An Old Geezer's Summer Job

Remember the innocent years of elementary school when the first show-and-tell session of the new year was on "how I spent my summer vacation?" You rose before your fellow students and proceeded for one to two minutes to relate about a family trip. If you and your folks did not journey outside your hometown, perhaps you told of an unusual or enlightening experience you had while you were on hiatus from the books.

A few weeks ago, my favorite LinkedIn human resources director Holly MacTaggart offered one of her engaging posts about the value employees/executives in their fifties and sixties can bring to a company. That led to a series of responses of approval, as well as those who had encountered roadblocks to advancement or influence in the corporate world because of their advancing years.

I retired in May 2022 after 29 years as a broadcast media professor and 19 years prior to that as a practicing news professional. Included in that career were three stints as a news director of television stations around the Southeast. While in the academic world, I maintained a broadcast presence----primarily as the television play-by-play sportscaster for Union University in Jackson, Tn., a commentator for 13 years with the NAIA women's basketball tournament, and as lead announcer three times for the NCAA women's basketball Division II South Regionals.

When I signed the retirement papers, I had no sense that I would ever return to the daily grind of television news. Here is the tale of the tape as to why:

1. This weekend, I turn 68. Television station managers are not knocking each other over to find the next reporter who is two years away from 70.
2. I am bald. The chrome on top has been on view for 20 years, ever since barber Bill Simmons sheared what few follicles remained that were the object of intense bad combovers since the turn of the century.
3. I wear 2.0 magnifiers, not exactly the fashion style of anyone successful on television, save Bill Cullen or Allen Ludden when they were the toast of game shows.
4. I don't talk at a speed of 800 words a minute, which seems to be the going requirement for broadcast journalists today (see ABC News correspondents and certain meteorologists for The Weather Channel). As a professor, one of my biggest challenges was to slow down the machine gun pace of my students' deliveries, even when they pushed back with "that's the way I talk."
5. I absolutely loved being retired. I was worn out with the prep time required to guide my students through the mechanics required to deliver a daily online newscast. I'd had my fill of committee meetings. I salivated over being able to sleep late while my former colleagues began a new academic year with the traditional drudge called Faculty Workshop. My days were filled with doing only what I wanted to do (or what my wife wanted me to do) when I wanted to do it.

Rewind the tape back to reason number one: I am 68. A few scattered local news anchors are still hanging in there well into their sixties. Only a scant number of on-the-street reporters are active at that age in which news organizations grapple whether or when to refer to one as "elderly."

I had just read Holly MacTaggart's LinkedIn post on the plight of older employees when I was at lunch with a friend. Peter Noll is general manager of WNBJ, the NBC affiliate in the small market city of Jackson, Tn., located on I-40 between Memphis and Nashville. Peter's station was encountering a sudden staff shortage in news. We were about to depart from the Chinese restaurant where we frequently break bread. He turned to me and asked a question that began with four words I had not heard in some time: "Is there any way........?" Often, when I was a media professor, a question like that was a preface to a request for me to supervise an unscheduled video project on top of an already overly full plate.

I was not prepared for the rest of Peter's question. "Is there any way you would possibly consider freelancing with us as a reporter for a while until we can get back up to staff?" he asked. I was both stunned and flattered. "Peter," I said, "you must be out of your mind. I'm nearly 68 years old and I'm not the kind of reporter that's going to bring in gobs of young people to your newscast audience." He reassured me that they needed short-term help and my age and hairline mattered not.

June 16, almost 46 years to the day I began my rookie year as a reporter for WRBL in Columbus, Ga., I temporarily became the oldest on-the-street TV news reporter in Tennessee. One of WNBJ's other reporters is 23-year-old Alexander Bitterling, a second-year staffer and one of my graduates from Union University. Alexander and I may be the only professor-student journalists on staff of any television station in America.

I wondered if I would have the stamina to handle a full day moving around town, working the phones, and once again facing the deadline. One thing that helped: the camera and tripod are dramatically lighter than when I broke into TV news in 1976. Where once I had to carry a 45-pound Frezzolini model film camera on my shoulder or on a 32-pound tripod, the Sony camera I was assigned today weighs all of four pounds. The "sticks," as we call a tripod, tap the scales at 11 pounds. I could handle that. The other things in my favor: Peter allowed me to work from home and I also had the advantage of knowing most of the key community leaders after living in Jackson for 32 years. Once Peter issued me a W-9 form, he said, "Go to it."

This was supposed to be a four-to-five week job. By the time my self-imposed end of September 2 rolls around, I will have been Jackson's senior citizen reporter for eleven weeks. Candidly, I have enjoyed every minute of it. I have covered a major election for our community; our city council, county commission, and school board; and the unfortunate first determined case of monkeypox in Madison County.

More importantly, I hope this serves as an example to the universe of television news that people are still capable of serving successfully as journalists well into their sixties and beyond. Bald people and folks with more lines and wrinkles that show up more distinctly on high definition sets do not lose their talent just because they lose their hair. In every community, people with reporting experience exist who can be a boost for television news because they know the history of their locales and can draw from how their cities moved from point "A" to point "B."

A good friend and former colleague, Dr. Randall King of North Greenville University in South Carolina, has spent part of the summer as a faculty fellow working in the newsroom of Fox Carolina News. Randall is one of many still-active media professors who could provide maturity and mentorship on a short-term basis for younger people in any television news operation. In most instances, all they require is to be asked.

Holly MacTaggart received several responses to her post from people who have become discouraged because they feel less valued in the workplace as they grow older. No doubt, that is the case with the emphasis in many professions (including TV news) on hiring younger, cheaper, and more disposable people. Maturity has indeed suffered as a plus in our contemporary culture.

However, I am happy to say my experience this summer has been a good one. WNBJ indeed does not practice age discrimination. Their checks are good and clear the bank. They have not treated my age as something that makes them want to hold their noses. Further, they have allowed me to be me.

So, how have I spent my summer vacation? Doing something I never envisioned myself doing again at the age of 68, serving my community, and hopefully making a positive contribution to a local television station for eleven weeks.

To Holly's readers: age does not have to be a negative in the workplace if the people who do the hiring recognize and value experience and maturity. My example is my own experience in the summer of 2022.