Back in the Saddle

After countless years of dying, (remember my dictum: "you're either growing or you're dying), and 39 days without turning a story, I am in a new groove. A new market, city, station, gear, and people. All great things that have been that carrot just out of reach for so long. I could not ask for better co-workers than the people at WGHP. I've never felt so welcome and included. I have every opportunity to grow and learn more about the craft I have chosen. I am grateful to Karen Adams, the station GM, all the department heads who have been so warm and open with this new face--a photographer!? (New concept to this wavescribe of 15 years). But mostly, I am grateful to my mentor, chief photographer Keith Hale who is extremely generous and caring about the product and the photographers. He has taken me under his wing and made sure I was ready to fly with the rest of the flock.

Today I spent with weekend meteorologist and weekday reporter, Charles Ewing. Our story was about a proposed parking ramp for down town Greensboro. The gathering would be pretty easy at first, but we would have to wait until 3pm to get additional b-roll and sound, then cap it off with a live shot at 6pm at city hall. As this would be my first live shot too, Keith set up the shot, giving me thorough instruction as we went along. In the rain. I edited and fed the pkg and Keith did the live. There were some bumps along the way, but the day had lessons learned in it, and I am, once again, a better person for being here.

Accentuate The Positive...

...eliminate the negative. That's the gist of what a wise and fun-loving friend of mine, George Crocker told me tonight. (In the picture to the left, George sits with WNCT UberProducer, Rachel Gallaher and incredibly efficient editor Alexandra Poindexter.)

I had been reflecting on my 15 years in this market and said that there had been many bad events, but there were also good ones. The bad ones were really bad, like a nasty divorce, and the good ones were really good, like all the friends and experiences I've had with them.

In 15 years I've worked with at least 30 reporters and producers, and 7 news directors. I have gained a great deal of knowledge, much of it I have passed along to the reporters as they came through market 105. Most of them were grateful for it as they had the maturity to know that the advice was coming from the heart, and was meant for their edification and professional growth. But their acceptance also stemmed from an inherent sense of respect for someone who had made many more trips around the sun than they. On the other hand, there were others, including one reporter still at my former station who were above any advice. They thought of themselves as an island. They thought my counsel was condescension, and that their success would come from the superficial and naive notion that how you look or sound will make you an idol. I feel sorry for people like that, and I feel bad for people who have to hire people like that, even though there are better candidates.

So as I begin a new chapter in my life, I am reminded to remember the good things. I may never forget some of the bad things that happened, but those are not worth dwelling on. Those should be used as a moral. You've heard the phrase: If we don't remember the past, we are doomed

to repeat it. It was meant to reinforce positive behavior, and repel bad. I think it

works another way: If we remember the past, we are likely to repeat it--like my reporter friends Andrew Doud and Philip Jones hamming it up at a recent dinner in my honor, while another reporter friend Parul Joshi approves in the background. That's something I'd like to accentuate. And I will.