I recently sat down with Emmy award winner Adele Arakawa, co-anchor of the 5 & 10PM news at 9News. She is and was the consummate journalist. She takes her job very seriously and has really appreciated her time here in Denver and the station that believed in her. She is set to retire from 9News on July 1 of this year. For this respected anchor, the date marks 24 years in this market. She is uncomfortable at the thought of being a role model, but from my perspective, she is. Below is a condensed version of my interview with Adele Arakawa:
Howard Wedgle: You started in broadcasting in 1974 at age 16 in your home town of La Follette, Tennessee.
Adele Arakawa: Yes, named after a French general.
HW: When did your family get there?
AA: We moved there in 1964. My parents came from the Hawaiian Islands, because that was Mom’s home. I was actually born in Tennessee, but moved to Hawaii when I was six weeks old and then moved back when I was seven. I stayed there until I was married.
HW: So at 16 years old, how did you get the radio job?
AA: I was looking for a summer job. My dad thought it was prudent to send me to college a year early. I found a summer job at the local radio station. It was a little 1000 watt day timer. In the world of radio, you have a number of 1000 watt stations in small towns. They were considered sunrise to dusk because you had a directional antenna. It probably covered the county or a couple of counties in rural Tennessee. I got a job there because the secretary of the radio station was very good friends of my parents.
HW: How many people in the county?
AA: Probably 6000-7000. La Follette was more than a “one red-light town”. I think we had three.
HW: What did you do in that first position in radio?
AA: I did “rip and read” news. From the teletype, you would literally hear the “klitikly klack” and rip the paragraph from the teletype and read that on the air.
HW: There weren’t that many women in radio at that time, were there?
AA: Either in front of the camera, in front of the microphone, behind the microphone, it was about 1/3 women. That also included secretarial staff.
HW: Then you went into TV?
AA: No, I had two other radio gigs before I went into TV. I really wanted to stay in radio. I then was hired to be a news director for a station in Clinton, Tennessee. I literally got a phone call as they heard about me. I then got a call from a station in Knoxville which is the closest major city. AM was still in its’ prime. FM hadn’t really developed yet. This was an “AOR”-Adult oriented radio station. We took this startup of a station and made it a dominant player for a solid five years.
HW: When did you get into television?
AA: It was 1980. In Knoxville. We did everything then: we had to shoot, to write, to edit. I anchored. I reported. I produced as well. I was only there a couple of years. We decided; I say “we collectively” as I was married then. I got married when I was 19 to a sheriff’s deputy while I was still in Clinton; we then moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. My son was born there. We were married 8 years before my son was born. I was anchoring by then. An agent called me. He said he had someone interested in me and would I be willing to move. I wasn’t interested in moving as my husband was no longer in law enforcement and went into building; he was a private contractor. The agent did show us some lucrative offers and we decided to go to Chicago. It was working for CBS. I was working with the likes of Bill Curtis, Lester Holt, Elizabeth Vargas. It was a magical time. My timing was impeccable. Kinda fell into it. I didn’t have any desire to go to the network stations, so I stayed in what is called “owner and operated” markets. I was five years there, but I was really getting dejected about the industry, the way the direction was going with the management we had then. My husband and I decided we wanted a lifestyle change and to be in a geographic area where we could raise our child, so we chose Denver, twenty-three years ago.
HW: Based on?
AA: We’re really outdoor people, and I wanted to go west, but not LA. This is the farthest west we had ever been. A lot of it was this station. They did pursue me. I was impressed by the caliber of the work that they did. Their commitment to journalism. So that, in itself, was enough to bring me.
HW: I’m sure you’re looked upon as a role model for many women going into this industry. How do you feel about that?
AA: Here’s the thing about role models-my role model is my Mother. I think a role model doesn’t necessarily have to align with your career path. I think a role model should be more aligned with your philosophical, more with your personality views, I think more than your professional views. Sure you have trailblazers in any industry. I think that if you’re going to choose a role model, it should be somebody who shares your values. My job is to inform. It is not my job to opine. It is not to tell you what my personal views are. It is simply to put facts in front of you and let you make an informed decision based on those facts. That’s what changed about the industry.
HW: What does the future hold for broadcasting?
AA: We have what are called “Overnights”. We can literally look the next day and see what our audience was, based on a small percentage, but it’s our only measuring stick that we have on our viewing audience. The percentage continues to erode. There are fewer and fewer people “appointment view” ten o’clock, to turn on and watch the ten o’clock news. The millennials get their news through their handheld devices, on demand. I think there’s going to be a leveling out where people are looking for someone they find is reliable.
HW: Come July 1, broadcasting is not on the horizon for you?
AA: It is not. I will continue to have a presence, but it will not be in news. I had to come to grips with that because I worked so hard. I strongly believe in this entity, so I will continue to have a presence.