On the way home tonight, for some reason, I was navel-gazing considering my job title.
News director.
And just at that moment the newest Sonic radio commercial played on the Royals pre-game show. (The displayed Sonic commercial has nothing to do with this post, by the way. I just like it because it starts with a Kansas City reference.)
The Sonic radio commercial I heard was a somewhat amusing riff on oxymorons. Jean jacket, relaxing fuel, etc.
My job title is a contradiction of terms. News director. Bah! I don't direct the news. I have no control over the news.
I'm a news responder.
Most days, I feel like all I've done is respond (and react) to news.
(Everyone knows that if you make a plan for severe weather, it will by-pass us to the north or south. But the second we don't have a plan, tornado warnings will strike without notice. Floods, frogs, plague. A certainty the one time you don't have a plan.)
John and I watched this movie the other day and this passage (part of the above clip) spoke to me:
I wouldn't have had it any other way. But there are times when suddenly you realize you're nearer the end than the beginning. And you wonder, you ask yourself, what the sum total of your life represents. What difference your being there at any time made to anything. Hardly made any difference at all, really, particularly in comparison with other...careers.
Leadership lessons in "Bridge on the River Kwai" are everywhere. I wonder how many times my boss has watched this movie. He loves movies and leadership and although I don't think he loves conflict, he definitely understands and appreciates Lt. Col. Nicholson's desire to build a great bridge and how conflicted he was, at the end.
We are building a bridge. We want it to be the best bridge we can build.
But we can't be afraid to blow it up, if necessary.
On the way home from work Wednesday, I realized, after ciphering the number in my head and confirming it by counting on my fingers, tomorrow will be the 16th time.
Sixteen times as a news director embarking on a February sweeps period.
It's kind of exciting. It's the shortest month of the year but sweeps months are always longer than other months, somehow. It starts with a bang for all NBC stations. We have the Superbowl! (Go Giants) And there are plenty of other big events to draw folks to the TV set.
CBS has the Grammys. FOX has American Idol. ABC has the Academy Awards.
Sweeps Eve? It does feel like Groundhog Day. And of course, tomorrow is.
For me professionally, this has been an incredible year of working on the way I communicate. How do I get out of the death-spiral rut of negativity? How do I transform myself into a more positive leader? How do I provide feedback that feels like coaching, not criticism?
I still fail. Regularly.
In the movie, the Bill Murray character (Phil Connors) is stuck in an endless loop. I think we all get that way.
If you find yourself in a rut, keep working at it! And for guidance, check this out:
So how does Phil Connors change in the movie? Ironically, Phil breaks free and changes his life by slowing down. By doing the equivalent of going from fast-forward to pause, he can start to see an accurate image of himself.
It's not easy. I especially struggle with the slow down part. There always seems to be so much to do and so little time to do it.
On this, the eve of Groundhog Day, I pledge to let go of my set ways.
Seriously. Today I had one of the Best. Birthdays. Ever.
I can live with being 55. Double nickles. The speed limit.
Birthdays that end in 0 or 5 are more momentous than the rest.. When I turned 50, I was unemployed. OMG!
I was fresh off of an eight-year-plus stint at WMC-TV in Memphis. Legacy station. Long time number one. Ratings leader.
Some background. I was hired in at WMC in 1998 by Bill Applegate, one of the most brilliant minds in the business. He moved on to Cleveland and was replaced by Howard Meagle.
Howard and I had a difficult beginning, to say the least. We learned to appreciate each other.
I was invited to leave (fired) after the November book in 2006. Not that it was a surprise. Howard was dispatched in July, 2006 and when the new I-want-my-own-puppet GM arrived, I knew my days were numbered. I lasted four months before hearing the words..."we need/want to make a change....blah blah blah."
Two weeks after a great 50th birthday celebration (January, 2007) in SD I traded in my beloved Mustang convertible for a Ford 500 (I am still driving the white Beast) and headed to Syracuse for a job at WSTM. Fifteen months later John and I moved slightly south to the Scripps station in Baltimore, WMAR. Forty-nine weeks later...west to Kansas City and KSHB.
I have now been at NBC Action News for two years, eight months. Learned some things. Hard things. Survived another general manager change. Learned to appreciate my strengths and to fix some of my weaknesses.
I let go of Memphis. I began to appreciate Kansas City. We bought a house here.
Most of all, though, I recognize the competitive spirit of the folks at 4720 Oak. Today, I saw evidence of a high-functioning newsroom. There have been glimpses before. Today, I saw it clearly.
Newsblues posted this today, so a tip of the hat to Mike James. And a tip of the hat to Lori Jane Gliha. I don't know her but I'm proud she is a Scripps co-worker. Lori Jane sang this song at a station gathering recently:
Her song struck a chord. I blogged about our new reality six years ago when I was a news director in another market:
============================================== Wednesday, December 10, 2003 Tonight something happened that got me thinking. Let me set the stage. Our service technician (consultant) has been in for the past three days. That's Always stressful even if you like the person (and I think I do). So tonight, I left work early (6:25pm) and was settled into my couch about thirty minutes later. I learned from another station's cut-in that a robbery and shooting had occured at a grocery store. MY grocery store. Less than two miles from my house.
I immediately started putting my shoes back on and told John he should drive me there. Good plan until I realized the camcorder was dead. No battery. Dead freaking camera. Somehow it got left on when we were shooting video of our fantastic holiday light display.
A big story happening in my neighborhood and No battery.
For a moment, I was apoplectic. Seriously irritated.
But then I remembered that I work with professionals and although they could not get to the scene as quickly as I could, they would get there and do a good job. And they did. I watched the late news and save for an audio buzz in the lead live shot, our coverage was fine. More than fine. I'm proud of my team. (Thanks y'all)
But dammit, I really wanted to be involved...shoot some video. Twice in my tenure here, I've shot stories that made it onto the NBC regional feed. I gotta tell ya, that's serious thrill.
Probably the photojournalists who work at Action News 5 have a "no-big-deal" attitude about shooting stories that are good enough to be sent via satellite to the rest of the world because they do it all the time but I haven't had a camera on my shoulder for a living since the 70's. Nixon was president, for godsakes!
Where I'm going here is that Forward Thinkers say that at some point, all local TV news employees will carry cameras and all will report stories.
I can't wait./pp ============================================ Here's the deal. The Newsroom of the Future is HERE. On NBC Action News Thursday evening, we presented our viewers with four stories that were shot, written, edited and presented by MMJ's. It is the new way. And we will do it every day.
Since that night in December, 2003, I've never been without a video camera (complete with fully charged battery). These days I carry a Flip with me and I hope to upgrade to a Flip HD.
I intend to make the network feed again. Hopefully soon.
Flitting around the KC blogosphere is a story that the somewhat-notorious Tracy Brogden-Miller (read the story I found via Google or watch the video from 2008) is out as ND at KCTV.
I can't help but be struck by the parallels to my death spiral in Memphis:
She welcomed a new General Manager at the end of the summer. Lee Meredith joined WMC in September 2006.
KCTV had been contending for ratings but slipped by 20% in some news time periods in July. WMC slipped to second place in the late news in February 2006.
Despite strong lead-ins, KCTV slipped again in November. WMC lost the late news race by 2/10 of a point in November 2006.
After three months of working for the new GM, she's out. I was sacked at the end of the November book in 2006.
I wish her the best. Getting fired sucks. Not cool.
