00:09

Welcome back, folks, this is FORTitude. You could find us on FORTitude, FW on social media or rock. So media house.com on the internet. Every once in a while, the stars align around here and a fellow steam member of the media drops by for a visit. Any truth to the rumors? You might be leaving the television industry for the podcast lucrative podcast world?

 

00:31

Why wouldn’t I? But yeah, not yet. Right. But yeah, I’m thinking about the voice. You’re toying with it.

 

00:36

The voice you’re hearing and the face you’re seeing is the greatness of Karen border channel, even channel even news anchor here locally. So Karen, thank you so much for joining us on the show. My pleasure. It’s an honor, it’s honor. We’ve got to know each other a few times over the years. And we’ll get to get to why here in a little bit. But really quickly. Your background you grew up in town, went to UT Arlington, specifically. Where’d you go to high school? Lamar, Lamar, after a chi after college, you studied journalism in college, correct? Yes. And that took you a kind of across the world Tampa for a while and other places. When was the first time you went on air? And how was that experience for you?

 

01:12

I’m probably let’s say it was 100 years ago. And I I’m big into hyperbole. If you haven’t guessed this about me yet, but I it was in April of 1988. And my first live shot was basically my first day on the air. And that was the whole tax forms, you know, got to get them in the mail at midnight. And so that was my first assignment in Waco.

 

01:35

Was that was that setup any fancier than what you’re seeing today?

 

01:39

Just not even close. Not fancy. It was Waco. Right. So waco people.

 

01:44

In 2003 uta gave you a Distinguished Alumni Award, which is very cool. You’re married to a guy named Jim. We’ve everybody who knows you knows of the the connection. Jim and the three kids you have Jake, Katie and Kylie. And your first TV job you just mentioned? What does it feel like to be daily in the spotlight? Is there is there pressure? You’re so used to it now? 26 years? Correct. Right. What does it feel like to be always on on the On Air?

 

02:11

You know, like you said, I’m so used to it, it the biggest? You know, I was always somewhat comfortable. I mean, initially, obviously, you know, it was kind of weird out of the gate. And you know, and you always think, you know, you’re so good. When you’re when you’re launching in your career, and then you look back on those those tapes. It’s like, oh, my gosh, how did I ever get a job. But it always came somewhat naturally to me, when I was truly terrified was when I moved back to this area, because, you know, working in other parts of the country, and just working in other parts of the country, but this was, I’m back in my hometown. And I’m doing this job in front of everyone I’ve ever known and loved. And in. I just, it was quite intimidating. So so that was the weirdest part. But that’s been 26 years. So I’ve gotten over it

 

03:03

right, is for those who don’t understand how your world works. Could you walk us through a little bit like your dailies? We know there’s a story here of how you went from evenings to mornings to kind of gather your life back underneath you and be with your kids, which is really cool. We’ll talk about that in a second. But mornings involves a very early rise to kind of walk us through the day, generally speaking,

 

03:24

yeah. You know, pre COVID it. I didn’t have to get in quite as early. I would get to work at about 315 or so now I get to work about 215 And I’m so anchoring the newscast. Oh, there. It’s just a lot of so I’m up at 115 115 in the morning. Yes. Uh huh. Yeah, that’s incredible. Where the bars close I’m waking up does a person get used to 115 alarms? I don’t know. I I did mornings once upon a time, you know, in another job, and I’d never adapted to it. It was a it was a much weirder schedule, actually than this one is, but I think the fact that I do, I have the same routine. Five days a week. I just works for me and I nap I’m a good Napper.

 

04:09

What time is nap time?

 

04:10

Right as soon as I get home, which is basically so I do. So you asked me about my day I get up at at 115 I’m at work by about 215 and my newscasts do hours between five and seven and then the cut ends that happened during CBS Morning. So up until nine o’clock, and then an 11am show. And after that 11am I get to leave and as soon as I walk in the door no matter couple hours usually ends on what I’ve got going on. If there’s something else like an appointment that I have, right. You know what that

 

04:43

entails some fellows like us trying to pester you right? Yeah. After the nap. You have time with kids after school. I’m guessing already, sir. Girl your kids are grown now and but going back to our earlier comment you left evenings, afternoon evenings, so you could be more involved. The kids in the afternoons and evenings Do you now that your kids are grown? You have a 1515 year old or is 1919 so I’m way behind. Yeah, so I know that the agent who fake empty nesters, what are you good at it? Surely How do you spend your evenings typically?

 

05:17

I’m getting ready for bed. Yeah, I I don’t go to bed as early as I should but it you know, like I said, there’s an app so right. i It works for me. Yeah, just kind of sitting around with my husband really kind of just yeah, getting ready for bed. So Right. Yeah, my evenings are thrilling. Time is

 

05:36

nine o’clock nine o’clock. Very good. For our sleep does do you do you feel? Do you feel pressure in your daily life because of this rote routine?

 

05:47

No. Um, I don’t know. You know how long I can do it. But I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed. I’ve enjoyed it very much. I mean, I love the people I work with. But you know, the same could be said for for evenings, too. I mean, I just I love I love where I work. And I love the people I work with. Evenings became hard for me personally, because I was missing so much, really, with my children. And you know, you never want to look back on your life and have regrets and say what if? So, I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to switch to mornings. While they were all still in school. They were all still home. And? And yeah, so I’ve enjoyed it. I’m enjoying it for as much longer as it lasts. And

 

06:30

what are your What are typical challenges? Aside from the things we just said for you, professionally? challenges is, we’re trying to I’m trying to delve into the world of a news anchor. Mm hmm. You have teams that bring you news, and you have things to talk about? Are you always searching in search of news? Or does it is it is it brought to you so you sharing news that people bring to you? Are you in search of news yourself?

 

06:55

Oh, I think a lot of times, you know, we get emails, we get phone calls from people saying I think you need to look into this, I think this would make a really good story. You know, just on Facebook, sometimes, you know, you turn around and you see something you like, oh, gosh, this make a really great story. So it’s a little bit about

 

07:15

you, how big is your team?

 

07:17

Um, oh, I would have to count to count had more than

 

07:21

10 people, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah,

 

07:23

we’re, again, I I’m very grateful for the folks that I work with everybody works really hard. And, you know, and since the pandemic, it seems like we’ve all been doing more, you know, because of, you know, people will you know, who were working from home for a while. So the people who are still in the building, having to do more work than usual. And the people who are working at home, are having to work in weird ways, you know, beers that are foreign to them. And yeah, it’s it’s been very challenged. But I think everybody who, you know, has stayed with it is just really risen to the challenge.

 

07:56

I’ve known you long enough to know you’re very kind humble person, which is wonderful. Obviously, people in your in your, in your profession, and in the limelight, sometimes aren’t so much, but do you consider yourself success? Am I happy with the way it’s gone?

 

08:12

Absolutely. Yeah, I like to think so. I mean, I, you know, I know, people who really aspired for more, they, you know, they wanted the national spotlight. You know, that was never my goal. I was approached once and I, I didn’t want to do the correspondence job, I was just starting my family, and I didn’t want to be traveling around the country, you know, covering stories, even if it’s on a national basis. I it just, that didn’t appeal to me. So my goal was always to return home. That was always my goal. So moving around to the different markets. Until 26 years ago, it was always my goal, to come back and work in my hometown and raise my my children here. Fair

 

08:57

enough. How much longer would you say you have in this industry? How long would you like in this industry?

 

09:02

Oh, um, I don’t know. I, you know, people ask me that a lot. And I know we’re going to get to this, but should I tell them about the end?

 

09:12

We’re getting to that. So hold that thought I’d appreciate let me just say,

 

09:15

it’s an expensive thing. And so yeah, I’ll probably be doing a little longer. Good. Yeah. And I love what I do. So, you know, I think I think as long as I am enjoying what I do and where I do it, why not beautiful? So

 

09:33

a couple things you’ve accumulated over your time, some regional Emmy Awards. Explain a little bit about those and what that meant to you.

 

09:41

Yeah. You know, yeah, there’s some there’s some awards that mean more than others. And even then, that’s not to say anything about some of the stories that I’ve done, but but one in particular stands out and that was last December. I won an award for Doing the story about babe Laufenberg son Luke. And it that will that will always go down I think, as a highlight in my career, yes, a dear very dear friend, and being able to share his story of grief and loss and, and getting to tell everybody about Luke, and just what a wonderful, wonderful young man he was. And yeah, and, and just, you know the pain that a parent goes through experiencing that kind of loss and anyway so to be honored. You know, for for that story means a lot

 

10:41

you did a fantastic job and those who’ve seen it, which is a lot of people now you can’t not cry. It’s it’s hard. It’s heart wrenching. But I think you you did a really good job in that regard. So Texas, Associated Press broadcasters award, press club of Dallas, Katy Ward’s Association of Women Journalists, Vivian J. Castleberry. Award, and the President’s Club of Dallas, you are the legend. I mean, these are these are all really cool awards. Well deserved. Hope, you know, you’re appreciated. And obviously these awards suggest as much so yeah, surely. So. I asked you before the show, but to think about something but newsroom since you started in till now, the News, the news broadcasting platform has changed a bit in your mind. How has news changed from when you started till now?

 

11:26

Yeah, the news hasn’t changed, necessarily. The news gathering process certainly has I mean, when you think about it back in the day, I mean, we my first job, we use typewriters, we used to have our teleprompter, you know, we’d scripts that we would print out and then tape and put it on a conveyor belt, and no camera reflecting back and just ancient tube technology with the cameras. So if a tube went out, I’d be green, all of you would be green. And you know, the fact that I was able to get another job after that is a miracle. But yeah, we didn’t have cell phones. We had, you know, you have to pull over and find a payphone. You use the report report back to the station to tell them what was going on and barely had live trucks and satellite trucks. I think that my old station, our satellite truck was a milk truck. It just, yeah. got the job done. Yeah, yep. Yep. Converted milk truck. And yeah, so it’s changed quite a lot. You know, ticker tape, there was no internet. So I mean, we just had the AP wires coming across the Yeah, I feel like I’m not that old. But geez, just things have changed so much. Even just, you know, things kind of change exponentially. You know, we’re shooting on big and I’m having to go out and one gun is where we called it a murder break big battery, pack a bar around my waist. And it’s falling down because I was, you know, a backhoe five dripping wet back then. And, you know, big old camera and a separate pack for the the tape, three quarter inch tape. And then eventually, you know, things evolved, and we went to a half inch tape. And then you know, we go to disks. And you know, and I had a hard time wrapping my head around that, how do you get something on a disk? And yeah, and now it’s all digital. And it’s just right about

 

13:24

the person you described. Initially, the big camera, that’s our, that’s Jay Pfister like camera guy. He’s always looking around a bunch of equipment more than I need probably. So very good. Um, one of the things that a lot of people ask this question of people in your new profession, September 11, what was that day like, for you? On there? Or on the newsroom? Right.

 

13:42

Um, I always, you know, because we just had the big anniversary of the 20th anniversary at 911. So we all work, kind of remarking about our experiences and our memories from that day. And I was very newly pregnant with my youngest child, and two other little ones. I mean, I had my kids very close together. And I remember waking up early, and just turning on the TV. And it was, you know, just, I didn’t even know if I had I think it was probably muted or something. But I just remember seeing the Twin Towers and kind of smoke curling out of one of them. And, and then you know, I turn up the volume a little bit, and I heard something about them saying a plane and my thought was, you know, a small plane and accident, how terrible that that had happened. And then as I’m watching the second plane hit, and I thought this isn’t an accident. And I called my nanny. I was we were fortunate enough to be able to have a nanny and told her I said, You need to come in right away because normally I was working evenings and so I wouldn’t have gone in until about two. And this is 830 in the morning, and I think it was 830 I just remember calling her so you’ve got to come in now and whenever to work, and it was just we were all just kind of numb. And wondering, you know what was going to happen next because things start kept happening, you know, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania and it was just terrifying. It was terrifying. Because you know, not only as a news person, but you also think as a mother, and you know, what’s going to happen? What’s happening to our country? What because nobody knew nobody knew what was going to happen. And then for a long time, I mean, I remember, like, just the silence of everything, just no planes there were you know, there was nothing and people were off the highways, people were staying home and glued to their television sets, trying to figure out what was going on.

 

15:48

Was the newsroom. Was it because you’re trying to make sense of that just so people like us can make sense of it? Or is the newsroom chaotic,

 

15:56

chaotic. And, you know, it was, you know, eerily quiet for a while. But then there was a little bit of chaos. Of course, I’m on the set. By this time, Mike, my co anchor, Tracy Rowlett at the time. We were we were on the set together by 10 in the morning, and we went through our evening newscast. And, you know, of course, you know, we would only do like snippets of news because the network had most of it. It was a national story. It really hadn’t affected us here, locally, thank goodness. But you know, just just trying to get on the computer and take part in that news gathering process and, and find updates for people because that’s all anybody wanted was an update. Let me know what’s going on what’s happening. Why is it happening through who’s doing this? Yeah.

 

16:46

Well, thank you for sharing that. So not to change topics to actually to change topics to more positive role. And you mentioned the babe Laufenberg interview, which was great. Any other interviews throughout your career that really stand out your mind as being extra special?

 

17:02

Well, I interviewed the President I saw Yeah, yep. The President Obama, they actually called me to see if I would come to the White House to interview him and I, they were emailing me, and I thought it was a joke. And so I kept deleting the email and I was on vacation. So I really wasn’t paying that close attention to my emails, you know, I got through them really quickly. And finally, one of my colleagues ended up calling me at home and said, Yeah, you know, Karen there, you know, so and so so and so with White House is trying to reach you. And I said, I thought that was a joke. He said, No, they want you to call and Yeah, and so from then it was just a matter of figuring it out. And yeah, that was kind of a highlight but I’ve interviewed let’s see I mean, Laura Bush a couple of times and generals and I don’t know I sometimes I forget gosh, I can even think about all the number of people in Hollywood and that’s

 

18:04

any on the those were all powerful things you did any on the crazy side that you were just what wheels off any moments on air that were worth mentioning that it didn’t go ride or you know, something some kind of mishap on air the theater worth talking about.

 

18:21

There’s one and I hate to I really, I don’t know if I should even say it on air. Thank

 

18:25

you. Should we have a really good editing team here and

 

18:30

Okay, so it’s my first job. And and I’m anchoring the 10 o’clock news. And how soloing anchoring and it was the last night of the World Series, and the Dodgers won. Orel Hershiser was the winning I remember, I mean, it’s just get forget something like this. So we even have guests in our studio, so they had to kind of have like a studio audience. And I’m reading the news. And I was supposed to say the Temple City Commission. And what came out was the simple Teddy commission. Oh, no. Yes. So that. Yeah, that was kind of mortifying that I you know, I tried to gloss right over it and just learn. And then of course, the first commercial break, the weather guy comes out. sports guy comes out. Well, I think just holding their sides laughing so hard. And yeah, and they still haven’t forgot. Let me forget it. Yeah.

 

19:23

Our research team looked for anything we could find. We did not find it on air. So it’s managed to go go into hiding. So you’re lucky in that respect.

 

19:31

Thank goodness, this is free YouTube. Yeah, that’s all I can say. I try very hard. Not to. I mean, you know, sometimes things things will happen. But yeah, that was bad.

 

19:41

Yeah. Well, I can understand for a lot of like stairs. Oh, no, she just

 

19:45

said that. She say, Yeah, because no one was watching right after the World Series. Last game. Right. Right. Right. Well,

 

19:52

I’m sure I’m fair enough. But one of the things that I love about you and a lot of people that know you love about you that you’re very devoted to several causes Outside the media that utilize your platform to help. One of them real quickly is the Breast Cancer Institute, G komen. And specifically because of your mom, your grandmother’s Neogen Manson cousins that have gone through this personally so you’re speaking from something of experience. The one of the reasons that I wanted to have you on today, most importantly is effects me and you have a direct connection Katie, she was diagnosed with a chronic for him he Kylie the youngest. She was diagnosed in 2015, with type one diabetes rates. And because of that, we’d love to hear how that how that initial days went. But you have emceed several times the JDRF Gala, which is the big money raiser for locally for our chapter to find a cure, which is what JDRF Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is after finding a cure, right? I’m a type one. But you know, but Kylie, tell us about the first one that in 2015 when you received the news, because everybody who’s a type one has a story, and I no doubt you have to

 

21:02

I do. And yeah, I get the mother of the Year Award for this one. So my My middle child, Katie, had told me that Kylie was getting up in the middle of the night going to the bathroom a lot. And you know, when she was also losing weight, and but I thought, you know, she’s also working out a lot more. And so she’s drinking water, more water. And so she’s having to go to the bathroom. It all makes sense, right? And I didn’t want to be that mom who panicked, you know, thought, just take a deep breath. It’s not don’t don’t make this something. It’s not. I knew the symptoms, because my brother in law has type one. And I have a cousin who has type one. But, and I even mentioned to my husband, I said Kylie’s got these symptoms. I know it’s probably not diabetes, but I just have to tell you that she’s got the symptoms. And he said, Yeah, I’m sure she’s fine. And I knew she had a son. She had a doctor’s appointment coming up in a couple of weeks. So I thought I’ll just, you know, mentioned it to the doctor when we go and, and we’ll see what happens. Well, my husband and I had, we’re taking a trip to New Orleans that weekend. And so we get there we land. And I had a friend bringing Kylie home. And she said, she called me and said, Yeah, you know, Kylie has what I like to call sick breath. I mean, just when my kids get sick, it’s just, I just thought you should know it’s kind of fruity smelling. And I thought, okay. 20 minutes later, I get a call from the nurse, the school nursing that Kylie fallen asleep in her office. And I thought, okay, and so I asked my son, my then 18 year old son, can you please run her just to the urgent care and just have them tested to make sure she’s okay. And he did. And the doctor from the urgent care, you know, called me and said, yeah, she’s a little dehydrated. She’s fine. I said, Okay, well, do we need to come home? And he said, No, no, no, she’s fine. She’s a little dehydrated. We’re gonna give her an IV. And yeah, and then, you know, on Monday, bring her back. And I thought, okay, that’s fine. So about 3045 minutes after that. And you know, and by this time, you know, we’re at Pat O’Brien’s, with with our friends. And he told me, he said, Yeah, we tested her blood. And her a one C’s are a lot higher than they should be. I said, Well, what’s an A one C, right. And so for those, for those of you who don’t know, it’s it’s a snapshot of like a three month profile of what your blood sugar level is? He said, Yeah, it should be in the seven range. And hers is over 14. So protocol tells us that we need to take her by ambulance to which hospital Do you want to send her to? And you know, by this, I mean, I’m just panicking. My husband can kind of hear what’s going on. He’s on the phone with American Airlines, trying to get our flight, you know, trying to get us a flight home. And of course, you know, the last flight of the day was already gone. So we made the first flight out the next morning, but yeah, it was like say, so my daughter was diagnosed with type one diabetes. And I was worlds when it happened. But it’s one of the things that that frustrates me the most about people’s understanding of this disease is, you know, when I came back to work and trying to tell people, you know, this is and I also think it was a blessing that it happened when it did because I was doing mornings by then. And so it enabled me to I mean, I’m up anyway, at two in the morning, so I can go and check on her and I could do all of these things that wouldn’t have been possible if I had been doing nights if I’ve been working nights still. So the change in shift was, it was just perfect timing, but but my frustration has always been with people who’d say oh, it’s not that big of a big deal. Just tell her to cut back on the sodas and the French fries, she’ll be fine. But that’s not how it works. It’s there’s a big difference between type one and type two diabetes type two is a much larger percentage of the population. That’s the one that that you tend to think of people who are overweight. And it’s not always that the case. But that seems to be, you know, the majority of people who have type two diabetes or people who have a hard time managing their weight, that kind of thing. type one diabetes, is when basically

 

25:30

your body kills your pancreas. It attacks itself. It’s an autoimmune disorder. So just like arthritis or anything like that, so nothing that that JW did, or my daughter Kylie did to bring this on. It just is, it just happens. And nobody knows why. And that’s one of the reasons we love JDRF is because they are trying to find a cure. And they’re trying to find out why this is happening and what we can do to make it better to make everybody’s lives better. And even in the short time that Kylee since her diagnosis. I mean, you know, she’s on a pump that she loves, and she’s got a Dexcom that, you know, alerts her she does, she’s not having to pick her finger. Any, you know, before every single meal. It’s, it’s created a very, if you’re going to have a terrible disease, you know, a lifelong disease. You know, this is one where it’s manageable, it can be manageable, thanks to the advances that have been made early. And

 

26:32

most of the advancements have been snowed in no small part funded by research from JDRF, which has raised something like two over $2 billion since inception. It’s amazing. How’s Kylie doing?

 

26:43

She’s great. She’s a sophomore in college now managing it pretty well. I know that was kind of our fear, too, is how she can do when we send her off to school. I tried to convince her to stay locally. And she said, Nope. I’ve got three Aggies. And yeah, she was going to be she was determined to be an Aggie. So North Texas,

 

27:01

Oklahoma chapter of local chapter of JDRF. here locally, you’ve emceed several times do you? Are you planning to do this in the future? Are you are you always involved in that? Or is it is it your own scheduling? Depends on

 

27:13

the scheduling. But I am doing the big fundraiser in April, April 2 2022.

 

27:17

So it’s at the four Zoo. So I’ll see you there. Yes, we’re very excited. Because last year is the pandemic kind of wiped away. So well, you know, those of us like me and Kylie, we can’t tell you how much it means to you to do what you do. Because it just needs a voice. And it’s such a small part of diabetes overall, like you said, type two such a 95% I think is correct. But JDRF is grateful for you, Karen. So thank you, um, one thing you did in 2014, I have to mention it. You’re on the talk. That’s it’s been a while since it happened. But TWICE, TWICE. You tell us what that real quickly.

 

27:54

It was very cool. It was very cool. Um, yeah, they needed somebody to fill in for Julie Chen. So they on a, you know, one day each day, they would have an anchorwoman from one of the CBS Oh, note stations to come in and fill in for her. And yeah, that was back in the, you know, one of the early seasons of the talk. And it was just so cool. Because you know, that it’s live it goes on Live at what is it one o’clock our time. So 11am You know, Pacific time. And so we have to get to the studio very early. I had my own makeup artist and hairstylist and and we’d sit around a table or like a round table and everybody’s you know, got, you know, no makeup and some sitting next to Sharon Osborne and, and Leah Remini. And some of these other ladies and I’m just blown away and they were all so nice. They were just could not have been nicer. And, and having that studio audience and yeah, it was thrilling. It was very, very neat. Very cool. Yeah.

 

29:02

Do you have any people that inspire you?

 

29:05

Hmm. Any heroes to think about that? I you know, so many. I mean, so many people in my life on a daily basis,

 

29:11

I find things about them. You know, my best friend I mean, I love her perseverance and just everything that that that she does, I just I love that and I respect that about her. I love you know, my daughter, Kylie and you know her. Just her her for to tears. You know, hey, yeah, but no, but really, it’s a good word for it. You know, she, she just, you know, she had Oh, you know, she graduated high school in you know, May of 2020 You know, so, yeah, so she goes off for spring break and never goes back to school. You know, so she didn’t get a prom. She didn’t get a real graduation you know, she didn’t get we always took the kids on a trip to celebrate their their graduations. Yeah, she got gypped out of that. And you know, just one thing after another They’re after another after another year she, she, her roommate, hot COVID Get the bright at the beginning in August. And so they send her down to like the basement of the dorm where she was living in. She’s, you know, they’re ants. There’s no shower curtain and she has to stay there but a roommate gets to come home to Fort Worth. So she, yeah, she’s just like, of course, of course, this is happening to me that anyway, bless her heart. She’s just she tries so hard, so I admire her ferocity.

 

30:28

That’s awesome. Besides working in kids and napping, I guess what does Karen like to do for fun?

 

30:36

Um, you know, we have a weekend house out in Palo Pinto County, and we go there every chance we get. I it’s just, you know, it’s so relaxing. And it’s just peaceful. Actually. No, I mean, it’s just Do you want a fishing chance? Probably have a fishing shirt somewhere? Yes. But yeah, it’s, um, it’s not on the lake or anything like that. It’s just, it’s just it overlooks it’s you know, it’s they call it the northern hill country, and you wouldn’t believe that there are hills out out in this in this area. And you know, like, beautiful conservation land and it’s just gorgeous and

 

31:11

quiet place away from chaos. Yeah.

 

31:14

allows me to exhale. Very good.

 

31:16

Do you look at the music you listen to? And what are you listening to right now?

 

31:20

Right now? country? Country? Yeah, anybody? I talked to him this morning. So yeah. But yeah, no, I listen to country music generally. Okay. I was gonna ask a lot of music on my Spotify.

 

31:34

Anything besides country? Arts rap. classical, classical, sometimes sometimes. Yeah. Before you went away to work, what do you listen to in the car on the way to work?

 

31:45

I’m usually the news. News. Yeah. And then country?

 

31:52

What? What’s what’s what’s in store for you? You mentioned what telling I knew this. But where does Where does your broadcasting go from here? Because social media is now all over the place. It’s causing a stink in both sides? You know how that works? I get that. How does? How does that affect your career? Your Future? Or does it in? How does channel 11 Go forward? With all that’s going on in social media? Was it? Is it a kind of a nightmare? chaotic?

 

32:21

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, obviously, they want us to embrace social media, because so many people are on it, but I try to find a balance, because it could be very intrusive. And that mean, not just for me, but for them as well. And I yeah, I try to find that balance. But in terms of, you know, what we do and again, you know, the news gathering process and things like that, they do want us to utilize those things. So I try to get better with it. I mean, I will say for instance, the the explosion in West the fertilizer plant explosion several years ago, I was working nights and something popped up it might have been DFW scanner. And I looked and it said a fertilizer plant on fire. And I stood up and I yelled at the newsroom. I said, we need to get a helicopter up right now. We need to go we need to go to West right now. And, and they didn’t jump right away. And they said why? And I said there’s a fire at a fertilizer plant. And it’s like, you know, does no one remember Oklahoma City and the the Murrah Building, I mean, it fertilizers, it’s not good, you know, causes explosions. And, you know, it just took them about five minutes. But we took a crew on the ground, send him out there put a helicopter up in the air, and we were the first ones right there, you know, like after the explosion, just because I saw something on Twitter. And so it can be very beneficial. But at the same time, you just got to find the balance.

 

33:57

Understood. Yeah. I have a couple more questions. We’ll let you get out here and you have to go back to work. There’s some guy named Doug Dunbar. You’ve worked with for a long time. He’s, he’s pretty handsome fella thinks about you might he might have sat next to you for a period of time. How’s it how’s it working with Doug?

 

34:10

He’s great. Yeah, great. Yeah. Do you know what

 

34:13

I don’t know. But I’ve seen Elvis we’ve seen him for a long time with you. And he seems like a pretty mellow, just calm demeanor. Nice guy.

 

34:20

Doug’s a great guy. And, you know, I always like to say, you know, he’s, he’s a loving husband and a loving father. And it’s pretty much he’s one of those guys that it can be frustrating just because he does everything so well. You know, it’s like, how can I measure up? I can’t because, you know, he just decides, you know, you know, I think I’m in a golf club. I think I’ll play scratch golfer. I think I’m going to run a marathon or I’m going to start running okay, and that he runs a marathon. I’m thinking might try triathlon, okay? Ironman, he goes for the Ironman. And what you know, I think I’m going to learn how to fly plane so now he’s instrument rated on the plane, you know what I mean? It’s just like, is there Anything you do badly? I just, I’m waiting to find out right right now he’s just he’s a great guy. And, and again, one of the things that I love best about about him is that he’s such a family man. And he just as much as he puts into his work, he puts more into His family life. And I think that’s kind of a neat thing. Maybe that’s

 

35:21

why he has worked so well together for so long. Well, 26 years now, the picture on the screen. Yeah, it’s blurry here. We’ll tighten it up on the show. But you have you have progress to hairstyle wise, no doubt, but congrats on the success the 26 years. Last question before you go, Karen. Familial affairs aside, no, no husband, kids, nothing family related. What’s the best day of your whole life?

 

35:46

Like in the future, if I could have a best day or

 

35:48

in the past? This is we ask all our guests this question. It’s a tough one.

 

35:53

It is a tough one. I wish you’d given me days to think. I’m honestly, probably just any day with my family, okay. I mean, I just those are the times that I love the most. My son works on an offshore oil rig as a petroleum engineer. So he’s out of the country, quite a large

 

36:14

company, Exxon Mobil, very nice. Well, and he, he just turned 24. And he’s just got his whole life ahead of him. And we are so in his rearview mirror sometimes. And my other daughters about to graduate from college in May biomedical sciences, and, you know, they’re just growing too fast. And, you know, talk about empty nesters. I mean, sometimes they don’t come home, you know, for no, I make them come home for Christmas. But, you know, some of the other big holidays, you know, right. Not so much. So yeah, I think any day that I get to spend with my family is my best. That’s a great

 

36:49

answer. Well, please forgive me blushing throughout the show, but I’ve been honored to have you on the show. We’re big fans of you. And we thank you for what you do for JDRF. You’ve always been great, but thank you again for being on the show. Karen. So happy to be here. Yep. Thanks. You, that’s fine. All right.