TV Biz Speered
by August 21, 2000 12:00 am 105 views
Had enough of “helmet hair and perfect teeth?” So has Richard Speer.
The former news anchor for KFSM, Channel 5, in Fort Smith, has penned a scathing column about the TV news business in the Aug. 13 issue of Newsweek.
The business “had turned me into a hype-huyckster and phony,” he wrote.
“I knew I’d become a ‘Saturday Night Live’ parody the day I realized my stylized on-air delivery was seeping into my casual conversation,” the column stated. “Sometimes, to my dismay, I noticed myself using my announcer voice to order fast food at the drive-through.”
Speer, who left Channel 5 three months ago and now lives in Portland, Ore., said TV news requires a “third-grade style” of writing because, as one news director told him, “Your audience is Joe and Martha Sixpack.”
Leaving the anchor desk at KFSM for the last time, Speer wrote, “I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I was no longer part of the problem.”
In a telephone interview, Speer, who is now doing public relations work and freelance writing, said the column wasn’t meant to be “high and mighty.”
“It’s a self-critical look at myself,” he said.