Photo courtesy the Denver Rocky Mountain News

Dusty Saunders

Dusty Saunders
For Decades, he's delivered the highs
and lows of local broadcasting to his readers

By Stacy Proctor

A lot of journalists probably think writing about the same thing for more than two decades might get a little boring.

Dusty Saunders ('53), who has been the broadcast critic for the Denver Rocky Mountain News for 25 years, knows what it's like and he will tell you his job is anything but boring. He says television and radio are constantly changing, so broadcast reporting is always a challenge.

"When I started out, there was no such thing as cable, public television was just getting started and there were only three networks," says Saunders.

Saunders covers news about what is happening in broadcasting locally and nationally. He does reviews, previews, essays, critiques and personal profiles.

He writes about "everything that has to do with broadcasting," says Saunders.

While in college, he worked part time as a copy boy. After graduation he became a full-time copy boy. He also worked as a police reporter, city hall reporter, general assignment reporter and features editor. He has spent a total of 40 years working at the News.

Experience is an asset, says Saunders.

"One of the reasons I have good readership is because I have history and perspective," says Saunders.

"I have seen a lot of television and listened to a lot of radio."

In addition to his work at the News, Saunders co-hosts "Media Show," a call-in talk show that addresses broadcasting issues. Saunders co-hosts the show with Joanne Ostrow, the broadcast critic for The Denver Post, every Sunday morning on KHOW Radio.

Saunders, a past recipient of the School's Outstanding Alumni award, had his sights set on a career in journalism since he was in high school.

"It was something I always wanted to do," says Saunders.

Saunders has received several other awards and honors for the work he has done. In 1993, he was named Colorado Journalist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists.

In 1990 news employees at KCNC-TV Channel 4 in Denver were accused of staging pit bull dog fights as part of their news sweeps coverage. Saunders won the Scripps-Howard Award for his coverage of the incident.

In 1980 Saunders helped found the Television Critics Association, a national organization made up of critics and columnists from major newspapers in the United States and Canada.

The organization was designed to give reporters more control when dealing with the networks. However, its members have also created a code of ethics for writing about television, they give awards and they travel together.

Saunders has a media-oriented family.

His wife, Anita, is a marketing executive and local documentary film producer.

Their four children, Katie, Patrick, Stephen and Bryan, have all followed in their parents' footsteps and gone into the media business in one way or another.

Katie designs costumes for movies and commercials in Denver. Bryan provides production support for a commercial production company. Patrick was the sports editor at the Daily Times-Call in Longmont and recently moved to The Denver Post as a sports reporter. Stephen, who wanted to be involved in television since high school, is an anchor and reporter for Denver's KMGH-TV Channel 7.