July is always an important anniversary for me. After being a janitor at Channel 3 for more than a year, the bosses there showed no sign of promoting me; so, on July 2, 1987 I started at Channel 6 on the technical crew. Man, I was tempted to quit after that first night because of the hectic pace. I didn’t think all that stress was worth $3.35 an hour. But, like a good Iron Range Finn, I stuck it out.

My interest in becoming part of the news media goes back to the ’70s when my father lent me his Super 8 film camera. He used it to shoot all the cool events in Ely, including the Fourth of...