5 February 2004

Jim Jackson:

Famous Four-State Television Personality

Many know his name and many know his face. He is a superstar of sorts in the Four-State area, yet he is ever humble about his accomplishments. He sits patiently at his desk waiting for me to ask my first question. A born speaker, he begins to tell me about his life.

On October 8, 1953, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a town only a two hour drive away from Pittsburg, a celebrity was born. Soon to be famous, James Ward Jackson spent his childhood in a multitude of places. After a brief stint at Central Missouri State College, “Jim” Jackson, as so many television news viewers know him, made a transition into radio and later landed a job at KSN TV, Channel 16. Jim teaches in his spare time--he was even making lesson plans before our interview. He is friendly and affable, traits that come in handy for such a public figure and role model.

Promotional Picture of Jim Jackson for KSN TV 16

My full name is James Ward Jackson. [I was born] October 8, 1953 [in] Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’m an only child. My dad’s name was James Jackson. He was James H. Jackson; so I’m not really a junior. He was an oil company executive. My mother was, uh, Louis Jackson and she was a homemaker. They’re both deceased.

I went to elementary school in Vinita, Halsel [elementary school]. I was born in Tulsa and I grew up in Vinita, Oklahoma, which is not far from here. It’s about an hour from Joplin. And when I was twelve, we moved to Richmond, Missouri; that’s up near Kansas City. My dad got transferred [from Tulsa].

I had a happy childhood. You know, back when I was young we didn’t have all the technology and the internet and computers and things of that nature. So, basically, I lived in [a] neighborhood with a lot of young children and we played baseball, basketball, and football and enjoyed everything.

I was always fascinated by records. You know, the Beatles came out in 1964. They came to America. Somehow I just got interested in music. It’s kinda like today. You know, back then, it was just something new and we’d listen to radio a lot and I would go to the record store. We didn’t have Wal-Mart back in 1964. I would look at the list, the play lists of the records, and somehow I would memorize that--just like I would baseball statistics and football things and really got involved in music. It always came naturally. You know, history was always easy for me, numbers, memorizing things of that nature. I always thought it (being on the radio) was fascinating, even at an age like eleven and twelve. It’d be neat to be on the radio. I would always listen to the radio and to music, just kinda grew up with that. That’s what I remember, like when I was, you know, nine, ten, or eleven years of age. But I had a good, happy childhood.

I mean, [as] I grew up, my parents didn’t get the belt on me every time [I got in trouble]. You had little duties; and [as a] typical child, you took out the trash, you did duties, and you just learned responsibility and things that you carry over to your lifestyle. I was rewarded when I would make good grades, you know like a nickel and a dime, where today kids get maybe twenty dollars or fifty dollars for doing very well. I used that to learn the value of money, and would save my money to buy the things I wanted so I never received a handout from my parents. “Ah, here’s twenty dollars, go buy something,” you know. I had to work for my money. [I spent the money on] uh, usually new baseball bats, new baseballs, things of that nature, baseball cards. Even back then we didn’t have a lot of frivolous things to buy. I mean, my parents bought the clothes and things; and guys aren’t into having new shoes. You didn’t have the fancy tennis shoes or athletic shoes back then. So, [I bought] just fun things for young boys.

We didn’t have all the distractions, you know--computers, and games, and the things in town. Like I said, you live in a town where there’s no Pizza Hut, no activities to go to, there wasn’t much to do in small town America. If you think Pittsburg is boring, you should’ve been there about thirty or forty years ago when there was really nothing to do.

[Contrasting my life to today,] I think, “Boy, if we had had computers when I was your age, we would’ve been just Einsteins.” It’s just amazing what technology and what the Internet has done the last ten years. You have your library right here in front of you. You think about it. I think it (having new technology) helps. I’m doing lesson plans now. The publisher [of the textbook] gives me a CD, and I just print my test right off there instead of me actually doing all the typing. It’s even better than cutting and pasting. It’s already done for the teachers. It makes my life a lot easier, and especially for the students. It’s just amazing what’s out there if you know how to use it. When I was in school, we had to go to the library to find the research. It took time to look through all the books and Xerox things off if you wanted to take them home with you. [Technology] that’s the biggest change [in my life].

Even on television back in the sixties you only had three channels: ABC, NBC, and CBS. You didn’t have fifty channels on the cable or a hundred. You didn’t have MTV, and the Weather Channel, and all the movie channels, HBO, and things. You had three basic channels so you would watch those. Basically, your life was structured. You got up, you went to school, you came home and played. You did your homework and you went to bed by nine o’ clock and that was pretty much it. During that time, we didn’t have a lot of other distraction.

My parents always watched the news at six o’clock. I never really got to see the news at ten o’clock, but they always watched the news. They would get up in the mornings and watch the Today program, The Today Show on NBC. So, I always watched the news and that’s how I learned about current events. It helped in school, in geography, history and things of that nature.

[When I was younger, I wanted to] either be on the radio or be a pitcher for the New York Yankees. Honestly, I mean, back then, you kind of idolized the baseball [players]. [One of my favorite players was] George Brett, number five for the Kansas City Royals and Hall of Famer. He was third baseman for the Royals from 1973 until 1993, and we’re the same age. We didn’t have all the music people to idolize. You know, it was either the Beatles or baseball, and I always enjoyed baseball. But then a little later and I loved music, and always thought it’d be nice to be on the radio. I’ve just always enjoyed music, and I relate music [to my life].

There was a lady, Edith Taylor, who was my fifth and sixth grade instructor. Back then, I was kinda in the gifted classes where they combined a lot of fifth and sixth graders together. They had just started that in Oklahoma. It was an accelerated program, back in Oklahoma [in] 1963-‘64. But she was very inspirational because she was one of my younger teachers. Before [they] looked like they were real old teachers, teachers with their hair in a bun and high top shoes. And they, you know, really didn’t care so much. It was just your basic education. But she was a little younger, probably in her late thirties, and she really took an interest in a lot of us and helped develop a lot of our skills. That was in elementary school.

[Richmond, Missouri is] where I graduated [from] high school. Small graduating class. There was just a hundred and two in our class so it was a fairly small class in Missouri. And, uh, then my folks retired in Grove, Oklahoma, where my mom’s originally from. My parents retired after I was in college.

My first job was when I was fourteen. I’ve had a job ever since I’ve been fourteen. I’ve worked as a janitor at a bank in the summer. I would work in the cornfields, the soybean fields up in North-Central Missouri, and made good money. Then I went to work in 1970 at a real nice men’s clothing store, where you sold suits and nice clothes and shoes. This was [in] Richmond, Missouri. I worked there during my junior and senior year in high school, and I was involved in Distributive Education, COE (Cooperative Occupational Education). They have Distributive Education Clubs of America. They had like VICA (Vocational Industrial Clubs of America), vocational, and DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America). They have them, I know, here in Missouri and I was involved in that, and I won regional competitions in Kansas City for sales demonstration. I was good at marketing, and I went to state and I went to [the] national competition in 1971 in San Antonio. My high school was so small, we didn’t have a speech or debate class; and they didn’t really incorporate much of that in your English classes or your college preparation English. So that [marketing experience] really helped me deal with people as far as talking and communicating.

I’m kinda bashful and shy--not introverted. You know, when you have to perform, you perform. But, back then, that [marketing experience] was what helped me at that time (in high school) to get over being nervous in front of large groups of people. I teach speech at the college (Crowder College); and probably everybody would rather get poked in the eye with a sharp stick than have to get up and give a speech. That [marketing experience] really helped me get over a lot of my fears.

I was always good in writing. Guys weren’t supposed to do well in those types of things. I got into high school and I still did well in writing and history, and I always loved current events--you know, and that’s basically what news is because you’re reporting things that go on around your community or around the country and things. And I always enjoyed that. [I] did well with politics and always took an interest in that, more so than science and math. I didn’t do very well in math and algebra. I mean, I took those and passed; but it just didn’t interest me, numbers like that. It didn’t thrill me like history did. I think looking at history to see where we’ve gone [is important so that] we don’t repeat some of the mistakes that have been made.

I was [involved in many activities] in high school. I wrestled, and [was] a four year letterman in wrestling. I went to college on an athletic scholarship. I played baseball in the summer. I wrote [articles when I was a] senior in high school, [for the] school newspaper, but we didn’t have an elaborate newspaper. Back then, I think maybe we put out six newspapers throughout the year. And we didn’t have--thirty, thirty-five years ago--journalism teachers at your high school. I mean, a lot of the journalism that they got in high school was putting the yearbook together. [I wasn’t interested in yearbook because] I worked part of the school day and [did] athletics and [when I got] home, [I had] time to get [my] homework [done]. I worked on Saturdays, so it was busy.

I first went to college after high school at Central Missouri State [in] Warrensburg, Missouri. I didn’t apply myself the best I should have, and I ended up getting drafted and I joined the navy, the U.S. Navy. So then, I spent four years active in the U.S. Navy.

[Going into television broadcasting is] something that, you know, as you’re growing up you don’t expect. Back then [when I was just getting into broadcasting], to get into this job, I didn’t know what it entailed or anything. During the fifties and sixties, people who were on television normally had a big, strong background in radio. They moved from radio into television. After I got out of the Navy, I went to work for a radio station for three years before I came into television. I finished college [at Missouri Southern State College]. So it (radio) was an easy stepping stone for me, from radio into television. And ‘cause with radio, you learn to ad lib a lot--work without something really scripted [or] a paper that you’re reading--you learn to think off the cuff, and think a little faster. That really helped me.

[At Missouri Southern State College] you’d interview some of the other instructors or professors on campus, and you would write an article. Hopefully, if yours was good enough, you’d get published in the school newspaper. So it (getting your article published) was a little competition. A few of [my] articles [did get published]. [I wrote] human interest [articles], you know, about people on campus. [I] tried to be [very observant] at the time.

I had some really good instructors. Maybe at the time you think, “Ah, these teachers don’t know anything.” But you really appreciate them, more so, after you start working in the profession. You look back and you go, “Yeah, they were really pretty sharp; they knew what they were talking about.” I did have some good instructors [as] I look back through school. [For example] Richard Massa, at Missouri Southern. He’s still in the area, but he’s retired. He was my advisor in college. He was an inspiration for a lot of people getting into the business. He was very smart, and very savvy about the business of broadcasting itself. He’d been around a newspaper and worked in larger newspapers. His expertise was newspapers, but then he got into broadcasting and teaching. He was just, you know, very sharp. [He gave me] good advice and [he kept] trying to steer you in the right direction and [gave you] words of encouragement. That helped. There’re a lot of teachers that I could go on and on about, several of them; but he was one that really stands out.

Jim Jackson with the rest of the KSN TV 16 “Hometown News” team

My job [now is] I come in, put on makeup, and read the news. That’s on a good day. No, I come in about one o’clock. It’s changed; I don’t go out and report the news so much anymore. It’s a team effort, and it takes a lot of people to put the news together. By the time I come in, reporters have already been out on their stories, and we have a meeting at two o’clock in the afternoon to learn the stories of the day. I work with Robin (KSN’s producer) over here, and the other reporters, and Tiffany (co-anchor) and we line the stories up the way we want in our newscast. It has to be exactly thirty minutes. Everything is timed out for us. These stories are already written in blue, already finished and ready to go. See, I’ve written quite a few stories. (pointing to the computer screen). Yeah, we still write a lot of stories. Our job is to proofread, and check reporter’s stories grammatically. I mean, if she’s (points to Robin) over there typing a story, I can just pop it out and look at it, and make changes that I want. It’s all live, I actually have copies in front of me in case the teleprompter should break down. But there’s a lot of ad-libbing material in there when you’re talking to Gary (KSN’s meteorologist), and the sports guys (Sports anchors Shawn Terrell and Lowell Galindo). A good communicator can do that. It takes time; takes a little practice. So when I make the joke that all we do is put on makeup and read, you know, that’s what some people think we do; but there’s a lot involved in the background. It takes all day to prepare a five, six, and ten o’clock newscast. All of us sit here [at] these little computers. There’s somebody here working throughout the day, whether it’s early in the morning or throughout the afternoon. [In the] evening there’s not so many people here. It’s usually Robin over here, and me, and Tiffany, and maybe a nightside reporter. It’s a little more laidback at the nighttime. It’s not as busy. A lot of people don’t know [that]. I used to think, “Well, what a neat job. They probably come in at five or five-thirty, sit down and read the news; and they’re gone for dinner for three hours and come back at nine-thirty, and that’s all they do.” But [that’s not true]. I get off [work] right at ten-thirty, ten thirty-five and it takes me about thirty minutes to get home. So, it’s a long day; but you get used to it. You think nothing of it.

We (KSN) subscribe to a lot of newspapers from the area. We have one person that’s called the assignment editor, Stuart Price, and he goes through daily newspapers. People send us press releases. With the fax machine, we always get information from every Congressman, Senator, [and all the] local representatives. We have on our computers here, the Associated Press. We can get all types of news whether its news minutes, around [the] state, around the country, around the world, news off NBC. You can get sports, you can get weather, all that information and we get things from there (the Associated Press on the computer). We have reporters, and they have what they call “beats” that they should develop. [Beats are] areas that you cover. Maybe one reporter will cover Pittsburg and Columbus, Kansas. Maybe someone else will cover City Hall, someone will cover the Courthouse. You develop contacts and you get news that way. Or someone’s covering news out of City Hall, and they develop a report [on] the people there--the mayor, the city manager. They’re always getting news out of those areas. And then you have a general assignment reporter, whether it’s newspaper or TV. They can go just about anywhere that’s needed that particular day.

[One of the most memorable times of my job was when] we (KSN TV) used to host a big golf tournament in town, [the] Mickey Mantle Golf Tournament. They would bring back a lot of the old ball players from years ago. I got to meet most of them, and get to introduce them at these dinners. That was really a thrill for me. This was back in the late eighties, early nineties here in Joplin--when Mickey Mantle was alive. He died, like in 1995. They used to have these golf tournaments to raise money for Missouri Southern State College, and one of the hospitals’ children’s funds. He would bring back baseball major league players back in the fifties, sixties. They would come here, play golf, and the money we raised would help local charities. So it was a big, big event for about ten years. I mean it was a thrill. It’d be like if you got to meet Justin Timberlake or ‘N Sync. You know what I mean, Britney Spears. You’d go, “Wow!” We used to host a lot of the old country concerts. [I] met Alan Jackson, and Randy Travis, and Mark Chestnut, and Reba McEntyre, and Kenny Rogers and all those big, popular singers. They’re just people like the rest of us; but it’s still fun to get to meet them, celebrities.

This job, it’s something new and exciting every day. When you come to work, you don’t know what to expect because news happens twenty-four hours a day. That’s what makes this job exciting. It’s not just the same old working nine to five at the store or the bank. [There’s] nothing wrong with those jobs, but you actually get to see news, history in the making [in my job].

Jim with former KSN TV 16 team member, Jimmy Siedlecki, at the Business Expo

*( ) Indicates words that are for clarifying purposes only.

* [ ] Indicates words that were not said by Jim Jackson.

This oral history was researched and prepared by Catherine Guo, Spring 2004.