This month, the "Director's Cut Blog" touched base with former WKYC reporter Joe Mosbrook. Although semi-retired, Joe continues to be one of our favorite, traditional journalists whose high integrity for the product and booming voice will forever have a place in the history of WKYC.I can't help but remember Joe standing in the snowy Ashtabula field in 1981 after our chopper at the time "Newshawk 3" went down and flipped over in near blizzard conditions. There was a calm and collected reporter and his photographer, Dave Hollis, doing a matter of fact feature on themselves. Although Joe doesn't mention it below, it was certainly one of the memorable moments in local television most folks working here still remember about Joe's career. (Watch the video below)
We asked Joe to share, in his own words, a little about his past, present and future.
THE PAST:
I joined WKYC TV & Radio in March of 1967 and formally retired in April of 1998, although I continued for three or four additional years on a part time basis, doing some "Look Back" features and serving as Channel 3's voice-over announcer. I was mainly a reporter (usually politics and government), although in almost 35 years I did almost every job in the shop at one time or another. When I retired, someone said I had probably covered more news stories than anyone in Cleveland TV history. In the late 1960s and early '70s, I was the radio news supervisor and produced and anchored a number of NBC Radio Network newscasts from both Cleveland and New York City. Probably the biggest story was the assassination of Robert Kennedy. I was anchoring the radio network from Los Angeles when he died. Other big stories included the elections and administrations of Cleveland Mayors Carl Stokes, Ralph Perk, Dennis Kucinich and George Voinovich. and such continuing court cases as the Cleveland schools desegregation case, the Sam Shepherd murder case, the Kirtland cult killings, and the Kent State shootings. A report I did on WKYC led to the overturning of the Kent State civil verdict.
THE PRESENT:I'm still on the air (55 years since I first started in radio), doing the weekly Cleveland Jazz History series on Monday nights on WCPN. That radio series, now in its 20th year, led to a book that was published in 2003. Last year I was inducted into the Radio/ Television Broadcasters of Ohio Hall of Fame and have gotten several other awards including a Silver Circle Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. I also serve as president of the Cleveland local of AFTRA (the broadcasters' union) and have been on the boards of the Northeast Ohio Jazz Society, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, the Cleveland TOPs Swingband, and Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights. At the moment, I'm finishing up another book, not on jazz, but on the history of a colorful little resort community in northern Pennsylvania, and working on a TV presentation for the TOPs Swingband.
THE FUTURE:
I just plan to continue what I've been doing, broadcasting and writing, spending time with our four grown children and two granddaughters, and not worrying about doing 6 a.m. live remotes during snowstorms or asking grieving mothers how they feel about seeing their children killed. But I still get bad dreams at times about failing to have a TV report ready in time to get it on the air -- something that never happened when I was reporting every day.
You can reach Joe by email: joe.mosbrook@multiverse.com
VIDEO FEATURE:
The following is Joe discussing the 1981 "Newshawk 3" helicopter incident. If you can't see the video on this page, CLICK HERE
