Once a year or so, WUPW runs a contest to choose a spokesperson who will introduce shows, appear in ads and promote the station. The winner is dubbed “The Face of FOX Toledo.”

But someone who has had a legitimate claim to that title for 16 years is preparing to depart the Glass City. Laura Emerson, who has co-anchored FOX Toledo News since it began in 1996, has decided to leave the station.

Beginning in mid-January, Emerson will relocate to Paducah, Ky., where she will work for NBC affiliate WPSD.

“It’s one of the two dominant stations in that market,” Emerson said. “It’s a hyphenated market that includes Cape Girardeau, Mo. and part of southern Illinois. But it’s one of two stations gunning for No. 1.”

Moving on

Emerson’s final decision to leave Toledo was a recent one — she made up her mind in mid-December — but she’d been considering the move for some time.

Laura Emerson

“I’ve missed for a while being in a full-service newsroom. We do two shows a day, and I’m proud of the product we put on at FOX Toledo, but my previous two TV stations had morning, noon, multiple night newscasts. And it is helpful to have more coverage throughout the day, and I’m kind of excited to get back to that sort of a newsroom,” she said.

“It’s going to be a newsroom that does four and a half hours a day, versus the one and a half we’re doing here, so it’s significantly more.”

So, she’s leaving to do even more work?

“We’ll have a lot more people, too,” she laughed, noting WPSD’s staff will be nearly twice the size of FOX Toledo’s. “There’s an advantage to keeping that 24-hour local news cycle going.”

Emerson said shaking things up in her career is an appealing idea.

“Sometimes you’re just excited about change, for the sake of newness. Change kinda wakes you up, and gets you excited about life again,” she said. “And while it’s a little bit stressful not to know what the new people are going to be like, or the new place I’m going to be living, I’m kinda excited about just change.”

There is no doubt Emerson is leaving a considerable vacancy behind at FOX Toledo, one that is already being felt by those who have worked with her.

“We were very fortunate to have her as long as we did,” said Shaun Hegarty, who has co-anchored FOX Toledo News with Emerson since 2006. “She’s been a rock at this place for several years. The viewers have come to know her, come to like what she does. It is a substantial loss, but the news business goes forward.”

The early days

Laura Emerson with her original co-anchor, Paul Morrison, in 1996.

Perhaps, but Emerson’s tenure leaves a significant set of shoes to fill. Her run as one of the most prominent faces of the area’s media began when the inaugural broadcast of FOX Toledo News — “Fox 36 News at 10” aired Jan. 28, 1996, following the Super Bowl.

“It was interesting being with a news operation from the very beginning, because you didn’t have anything to build upon,” Emerson said of the news department’s early days.

“You could invent whatever you could dream up. And it was exciting to be a part of building that.

“Since we didn’t have ratings to lose in the beginning, we were able to be a little experimental and try things that just sounded cool — some of which worked, some didn’t. But that was kind of a fun, creative place to be.”

She also noted the uphill battle the station’s news department has fought to gain respect in the community.

“I’m proud of the way we’ve positioned ourselves as a news operation. It’s kind of tough to be a Fox label in a Democrat town. Because sometimes when you’re out covering something political, people automatically assume you are Fox News Channel, which we are not,” she said. “We are a very moderate news operation. But sometimes, we’ve had to fight hard to convince various individuals and entities of that. But I’m proud that we’ve stood our ground and worked hard to get that point across and become accepted in the Toledo market as a news operation.”

Karl Rundgren, managing editor and co-anchor of FOX Toledo News from 2003-08, said Emerson was a strong on-air partner.

“Laura was a huge help when I first started anchoring at FOX Toledo,” he said. “I was figuring things out on live TV, and she was always incredibly patient with my mistakes. Before long, we developed a strong partnership where we could communicate to each other silently while still reading the news.

“Laura barely ever cracked up on camera, but I do remember one time that we both almost lost it. She was reading a story about a bizarre crook in lingerie who was robbing people, and actually talked about how he would ‘shake his man-breasts’ at the cops. We came back on camera, and I just turned and looked at her and said, ‘“Man-breasts,” huh?’ Then we both struggled to keep from breaking into peals of laughter. It just sounded so bizarre for the phrase ‘man-breasts’ to be read in her refined voice.”

Starting over

Her time at FOX Toledo has also helped Emerson mature as a broadcaster, she said.

“[I’m] so much more confident, just from experience,” she said. “Knowing how to handle breaking news, lots of years of helping young reporters write stories, being a mentor, making decisions, becoming a senior person in a newsroom.”

How will she face the challenge of relocating to WPSD — going from the highest individual on the totem pole to starting over?

“I’m looking forward to it, because it really has been a long time that, you know, I’ve sort of been just part of the furniture, and everyone just sort of expected me to be here,” Emerson said with a laugh. “I’m not saying [they] took me for granted, I don’t want to say that, but just saw me as completely a part of the product.

“It’s really going to be invigorating to be the one who is learning again. I have to learn a different style, a different philosophy, different newsroom computer system. I think all of that is going to be, while a little challenging, very exciting.”

‘Care about your audience’

But that excitement comes tinged with some sadness as Emerson prepares to depart a station and community she’s worked so tirelessly for. “I’m proud of being a consistent presence that people could depend on — as a co-worker, as a person on the air, I’ve always been dependable, and you know what you’re gonna get if you know me,” she said.

“I’ve just been fortunate to work with a pro,” Hegarty said of Emerson. “I’ve been very lucky to have somebody in here who knows this business inside and out, somebody who can give me guidance when I need to, and help us to be a big player in a pinch. It’s not like I came in here working with a rookie. I came in here working with a pro, and not a lot of people can say they did that, and I did. And I’m lucky.”

Asked what she will miss about the city she is departing, Emerson said her passion for the Toledo arts community, the good friends she’s made and the giving spirit of the city’s residents.

“I’m hoping I can find some of that in my new home in Kentucky, but all communities are different. I’m not taking for granted what I’m leaving behind in Toledo. There’s a lot of good here,” she said.

On that note, Emerson had simple words of advice for whoever is chosen to take her place at Hegarty’s side:

“Please try to uphold good journalistic standards, and care about your audience every night. When you’re looking over copy, when you’re writing a story, just care about the audience. I believe in that as the No. 1 thing for journalists of all kinds. You need to care about your reader, you need to care about the people you’re writing for. And do a good job for them, in addition to doing it for you.”

Tags: FOX Toledo, Jeff McGinnis, Karl Rundgren, Laura Emerson, Shaun Hegarty, WPSD Paducah

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 27th, 2011 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Featured, Media, Uncategorized.
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Ft. WAYNE, Ind. — “And they’re off!” WFFT anchor Jim Blue exclaimed introducing a story on ostrich racing on the fledgling FOX-55 television news station in Fort Wayne, Ind.

The ostrich segment on Aug. 10 was a kicker, the term newscasters use for an amusing story that ends their newscast.

While the 57-year-old Blue has a sense of humor, he takes journalism seriously and hopes his new station flies better than ostriches. The new gig began less than a year after Blue’s contract wasn’t renewed after six years at WNWO-TV NBC24 in Toledo.

The nonrenewal was disappointing for Blue, a former Toledo Free Press columnist, who has a home in Toledo and had no desire to leave.

Jim Blue

“On the other hand, it opened up this opportunity here and this is the most challenging and exciting thing I’ve ever done,” said Blue, who, in addition to anchoring the station’s nightly 10 p.m. newscast, is also the news director. “To start up a newscast from absolute scratch, just the very beginnings and to be able to use some years of experience to do that, I’ve found to be very gratifying.”

Blue — whose career began in 1989 and includes stints in Columbia, S.C., and Dayton — said he loves getting out from behind the anchor desk and into the field. And in one case, into the water. Blue, an avid scuba diver, reported underwater for NBC24 for a 2007 story on the Anthony Wayne, a steamship that sank in Lake Erie in 1850.

Stories like that made Kevin Kistner, NBC24 senior producer, admire Blue’s drive. And Kistner relied on Blue’s experience.

“I always turned to him to help me in terms of knowing whether to put a story on the air,” Kistner recalled. “He was a good teacher, a good journalist and he has great journalistic instincts.”

But, despite his credentials, anchors like Blue are becoming extinct as newsrooms contract because of budget cuts. Well paid, veteran anchors in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and St. Louis all left their jobs this year. Last year, 1,200 employees lost their jobs, approximately

4.3 percent of the local TV industry, according to the 2009 Radio-Television News Directors Association/ Hofstra University annual survey.

Despite the industry decline because of the distractions of the Internet, corporate news monopolies and the recession, WFFT believes people in Fort Wayne will tune in.

While age and experience work against some veteran journalists as stations turn to younger and cheaper reporters, Blue’s veteran status made him attractive to a startup newscast relying on rookie reporters.

“He’s a fantastic journalist and that demeanor translates well for mentoring some of our young V.J.’s (video journalists),” said Bill Ritchhart, WFFT general manager. “He has a ton of leadership and that adds integrity to our staff.”

Initial reviews for the newscast, which debuted on April 6, are positive. Citing Nielsen ratings, Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly reported Fox-55 recently won the 10 p.m. time slot versus Indiana’s News Center, Fort Wayne’s ABC affiliate which airs a 10 p.m. newscast for the CW Television Network.

Rich Reynolds of Fort Wayne Media Watch, a blog with an often acerbic take on local media, says initial feedback about Blue from blog contributors has been positive.

“Blue has credibility cachet because of his dignified demeanor,” Reynolds wrote in an e-mail.

“We have tremendously popular anchors in Northeast Indiana, so they made a wise choice in hiring a veteran,” said Jerry Giesler, Indiana’s News Center manager and president.

Facing well-established stations, Blue, who hired the station’s four reporters, said the newscast will try to be different. Reporters are asked to enterprise and avoid press releases and routine news conferences when possible. Accidents, crashes and crimes, staples of local TV news, will be shied away from unless they’re serious. Reporters describe Blue as hands on, but not a micromanager.

While the new job is time consuming, Blue says he tries to visit Toledo — where his wife Kay teaches writing at Owens Community College — every couple of weeks. Despite the demands and pressures, Blue said he has no plans to leave journalism anytime soon.

“I love the news business and getting out into the community and talking to people,” he said. “I’ve never really wanted to do anything else.

Rundgren ‘happy and successful’ in Texas

Karl Rundgren might have left FOX Toledo a year ago, but he took what he learned from Toledo’s fast-paced news scene with him to pick up the speed of his television station in Odessa, Tex., KMID.

After leaving his position as FOX’s anchor and managing editor for a news director position at Odessa’s ABC affiliate, he said he misses reporting on Toledo politics, but has obtained a level of happiness he and his wife, Jordan, couldn’t find anywhere else.

“When you’re in the media, there are two goals,” said Rundgren, a former Toledo Free Press columnist. “Make it to a giant network and be with your family. I accomplished one of those things; we never saw this as a step back. We looked at it as a success.”

Rundgren said he moved to Texas to be close to the numerous family members who live in the area.

Karl Rundgren

KMID, known as “Big 2,” once dominated the television news market in Odessa but recent setbacks left the station in second place, so Rundgren said he is constantly experimenting with news content to compete with other stations.

“My challenge is to rebuild this station and bring it back to what it used to be; obviously, that’s no small task,” he said. “The thing about working for a station that’s not in the lead is you can try things and you can be a little more tenacious.”

He has used specific techniques he learned in Toledo to improve his Texas station. When he moved to Odessa, the newscast was slow-paced and focused on a single person behind the desk. He used what he knew about fast-paced newscasts from working in Toledo to speed up the news and energize the setting.

He said he even had the anchor desk ripped out to ramp up energy. Now, his reporters write brief scripts, packed full of information opposed to the longer, wordy forms of newscasts he saw at the station when he moved there, he added.

He also took the necessity for balanced news from the Toledo area as well, something that can be difficult in his town because most people share the same views.

“In Toledo, you have a very democratic area but the surrounding areas are conservative so being fair was not just an option, it was a necessity,” Rundgren said. “Out here in Texas this is a conservative area; the Democrats in west Texas tend to be more like Republicans. Because of that, there is a temptation to lose a little bit of that fairness to play to the crowd. But that’s the thing I took from Toledo — being fair is not an option, this is a necessity.”

Though he misses Toledo and has been “admiring the mayoral race from afar,” he said he plans to stay in Odessa with his wife and 4-year-old son Dane and continue his career with KMID.

His hottest topics on his station right now are the oil industry and the economy and health care reform, he said.

“To me, the most important thing is to listen; I’ve been amazed when I go through this industry how many people go in and do interviews and they’re waiting to hear that one magic thing they are looking for. If you listen, sometimes you get whole other ideas from interviews,” he said. “The other thing is to be fair. As long as you give people your fair shake, most people are appreciative.”

— Caitlin McGlade

Tags: Jim Blue, Karl Rundgren

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 1:00 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Media.
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