SALISBURY TWP., Pa. — If you were behind the scenes at 69 News on Friday, you were part of the end of an era.
After 40 years as News Director, Brad Rinehart oversaw his last newscast.
To truly understand the impact he has made on decades of journalism, you have to go back to 1980. That's when Rinehart applied for an internship at WFMZ, which had been up and running for about four years.
"They gave me a form to apply for the internship and it asked to check off, are you interested in news, production, or sales?" he recalled. "I thought, well I could be a producer, so I checked off production, and that little checkmark charted the whole course of my career."
Rinehart went on to learn how to do every job involved in a newscast, from camera to running tapes and eventually directing.
But after four years on the job, Rinehart left WFMZ to become a news writer in Detroit. That didn't last long.
Brad Rinehart, left, and 69 WFMZ-TV General Manager Barry Fisher, at a luncheon on Feb. 29 to celebrate Brad's decades of dedication to the station.
WFMZ General Manager Barry Fisher said he was determined to bring Rinehart back to the 69 News family.
"I could show you the handwritten seven-page letter of what he needed if he came back as News Director, which detailed the typewriters having a phone at the different desks. It was pretty funny to look at it," said Fisher.
Rinehart accepted the job. His first big task was covering Musikfest in Bethlehem.
"We sent all the reporters out, and we just covered that thing from head to toe with every angle that you could think of for all nine nights," Rinehart said. "That was the first thing that I did, where I sort of took what I learned in Detroit and applied it to Allentown."
"The Berks Edition started July 24, 1995."
As a young news director, Rinehart worked hard to grow the station's audience, first by expanding the newscasts we had and then creating new shows like the Berks Edition. WFMZ's Spanish-language newscast, Edición en Español, the Saturday morning program, the 4 p.m. edition, and the 8 p.m. show followed.
69 News went from having one hour of news a day in 1984 to 10 hours today.
"He brought journalistic standards here that we didn't have before," said Eric Reinert, WFMZ Director of Digital Media.
"A lot of news organizations are ridiculed for not being balanced and fair, and that's really something people are looking at closely now, but that was something Brad has been drilling into us for as long as I can remember," said anchor Wendy Davis.
Brad Rinehart accepts 69 WFMZ-TV's first Emmy Award for outstanding newscast in 2005.
Those principles are used in everything we do, from snow coverage to elections and in the stories pitched in our morning meeting.
Brad has empowered members of his staff to develop their own styles.
"He gives us the freedom to explore topics that we are interested in," said reporter/anchor Bo Koltnow. "OK, this interests you, well, all right, let's see how you can put that on air so it will interest the audience."
Beyond the work part of it, it's the words people use to describe him personally that say so much.
"Brad is 101 on management. He really knows how to bring out the best in people, and also, he is a kind, gentle guy," said Kathy Craine.
"He is easygoing. He likes to laugh, that he's supportive. He goes to all of our events, like when I was in the play, he came to see that," said morning anchor Jaciel Cordoba.
You may not know his name. He's not on the air. But he's behind what's on the air.
"I think of Brad like the captain of the ship. You know, he's got his hand on the wheel, wind in his hair, if he had hair, and he would be a steady guide to where we're going, helping us avoid the icebergs of the journalism business and all of that and he's been really good and a great guy to work for," said anchor Rob Vaughn.
In the news business, people typically bounce around every few years.
WFMZ is different. Many of the people who work at WFMZ have double-digit tenure, and it's largely due to Rinehart.
