Producer At WLS-TV Is Ready For His Close-Up

Subject:

Comments:
: Hitting the big time : Off-camera producer at WLS-TV is deemed ready for his close-up : February 13, 2009 : BY LEWIS LAZARE Sun-Times Columnist : ------------------------------------------ : Everyone has to start somewhere. But we were truly surprised -- and fascinated -- to find out Jason Knowles started in professional broadcast journalism at WKAG-TV in Hopkinsville, Ky. Few residents of metropolitan Chicago probably know much if anything about Hoptown -- as it's more familiarly known. But not us. We were born and raised in that quiet town with a population of around 30,000 in southwestern Kentucky. : So it's not at all a stretch for us to say Knowles, 34, has come a very long way to ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7. On Wednesday, WLS News Director Jennifer Graves announced Knowles is the latest on-air talent to join the ranks of elite reporters covering the city for the station's top-rated local newscasts. : Knowles begins his new job Saturday. : How does a talent like Knowles rise from a tiny market like Hoptown to a gem of a job in the nation's third-largest television market in just over a decade? It's a journey that often takes many in a notoriously difficult industry much, much longer to make. : In a long conversation with Knowles on Thursday, we sensed one thing that might have helped him along: he's extremely focused. And he has been that way, apparently, since the journalism bug bit him at Bowling Green State University. Early on he switched from a business major (too much complicated math) to communications and quickly became a fixture at the university cable TV station. Knowles soon discovered why he liked journalism. "You're always doing something different, and you're always facing the challenge of trying to find out something," he said. : At that first TV news job in Hoptown, Knowles did it all for a year alongside a hardworking team of around a dozen young anchors, reporters and producers. Tapes of his work were sufficiently impressive to help him land his next job at the ABC-owned WTVG in a far bigger market, Toledo, Ohio. There he was put in charge of the station's Findlay, Ohio, bureau, before becoming a key link in the station's newly organized investigative unit. Among other things, Knowles helped expose strange goings-on at a commune in the area and the double-dipping antics of a county treasurer. Knowles had been at WTVG for seven years when he heard about an opening at WLS for a special segments producer. Knowles put his name in the hat for the job, knowing it would mean he'd be working mostly behind the scenes rather than in front of the camera. : Knowles got the WLS job in 2004, and since then he has worked mostly off-camera with anchor Cheryl Burton on her special reports. Then, with reporter Dan Ponce's abrupt exit last month, Knowles felt the urge to report on-air once again, and he made his desire known. After Knowles did a fine job on a spur-of-the-moment reporting assignment covering a string of deaths in County Club Hills, WLS' news honcho Graves decided he was ready for his really big break. : We wondered how Knowles feels now that he's about to step out onto a TV news stage many in the business dream of commanding, but relatively few even reach? "I'm going to focus on getting the story and being competitive," Knowles said. : Sounds like a plan. We just hope he doesn't forget it all began in Hoptown.

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL:

Enter verification code: