SPOKANE, Wash. — At 7 p.m. on Friday, March 4, 2022, I officially retired from KREM 2 News.
Thanks for keeping me employed for 33 years. Thank you very much.
I started out on weekends at $7 an hour, and I was overpaid. I wasn’t very good.
I just appreciated people letting me grow and later on, once I got confident, to let me do, I think, things on television in a local market that weren’t done. Certainly not in Spokane.
And I get it- I think some people at home probably thought, ‘Hey, do we really need that kind of shenanigans?’ I get that viewer. I understand that, but I’m that guy. So I just wasn’t going to be their cup of tea. I was just hoping there were enough people out there that I was their cup of tea.
Thankfully, I was.
I loved that here at KREM, they would let me try these things because the good stuff happens when it gets a little scary. You can make really great stuff or be stupid. So they would let me walk that line.
In a review I had nearly 20 years ago, I said that when I’m close to the edge like that, that’s when it’s going to be good, and I want to be judged on that. But if I fail and it just goes bad, I said I didn’t want to be fired.
Their response? “As long as you’ve got more hits than misses.”
I could live with that because I knew I could get more hits than misses.
Spokane is just the most fabulous town. It’s just the best people and it means everything to me that people liked what I did on the air.
I’m like my golden retriever Doppler: I like people. And if people like me, it makes me feel really good.
I always thought it was a real honor that people would invite you into their home. That was something I have never taken for granted. I always wanted to be a good guest for them, and I was lucky to work with great anchors that let me shine for a little while.
When people would see me out and about, I loved the fact that they felt comfortable enough to approach me and say hello. It made my day because I always thought it was a great way to make a connection and make a new friend. I just thought it was so neat that they wanted to come up and say hello.
I am very, very thankful for my career here in Spokane. Words can’t express it.
I have wanted to be a broadcaster since ninth grade, and I couldn’t have ended up in a better place, at a better time, with better viewers.
I owe you everything, and I know it. So, thank you.