TV anchor discusses journalism

Addressing a crowd comprised mainly of students interested in careers in communications and broadcasting yesterday evening, former Channel 10 news anchor Larry Kane spoke about breaking into journalism, his career and the future of the business. "If you want to be on camera, go to a small town, learn all you can, and most importantly, get a second job," Kane said. He advised his audience not to "settle" in a job during their first years out of college. Instead he suggested they "ask questions, get involved, be flexible and willing to move." He told students to go to small stations and present themselves as writers and researchers in order to gain experience. Kane suggested that students enter the areas of writing and management, looking beyond only being seen on television every night. "Despite the current blow-dry, Barbie doll anchors, the one who knows what she is talking about will succeed," Kane said. He stressed the importance of gaining management experience to take advantage of a lack of professionals with such experience. The ability to deal with people and to act as both a mediator and a psychologist are necessary for success, Kane said. Beginning his career at age 15, Kane worked for a radio station in Miami where he met such leaders as Fidel Castro, Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover. Kane cited his coverage of the Kennedy assassination as the breaking point in his career. Five years later he began at a radio station in St. Louis. During his first weeks he was sent to watch open-heart surgery, an autopsy and to meet with Cardinal Ritter. Cardinal Ritter later welcomed Kane when he called upon him for another story. He said that he related this ancedote to urge students "to get wet and meet with public officials." "I agree with Kane one hundred percent," said College sophomore and prospective communications major Amy Cohen. "I interned at CBS in Miami this summer and I realized that you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. You have to be very pushy and not let opportunities slip by. It's hard work." Kane said he left Channel 10 after 14 years because he was unhappy with the management and the direction of the station. Kane will be editor-in-chief and host of a television news magazine premiering on Channel 3 next July. Consumer, health, investigative and local issues will be covered, and the program will conclude with a viewer call-in period. He described his new program as "a cross between 20/20 and Dateline NBC." Kane concluded by calling upon students to bring innovation and independence to the broadcasting profession. "This is too good of a business to pass up," he said. "If I wasn't doing this I'd be in a 5,000 watt radio station somewhere. Providing people with information is exciting." The event was organized by the newly-founded Undergraduate Communications Society.

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