Not A Goodbye, But A See You Later!

After 5 plus years of being at WBTV, I have made the decision to leave. It has been a wonderful time in my life and one I don't take for granted. I made the move to North Carolina to teach high school math and coach basketball, but at the same time, I knew that deep down there was still a passion and desire to pursue my childhood dream of sports reporting. Growing up in a very small town and dreaming dreams that big, well sometimes it doesn't seem like it can be your reality - until you leave that sweet small town that raised you and you venture off on your own journey. Randomly coming to NC to teach turned out to be a decision that would change my life in a big way and one I would've never predicted.

If you're a believer in signs, which I very much am, then let me tell you how this all got started. My mother was driving down to visit me and as soon as she arrived and parked the car a down pour of rain started that forced her to sit in the car just a little bit longer. The very next thing that came on the radio was a commercial for the Connecticut School of Broadcasting at Charlotte. There's the sign that would completely change the direction of my life. The next thing I know I'm signing up to take a tour of the campus and felt an immediate connection after doing so.

I signed up for classes and the day before chickened out! Here I was putting what little money I had saved up after my first degree into chasing a dream! So I talked myself right out of it, what if this happened or that happened and I needed that money. What would I do? I immediately regretted that decision, but stay with me here because things always work out, right? The next time classes rolled around I called the school back to ask if I could join that semester and luckily they allowed me to. I spent the next 8 months teaching high school during the day and taking classes at night. After finishing the program, I earned an internship at WBT Radio. I can't thank that crew enough for all they taught me. Every morning in the studio we always had WBTV on, the station just so happened to be down the hall from us. Every morning I would look up at the TV and want to be a part of what they were doing. Once I finished my internship at WBT Radio. Mr. Jenkin (who was my internship coordinator) set up an interview for a second internship with Baron Murphy at WBTV. When I interviewed with him, I didn't mention that I specifically wanted to do sports reporting, but that I wanted to be in the building learning so badly that I would take an internship with any department. Shortly after our conversation, the next thing I know he is walking me to the Sports Dept. at WBTV to introduce me to Delano Little. I couldn't believe it! I was actually going to get to intern at the station I watched every morning with the sports department - what a dream come true! From that point on I pretty much lived there, any free moment I had I spent with anybody at the station that would let me tag along and learn from them.

A little over a month after my internship wrapped up I was hired as a part-time editor for WBTV's 8 o'clock show on Bounce, which meant I would teach high school during the day and work at WBTV at night. What a whirlwind! I did that from February of that year until June when the school year ended. After that school year, I decided the only way to truly give 110% to chasing my dream of sports reporting was to resign from teaching and give it all I had. I took a part-time job at KISS 95.1 as the morning show producer for Maney, Roy and LauRen. (I'm so grateful for those 3, and we had so much fun! I'm happy to see them having continued success at 95.1 - I'll always be your "Uptown Ash") I would work at 95.1 from 5:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. take a nap and then head to WBTV to run prompter for the 4 o'clock show, edit the 8 p.m. and spend as much time as I could afterward with Delano to learn to ropes of sports reporting. From that point on everything just seemed to line up perfectly - by the fall of that year I moved from editor to part-time sports reporter and by the next spring I had the opportunity to fill-in anchor weekend sports while the station looked for their next weekend sports anchor. You best believe I was in my News Director's office every Monday morning asking him to review my shows. After a month or so of that, I got offered a 3-year deal for that position!

Now a little more than 4 years later, I will be signing off of the air on WBTV for the final time on Sunday night, but when I think back on everything I've just shared isn't it crazy how it all fell right into place? Life's funny like that. There are SO many people to thank that's helped me along in my journey so far and far too many to mention. You know who you are. I love you all dearly. To all the viewers thank you for watching and all your support from the start. I can't wait to share with you everything that's next!!!