Tough Love

One of the biggest lessons I learned early-on in my career, is that the people who are the toughest on you, are often the people who believe in you the most and push you to be the best you can be. When you’re young though, that can take a while to figure out.
Fortunately for me, I figured it out and developed a special friendship along the way.
This is Tony and his wife Glenda. Doug and I drove from Austin to San Antonio over the weekend to see them, for the first time in 22 years!
Tony was my Assistant News Director at KRGV in South Texas. It was my first anchor job and Tony was one of the two people who hired me to not only solo anchor the weekday morning newscast, but to also write and produce it (on typewriters, back then) and run my own prompter (on taped script paper). Tony was tough on me. He had high expectations and he demanded the best of everyone – including me. At the very green age of 22, I often thought he was TOO hard on me. He’d take his red pen and rip my scripts apart and sometimes I’d be at the station until 3pm trying to finish a script that satisfied him. I’d call my mom crying, thinking he hated me. Then I got the invitation to join him, Glenda and their family at their home for Thanksgiving, since I’d otherwise be spending it alone. It was a wonderful time! That’s when the light bulb went off. Tony didn’t dislike me. He was hard on me because he saw potential in me. Swipe to see a pic of us back in 1990.
Needless to say, Tony & Glenda became my pseudo parents during that year I spent in Texas. I grew to love them and cried on-air on my last day because I felt so much love in return. We kept in touch and ran into each other a few times after I left in 1991. The last time was 2000. Being able to finally see them in person a few days ago, was something I’ve wanted to do for a while.
My TV career afforded me lots of opportunities to work with people like Tony who helped shape me personally and professionally. They are the people who bring out the best in you and hold a permanent place in your heart.
Until the next time Tony and Glenda – you are incredibly special to me and I love you!