MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall is the subject of Mediabistro’s latest So What Do You Do? interview. Hall, who began her career as a general assignment reporter at KBTX in Bryan, Texas, reflects on how starting in a smaller market influenced her career path:
What important lessons did you glean from starting off in a smaller market before moving into the big time and how did it prepare you?
I think it was just a growth process. By the time I left Bryan, I’d had a chance to cover small town, local stories, so I had an opportunity to see how these stories impact someone’s life. On a national scale, obviously we’re playing to a broader audience, even though they say all stories are local. But there was something special about local news, especially in a smaller market where you got to know the individuals of that town. It’s a small town, so I could go to the gas station and everyone would have a story idea. Not that I go unrecognized now — people call all the time with story ideas — but if I look back at it in a nostalgic way, there was something special about covering news in a smaller community.