Pat Collins

“My first job in television news was at Channel 9 in Washington. It was known as WTOP back then, and it was owned by The Washington Post. My reporting back ground was in the newspaper business. At the time I was covering crime and courts for The Washington Star, and at the time local television stations were hiring newspaper reporters to appear on TV news shows. The theory was it’s easier to teach a newspaper reporter television than it is to teach reporting to a broadcaster. Many local news shows featured broadcasters in velvet jackets reading Associated Press wire copy with an occasional slide thrown in for a visual. At any rate, I was offered a job at Channel 9. At the time I didn’t even own a television. The first day on the job I was told, ‘We’re not going to put you on the air until we think you’re ready and you think you’re ready.’ I did my first TV story at 5:30 that night.”