Joy Robertson pursues love of information at KOLR-10

by Jan K. Allen

SBJ Contributing Writer

Joy Robertson, news anchor for KOLR, Channel 10, didn't set out to be a broadcast journalist, but looking back, she said, it may have been destiny.

Robertson has always had a fascination for news and informational television, and she remembers watching the news at a young age and assessing how it was produced. She was interested in things most people didn't even notice, such as camera angles and set arrangements.

After growing up in the small town of Russellville, Ark., Robertson left home for the first time to attend the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She started out to study business administration, but soon became disenchanted and switched her major to communications. The subject appealed to her creative side, she said.

She thought at the time she would seek a career in public relations or perhaps television production, but she said she never dreamed she was headed for a spot in front of the camera on the nightly news.

Shortly after graduating from the University of Arkansas in 1986, Robertson landed a job in Little Rock for a film production company, shooting commercials, writing scripts and meeting with clients. She still had not fully tapped into the curiosity and broad scope of interests that finally drew her to reporting.

"I could write a script for a commercial or infomercial, but I had no idea about journalism," Robertson said.

It was during her stay in Little Rock that Bill Clinton announced his intention to run for president. The C-Span Network wanted everything on Clinton her company could produce, thus she got her first taste of life as a reporter, following Clinton's speaking tours.

Robertson left the Little Rock job to seek a master's degree in journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Instead of writing a thesis, Robertson's masters' project was to serve for a year as assistant to ABC newscaster Sam Donaldson in Washington, D.C. It was a great way to learn to pay attention to detail, she said, and Donaldson was an excellent teacher.

"He challenged me at every turn," she added.

Robertson and her husband, Vernie Fountain, moved to Springfield a little over two years ago when she was chosen from a demo tape as a candidate for the anchor spot at KOLR. She had spent a little over two years in an anchor position at a station in Fargo, N.D.

Fargo's winters were too long, and it was too far from home, Robertson said. Springfield seemed an ideal location, centered between her hometown of Russellville and Columbia, where her husband has his roots.

Robertson officially starts her workday at 2 p.m. and usually gets home around 11p.m., she said. Her day is filled with information on late breaking news stories. Her focus is on local issues and things that affect people in the viewing area.

"Every day is full of stories," she said. "I try to look at what is going on in the world and locally."

Although Robertson has some leeway on coverage, the newsroom producer usually develops and edits the stories that are aired. Putting it all together takes team effort, and the crew of 20-plus people all have a hand in it, Robertson said.

Robertson's ongoing pet project is the spot she does on health and wellness. She said it has been particularly rewarding because she feels it has helped people learn about early warning signs to prevent catastrophic illness from taking hold.

KOLR is active in the fight against muscular dystrophy as a Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon broadcaster. Robertson is personally active with MDA and goes to the association's summer camp each year.

Looking ahead on local news coverage, Robertson said one of the top issues is sure to be violence among young people. People are going to have to look at security in schools, churches and at work to forestall future disasters, she said.

Robertson said the new Civic Park project is a subject that will claim a lot of attention in the next several months, and another hot-button issue will be the aging of the baby boom generation.

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