The Beautiful O/Z

There's a little more to starting a new career at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation than most people know.  Sure, I'll no longer work a 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift for the first time since working an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. construction job in my early 20s, but I actually give up two current jobs.  Everyone knows about my broadcast journalism career at KPAX-TV.  However, I also spent the major part of the last eight summers working as a ranch hand at the Lolo Trail Ranch, or as it most people call it the O/Z.

The O/Z is an absolutely beautiful place.  The approximately 4,000 acre, four-mile long cattle ranch sits beneath snow-capped Lolo Peak and includes a long stretch of Lolo Creek, my favorite stretch to fly fish.   (Below is a video I shot on the O/Z during the fall of 2008 as brilliant autumn colors exploded to life.)

I have seen so many different forms of wildlife during my time on the O/Z.  I was once just 15 yards from a cow moose eating green gunk on the bottom of a pond.  I just sat there in my six-wheeler thinking "Hmmm, what would I do if it charged me?"  I was thinking I could out maneuver it for at least a little bit.  Fortunately, it was too busy eating to bother with me, although it did take a gander my way every time it came up with a new mouthful of goodies.

I was also up in the hills above the grazing pasture below one day when an entire herd of elk passed right in front of me a mere ten yards away.  I didn't dare flinch as several of them stopped right in front of me with kind of a perplexed "What in the heck are you?" look on their faces.  I also saw whitetail deer, mule deer, wolf, fox, wild turkey, black bear, golden eagles, bald eagles, all sorts of ground and tree squirrels, and song birds of every kind.  One day, I was driving to the brush burn pile when I saw something large along the dirt road.  I pulled up right next to an osprey.  I rolled down my window and started talking to it.  (Unfortunately, it didn't respond.)  It didn't move at all.  I was actually tempted to lean out my window and try to touch it.  One look at its talons changed that.  After about 45 seconds, it took off and flew away.

Why did I work there you may wonder?  Well, a friend of mine who worked there asked me years ago if I knew any teenager who could help her out.  I asked around without success.  Then she said "Would you want to work here?"  "Sure!"  So that led to a schedule of working at the O/Z two mornings a week from April right up to opening day of hunting season in late October. 

My main responsibility was lawn maintenance.  Translation:  a whole lot of mowing and a whole lot of weed eating.  A typical day of pushing mowing lasted from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  (Yeah, a great way to stay in shape and get a great tan too.)  And then it took the folks on the riding mowers two full days to do the rest.  But my responsibilities covered much more than that.  I also dug ditches, stained all of the houses and outbuildings, fed the fish in the ponds, hauled furniture, replaced storm windows, worked in the raised garden bed, pruned shrubbery, cut up and hauled tree limbs, used the chain saw to cut wood, and even helped herd the cows now and then.  (By the way, you can eat O/Z beef, when available, at Lolo Creek Steakhouse.)

Oh beautiful O/Z, how I'll miss you.  Good thing I can still fish there anytime I'd like. 

Got Elk?

After almost 24 years in television news, I am leaving the broadcast business to enter the "real world" as public relations director for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.  To most people this is "old news," but many others asked me how this upcoming career/life change came about?


Let me begin with some background.  It was never my intent to spend my entire adult working life in broadcast journalism.  I wanted to enjoy my time in TV, meet new people, gain experience, build up my skill set and find a nice community to raise a family.  Then, at the right time and with the right opportunity, I planned to make a lateral jump in the communications field to utilize my talents and abilities in a new endeavor.  I have had many opportunities over the years to make such a transition.  Among the organizations that interviewed me include the State of Kansas, Brigham Young University, and Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks.  For different reasons, those opportunities either didn't work out for me or the employer.

Fast forward to February of this year.  I was flipping through the newspaper when a small help wanted ad seemed to jump out at me.  It included the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation logo that you see on my name tag above, and advertised for a new public relations director position.  Professionally, having worked in Missoula the past nine and a half years, I reported on a variety of stories involving RMEF (four of which are included).  I interviewed several of the organization's higher ranking officials.  I was always impressed with their degree of professionalism and passion.  I also watched years ago as RMEF moved from an older, cramped warehouse to its new, spacious home bordering on Grant Creek. 

Personally, I love the great outdoors and try to spend as much time in it as I can.  I love to fish, hike, hunt, pick huckleberries, play in the rivers and streams and camp.  I always try to keep an eye out for wildlife of all shapes and sizes.  RMEF is an organization that values the outdoors and works "to ensure the future of elk, other wildlife, and their habitat."  To me, those are worthy goals to try to attain in this day and age of increasing human expansion. 

After applying, time continued to pass and I didn't hear anything.  I finally received an email that offered me a chance to interview.  I was excited and grateful for the opportunity.  I sat around the table with three high ranking members of the organization, and CEO David Allen was on speaker phone. 

They each took turns asking me various questions about my background, my perceptions, my skills and responsibilities, what changes I would make, and my thoughts on the term "conservation hunter."  I gave each of them a copy of my resume and copies of two recent blogs, "Why I Hunt" and "Access Denied," hoping that would offer them a more personal look into why I believe some of the things I do.  It was a good 90 minute or so process. An hour later, I met up with two of the same interviewers for lunch.  Again, we had a good chat about the same kinds of things.  We also shared hunting and fishing stories.   I thanked them for their time and they told me it would be another week and a half before they made a decision.

A day and a half later, my phone rang at work.  It was Steve Decker, the man who will become my new boss.  He said "Mark, I want you to know this is a good call."  We talked and he eventually made an offer.  I went home that night after the late newscast and discussed it with my wife and children.  We all enthusiastically agreed.  Done deal!  I called Steve the next morning and we agreed on the terms of a contract.     

I had a good feeling about the opportunity, the organization, and its people through my entire interview process.  I made two brief visits to RMEF headquarters since my hire and felt the same positive feeling both times.  That is important to me. 

Contractually, I bought myself out of my KPAX deal in order to move forward.  Now, I am in the waning days of my 60-day TV notice.  While I look back on my television career with fond memories, I look ahead with much excitement to a new challenge.  I know I have a lot to learn, but I can't wait to get after it and begin.  My family and I are thrilled because this new opportunity does not require us to pull up stakes and move.  We get to stay here in Montana, the place we love!  This "life change" also allows me to work an 8 to 5 shift for the first time in my adult life.  I will finally see my now high school aged kids much more than just on weekends.  And hey, as a staffer at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, maybe I can learn how to better fill the freezer during hunting season.  Got elk?

The Final Countdown

It is almost surreal.  I have fewer days remaining on the air as a television broadcaster than years that I worked in the broadcast journalism business (23 years, 9 months). 

Me, Craig Borgman & Stephen Spiegel

It began way back in 1988.  Just a few weeks after graduating from Brigham Young University, I accepted a position as weekend sports anchor at ABC affiliate KTKA-TV in Topeka, Kansas.  It was a small, struggling station that was waging an uphill battle for survival against CBS and NBC affiliates that had a much stronger tradition and viewership than we did.  I eventually accepted an offer to become sports director.  As a station, we went through waves of news directors, general managers, and on air talent.  It took awhile but we finally got the right people in the right places.  We later moved to a new broadcast facility where our general manager, Kent Cornish, actually allowed us to determine where our desks, edit bays, and even where the outlets in our office would be located.  I assisted in the hiring of co-workers Craig Borgman, Stephen Spiegel, Chad Luce, and others who gave us the most creative, most accomplished, and most recognized sports staff in the market. 

Marty Matthews, me, Lori Hutchinson & Ed Levy

I spent ten years in Topeka.  Working there did not make me rich financially, but it left me rich with memories, friendships, and a feeling of satisfaction.  As a sports department, we worked hard and played hard.  We did not hesitate to try new things and create new ways to appeal to our viewers.  Among them, we created The 49 Locker Room Show, an extended Friday night sportscast with in-depth coverage of high school sports.  We also developed the Pepsi Sports Challenge, a weekly feature involving viewers who wrote us to challenge us to all kinds of sporting events--from sand volleyball and roller hockey to running the obstacle course at an Army base to water ski jumping.  I look back on Channel 49 as my television "glory days."


But there comes a time when you just feel a need to move on and face new challenges.  I felt it, so I left my friends and colleagues in Topeka to become sports director at CBS affiliate KREM-TV in Spokane, Washington.  Unlike KTKA, KREM was in a two-way dog fight for ratings supremacy.  I inherited a sports department that was short-handed in terms of full-time sports personnel and sought to stabilize its image and organization.  A plan was put in place and I worked to accomplish it.  We now had a larger news staff, more high tech toys, and managerial support to carry out the required duties.  The on-air product improved and we became the outright number-one station in the market.  We successfully pulled off live broadcasts outside our scheduled newscasts covering events like Bloomsday, Hoopfest, and NCAA Tournament selection shows at Gonzaga. 

Me, Charles Rowe, Nadine Woodward, Randy Shaw, Tom Sherry

But things changed behind the scenes.  We had a shift in newsroom management and a change in sports coverage philosophy.  The news director that hired me, and set ambitious goals with me to improve the overall sports product, stepped down.  We also made a personnel change on the air that nixed plans to add a third full-time sports reporter.  The writing was on the wall.  After just four years in Spokane, it was time to move on.


As a pondered where my future would take me, I also pondered a career shift, of sorts.  Hmmm, what would it be like to be a news anchor?  I took a fact-finding trip to Boise to check out a morning news anchor position.  While it was a good visit, I was not offered the job.  Looking back, I'm so glad.  Who wants to get up every day at 2 a.m. anyway?  Not me! 



Me & co-anchor Jill Valley

One day I saw an advertisement for a news anchor opening at CBS affiliate KPAX-TV in Missoula, Montana.  We drove through Missoula many times on our way to and from Spokane, but rarely stopped.  I sent an email to the news director.  "Would you be interested in a guy who did sports for 14 years but wants to go into news?"  His response was short but telling, "You're a finalist!"  He sent me a tape of the news product in the mail.  To be honest, I was not overly impressed.  However, my wife and I agreed to pay Missoula a visit.  Once there, I saw what I missed in Spokane.  KPAX had a "family" type of atmosphere in the newsroom.  I could feel it.  There was a talented staff with young, hard-working reporters and an experienced co-anchor.  After the visit, the decision was clear.  It was time to move to Missoula.

Me & country singer Chance McKinney

KPAX staff sees Whitney's ultrasound photos

Handing out candy at UM Homecoming parade

KPAX is a wonderful place to work.  I have worked alongside many people who I consider among my best friends.  Among them is my co-anchor, Jill Valley, who immediately accepted me and made it easy for a "sports guy" to become a respected news journalist.  Others are too numerous to name, but they know who they are.  


One of the things I really enjoy about KPAX is its involvement in the community--from the University of Montana homecoming parade to the participating in the annual Bike for Shelter fundraiser for the Watson Children's Shelter.  There is also an annual KPAX bowling night for co-workers and their families, plus an outing to a Missoula Osprey game.


Over my almost ten years here, I also fell in love with Montana.  The funny thing is, we almost moved to Montana when I was a teenager, but that was not meant to be.  However, it is meant to be that I moved here several decades later.  I love it here and so does my family.  I have adopted the "Montana way of life" as my own.  What's not to love about fly fishing and floating the river in the summer and hunting in the winter?

KPAX gang at frigid Homecoming (wind chill -15)

I have been overwhelmed with so many thoughtful comments from friends, co-workers, viewers, Facebook followers, and others since word got out that I'm leaving KPAX.  Even Huey Lewis dropped me a nice email:  "Well, good luck with the new gig...and congrats.  Will keep the Lolo Creek trip in mind, and if I get some time, will give you a shout."  (I still owe him a fishing outing.)  One radio station, Zoo FM, even posted a flattering article about my big change. 


Looking back, I took a career path most TV people do not take.  I started in Topeka (market 136) and then jumped 63 markets to Spokane (market 73), but I finished by backtracking to tiny Missoula (market 165).  That's okay.  I was never in television to be the "biggest dog" in the largest market.  I enjoyed everything I learned along the way. 

Jill & I at a much warmer Homecoming parade

My son Jace & I riding 6-foot unicycles at Bike for shelter

And now I face a new career with a monumental life change.  You see, not only do I shortly begin new duties as public relations director for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, but I will work an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule for the first time in my adult life.  I have worked 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. (3 p.m. to midnight in Spokane) since the late1980s.  I look forward to seeing my wife and kids more.  I look forward to participating in evening activities I've only partially witnessed over the years (concerts, church activities, plays, ball games, etc.).  I look forward to having every holiday off all year long.  I look forward to being able to take vacation time whenever I would like to schedule it.  (In television news, you cannot take time off during ratings periods each February, May, July and November.)   I also look forward to applying the talents and abilities I honed over the years in a new light for RMEF, an organization whose mission I believe in and support.

Derek Buerkle, me, Jill & Erin Yost

So it is indeed the final countdown.  Am I nostalgic?  Yes.  Am I apprehensive?  No.  Am I excited?   You bet.  Bring it!