Another clue that life is not fair

Back in College when I was getting a degree in Communications (which I guess I only use to write this blog) I was very involved with the student run on-campus TV station. We only went by closed circuit cable to the dorms, but we took it very seriously. Many people vollunteered countless hours to make a variety of News and entertainment programming. I usually worked on the entertainment side- I co-created and produced a cooking show, worked on the entertainment magazine show and helped to get our "Roommate Game Show" on national college television (it could actually be a very funny show- I wish I had tapes of it)

I became program director of the station at the end of my Junior year- meaning I was in charge of the entertainment side of things. The news director at the time was a very ambitious sophomore who had anchored our weekly newscast that year. His name isn't important he's famous enough now already. He was central casting anchor - very tall with blow dryed anchor hair and cliche anchor voice- emphasizing all the right words. I had been around the news at the station for three years already and had seen some very good and some very, very bad anchors. This kid was a natural and so naturally I hated him. He had all the arrogance and aggressiveness you would expect- he was mature beyond his years - he also looked older. During the summer he was able to get a job at a station in his Arizona hometown. I had an internship thst summer at channel 6 - he had an actual on-air reporting job - he was about 19. I didn't like the fact that he was a bit conservative in his politics (I seem to remember) and in another great anchor tradition he was not that bright. I'm sure he did OK in school, but he was obviously much more serious and focused on the News on A-TV (yes that's what it was called). We had run ins a few times about equipment and editing time which was always scarce. Unfortunately the News usually took precedent and I lost. One time I helped him out by doing camera work for him on Capitol Hill - he was doing stringer work for that station in Arizona. I don't know if they could use the interview I shot- maybe there was a technical problem.

During my senior year I got a great opportunity to work on the news side- although not under the auspices of Anchor hair. We worked with a national college network and I had produced things for them in the past so they asked me to produce college "newsbriefs" - several colleges around the country were doing them- they were news of general interest to college students. We would try to keep the stories in our part of the country (Washington DC). I handpicked the anchor for the job which paid actual money- a great rarity at A-TV. I knew right away I could only do them with Allison Fisher. She was another anchor / reporter who had worked on both entertainment and news shows. I was always impressed with her professionalism and poise and she was also very nice- the opposite of Anchor Hair (Although she did have good hair) We split the writing chores for the briefs and would go into the studio before the news on Sunday nights to tape the breifs. Allison was very reliable and took any small direction I might have. I remember helping her learn to use the teleprompter - a new device to her - its harder than you think. I always thought that Allison had a great shot to make it in TV news if she chose to. In addition to her obvious talent and intelligence she was also an African-American woman which in the news business at the time was not really a handicap and maybe even an advantage. I could always imagine Allison as a trusted anchor on a local newscast somewhere and then who knows what else?

Of course after college I lost touch with both Allison and Anchor Hair. I figured they were both working in TV somewhere. I did keep in touch with some other people from the station but information was usually hard to come by (we did have another Alumni, Craig Stevens, who is still an anchor on a Fox station in Miami, as far as I know)

The next time I saw Anchor Hair was on god damnned network TV - it must have been about ten years later and he was doing one of those stupid spots where the anchor holds on when a hurricane tries to blow him away. Already on network news and not out of his twenties yet. I think he also had a show on MSNBC and he is now a network white house correspondent. I still have trouble watching him - I wonder if his producer has to write all his scripts and has to feed him questions. Why can't somebody I like be sucessfull? Somebody who would get me a job. He was even on "The Colbert Report" recently - that's what made me think of him again. Anchor Hair could become a network anchor and one of the most famous people I have ever been acquainted with - but I can't be that happy for him. I guess nice guys don't get to do that job.

The next time I saw Allison's name was in the Alumni bulletin- not for some great new position she had attained or a marriage, or a new baby- it was just a note in the "In Memoriam" section. Allison ahd died the previous Spring. I didn't want to believe it and I tried to find information about what had happened - I was pretty sure it was the Allison I knew by the class year. I finally found out through the grapevine that Allison had died of breast cancer- I think she was about twenty-eight. Her parents formed a foundation in her memory and I went to a fundraiser for their scholarship fund a few years ago. A bunch of people from the TV station were there and we all had that same respect and great expectations for Allison. We also talked about Anchor Hair. Everyone knew he had worked hard for what he had achieved, but that didn't mean we thought he was a great guy. And I think we all still wish we could be tuning in to the network news tonight to see Allison instead.