Q and A with Gene Lepley

Ben Brown
11-11-09
Gene Lepley worked as an anchor and reporter with Channel 12 News in Richmond for about 14 years.
Lepley has recently made a career shift. He is now a public information officer with the Richmond City Police Department. Lepley answered some questions in an interview conducted recently. He offered more detail on his story and had some words of advice to future journalists.
Q: You've worked in other markets in the Pennsylvania area... how did those markets compare to Richmond. What are the strong and weak points for Richmond as a media market?
A: The two markets I worked at in Pennsylvania were “hyphenated markets” – that is they contained several different cities and towns. Johnstown-Altoona and Harrisburg-Lancaster-York-Lebanon-Carlisle. Richmond-Petersburg is a hyphenated market but the strong, strong focus is on Richmond. In the Pennsylvania markets, we used bureaus in several cities in order to cover all the communities but viewers closely identified with the televisions stations physically located in their communities: WJAC in Johntown, Pennslyvania; WTAJ in Altoona. WHP and WHTM in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; WGAL in Lancaster; and WPMT in York. That meant that no matter how much you covered a city where you were NOT located, it was difficult to capture viewers from that city. That served to split the market into several mini-markets, which diluted advertising revenue and station income.
Richmond’s strong points are: a strong city-identity, a state capitol, strong business community, a long tradition of television news viewing, and in some cases, reporters who spend their careers here and don’t look on the city as a stepping-stone to a larger market. It doesn’t have any unique weak points other than to be land-locked by strong TV markets to the north (Washington, D.C.) and to the east (Norfolk-Virginia Beach). To the west, losing Charlottesville – which is now a separate TV market – has dropped the Richmond market size to the 50s – causing a loss of advertising revenue and station income.

Q: When did you know that you wanted to become a journalist?

A: I’ve always enjoyed current events. I’ve been a consumer of news from an early age – both television and print. When I returned to college after working nearly six years as a paramedic, it was with the intent of eventually getting a master’s degree in public health so I majored in communications. But I really enjoyed my journalism classes and two months before I was to graduate I auditioned for a booth-announcer job at a television station near my hometown in Pennsylvania and got the job. From there it was an easy transition to the newsroom and broadcast journalism.

Q: What was the most rewarding part of being a journalist?

A: I love the adrenalin rush that comes with journalism – to be “where it’s happening.” I like the sense of public service that goes with reporting – informing people of the issues of the day, rooting out corruption, and alerting people to possible scams and rip-offs. I think television works best getting the word out – soliciting the public’s help to restart cold case murder investigations, help track down fugitives from justice, or find missing persons.


Q: Is there a favorite memory of being a journalist? Is there a least favorite memory?
A: I’ve gotten do so some amazing things… ride the shuttle similar at the Johnson Space Center with astronaut Leland Melvin – a UR graduate – land on two aircraft carriers and spend a week aboard each – watch John Glenn be launched into space – get into Manhattan three days after the collapse of the World Trade Towers – tour Israel during the intifada – the Arab uprising – spend time with troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina and spend time at the site of a mass killing. Favorite or least favorite? It’s all tied up together. The Bosnian trip was sobering but also exhilarating. Being swarmed by family members of the missing at the armory in Manhattan was one of the worst moments – but a day later – driving with a convoy of first-responders up the West Side parkway and being saluted by thousands of NYC residents was amazing. I can’t single anything out.

Q: If there are any other comments you'd like to make or questions that you'd like to answer - please feel free.

A: It’s a wonderful profession that’s undergoing a tremendous transition right now. I don’t know how it’s going to shake out but I hope that good people continue to be courageous and tell honest stories about our government, society, environment, and how we treat each other.

Q: What advice do you have for future journalists?

A: Be flexible. Be visible. Traditional media are dying. Good storytellers will still succeed.