Retired newsman reviews career, looks ahead
By Nick Schinker
Contributing Writer, New Horizons
April 2000 Vol. 25 No. 4 pages 4-5
Easily recognized, trusted, and anything but camera shy, former television anchorman Gary Kerr says he has been asked to consider making a transition from newsman to news maker.
Since his retirement from WOWT on Dec. 31, 1998, the man once known as the "dean of Omaha newscasters," says he has been approached several times by person who suggest he pursue a new career: Politics. It is a move that would return him to the spotlights, this time as the subject of the kind of stories that used to lead his television newscast.
"There's been a lot of interest in me running for office," says Kerr, a Republican. "I've had to say no, simply because other issues have taken precedence in my life."
Those issues have included the recent deaths of Kerr's parents, the settling of their estates, and the daily operations of Kerr Enterprises, which owns and manages apartment buildings in Omaha.
Will one of the best-known faces in the history of Omaha broadcast media always say no to running for public office? Kerr smiles. "Who knows?" he asks. "What is it Tom Osborne always said? You never want to say, 'never.' "
Gary Kerr was born March 19, 1939, in Akron, Iowa, about 30 miles north of Sioux City. He grew up on his parents' farm in nearby Union County, South Dakota. He was one of two children born to Foster and Zora Mae Kerr. His sister, Nancy Adams, live in Kansas City.
His father graduated from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion with a degree in civil engineering. "But that was during the Depression, so there were no jobs anywhere," Kerr says.
The elder Kerr worked for a time in a meatpacking plant in Sioux City, then served as a major in the infantry during World War II. When he returned to South Dakota, he farmed until drought made that lifestyle impractical and unprofitable.
"So, he became the assistant county agent, then the water resources specialist for the state of South Dakota," Kerr says. "He stayed in that position, leasing out the farmland, until he retired in 1977."
Kerr, meanwhile, attended South Dakota State University in Brookings, graduating in 1962 with a degree in agriculture journalism. His first job was at radio station KSCJ in Sioux City.
"I did a little bit of everything there," he recalls. "I even had my own record show."
After the six months at the radio station, a position as city hall reporter became available at television station KTIV in Sioux City. He worked at the station for about 18 months, serving as both reporter and news anchor.
In 1964 Kerr made a move to Omaha, to join the staff at WOWT, a radio and television operation owned by the Meredith Corporation of Des Moines.
"I worked both sides, radio and TV," Kerr says. "I would come in at 5 a.m. to do the farm reports, and I remember working closely with Dale Munson, who was the disc jockey on the air at the time. We had a lot of fun those early years."
He also worked closely with the late Arnold Peterson, a former county extension agent who served as WOW's farm director.
"He was so personable," Kerr says of Peterson. "He was warm and honest, like a friendly neighbor. People loved him; loved to see those reports."
Kerr says he came to Omaha because of his background, especially his college emphasis on ag journalism.
"I came to WOW because they needed an assistant farm director," he says. "I worked four or five years in the farm department, then gradually moved back into news, into a combination of reporting and anchoring."
In 1971, Kerr moved into the anchor seat exclusively.
"That was quite a promotion for me at the time," he says. "I was the stations main news anchor until 1991, when I was moved out and became the five o'clock anchor."
He stayed in that position until late in 1998, when he was asked to step aside from the 5 p.m. newscast to make room for John Knicely, who now co-anchors the news with Pat Persaud.
Rather than assume the duties of a reporter, Kerr chose to leave Channel 6.
Kerr says he wasn't happy about the decision of WOWT's management.
"It's the way things happen in this business," he says. "They very much wanted me to stick around as a fulltime reporter. That simply wasn't something I wanted to do."
He says the experience was unpleasant.
"Yeah, momentarily it was probably painful," he admits. "It was upsetting to be taken off that newscast, especially since, as I recall, it was doing quite well in the ratings at the time, either leading in that time slot or very close to it. But it wasn't the end of the world."
Kerr says he contemplated the task of returning to the ranks of the reporting staff.
"I looked at my career and felt I'd accomplished quite a bit," he says. "The more I thought about it, the more I believed it was best for me to leave."
He believes his age figured chiefly in management's decision.
"When you get older in this business, you still appeal to some large segment of the viewing public," he says, "but it's not always the segment of people the advertisers want to reach.
"Advertisers want to reach the young audience."
The fact that advertisers have such influence in programming is one of the changes Kerr has witnessed in broadcast journalism over the years. Another is the emphasis on putting youth and beauty behind the news desk.
"The news anchors used to be seen as a conduit for the news, not as much as a personality as they are today. I always felt I was the anchor not because I was Gary Kerr but because I did the best job.
"Through the years, people on the air, in some cases, became more important than the stories they were covering. That is not good."
Despite his unexpected departure, Kerr says he doesn't miss being on television. "Ask me six months from now I might give a different answer."
He says he hasn't really had much time to himself. His mother died in January, 1999, at age 87, and his father died last September at age 88.
"We've been so busy since then, settling their estates and sorting through everything."
That his father passed away so soon after his mother was something Kerr says he didn't anticipate.
"She was everything to him. After Mom died, it was like he went off a cliff. Her death had a much larger impact on him than we realized."
Besides settling family affairs, Kerr and his wife, Karen, are busy with Kerr Enterprises, which owns and manages two apartment buildings near downtown Omaha.
Their sons, Aaron and Justin, are grown. Aaron live in St. Paul, Minn.; and Justin lives in Chicago. Aaron and his wife, Elizabeth, recently made the Kerrs grandparents for the first time, giving birth to a son, Jackson.
Kerr also is active in the Dundee-Memorial Park Neighborhood Association and the Omaha Press Club, where he was recently honored as a "Face on the Barroom Floor."
His volunteerism allows him to work on projects that benefit the organizations and the public. It's a good primer for political life.
One of the more visible efforts has been the beautification of the Dundee-Memorial Park neighborhoods through the addition of 420 flower baskets, hung from street light posts. Last summer, Kerr filled a key role in the project.
"For three months, I got up every day at 4:30 a.m. and spent two hours watering those baskets," he says. "So, when I say that the project is evolving, I hop I will be evolving out of that duty."
He says the neighborhood association, of which he is past president, wants to make a positive impact on the community.
"If pride in a neighborhood is a prime concern when it comes to reducing crime and blight, then it is projects such as this that are key to maintaining that pride," he says.
Another way, he says, would be through the political process. Something he plans to consider seriously.
"I don't think of myself as retired," Kerr says. "I call this my hiatus, one that I just might make permanent."
"I'm not ready yet to make up my mind."
When he does, it might just make the evening news.
Notes on the article:
•New Horizons is the official publication of the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging.
•A color picture of Mr. Kerr is on the cover of the newspaper with the caption: "Gary Kerr...Former anchor weighs his options! Pages 4 & 5"
•On page 4 are two black and white pictures of Mr. Kerr. The first has him in his house with his feet up reading a book ("Downfall") with the caption: "Gary Kerr, who retired from WOWT Dec. 31, 1998, relaxes with a book in his Dundee-area home." The second picture is a head & shoulder shot of Mr. Kerr with the caption: "Kerr anchored the Channel 6 news from 1972 to 1998. Kerr was asked to step asised to make room for John Knicely."
•On page 5 is a black and white photo of Mr. Kerr's Omaha Press Club "Face On The Barroom Floor" with the caption: "In January, the Omaha Press Club honored Kerr by making him its most recent 'Face on the Barroom Floor.'
© 2000-2003 Todd Clark/Video Butcher
videobutcher@yahoo.com
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page