Tagged: writing

44 Years Since CNN Took A Chance on Me

The ID badge is dated December 1, 1981 but November 30 was really my very first day at CNN, 44 long years ago.

It was a rainy day in Atlanta. I was alone in beautiful apartment with just a sleeping bag, air mattress, lawn chair, 19-inch TV and a cardboard box that served as table for eating, and some clothes. All my other stuff was in Tucson, Arizona, along with my wife, who flew back there to sell our little adobe block house.  She was gone for three months, along with my stuff.

By the time our house was sold and my wife, and belongings and furniture arrived with her, that poor cardboard box was a greasy mess from its use as my dining room table/foot stool.

I was hired as one of the 10 original producers to launch the new network, CNN2, which eventually became Headline News.

If the bosses really knew how much experience I had producing television newscasts I’m sure they would have sent me on my way, but I fooled them with a kickass tape of my newscasts at KGUN, the ABC affiliate in Tucson.

You see, I joined the station doing weekend weather while I was a grad student at the University of Arizona, earning my Masters in Journalism. It was a way in. Within six months I was hired as a full-time reporter, which was my real goal.

That was going along fine when one day the news director called me in and said our longtime producer with 20 years experience had suddenly quit to take a job at a station in Phoenix and he’d love it if I took over.

Pretty funny. I’d never produced a TV newscast in my life.

“Oh, John will train you!”

He did. My first newscast after he left Ronald Reagan was shot. This was March, 1981.

CNN signed on June 1, 1980. I couldn’t watch it because our local cable system didn’t carry it, but I could catch little CNN news briefs on TBS, which was also part of the Turner Broadcast System.

One of the first anchors CNN hired was Lou Waters, who was the news director/anchor at our cross-town rival in Tucson, KOLD. He brought along his producer, Faye, who happened to be a great friend of our main weather caster Linda Rhodes, who formerly worked at KOLD.

That October, Linda tells me Faye tipped her off that CNN was starting a new network and needed producers. Was I interested? Uh, sure. Hell, I had a “solid” six months of experience. I was ready for the network!

I called the number Faye provided to Linda who gave it to me and next thing I know I’m on a flight to Atlanta on a Sunday. I was interviewed by every living body including the president of CNN at the time, Reese Schonfeld. We hit it off because I told him I worked at a radio station in Fulton, New York right out of college and damn, that’s where his wife was from!

I fly back to Tucson that evening with no expectations of landing the job, but the next morning, Burt Reinhardt, the top money man at the network, and successor to Schonfeld as CNN president calls me and offers me the job. Show up on November 30th.

I did, but it things got off to a clumsy start. Having worked in Arizona where no one gets dressed, I show up in a button down shirt, corduroy jeans and very comfortable shoes. Everyone else is in suits, ties, dresses and smirks, directed at me.

My boss, Ted Kavanau, a news legend from NYC, smiles, takes me aside and  kindly mentioned, “as you can see we have a dress code.” Would have been nice to know in advance, but as I found out over the next 20 years, CNN was great at communicating news, just not important stuff to employees.

Ted told me to go over to the national assignment desk and ask one of the extremely busy people to explain how it worked.

I walk up to a bald guy with black-rimmed glasses and a beard and ask him the question. As he glares at my apparent insolence he barks, “you wanna know now the national desk works? Watch this!”

He then picks up the hotline to the DC bureau, starts screaming and swearing , then slams down the phone and quietly, but firmly, answers my original question with, “that’s how the fucking national desk works.”

When Ted asks me how it went I told him how my question was received. He kinda chuckled and said, “yeah, sounds about right.”

Welcome to network news.

I stayed at CNN2/Headline News for a little less than two years, producing hundreds of news casts in the most pressure-filled atmosphere you can imagine. Some producers actually broke down in tears under the pressure, others simply didn’t show up for work ever again.

In 1983 I was promoted to the main network to produce afternoon news casts, then promoted again to share producing the three hour morning show called Daybreak.

All this time, I would pick up a story here and there in hopes of moving back to reporting and by 1986 I was made a full time correspondent out of the Southeast Bureau based in Atlanta.

Here and there I would substitute anchor some newscasts and in 1989 the Detroit Bureau Chief/correspondent job opened. I tossed my tape into the ring and got the job. Been here in the Motor City ever since.

CNN dumped me and about 1,000 others during that “great” merger between parent company Time Warner and AOL in 2001, and closed the bureau.

We could have looked for work anywhere else in the country, but guess what, my family and I loved living in Michigan and I loved covering the auto industry.

Local TV wanted no part of me so I pursued print, because, let’s face it, I was never a TV star, but I could write. Best move I ever made.

It was funny, when I called someone at Ford for an interview while I freelanced for a short time at Automotive News.

“What? You write?” the guy at Ford asked. “TV guys can write?”

“Uh, yeah, I wrote every word that came out of my blow-dried head,” I replied.

“Heh,” he answered. “I thought producers wrote all that stuff for you guys.”

I had some great jobs in the print world. National Auto Writer at the AP, GM beat writer at The Detroit News, and in my semi-retirement, senior automotive contributor at Forbes.com.

But to come full circle, say what you want about what CNN has become, it opened a lot of doors for me when my time there ended there 25 years ago and still does.

The lesson I’d like to leave you all is don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. Before I did the weather, I never did the weather, but I figured it out and succeeded. It led to dipping my feet into TV reporting. I sucked at first, but I received tough, but great direction from our photographers and news director.

I never produced a TV newscast but had a great teacher and got good enough to convince a network to hire me after only six months experience, and promoting me.

I never anchored a newscast when an executive at CNN saw something in me and gave me a chance. I solo anchored an hour network newscast with zero prior experience and it worked out, until the network president thought I looked a little too young. Tried to grow a beard, was too blonde..the lights washed it out.

When fate dealt me a blow I pivoted to print knowing I was a decent writer. Adjustments had to be made to transition from broadcast to print writing, but I was again lucky to have wonderful supervisors and editors to set me straight.

When I jumped to corporate PR at Chrysler, all the skills and news sense I had developed over the decades helped me succeed.

So if you’ve been laid off or otherwise “downsized,” just know you have skills that entirely transferrable and be willing to use them in different ways.

Take a chance, look beyond the obvious and usual. Not only will it help land a new gig, but it will open your life to new experiences and people and perspectives.

Most importantly, bet on yourself. The new stuff might seem challenging, scary, maybe even impossible, at first, but you know the chips in your stack.

Always, always, bet on yourself.

Refusing Role Call

I’m on Linkedin a lot to promote my Forbes.com stories and podcast, Tales From the Beat, so I see things. What I see are a ton of people who write they’re looking for “a new role.”

Of course these are unfortunate individuals who have found themselves suddenly payless because the thing they were doing to make a living was taken away from them due to firing, layoff, business failure or just bad luck.

It happened to me back in January, 2001 when I was laid off as part of the awesome merger between CNN parent company Time-Warner and AOL. I was the CNN Detroit bureau chief and correspondent at the time and was one of about 1,000 employees told to hit the road, thanks to the recommendations by an outside consultant.

So I’ve been there.

In my “role” as a father and husband I burned some of my generous severance to take my family on a vacation out to Arizona, then went to work…looking for work…a job.

The term “role” never entered my mind. I’m not an actor, although I act up some times. I actually was a speech and theater major in college until I realized I had no future as an actor because I couldn’t remember my lines. That’s one of the reasons I pivoted to broadcasting, because you get to read stuff instead of memorizing it.

But I’ve been thinking a lot about the wide use of the term “role” because, well, everyone has a role. Maybe you’re a partner, spouse, parent, mentor, individual pursuing life, support for a disabled person, confidante, conspirator. Those are all roles.

Folks, what you really need….is a job. It may not be as elegant a term as role, but it’s what you really seek.

You need a job because you don’t have one. You need a job because you need a source of income. You need a job because you enjoy working in your chosen field and it gives you pleasure, satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

Why do we need to use this word “role” to soften the message?

There is zero shame in admitting you need a job. There is no shame in admitting you need work. It’s what we all need unless you’re independently wealthy.  

Coming out loud and clear that you’re in the job market is actually a great message. It tells prospective employers you’re ready to work and don’t mince words. Yup, no screwing around. “I need a job. I’m right for your company because I have all the skills, great employment record, list of accomplishments. I’ve thoroughly researched your company, its goals, its culture, its accomplishments and I bring qualities that will add value to the operation.

You’re not looking to play a role, you’re not looking to play at all. You’re looking to do a job and do it well in exchange for money.

Actors who play roles have understudies to step in when they can’t come to work. In real life, we don’t have the convenience of someone being paid to wait around backstage to do our jobs in case we don’t show up.

In my entire working 52 year working life, I never once said, “gotta head off to my role now!” I’ve never undergone “on the role training.”

I went to work. I underwent on the job training.

There’s no reason to substitute some sugar-coated euphemism to soften the message.

Just say what you mean. Use honest words to find honest work. You’ll always have your life’s role.

Simplifying Self-Help

Do you rely on so-called “self-help” books to improve whatever it is you want to improve? About eight years ago I wrote about why I don’t think much of them and my unexpected reply to a college student who asked me following a speech I gave, what self-help book I would recommend to improve relationships with co-workers. It’s in the blog post to which I’ve linked.

Lately I started thinking about self-help books again for a couple of reasons. For one, while in a book store, I noticed they’re not called “self-help” books anymore, but rather less obtuse categories such as “self-improvement” or “life-improvement.” 

Do those alternative categories soften the realization that one might need actual help in some area of their lives? If so, why is that necessary? There’s no shame in seeking help and we can all certainly stand to improve.

But it falls under a growing trend de-sensitize the truth. It sounds kinda harsh to say we need “help,” and clothing for larger folks is no longer labeled “plus sizes” but rather “comfort fit.” That’s fine. Self-esteem is important and I take no issue with attempts to help individuals feel better about themselves.

That leads to my main point. Self-help, or self-improvement, whichever you prefer, is much simpler than the myriad books and magazine articles make it seem. There’s no need to fill hundreds of pages with many thousands of words.

Self-help can be as simple as self-control. See? Two words.

Let’s take it further by drastically simplifying other subjects of bloated self-help books.

Marie Kondo has made a career with books and TV shows about organizing. I can boil organizing down to six words: “Throw things out. Put things away.” There. Simple.

How about leading a healthier life? So many millions of words blather on about this diet or that lifestyle. I’ll save you a lot of time with this word diet:

“Don’t eat crap. Get enough sleep. Get more exercise.”

Oh, I love the riot of rhetoric about how to get along better at work. This one is near and dear to me because I find workplaces can be one of the worst environments for spending the valuable time we have on Earth.

For this one I’m a little more expansive:

“Focus on your task. Be willing to listen more than speak at meetings. Don’t gossip. Ignore assholes. Office coffee is gross. Bring your own.”

I love the many books out there on how to negotiate—whether it’s a pay raise, business deal, price on a new car.

I’ll negotiate that issue thusly and succinctly:

“Know what you want. Know what you’ll accept. Don’t accept any less. Be willing to walk away.”

One of the more popular topics of self-help books is on relieving stress. I find plowing through hundreds of pages to find the answer is stressful, so I’ll pare it down to a less-stressful volume.

Big task ahead? “Break it down to its parts and complete one at a time rather than look at one big giant task ahead.”

Deadline? “No problem. When the deadline arrives you’re finished so you know you don’t have to live with the task beyond that. So stay focused, get it done, then relax.”

Bigger credit card bill than you can afford? “See what you can return. Pay it down over time. Learn the lesson and don’t do it again.”

See? I just boiled down five types of self-help books to a handful of words. Most of the help we need is not all that complicated and easy to understand if you don’t muck it up with pages and pages of blah, blah, blah.

Indeed, I’ll offer this brief self-help for would -be authors of future self-help books: “Keep it simple. Make it clear. Kill fewer trees.”

I’m telling you, we could shrink the self-help, or self-improvement, book store and library sections to maybe one shelf of single-sheets of concise advice.

It could work—so help me.