Ideastream’s Rick Jackson to retire after 45 years in broadcasting

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Rick Jackson has been a fixture on Cleveland tv and radio for greater than 25 years over two separate stints. However in June, the host of “The Sound of Concepts” and “NewsDepth” on Ideastream’s native NPR and PBS associates is asking it a profession.

“It’s simply time,” Jackson, 66, instructed cleveland.com. “I’ve been doing tv for 45 years. I needed to make the 20-year mark at Ideastream, which I did.”

Medical points sidelined Jackson for 5 months in 2021. And now whereas “most days are fairly good,” he admitted the well being scare performed a task within the choice.

“That type of made me sit again and take a look at what I wish to do, and what I wish to do is journey much more,” he mentioned.

The Pittsburgh native started his broadcasting profession at Bethany Faculty, graduating in 1978 with aspirations of changing into a community information anchor. Early stops included TV stations in Huntington and Wheeling, each in West Virginia, and Memphis, Tennessee.

“It wasn’t about being on TV,” he mentioned. “It was about telling tales, assembly individuals, speaking to individuals. I used to be a voracious reader from the time I used to be a child, and it simply led me on that path. I by no means actually needed to do anything.”

In 1983, he arrived in Cleveland, working as a reporter and weekend anchor at WKYC Channel 3, then owned and operated by NBC.

“I believe there was an awakening within the business that they didn’t have sufficient African Individuals on tv,” he mentioned. “So, they had been on the lookout for good individuals. I used to be truly recruited by three totally different stations and selected Cleveland.”

Familiarity was a part of the rationale. As a teenager, Jackson frolicked in Northeast Ohio visiting household and listened to video games that includes the now-Cleveland Guardians on the radio. The town was nonetheless a high ten TV market on the time.

“It seemed like a enjoyable place to be,” he mentioned.

Jackson spent three years in Cleveland throughout that first stint because the up-and-comer on a information group that included native legends Leon Bibb, Judd Hambrick and Al Roker. He moved on to Charlotte in 1986 and spent 9 years on the NBC affiliate there. In 1995, he realized that dream of changing into a community information anchor on CBS’ in a single day newscast “Up To The Minute.”

“I can actually say it’s the most effective job I’ve ever had– the issues I bought to do, the individuals I bought to interview and meet,” he mentioned. “We had been seen closely all over the world. My associates who traveled would say, ‘Hey, Rick, I noticed you.’ Oh yeah, the place you had been? (They’d say) Brazil or Dubai. Due to the time change, for lots of parents, we had been the prime information.”

The expertise, together with the opposite stops alongside the best way together with a post-network gig in Philadelphia, allowed him to attain what he describes because the spotlight of his profession. Jackson has interviewed 5 presidents a complete of 11 occasions: Jimmy Carter and Invoice Clinton 3 times every, each Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush twice, and George W. Bush as soon as.

“That’s fairly cool,” he mentioned. “To get to see them after they’re not the man on stage and get to truly hang around with them for a little bit bit– that’s exhausting to beat.”

His fondness for the area and a little bit of serendipity introduced Jackson again to Cleveland in 1999, this time at WOIO Channel 19. He joined Ideastream because the native anchor of NPR’s “Morning Version” in 2003 and later hosted the nationally syndicated PBS public affairs sequence “Village America” and “Concepts,” the successor to “Feagler & Associates,” on WVIZ Channel 25. His resume additionally features a season as host of “Tutorial Problem” on WEWS Channel 5 and 6 regional Emmy awards.

So, for elements of 5 many years, Jackson, a member of each the Ohio Broadcasting Corridor of Fame and the Press Membership of Cleveland’s Journalism Corridor of Fame, has been a gentle voice locally, conserving viewers and listeners knowledgeable and serving to them make sense of the information throughout the good occasions and the not-so-good ones, too.

“I believe the phrase renaissance will get overused,” he mentioned. “However Cleveland did have a renaissance after we take into consideration the place we had been the primary time I used to be right here within the mid-’80s in comparison with the growth 12 months of 2016. With nationwide conventions and sports activities titles, the concept of what we might be in 2016 wasn’t even a fathom of a thought in 1985.”

On today, Jackson’s thoughts, a minimum of for a second, was on his post-retirement plans. They embrace spending extra time together with his 94-year-old mom, persevering with his volunteer work and touring the world together with his spouse of almost 41 years, Brenda Cain, a reporter at cleveland.com and The Plain Vendor.

“We’ve by no means been to Europe. On the identical time, there’s a lot of the USA we’d prefer to see,” he mentioned. “I’m in a race with my sister to get to 50 states, however she’s within the 40s and I’m nonetheless at 39.”

“We now have longed dreamed of doing a baseball tour, following the Guardians across the nation for a season and driving the complete size of Route 66,” added Cain, ensuring to say the “honey-do record” she has ready for her husband.

For now, the couple has a while — greater than a month — to pin down their first vacation spot and for Jackson to consider his parting message for that remaining broadcast in June.

“I’ve not given a single thought,” Jackson mentioned. “Now you’re worrying me. I’ve to consider one thing?”

He laughed, took a beat after which added, “I’ve been actually shocked by the outpouring of affection since this (choice) went public. I didn’t understand the impression that I had on so many lives. You simply wish to do job and to have individuals dissatisfied that I’m leaving, it’s an honor.

“I thank them for that.”