, you know what happens?

We no sooner have an election and the next cycle starts.

It used to be that there was a break

between elections and there's no break now in your look at the

workings of the election process and what people are needing in today's information

world about elections, how has that changed for you as a reporter?

Well, I think that goes back to just

what's going on in cable news, because it always goes back to that,

because everything now is just such a hot button issue.

And everything is about a sound bite.

And what can get people riled up to get the most attention.

And unfortunately, a lot of politicians

are just trying to get people riled up because that's going to be the sound bite

that's going to make the news, that's going to get me attention.

And the next ad.

The next ad, and that could potentially get me vote.

So me the way I approach politics, I just look for those issues that truly affect

people, not just the hot button issue of a hot button sound bite.

How is this truly impacting somebody, this candidate that's running?

What are their topics or what's on their

agenda that's really going to impact families?

And I try to focus on that.

I try to focus on the important stuff and

not necessarily the hot sound bite because it's always easy to go for the hot sound

bite because, again, that's what a lot of folks want.

It's just that back and forth.

And I think it's contingent upon us to

really focus on what's important to the community I also think.

Too, when we talked about this issue

back in 2020, I hope that listeners understand that you can report it.

But it's our responsibility to do our homework, too, and to really to listen, to

make sure you got all that information and to vote.

And I'm going to tell you something, too.

You need to get your information from different sources.

I was just going to ask you from your media perspective, what is a good advice

from someone in the media how to do some research?

Okay, number one, stay away from Facebook.

Facebook is that research?

Please stay away from Facebook.

You can get information from different sources.

You can watch local news.

You can watch national news.

Let's say if you watch Fox, fine, watch Fox, watch CNN, too.

If you watch CNN, watch MSNBC. Msnbc too.

If you watch MSNBC, watch NBC, just get it from different sources.

If you read The Washington Post, read The New York Post.

If you read the New York Post, read The Dispatch.

You need to just get it from everywhere to really have a full understanding because

you got to think let's say if you're watching a story on our newscast, I told

you the typical story is emitted in 30 seconds.

So there's only so much information that I'm going to give you.

But if you watch another station or read

it in a newspaper, you may get a little bit more information.

You may get some additional factoid that I didn't know.

So I just think you have to like you said, Carol, take it upon yourself that

responsibility that you have to thirst for knowledge and look for that

knowledge from different places and not just one source.

I would tell anybody, don't just watch us.

Watch other stations, too.

Listen to other radio stations, read the newspaper need to get as much information

as you can, especially when you're dealing with politics.

Because I think a lot of times now people

unfortunately get their politics from Facebook and Twitter, and the algorithms

basically just point you to what you want to hear.

So you're just hearing the same thing and

reading the same thing over and over and over.

Most people don't. Well, not most.

Almost all people don't realize that you're being fed what the algorithm is.

Seeing that you want to be fed. Exactly.

And that's so sad because it's changed.

It didn't used to be that way.

And in itself, Facebook has now become or any social media platform.

I don't pick on them, but we can do that

has become a resource for certain people or feedback.

You want to be fed.

Let's change the topic just a little bit.

I think this is interesting, too, because you're in the spotlight constantly.

Obviously, you said you do want to be you like the camera.

That's where I think the camera likes you, too.

But you also have a public role.

But you got a private role here in the community with your wife and family.

How do you create maintain that bubble that this is my space, stay away.

Well, how do you do that?

I think honestly, it's being at home, because when you're out in

the public, when you're a public figure, you're always on.

Like we're always when we go out to the mall, we go to the grocery store.

We're always on because you would be surprised the day because I've had several

times where I walked into a restaurant or walking to the grocery store and I had an

attitude that day, and somebody said, oh, you're the guy from the news.

And then I have to put a smile on my face because I have to be nice.

Like, I'm never rude.

If you want to take a picture, if you want

to shake my hand or whatever, because you're a viewer.

And I feel that I'm always a reflection of the station.

I am, regardless of where I go, I'm always a reflection of the station.

So I think it's just that connection just

honestly in the closed confines of my home for the most part.

Right. Yeah.

Or if we go out to a park or somewhere alone, and I don't want to give you the

impression, I mean, I'm a local news reporter.

It's not like I'm Eddie George.

I don't have people running to me all the time.

But when I do see people out in the public and then I appreciate it because when you

come up to me, I know that you're watching and you appreciate the work, and then it's

just good to have that connection to the community.

And I think that's important, and that can

help me in my reporting and anchoring to have that connection.

If somebody tells me, hey, this is going

on in my community or having a conversation, I think it just helps us to

connect to the public, to the viewers better.

Yeah. I got to Andrea Campbell, who used to be

an anchor for ten TV years and years and years ago.

But before she left, she was at an event at our elementary school with the kids.

And it was interesting to see when she was

not on seeing the event, she was just there to do the mic and kind of talk.

I know she knew people were watching at the same time, but she did let herself go

and just have fun, took her shoes off and played with the kids, but she wasn't on.

And you could see that personality shine through.

And I really appreciated that because

you could see other people and I don't know their names and such, but they were

always on expecting a camera to be on or was it performing?

I guess maybe it'd be more than anything else.

And I really appreciated that of her.

Well, she let her be herself, but herself was actually genuinely Andrew Camper.

It sounds like you're going the same direction.

Survey has a bad day.

Of course everyone does.

But at the same time, I want to be me, though, too.

Yeah. And you don't want to be a character.

You don't want to be a news guy all the time.

Exactly. Yeah.

I think for you, social media has

worked well, and maybe it's because the kids are so darn cute.

It's fun for me to see when one of your postings come through.

The people who have liked it, people in my

world, cousins or folks I went to school with.

And I'm like, oh, they're watching him, too.

And they're watching him, but it sort of gives a sense of community.

Yeah. And we like to share what's going on in

our lives, the happy times, although we don't share everything, obviously.

But we do like to.

I think that's a great way to connect with the community.

And I think that's what social media was

for before it became this political hotbed of fighting and all that.

I think that's what it initially.

I think I used it for what it was meant for years ago.

Well, when I originally emailed you, I mentioned that if Jackie wanted to come

and give us a tour, she was more than welcome this morning.

When I got up, I thought maybe Jackie and the kids will come.

We've had a great time.

She's with my daughter now at home. There you go.

She's busy.

There you gosh.

This time has gone by too quickly.

We could sit here and talk with Rodney all day.

Listeners, don't forget any resources

we've mentioned today will be in our podcast program Notes.

And we're going to give a shout out to

your folks in Linden that you talked about, Ralph.

We'll make sure we get Ralph into the show Notes and link to his website.

But Rodney, also, we always ask our guests

before we end the program, any words of wisdom?

This is your opportunity to say, as you wish to our listeners.

Well, I just think that if I had a word of wisdom, this is a surprise question.

There you go. I had to have one in all.

Yeah, there you go. I like it.

I think just to be positive, obviously,

we've all been at this point dealing with the pandemic for two years now.

So we've all gone through so much.

And just to keep that positive outlook.

And despite what you may see in the news,

some of it negative, unfortunately, some of it heartbreaking.

There are always better days.

The sun always rises no matter what.

So just keep that positive attitude and

just know that things will always get better.

I think that's my positive affirmation. Excellent.

Thanks again for joining us. This has been a joy.

This is everything we expected and more. Well, thank you.

Thank you for inviting me again.

And my first podcast experience definitely went well.

Will you do more then?

Yes, I will invite you back.

We don't want to burn him.

He'll never do another podcast again.

No, I'm looking forward I got never again.

I'm never doing another podcast.

I will definitely do it again.

And I will come back here if you guys. Invite.

Oh, great. Absolutely.

Thank you so much. Thanks.