Completely Unearned

Bonnie Brann has been a Christian minister for decades, and is the mother of my high-school sweetheart Kristin. I decided to diverge from my normal material to talk about things that are a little deeper. Nick Allard joins me for the intro where he gives a front-row account of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment. Bonnie and I talk about fundamentalist religion, as well as what the Bible is really trying to say, and what belief and faith really mean. I enjoyed this conversation. I hope you do too.

When I returned to television in 2013 to take over as Sports Director at NBC Right Now in Kennewick, WA, I hired Greg Talbott to to be my weekend anchor and all around right hand man. We spent about a year running around the Mid-Columbia covering prep sports, minor league hockey and his alma mater Gonzaga Bulldogs. Greg has since exited the sports media and is a high school teacher in Spokane. We even have a riveting conversation about literature to punctuate the episode and bond over our shared love of Dostoyevsky.

Jonathan Lowe was part of the three horsemen who anchored the weekend news at KNDU from 2004-2006. I worked with him and Shane Edinger (who appeared earlier) and had a blast doing sports as these two pros anchored the weather and news respectively. Jonathan is an Iowa State alum who was inspired by local news figures in his home state of Missouri. We talk for a long time about karaoke, golf, and Dannon Frusion Smoothies. Enjoy!

Jenn Bates graduated from the University of Florida in 2006 with a degree in Telecommunications. She gained TV and radio experience while in college at WUFT-TV and WRUF-FM. Our paths crossed when she was hired to replace me as Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter at KNDU in Tri-Cities. She graduated from 'The Tri' and moved on to KWCH-TV in Wichita covering Wichita State baseball and the Kansas City Chiefs. She pivoted to media-related jobs and eventually found herself closer to home working in the mortgage industry in Atlanta. There are too many topics in this episode for me to list them all. This was a lot of fun for me and I love her spirit, enjoy!

Abby Acone is a 2012 graduate of the Murrow College at Washington State University and completed a bachelor's in Spanish as well. We start our conversation by our shared love of that language and the Spanish-speaking countries to which we've been and would like to still go. We also talk about her time in Colorado Springs and how the weather contrasts (and may just 'out nasty' Seattle weather), as well as being proud Cougs and how she finally got a full-time weather gig in her home town.

Long before he was an anchor of national news shows for ABC in New York, Whit Johnson and I shared a humble desk in Tri-Cities, WA bringing the Mid-Columbia its news every weekend. We talk about his start in the Palm Springs of Washington (Yakima) and what it was like to be doing news when 'Anchorman' hit theaters. We also discuss his odyssey across the U.S. with stops in Salt Lake City, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and finally his current home in the Big Apple. We also talk about the future of information and whether people will every be civil through their screens.

Brian MacMillan is the new morning meteorologist at KCPQ Fox-13 in Seattle. He graduated from the Murrow College after I did, but our paths crossed many times for many reasons at WSU. We talk about his first job in Bend, OR and of course the small-market experience. We also discuss his head start working for the Hawk Broadcast Network at Mountlake Terrace High School. We reminisce about the improv shows I attended in which he was one of the players, our outstanding professors at school, and the whacky weather in the Pacific Northwest.

Shane Edinger was a valuable asset for a young upstart like me beginning my sports reporting and anchoring career in the middle of 2004. He had eight years of sports journalism under his belt after multiple stints in Montana and finally in Eugene covering the University of Oregon, et al. We shared the anchor desk together for two years before I moved back to Western Washington. He spent about 20 years in television before taking his current role as Director of Public Affairs with the Pasco School District. We talk about his time as a young rapscallion from Colfax, WA attracting the attention of Pullman's finest. We also discuss his jobs before Tri-Cities and what life is like for him now.

Rick Aaron was already an accomplished and award-winning sports producer before he and I worked at KNDU together starting in late 2003. My sports journalism career actually started after Rick took the Sports Director job at our sister station KNDO in Yakima. We talk about his origins in Hattiesburg, MS and his journey west to study at UCLA. We also talk about his transition from Sports Producer to an on-camera role. We reminisce about the small market TV experience, making life-long connections, and he even supplies us with his impressions of local news personalities in Tri-Cities and Yakima.

Tim Lewis graduated with me and Nick from the Murrow College in 2003. The three amigos arrived in Kennewick, WA about four months later to begin our news careers. Tim is the first fellow sportscaster to appear. We discuss more stories from the early days in the Tri-Cities news market. His second career stop was KREM 2 in Spokane where he covered Gonzaga basketball, all things WSU sports, as well as prep sports. The legendary sensitive gag reflex sketch from Cable 8 rears its head again.