Southern Exposure: Four alums converge in Central Florida broadcasting market
By Dan Werner

At the WKMG news desk are Director of News Operations Alan Parcell and anchors Bob Frier and Lauren Perkins. Behind them is Matt Reed, assistant managing editor at Florida Today.

Central Florida has become a landing site for CU journalism graduates, with four television pros coming together in the Orlando area alone in the last few years.

When Bob Frier ('96) went to CBS affiliate WKMG-TV in Orlando to audition for a news-anchor position, he knew he found a friend there when he saw a plaque on Lauren Perkins' ('94) desk commemorating Kordell Stewart's game-winning touchdown pass to Michael Westbrook in CU's miracle win over Michigan in 1994.

Today Frier and Perkins are more than friends – they pair up to form an all-CU Buff lead-anchor team for Central Florida's Local 6 News. The two have been co-anchoring the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts for about the past three years, and they've formed a special bond in the nation's 20th-largest market.

"We have a great relationship, we really do," Perkins said. "I think we truly like each other as people, and that's not something you find a lot of in this business."

Frier agreed, saying the two have a "special chemistry."

"It's terrific working with Lauren," he said. "We come from the same area and have the same background, so that puts us in the same mindset."

That special chemistry has equaled success for the two, who own the No. 1 broadcast in the market at 11 p.m., something Perkins said hasn't happened for the station since the mid-1980s.

Although Perkins and Frier arrived in Orlando about the same time, they took different paths to get where they are today.

After graduating as a broadcast major, Perkins began her career as a producer and anchor at WICU-TV in Erie, Pa. She then became a bureau chief and anchor for WBRE-TV in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. After that, she went to KSNW-TV in Wichita, Kan., before finally arriving at WKMG.

Frier, on the other hand, began his career as a musician and actor. After spending some time in the CU music department, he decided to go to California and concentrate on his acting career. Although he gave up acting as a profession, he said he knew he wanted to stay in front of the camera, so it was back to CU, where he earned a degree in journalism.

He took that degree to Scottsbluff, Neb., anchoring the 10 p.m. news at KSTF-TV. He then moved to Oklahoma City, where he anchored for KFOR-TV. It was there WKMG noticed him after his then co-anchor sent in her own audition tape. She didn't get the job, but they liked what they saw in him.

"I had been trying to get back to Denver, but nothing was available," Frier said. "So when a main anchor in a top-20 market comes available, you don't really turn up your nose at that."

Frier said he loves Orlando and that it's a great place for him and his wife, Karen, to raise their two children.

Perkins and Frier both say their CU education was essential to get to where they are today. But when they need some help or advice, they can turn to another CU alum, Alan Parcell ('67), a news veteran of more than 35 years and the station's director of news operations.

Like Perkins and Frier, Parcell has been at WKMG for about three years, but unlike the two anchors who are just launching their careers, Parcell calls this his "retirement job."

"Alan is such a busy man around here," Perkins said. "He's an incredible resource."

Parcell's resourcefulness comes from decades of working as a reporter and as a news executive.

After graduating from CU, Parcell was hired at KYTC-TV in Springfield, Mo.

"I was a jack of all trades – news anchor, reporter, producer, photographer and news film editor," he said.

He soon returned to Denver to work for KWGN-Channel 2, and in 1970 was promoted to the Tribune Washington bureau as weekend news anchor and general assignment reporter. In 1975, Parcell headed to Houston to become a news anchor and reporter at KPRC-TV, an NBC affiliate. Later, he was named executive producer at the station.

After that he was news director at KTUL-TV in Tulsa, Okla., assistant news director at WFAA-TV in Dallas – both ABC affiliates – then returned to Houston as news director at KHOU-TV, a CBS affiliate. In 1989, Parcell went to work for CBS News as a news director.

In addition to covering the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s, Parcell said he has had a hand in covering everything from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the two space shuttle disasters.

"The most interesting experience I had in my entire broadcast career was being the bureau chief for CBS News in Moscow at the fall of communism," he said.

But Parcell's career took a tragic turn three years ago when he lost his wife and high school sweetheart to cancer while he was as a senior news manager for CBS News in New York City.

"I didn't really see any reason to stay in the grind of the rat race (after losing his wife), so I just moved to Florida," he said.

In Florida, Parcell said he gets to spend time with his son and three grandchildren, in addition to mentoring the staff at WKMG. He recently remarried and said he's taking the opportunity to do some of the things he never had time to do because he started his family and career at such a young age.

"I'm a blessed guy; I've had a great career," he said.

In addition to the three alums working at WKMG, a fourth CU grad emerged on the scene when WKMG and the Florida Today newspaper entered into a partnership agreement about 18 months ago. That's when Perkins bumped into Matt Reed ('92 MA).

"Matt is another extremely talented, extremely bright person who is also very cool," Perkins said. "There's something about Coloradans, and there's something about people who go to the University of Colorado."

Reed has been at Florida Today for about three years and serves as an assistant managing editor. After doing some reporting in Colorado at the Daily Times-Call in Longmont, he made the move to Florida as a reporter at the Daytona Beach News Journal. He moved to The Palm Beach Post and then to The Gainesville Sun as the metro editor before landing at Florida Today.

He said that although there's been some culture shock, it's hard to beat the news in Florida.

"Florida Today has been a hell of a ride," he said. "We've done some huge stories here."

Included in those stories was an investigation into flight training of Al-Qaida members in Florida and the Florida recount controversy after the 2000 presidential election.

More recently, Reed said, he led the investigative team looking into the space shuttle Columbia disaster.

Although Reed works in Melbourne, Fla., about 60 miles east of Orlando, he said he often appears on Perkins' Sunday morning public affairs show, "Flash Point."

"Matt's a fabulous contributor," Perkins said. "I have a real respect for him professionally and personally."

Like the other alums in the area, Reed has made a home in Florida.

He and his wife, Bridget, live less than a mile from the beach. They have two children.

"One of my kids has even taken up surfing," he said.