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CC Life King Harris

The News Business is a Wild Ride

I used to work for a guy who emotionally resembled Donald Trump. As a matter of fact, now that I think of it, I worked for a lot of guys like President Trump.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but when I entered the media business in 1976, I didn’t know what power and insecurity could do to the soul. I should have known better, especially after having seen the Humphrey Bogart flick “Deadline USA” when I was a kid.
It’s a movie about life in the news business, in this case the death of a newspaper. Bogart is managing editor of a widely respected and daring major metropolitan newspaper that valiantly exposes the city’s crime czar only to be bought out and shut down by a weakly regarded competitor.
Not much dramatic license was needed here, sad to say, for the reality is that ownership of journalistic enterprises has been changing hands over the years with alarming alacrity, as I have discovered more than once in my 30-year career as a newsman.
Not long after I first started anchoring and reporting news in 1977 for KMST in Monterey, the locally owned station was sold to Retlaw Broadcasting (the Walt Disney Family — Retlaw is Walter spelled backwards) who owned television outfits in the Central Valley, and who made some immediate alterations like bringing in a Will Ferrell-type A-N-C-H-O-R-M-A-N, changing the program name to “The News” (only effective if you say it from a mountaintop), and relegating yours truly to sports coverage.
So I decided to leave but it was during a ratings period (which never made any difference because KSBW was the perennial powerhouse in our market), which prompted the “never-been general manager-before” to demand that I return my fitted wardrobe, which I didn’t because who else would wear fitted jackets and slacks?
From that point on, the “Harris clause” was put into effect: “Due to the stupidity and naiveness (sic) of a former employee, all clothes will be treated as company property like typewriters, computers, and furniture.”
So in May of 1980, my wife Sara and I and our golden retriever Huntley, moved to Santa Barbara, where I anchored and reported KEY NEWS at KEYT, which was owned by a local rancher. And guess what happened next?
A few years after I got there, he sold the fabled hilltop station to Shamrock Broadcasting (the Roy Disney Family, and no, I’m not making this up). Guess what happened next?
Roy, when presented with an offer he couldn’t refuse two years later, sold it to a Rupert Murdock wannabe from Michigan who wanted to hang with the Hollywood crowd in Montecito.
That pretty much signaled the end of my 16-year stint as anchor and 10-year tenure as news director at KEYT. Since “Rupert” and his wunderkind G.M. demanded the spotlight, suffice it to say my contract wasn’t renewed.
I then took a respite from broadcasting and moved to San Luis Obispo with an opportunity to teach journalism at Cal Poly for two years, but in 1999 delved back into the business as news director and anchor at KVEC radio. Guess what happened next?
Clear Channel bought the news-talk A.M. station, less than two years later and hired a new manager, so I went back to television as producer and eventually director of the news team at KCOY in Santa Maria.
And then you guessed it, Clear Channel bought KCOY, whose G.M. two years later told me he’s moving in a different direction and it wasn’t mine, so I found myself, as so many others in this business do, “on the beach,” an industry expression that has nothing to do with frolicking along the seashore.
My sojourn didn’t last long, fortunately, when I was hired by the New Times newspaper to be managing editor. Guess what happened next? The highly spirited owner of the feisty tabloid suddenly died, which ultimately resulted in the sale of the alternative weekly and my eventual resignation.
So I returned to KVEC and guess what happened? Clear Channel announced it was selling many of its radio entities, including the cluster of eight stations it operated on the Central Coast. El Dorado Broadcasting bought the operation and held it for 10 years. Guess what happened then? KVEC was sold and I lost my job again.
One might conclude that with all these changes I might be cursed. But I don’t think I am. Almost everyone I know in the news biz has been on the beach at one time or another.
Still, it would be nice to be able to do your job or live your life without having to look over your shoulder all the time. I may be somewhat retired, but why do I get the feeling my days with the Donald aren’t over?

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