Good Life Project - Al Roker | Weathering Life

Episode Date: August 6, 2020

Al Roker is a co-anchor of NBC’s Today, an Emmy-award winning journalist, and a New York Times bestselling author. He has been at NBC for 40 years and he's the celebrated host of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. He is also a host on SiriusXM's Off the Rails and the owner of production company Al Roker Entertainment, Inc. He recently starred in Broadway's Waitress.What many people don’t know, though, is that Al is also an award-winning television producer and CEO of Al Roker Entertainment, Inc. For the past 26 years, his company has produced TV programs and digital content for network, cable, digital, and streaming channels including The Weather Channel, Science Channel, Nat Geo, Food Network, Discovery, TLC, NBC, CBS, among others, as well as commercials, and branded entertainment for a wide array of sponsors and non-profits. The recent ARE production, Side by Side, celebrated the frontline workers in NYC. Al Roker Entertainment helps brands forge deeper connections by producing social good content through traditional storytelling, docu-dramas, first-person narratives, and reality TV-inspired feel-good themes. And, Al is also a writer, his latest book, You Look So Much Better in Person, (https://amzn.to/3jcF9HI) is part memoir and advice-guide for crafting a rewarding career.You can find Al Roker at:Website : https://alrokerentertainment.com/al-roker/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/alroker/-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So what do you think of when you hear the name Al Roker? Well, Al is my guest today. And most people think about the fact that he's been a co-anchor of NBC's Today, an Emmy award-winning journalist, New York Times bestselling author. He's been at NBC for 40 years. He's a celebrated host of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. He's also a host on Sirius XM's Off the Rails. But that is part of what we see as sort of like the forward-facing Al Roker. What's also been going on for the last 26 years behind the scenes is Al is the CEO of

Al Roker Entertainment, and they produce programs and digital content for network, cable, digital, streaming channels, everything from the Weather Channel, Nat Geo, and Food Network to TLC, NBC, CBS, and so many others. Recent productions also include Side by Side, a celebration of frontline workers in New York City. And they have helped brands forge deeper connections by producing social good content through storytelling, docudramas, first-person narratives, and reality TV-inspired feel-good themes. And Al is also a writer. In fact, he's written a lot of books.

His latest book, You Look So Much Better in Person, is this really fun and also valuable part memoir, part advice guide for crafting a rewarding career. We dive into all of this in today's conversation. So excited to share it with you. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist,

whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary.

Mayday, mayday, we've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die.

Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight Risk. It sounds like your jam when you were younger also was drawing, or being a cartoonist. That was the thing that was calling you. Yeah.

I loved animated cartoons. I love comics. My dream job was to be an animator for Walt Disney. And, and I really wanted to go a lot of the golden age comic book artists went to the New York school of graphic art and design public school. And I thought, okay, I'm going to go there for high school. And my parents said, no, you're not, you're not going to go to school to draw comics. You can do that at home. And I got a scholarship to Xavier High School, which was a Jesuit military school on 16th Street. So I thought that that would be it. But later on in life, I was able to work animation and stuff into some computer work that I did for doing the weather. to Xavier High School, we had a closed circuit television station where we did the news in the morning. And that got me interested in TV. Otherwise, I'm not quite sure what I would have done. Yeah.

I mean, I know you and I share another parallel, which is both AV crew nerds. Ah, there you go. Yep. I mean, and that was the thing. I mean, it was sad, really, looking back at it. You know, we just thought we were cool. and we were the antithesis of cool. Here we are wheeling around projectors and, you know, slide units and tape recorders on a rolling cart, you know, and we just thought we were it. I mean, we had our own little gang sign, you know, AV. I mean, it was, I was in perhaps every uncool activity in high school, again, because it was a military school.

I was in the supply corps where we supplied the uniforms and rifles and things like that. I was on newspaper. I was in the yearbook. I mean, just everything that said, I mean, thankfully it was an all boys school. Otherwise, I mean, because everything that said, I mean, thankfully it was an all boys school. Otherwise, I mean, because there was no way I was going to get dates anyway. So, you know, at least I had an excuse. Well, there are no, there are no girls here at school. So there you have it. Yeah. I mean, but that, it does sound like there was foreshadowing there, right? Because then you end up at Oswego really focusing on, I guess I didn't call it communications when you were there, it was more radio and TV.

Yeah, it was called radio and TV. There was, the only communications was you'd call somebody and say, hey, you want to go out, go out for a beer. But yeah, it was, it was interesting in that, you know, along the way, and I think for a lot of us, there's somebody who makes a decision that changes your life. It could be for good or for bad. For me, it was Dr. Lou O'Donnell, who was the department chairman at that time. But he was also Mr. Trolley on the Magic Toy Shop, which was a local kid's show on the CBS station. And we always used to make fun of him because he had like a trolley head and a cow catcher on his beard.

And we'd joke and he goes, yeah, you can go ahead and laugh, but that freaking trolley put my kids through college. But anyway, I guess the news director there said, hey, we're starting up a full complement of newscasts on the weekend. And so we need to have a weather person because up until then, they had one person do everything on the weekends. The anchorman read the news, read the sports.

So my department chairman put me up for the job. I did a tape at school. He took it down and I got the job. If he hadn't decided, oh, let's have Roker do the audition, I don't know what I'd be doing today. Yeah. I mean, when he first comes to you and says, hey, there's a spot on local TV, are you thinking,

oh no, that's not for me? Or are you thinking, yeah, I'm in, I'm going to go for it? You know, I didn't think I couldn't not do it, but I didn't have it on my mind that I wanted to be on TV. I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a producer. I didn't think, look, I was already at that point, I was already balding. I'm wearing glasses. I was chunky. I was black. I mean, this is 1974. I didn't think really that was my career path, being on camera. So when he came to me to do it, I thought, well, but we so revered this guy that if he said, do it, why not? If Doc thinks I can do this, then I'm going to do it. Yeah. Do you ever wonder, I'm fascinated by the concept of sliding doors. I've asked a bunch of people this. Do you ever reflect on the, the, the, the fortune or that moment and, and what might've happened had, you know, you taken the

class a different semester or had that one moment not have dropped into your life? Yeah. I think about it all the time. I try to, I guess you can go back to almost just about the time you come out of the womb, but I really do think for me, the thing that set everything into motion was really in elementary school when there was a program, the Jesuits ran a program called the Higher Achievement Program. It was for what they considered really gifted students, but who came from disadvantaged backgrounds. Now, I didn't think I came from a disadvantaged background. I mean, I thought we were middle class. We were probably looking back at it lower middle class. But if I hadn't gotten into that program and hadn't gone to Xavier High

School, I don't think the path would have gone. Look, it could have been that my parents hadn't gone to Xavier High School, I don't think the path would have gone. Look, it could have been that if my parents hadn't put me in Catholic school, if they didn't do that, then I wouldn't have been up for the higher achievement program. Would have gotten a Xavier, bum, bum, bum. So I guess you can keep peeling the onion. But I really do think that Xavier High School was the moment that kind of set me in this path. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's interesting also because your mom's from Jamaica, dad's from Bahamas. Well, my mom- Not first generation? Yeah, right, exactly. They're first generation. They were first generation. Right, which often, you know,

the child of first generation immigrants says, here, you feel this pressure within the family, you know, to pursue a limited sort of like number of opportunities. But it sounds like you didn't really feel that. No, I didn't. I, no, it was, I mean, my parents were very much, they wanted their kids to do what they wanted to do. You know, again, they, they,

my dad kind of fed into my predilections for AV, you know, he was a bus driver at the time and at the depot guys would show up selling stuff that fell off the back of a truck. And I remember one day he brought home a super, a super eight millimeter movie camera. And that kind of got, and I, like I said, I was always interested in animation. And so now I could make my own stop action movies in the basement.

Kind of, I had a Gumby and a pokey and, you know, created claymation type figures. Then he brought home a wall and sack 3m reel to reel tape recorder. And I started splicing audio. And so all those things, they knew what I was interested in and they fed into that. Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense. And it's also foreshadowing and we'll get to that also further down the road for you

when you actually decide to roll out your own brand with Al Rooker Entertainment. But when thinking about that first time, you know, when you're in college, stepping in front of a screen, you know, sort of, I'm assuming you're 19, 20, 21 years old. Do you have any recollection of that first moment? Oh, yeah. I remember having to fight the urge to look at the monitor to see what I looked like. Because, of course,

then you do it and you're looking down and you're not looking up. And I remember being very nervous and they made a tape for me to look at, which I do not have anymore. And my voice was kind of

went up a register. It wasn't good, you know, but it was okay. And then I and my school was about 35 miles north of Syracuse. And I drive drove back after the 11 o'clock news got back up at at school, back up to campus, probably 45 minutes later, 50 minutes later, whatever. And I decided to stop at the Oswego Sub Shop, which was like the sub shop. And I'm waiting for my order, which at the time was,

sorry to say, two subs. But anyway, because you never know when you're going to get hungry in the middle of the night. And the young woman behind the counter goes, I just saw you on TV. You're that weather guy. And it was like, wow. I mean, my first broadcast wasn't more than an hour, hour and a half old. And I've already been recognized. Yikes.

This is great. She gave me the sub for free. That was great. That's amazing. So it's sort of like instant validation in the community, like not just in front of a screen. I can't remember whether it was in your recent book, You Look So Much Better in Person, or whether it was something you've written or shared before.

But I recall that there was concern about, like you you said mid-70s um young black guy being on the station in kind of upstate-ish new york um am i making that up or was that no no i no i i and uh and you look so much better in person i talked about and it was funny because I realized that, in a sense, the station was kind of that going out on a limb. But, you know, there, I think, are a couple of each of the other two stations, maybe had one black person on there, but not sitting at the anchor desk. And I was going to be the first anchor, you know,

on a regular basis to sit at the desk. And the station was, they were a little concerned. So they, they hired a security guard and they put somebody on the switchboard. Nobody called in. There were no, you know, pitchforks and torches.

Nothing happened. And, and I always find that I think the people, the audience, constituents, whatever you want to call them, are usually ahead of the management or politicians. They don't give them enough credit. People are like, yeah, no big deal. And, you know, what a great thing in 1974 in upstate New York. It's funny because now here we are all these years later and things to a certain extent haven't changed. And now, but all of a sudden there's this feeling of change in that, you know, I came of age in the 60s, late 60s. I was in eighth grade in 1968. And, you know, there were protests.

There's all that. But this feels different. And I don't think it's because I'm just older now. I'm more cognizant of it. Yeah, I was fortunate enough to talk to the great Congressman John Lewis. And he said it feels different. He thinks it's different now. So, you know, I mean, talk about, you know, it's somebody who should know it's him.

So I feel pretty good about that. Yeah. I mean, it is, it's such an interesting moment we're in right now on, on a number of levels, but yeah, especially in the context of race and as me experiencing this as a middle-aged white guy, waking up to all sorts of interesting things. And you have the reference of you coming up in the 60s and seeing it from that perspective. I have a weird flashback memory of,

my dad was doing his PhD on campus at Columbia in 68. And I have a memory of being really little and being on campus when, you know, like NYPD comes and storms the campus and cops on Mounties. And not until recently did I actually ask my mom, I was like, did I just make that up? And she's like, no, we were there when all this was happening.

And I asked her, you know, like, she was kind of a hippie back then. I was like, you know, does this feel different to you from your perspective, too? And it seems like the pervasive answer to that question from almost anyone that I ask is it does. But people can't necessarily point to why they think it feels different. Yeah. I think it's, you know, it's funny. When you watch television and you see these commercials

and we're, it's almost like we're living in this post-racial world, you know, uh, which, look, I think it's great, you know, the interracial couples or folks who are kind of this amorphous race, you know, kind of things. And, and, you know, that's great. And, you know, gay couples and black and white, you go to the, you look at the parties on these commercials and everybody, I mean, it's just this fantastic life. And then real world, it's not so much like that. But you look at these, these protests and, you know, there are young white kids and Asian kids and Hispanic, Latinx kids and Black kids. And, you know, I mean, it's an amazing mix. I mean, you look at some of these protests and you see far more white people than you do people of color in some cities. So yeah, I mean, to me, it's a fairly tangible change. I mean, even I'm upstate New York, ironically now. And even here,

I've been surprised at the number of Black Lives Matters posters and signs in towns and on front lawns. It's really interesting. Yeah. I mean, it is interesting when you sort of drop into areas where you wouldn't expect it right now and you're seeing people really opening to not just having the conversation, but publicly representing a belief and this is what I believe and I want other people to know and I'm willing to take action and express myself around it. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work

with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Pel how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him.

Y'all need a pilot. Flight Risk. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just

15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. You, I mean, you also, you write about, I guess this was, you were in Cleveland. Oh, yeah. You come out of school, you end up in D.C. for a couple of years, and then you bop over to Cleveland where you're on air. I guess doing daily weather at that point. Yeah, I'm the weatherman on the 5, 6, and 11 o'clock news. And again, Cleveland was a fairly racially polarized city.

I mean, when I was there, there were areas you were told as a Black person, do not go. Do not go into Little Italy. Do not go to parts of the West Side of Cleveland. It's not safe for you. Okay. And, you know, look, you can, you sometimes bump up against, there's that abject, ugly racism. And then there's the subtler racism. I mean, when I was looking for a house, you know, I was calling a couple of real estate agents and then would show up and you could tell people were kind of taken aback. And it was like, one guy actually said, you look different than you sound. I said, what do you mean? He says, well, you know, I just differ. I said, meaning? He says, well, you didn't sound black. I said, well, I was on a white phone. And then I had an anchorman who had been in the market for a long time. And a lovely fella, and was married to his co-anchor.

And one night after the 11 o'clock news, a homeless guy happened to be African-American. Everybody knew the guy, older guy, came up for some reason behind Doug with a rolled up newspaper and smacked him on the back of the head and took off. I mean, there's no harm, no foul. It was more of a sure it's the shock of it more than anything else. And by the way, it's kind of what everybody wanted to do at the station to him. But that's another story.

You know, you got to remember this is kind of still in the same period as Ron Burgundy, you know. Well, the next day,

Doug's telling people all over what happened. Okay, yeah, blah, blah. Now we're on the show. We're on the air. It's the six o'clock news. We're live. And his wife, Mona is about to start. He's starting to introduce me. Oh, now

here's Doug interrupts. Mona, before you introduce Al, I just have to tell this. Al, I don't know if you know it, but last night, one of your people attacked me. Now, at that moment, time stands still. What do you do? Is it outrage? And I just looked at him. I said, Doug, why would a weatherman attack you? And then just kept going and doing the weather. Well, the phones lit up. People were outraged. And so he was suspended and came back as a reporter, eventually left the station, went on to Columbus, Ohio. And he and his wife had a good run there. But if you were to say to him, Doug, that was a really racist comment, I don't think he would have quite gotten it. Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine what must have

been going through your mind in real time. You're on air. So this isn't the type of thing where you can say what's probably really on your mind. And also, it's interesting because you're still a young guy at this point. You're just out in the world. You're a couple of years into this career that you want to build. And here's a person who's been in it for a long time. And I would imagine that there's certainly this spin cycle really rapidly cycling through your head, kind of wondering, do I blow this off with humor? Because I know that's an easy go-to for me. Do I make a statement? And if I play this out nine chess pieces down and 15 years later, what does this look like for me? And what are the stakes here? it in a sense. And I chose to do that, which I think made it a little stronger and I think

made people more upset and outraged that what the heck, you know? So, yeah, but a lot of people don't have that luxury. You know, I mean, I'm very fortunate, but the average person, sometimes average person of color, Black, Hispanic, has to almost suffer that indignity and silence. He was, as you described, he was moved somewhere else. You ended up still staying there for a number of years after that. But we kind of jumped over it like there was this short time in dc and i think that's the time where you first met willard scott yes yes who becomes a real mentor to you over the years yeah and you know it's funny back then i'm sure i mean the word existed but nobody used the term much, you know, like, oh, this is my mentor.

You know, the guy took me under his wing. And it was I was at this, you know, at the time, Channel 5 was the it was Metro Media, which later became Fox. But it was a station that really nobody was watching. To be honest, when I got the job, I'd been doing TV weather for two years at that. And I really wasn't ready for a major market. But luckily, this was a station that a lot of people didn't watch. So I was able to kind of cut my eye teeth at that station, make my mistakes and grope. But Willard, I guess, saw me and literally called up. I was picking up the phone.

Oh, is this Al Roker? I said, hey, it's Willard. Let's go to dinner. I said, well, right now I'm outside your station. He was the first guy I knew that had, he had this like radio telephone in his car. He had a big red Cadillac. It was the greatest.

Anyway, I came out the back of the station. There he was at the curb, got in, makes a hard U-turn, parks literally across the street, and we go to this Italian restaurant. And that was the beginning of our friendship. And I just talked to him a couple of weeks ago. He's 86, same age as my dad would have been. And he's just, you know, he's one of these people that I wanted. I didn't want to be Willard. I want to be the next. I didn't

want to be the next one. Because one of the things he told me was always be yourself. Be you. Because that's all he goes if you're somebody else then you're an invitation but i wanted to pattern myself in a sense after who he was and is because it's kind of like what you see is what you get you know he is he's willing and whether you you think he's corny or, I happen to think he's a genius. But that's who he is off screen, on screen. And that's, you know, I don't think I'm as good at it as he is. But my daughter, my middle girl, once about seven or eight years ago, her room was a mess.

And I just lit into her and all of a sudden i see these tears start falling and you go this isn't fair america always sees the happy al roker they never see this al roker uh kids will they'll always bring you back to that honest place. Yeah. But how cool is it that you end up connecting with this guy really early in your career who models not just the career, but also the way that is important to be as a human being, as a work,

and also models this notion of don't conform you to what you think the market or the producer or the station wants um but rather like stand in who you are which is for any any person in their 20s is a hard thing to do for somebody who's in the world of quote entertainment or on screen or broadcast there's that much more pressure to sort of fit a certain mold. And to see somebody who has modeled not doing that and then telling you the same thing had to have been pretty powerful. It was. In fact, when I was at that station, the news director called me in and said, look, I think you're terrific talent, but I don't think this is working as far as you do in weather. I think I'd love you to be the theater critic or do movie

reviews and stuff like that. I think that's what you're suited for. But take the weekend, think about it, and then let me know what you want to do on Monday. And, you know, I just decided that, you know, listen, I think I'm good at this and I don't want to change courses when I haven't really gotten a chance to take it out for a ride. So I was prepared to come in and tell him no. Got into work. Again, this is kind of pre-cell phones. And it turns out he had been let go when he came in that Monday. So I was like, I'd love to see another day. But I was prepared to say no. And I didn't know, was he going to fire me or what?

But that was really because of Willard. Yeah, sort of like gives you the fortitude to say, like, stick to what it is that you want to do. If you're at a point in life when you're ready to lead with purpose, we can get you there. The University of Victoria's MBA

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No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing.

Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot if we need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever,

making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. When you, so you land in Cleveland and then a couple years into that comes an opportunity in New York City.

You're New York born and bred and New Yorkers, we tend to have this pride slash arrogance about our city. And a lot of times when you head out early in life, a lot of times there's an aspiration to work your way back, but especially in the industry you're in. Sure. When you think about media, what are the markets that everybody is trying to get back into? Fundamentally, New York or L.A. are the really big ones. But New York, I think, is really seen as the capital of the media world.

Oh, sure. Was it an aspiration of yours from sort of the early days to get back into the market? Yeah. I mean, it was one of those, it really was aspirational because, you know, look, because first of all, the Today Show never was even something I was thinking about. I mean, that's not possible. But if you look at it in New York City, there are six commercial television stations. And at the time, you know, I guess they were all doing newscasts, but so there's a limited number of jobs. And what are the odds that one of those are up when I'm

ready? So, you know, I've been in Cleveland for five years and I, I just gone through a divorce and our station was doing well. We had moved from third to second and we're getting ready. We were knocking on the door for first place. And my news director, a woman named Chris Ostrowski, and I write about this and you look so much better in person, did one of the most extraordinarily generous things for a manager. There was a job opening for weekends at WNBC. She called me into her office and she said, you know, this guy, Cliff Morrison, who had been the weekend weather guy, he's been gone now, you know, seven or eight months.

They are desperate to find a weekend weather person. And at the time, the station was owned by NBC. And she said, you really ought to apply for that job in New York. What? She said, you should, you need to go. You really do. You should have your agent call. Tell him to tell Bob Davis to call me, who was the news director in New York, that it's okay. You need to go. Wow. So my agent calls. I go down, meet some folks, they don't even have to be doing audition. I finish up and my agent calls and says, job's yours. We just have to work out the details. And I get back to Cleveland and I thank her. And then I start feeling a little homesick in

the station in Cleveland, although the general manager didn't know that the news director told me to do this. And so he comes and calls my agent and says, look, we're ready to move into first place. We can't break up the team. I tell you what we'll do. We're going to pay him. We're going to raise, he will be the second highest paid anchor in Cleveland. If he would stay for two more years, we guarantee he'll move, we'll move him back to New York at the salary he's making, which is more than he would have made in New York. And just if he just stays. And so my agent presents this and I think, wow. And so I decide, you know what? I'll stay in Cleveland. I love it in Cleveland. I had a wonderful time. And my news director hears this and calls me and says, are you out of your blanking mind?

He says, now is the time to leave. As your news director, I want you to stay. As your friend, it's time for you to leave now. And I left. And the irony is, I got to New York. Six months later, the Monday through Friday weatherman, the legend, Frank Field, left to go to Channel 2. I worked for eight weeks in a row with two days off. And then I was given his job.

And if I had stayed in Cleveland, go. If somebody else slides in there and probably take, keeps that job for years and years. Another sliding door, as you mentioned. Yeah. And,

and also, I mean, then there was the evening news team in New York on NBC. Then also that was like Sue Simmons. That was. Sue Simmons, Jack Cafferty, Chuck Scarborough, Pia Lindstrom, Frank. evening news team in new york on nbc then also that was like sue simmons that was sue simmons jack tafferty chuck scarborough pia lindstrom uh frank this legendary team chauncey howell katie kelly marv albert len berman uh sal marciano anna bond carol jenkins i mean it it's a who's who gabe pressman ralph penza i, these are all people I grew up watching.

You know, I mean, not Sue so much, but, you know, Sue and Chuck were a legend. So, you know, it was one of those. And the irony is, or the interesting, but I subscribed to New York Magazine when I was living in Cleveland. And I remember going out to my tree lawn and getting my mail and there on the cover is a picture of the live at five team and the headline says the hottest show on tv and i remember thinking i will never be part of something that big yeah and then a year later i was yeah that um you end up sliding in really fast it's kind of trial by fire when you get there and that also pretty pretty quickly leads to you kind of tagging in

for the today show right on a sort of like filling in here and there yeah i've been there a couple of years and then started right again for willard and then then, was it 95, 96, 97 when you're full-time on Today? Yeah, it's 95. In 87, I started doing the Sunday Today show. And so I'm doing the 5, 6, and 11, Monday through Friday, and then the Sunday Today show. And then I switched over to Saturdays. But filling in for Willard more and more. And then in 95, you know, Willard, again, the generosity and how he affected my life. He said he came to me and he said, look, I'm going to tell him it's time for me to, you know, skedaddle a little bit. I'm going to kind of semi-retire. I'm telling him, you should get the job. He goes, I can see the writing on the wall, but I think I'd make a better deal if I, you know, voluntarily step away. And he does. And I get the job. And that was one of those, I can't believe this.

I just never thought anything like that would happen. Yeah. And that was, and you've been there ever since. I mean, there's an interesting inflection also that I'm curious about, which is over time, you start to expand what you're doing, right? So you're doing more stories and you're doing interviews and there's more journalism that's coming into what you're doing. I'm curious, was that an intentional thing from you? Was that just an organic process? And I'm curious about that. You know, it was not an organic process. I mean, it was an organic process. I'd like to say that it was me, but I'm not that good.

But I've been very fortunate throughout my career that I've always done more than just the weather. I've had this hunger to do different things. And so when I worked in Syracuse, I did feature reporting. And when I was in Cleveland, and in Washington, I tried to do other things just because I like doing stuff. And my respective stations were happy to have somebody raise their hand and do more stuff. So it just kind of happened. And I didn't really plan it. But as you mentioned earlier, I'm from Caribbean roots. We all tend to like to have a

side hustle or to do more than one thing. And my job was, I thought, to make myself as indispensable as possible, that I was value-added. And so I always liked doing other things. Yeah. Which also speaks to you starting your own company, right? So you end up starting Al Rooker Entertainment, which ends up becoming a full-fledged media company, production, doing your own shows, producing branded entertainment for others, documentary style stuff. Did that start out as sort of like a smaller side hustle? Like, let me see what happens. Was that intentional to start your own major thing? No wasn't it was uh but i as i said i always wanted to be a producer uh i didn't necessarily want to be on air and uh in like 94 a former station manager at wnbc was running the

food network and she tapped me said could i you know she knew how much I love food. She said, would you like to do a couple of specials for us? Sure. Did a couple and they did well. Could we do another couple? I said, okay. Then they said, we'd like you to do eight more. In the process, I saw what the process was. I said, well, heck, I could do this.

I asked to produce them myself. She said, well, heck, I could do this. And so I asked to produce them myself. And she said, yes. And after the first couple, I looked and I thought, well, you know, we're going outside to a production house to edit these things. I could buy an avid production editing unit. And by the end of the end of the series, I own my own unit own unit i mean it would more than pay for itself so that's how it kind of started and we started we did another series for them uh and then started doing other things and you know all of a sudden and what's interesting is how you know it's almost like the business has gone back to the future in that when i first started in television it was at least in syracuse it was a one what they call a one-man band you would shoot they

shot and did the did the audio and i would edit the film i would edit film and then you'd get we got to i got to washington and they had three person crews and you know eventually that went down to two like there was a lighting person and then and then i got to new york city same thing three person crew then down to two well now we're getting to the point where it's one person cruise again or or you're doing it yourself and in my in my production life you know we started out in a one room place place, and then we kind of expanded. And then all of a sudden, with the gig economy and everything, all of a sudden we said, and being able to edit on laptops, now we're in a WeWork. In a smaller space, we don't need the big footprint.

We don't need myriad numbers of edit rooms. So technology has a way. I mean, it advances you, but it kind of brings you back. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting how that ties into what's happening over the last three, four months right now. It feels like because so many people were forced out of the studios and out of whatever offices they were in. And while there was this, you know, in, on an individual level we've all become our own camera people on our own still you know when you think about broadcast media it wasn't really going there but now you know it feels like circumstance has forced an acceleration

of every every conceivable element of broadcast level production. It's sort of like it's created a re-imagining where, you know, like, what can we do? What are we actually capable of doing with a fully distributed, oftentimes home-based or on location-based crew or person or setup? And I wonder if this will go back. And if so, like, what will it look like? How will go back and if so,

like what will it look like? How will it be changed? Yeah, I don't know. We talk about that all the time. I think people are accepting this now because they know intrinsically this is how it has to be. And, but as we hopefully in the not so distant future come out of this, you know, I think if given a choice between a well-produced, well-shot story slash interview or a somewhat grainy, little jittery Zoom-based story, I think people are going to want the nice looking thing.

I mean, this is fine because we know it. And this is what we know that this is kind of all there is. But I think people naturally or even subconsciously want it to look nice. Yeah. I mean, it's, we're sort of like figuring the same thing out. For six years, we only recorded in person in a studio. And so we've switched, you know, you and I are, you know, I'm in the city or upstate New York right now. So it's been a really interesting, almost creative constraint to try and figure out how close can

we actually get, you know, the reason you and I are on a platform right now where we can see each other on video, even though we don't record and air the video is because it, you know, we're trying to get closer to the visual reference that helps with the conversation. So I think it's a really interesting experiment that I'm fascinated to see where people land. I mean, right now I'm doing my show from my garage. I've got an iPad that has this app on it called Live U. I've got a 60-inch touchscreen that I can do weather on. And thankfully, we've now got fiber optic cable up here.

Before, I was on DSL. I mean, it was like one step up from dial-up. So it just got it about three, four, well, five months ago. Had this happened six months ago, I couldn't have done it. But, you know, it is an interesting technology has taken us to a different place. And it's going to be interesting to see where we go from here. Yeah, absolutely. It occurs to me also that the work that you've done with Elroker Entertainment is it's almost the extension of it's like the foreshadowing result of you being a little kid with the Super 8 and the Claymation.

It's you stepping back into the role of the creator and the producer. And instead of in front of the camera saying, okay, so this was such an integral part of me. Now let me build something that allows me to play in that domain. Yeah. And we get to do – I suppose the company could be bigger if we did certain kinds of programming. I've chosen not to. You know, we just produced a special for WNBC called Side by Side NYC, where we looked at the frontline workers at some of the Northwell health hospitals. And it was, a lot of it was shot by then because, again, because of COVID, we did some interviews that were, you know, safe, socially distanced.

But it was very gratifying to be able to, in this kind of environment, produce something. Doing something with a group called Life Aid, where that looks at vets who are suffering from PTSD and brain injuries because there's not a lot of work being done. So it shines a light on something. And it's with the Cerner Group. But again, you know, even though these shows may be, quote, branded entertainment, you know, they're doing good. And so I'm happy to do that kind of thing. Yeah.

I mean, I'm curious, actually, how actually, how important is that to you? To be a part of the creative process, I get, is important. To work with a crew of people who seems like you really enjoy being around and to enjoy the work that you do on a daily basis is important. The larger ethos of doing good, like creating work that does good, How driven are you by that? Yeah, I want to make sure that when people watch our shows, A, they don't feel like they've wasted their time, and B, they're thinking a little bit and that they feel like they come away a little bit better or feel a little bit better than when they started watching. They maybe feel a little bit better about the human condition or feel more hopeful. You know, we did a show a few years ago for the Weather Channel on the Coast Guard, which was, to me, one of the great unsung members of, I mean, they're not even considered a branch of the military in a sense,

but do just incredible work and fairly on a, under the radar basis. And, and, you know, to bring those stories out of heroism kind of before it was fashionable felt good. Yeah. I feel like it's it's an increasingly important part of what, when the world of media is so crowded right now across every channel that if you're going to put something out to try and make it more signal than noise. Yeah. And it's hard. It's really hard in some ways to get to break through. I mean, forget about all the cable channels now, the streaming apps and all that, you know, to break through.

Sometimes it helps to have a branded partner because they will do what it needs. They will do what it takes to their interest to do that, whether it's buying commercials to promote the program it's going to run or taking out digital ads, things like that. Today, to break through is almost as difficult as producing the show itself. Yeah, completely agree. It is an interesting world. One of the things that's dropped into your creative domain also over the years is writing. And, you know, you shared that in the very beginning, that was part of what you wanted to do. And you have over the years co-written a series of murder mysteries. Starting back, I think it was around 2009, you

co-wrote a book with your wife. Yes. And this latest book, You Look So Much Better in Person, which I loved and it shares, it's very personal, a lot of stories. I'm wondering what itch the writing scratches that isn't,

because you have so many other things going on, so many other ways to express yourself creatively. What itch does the writing side scratch for you i love to read you know i i've always loved to read my mother was an avid reader and i think in a way a lot of times we do things to uh impress our parents and i always thought you know mom would be really impressed if i wrote a book and so my first book was don't make me stop this car adventures in fatherhood and uh she was, oh, look at you. You're a writer, you know. And now 13 books later, here I am. But, you know, everything, I think it kind of, my writing almost mirrors where I feel like I am in my life. You know, the fatherhood, a young father, not so young father, I was really getting into cooking. So I wrote a cookbook, you know, I've always loved murder

mysteries. And so I, you know, decided to write a murder mystery and just, you know, you just go. And I, you know, and I just thought right now, you know, I think there's a lot of negativity out there. And I wanted to write something that people could read, feel positive about, and maybe glean something out. And so that's why this came up. But I don't know that I was intentionally trying to scratch an itch, but I do enjoy it. I enjoy the process. I like words. And I like, I worked with a woman named Paula Vitale, who helped me organize all these thoughts. And I like the collaborative process. I like, I like everything. You know, it's, I got a Kindle

years ago, and I've stopped using it. I like the physicality of a book and I love technology. Don't get me wrong, Jonathan. I love it. But I really have been moving more and more back into the analog. And this book kind of takes me from, again, you know, starting out in high school and college and taking me to now. And it goes from the analog to the digital. But I'm trying to get back.

But the title, You Look So Much Better in Person, is one of those things that kind of came through organically. It's something that is said to me at least once a day when I go out to the plaza to shake hands. I mean, obviously, we're not doing it now, but somebody will say, oh my gosh, you look so much better in person. And I want to say, you know, that's really not a compliment when you break it down. I know they meant it as such, but given that I make my living on TV, you know, it, it really looking better in in person isn't really high praise indeed. It would be as if somebody said to you, oh, my gosh, you sound so much better in person

because when it's because the inferences on these podcasts, it's like fingers on a chalkboard. But here, not so bad. Yeah, I love it. Feels like a good place for us to come full circle as well. So we're sitting in here in this remote container of good life project. If I offer up the phrase to live a good life, what comes up? when everything goes wrong, you still have those people. That your life and their lives have crossed together and you could still have a good life, but it wouldn't be as good without them. Thank you.

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