I have anchored and reported local news since 1987, working my way up from Florence, Alabama to Nashville, Tennessee.
That first job in Florence, Alabama? I was a one-man band who did two packages, produced and anchored the 6 pm and 10 pm shows. We all had to drive our personal cars and there were only 2 video cameras to share. I was even a news director for a short time. I don’t suppose many reporters pay those kinds of dues anymore.
It may not have been hell, but you could see if from the front door.
Over the next 25 years I had a pretty full career:
- Reported and anchored the weeknight newscasts at WJSU-TV which is now in the Birmingham, Alabama market.
- Anchored and reported the morning then evening newscasts at WHNT-TV in Huntsville, Alabama
- Reported and anchored the weekend evening newscasts at WREG-TV in Memphis, Tennessee
- Reported as a multi-media journalist at WKRN-TV in Nashville, Tennessee
In 2011 my general manager and news director gave me permission to launch a consumer technology segment which I could syndicate to stations in other markets.
4 years and some 630 tech stories later I decided to leave WKRN and take “What the Tech?” full-time.
I’m plugged into the consumer technology world and have picked up dozens of contacts from some of the major tech companies from around the world. In 2012 I began covering the Consumer Electronics Show 
in Las Vegas delivering look-live reports for my client stations while I stood with a couple of robots.
There are about 50 technology trade blogs and websites I read every day. I can’t help but buy some of the gadgets I demo and probably owned one of the first drones in Nashville. I’m also a college football nut who’s weekend can be ruined by a loss.
And I’m the reporter in the viral video “Struttin”. A buddy found the tape a couple of years ago and posted it on YouTube. I’ve seen crazy.
I only mention this here because news directors ask about it all the time.
if you haven’t seen it, the audio is NSFW