Farewell to Dean Stephens of WCIV-TV
Working in local TV news was something I wanted to do since I was a child...ask my parents, I would stage interviews and anchor from the couch in our ranch-style home when we had smooth wood hugging the TV and its 4 channels. ABC, NBC, CBS & PBS during the 1980s. My dad is a news lover and from a young age, I always watched news. Most parents in today's world would say "She's too young. You can't expose kids to that!" But when did a Nelson truly listen to other people?
I grew up watching Charleston TV news. I idolized local reporters during Hurricane Hugo like Cathy O'Hara, had a crush on Dan Krosse and was even scared to walk up to Kellen Butler when we were both at the Music Farm. Local TV was different back then in the 90s/2000s.
I've told the story often but, humor me here... I was dating my boyfriend-now-husband, Darren, and was the traffic reporter for ABC News 4 in Charleston. I had never been a traffic reporter until then, but figured when I applied that: 1. I sat in Denver traffic for hours daily while living there so I knew what was important to drivers. 2. I knew the Lowcountry roads like the back of my hand, I had been driving them since I was a teen, so it gave me an advantage. One night at dinner, Darren asked me what I wanted to happen next in my career as I had been in traffic for about 1.5 years by then. I looked up at him and said, "I want Channel 4 to call me and offer me a job." He laughed that nervous laugh he gets when he's thinking in his head "Seriously?" - luckily, he never said that out loud, so he got another date out of me.
Fast forward to when I received the call to audition for a local variety TV show they had planned and the news director asked me to audition. Holy crap! I luckily got the job as host/producer/graphics creator and sometimes hairdresser at Channel 4. (I cut so many reporter's bangs in that makeup room!) I was there for several years.
Dean Stephens was the main co-anchor when I arrived and his presence in the newsroom did intimidate me slightly. He was this no-nonsense Sports guy who went on to become the anchor of the nightly news, so I wasn't going to gush over him and his nonchalant facade. Since he worked nightside and my show was at 10am, we were like ships in the harbor waving at each other, probably secretly wishing we could jump off and swim to the nearest beach. HA!
One day, an armchair quarterback of a viewer decided to write me an email - now this was before social media was big - so this guy has some BIG BALLS to write me. The email said, "Eat salads for the rest of your life." For those who know me well, before the invention of Botox, I would wear my feelings on my face and Dean noticed that I was very pissed off. He walked over as if he was going into an edit bay - that's one of his things - to pretend he's not watching or listening but somehow can walk over to see what was "happening". I let him read the email, and he started laughing. You know, like that true Dean "cackle" when he is about to unleash the power of 50 men to make you feel better. And that's what he did...
He told me a story about how - as a sports reporter - he had mispronounced Duquesne on air and got berated for it. He was supposed to be a sports guy for shit's sake, how could he have done that even when he "KNEW the correct way to say it!" We had a good laugh and I put it all in perspective. So I told the salad dude to politely turn the channel, don't bug me and definitely don't write to me again.
After that day, I never received a mean email while on air - ever. Maybe it was because the shift in my demeanor, delivery or confidence that had grown so much in that one time that Dean gave me the "Rudy"-style pep talk. He helped me in so many ways as a host and reporter & even a fill-in sports anchor for a day ... as he did with so many reporters, producers, editors, photogs, this one big time producer we call "Legal Larry", production staff and the list goes on.
Over the years, we've become friends and now so many of us who haunted the Channel 4 newsroom can sit back and tell stories that many wouldn't believe.
When you leave the newsroom, no matter its size, it's like a piece of you stays there...maybe you've carved your name in the news director's desk only to be found years later while he was looking for his third Snickers, or maybe it's the sleepless nights during hurricanes where sleeping in the edit bay was the Holiday Inn for the night. Each person in news has those pivotal times and that's how the family of a newsroom remains, even after leaving the newsroom.
Dean was one of those in Charleston that made TV news what it is or at least was. He can tell a story better than you know, loves to pretend he's on his cell phone at the store, can give you the best advice on the shittiest day and overall seemed like a tough guy but was a big old mush. He will be missed tremendously in local news. He retired yesterday after 31 years of working at WCIV-TV and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he would crawl up into one of those old satellite dishes on-site and carve his name. That's the plaque he deserves.
Cheers to Dean and his service to our community for over three decades. You will be missed!
#TVLIFE
