Mid-America Emmy Award-winning sports anchor Chad Plein leads by example. As sports anchor for KY3 Inc., Plein knows the value of a hard day’s work.
“There is a lot of information in my contract under job responsibilities, but I’m not one to see them as boundaries,” he says. “I can’t tell you the last time I worked a 40-hour week; they’ve been more like 55.
“But in the end, hopefully it’s that determination that spreads across the newsroom.”
It was that determination which led management to tap Plein for the sports anchor desk after five years as a news anchor and reporter. Plein replaces veteran reporter and Missouri Hall of Famer Ned Reynolds, who’s worked at KY3 nearly 50 years, since 1967.
“I want to live up to Ned’s standards and the viewer expectations,” Plein says. “Many see him as their grandfather.”
KY3 News Director Scott Brady says Plein made the station’s decision easy.
“He is one of the hardest workers in our newsroom and out in the Springfield community,” Brady says. “Chad loved to tell the stories of people who made a positive difference in our community … I knew there was only one person who could fill [Ned’s] shoes at 10 p.m. – that was Chad.”
In addition to the anchor gig, Plein is the face of the station’s new weekly high school sports program, “Ozarks Sports Zone.”
Plein says he offers his time at local area schools to talk about the journalism profession and sets aside time for job shadows to visit the station.
“I love passing along the basic values of telling the truth – you can’t tell lies in the media – and how reading, writing … is important,” he says.
Those journalistic values have led to four Mid-America Emmy nominations in addition to Plein’s 2013 win for sport anchor, an award presented regionally to one person in the approximately 64-station area.
Another defining moment for Plein was his nomination and crowning as Man of the Year for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Southwest Missouri. Through a 10-week blind fundraising campaign, Plein came out on top, earning the award and helping the 2012 campaign bring in a total of $50,000.
Though his hard work, Plein says it isn’t the newsroom or the community he hopes to influence most, but his 6-year-old son and best friend, Coy.
“It wasn’t his call for me to take the sports position and spend nights away from my family,” he says. “I hope to show Coy hard work pays off in life and things don’t come easy or without sacrifice.”[[In-content Ad]]
