She’s the gal with the gift of gab, endlessly positive, and encouragingly enthusiastic when it comes to the news. TV and Radio Veteran Terry Gilberg is always looking to connect with great minds in the industry, “I walked away from those two days feeling, I’m in a space where people speak my language,” she said after the BNM News Summit in Washington, DC.
It’s a language she’s been speaking for over thirty years and it all started as a childhood dream. “[Jane Pauley] made news communicative. She made news with an analysis and a friendliness to her. And so it was the morning show, The Today show. And I thought, I can do that.”
With her interest in history, the sense of “military and defense and national security in my bones and my blood (her father was career Air Force),” and “a very good foundation in Judeo-Christian beliefs.” Gilberg got to work.
Her career path was atypical, with beginnings in Los Angeles. “A friend of mine called me and said, ‘Why don’t you come out to Los Angeles and we can room together?’ And I said, ‘Well, that would help with rent and so forth’. The friend said Terry could probably make some money if not a lot of money in TV commercials and it turned out she was right.
Gilberg went on to say, “I then started making a fair amount of money at various different national television commercials, all in a way to parlay to the news field. Because, as you can imagine, doing a 30 second or even 15 second spot with [national brands] that might be good cash, but it’s pretty brain dead.”
So the least brain dead woman in the City of Angels left for a new anchor gig. “Which was a bit starting over, but nevertheless transferable skills… I started in the little markets,” she said. “I got a job offer from Great Falls, Montana. I got a job offer from Bangor, Maine. I got a job offer in Shreveport, Louisiana.”
From market-to-market Gilberg went, expanding her talent beyond your local TV stations, “Some of the bosses said, ‘Well, why don’t you do radio anchoring for us? So, there was one time in my career where I was doing the 6:00 news at night as a TV anchor and also the 6 a.m. news in the morning on the radio.”
Comparing her career in news versus ads Gilberg noted, “[In LA] it’s so much work to get the work. In TV news, if you know how to do the work, they need you… So rather than be exhausted from trying to get a job, I became exhausted doing the job, but I love the job.”
She quickly became the ‘Academic Oprah.’ Her intelligence and creativity later gave life to what Gilberg calls her ‘shun’ and ‘isim’ issues, “Immigration, racial discrimination, abortion, education, communication. I mean, these are things I learned in college. There are the isms too, like communism and Marxism. So, there’s the shuns and there’s the isms. And you can’t talk about [either intelligently] in a soundbite.”
Gilberg recognizes there is a need for more than just two sides of the media aisle. While she can and will play the part of a neutral journalist, she recognizes her own personal opinion, “I’m on the right. I believe in limited government. I believe in Judeo Christian values. I believe in a strong military. I believe in peace through strength. I believe in the border and the old system of sponsoring people to come into the country.”
Most recently she’s graced the screen for Conservative Television of America as the network’s D.C. point person. “I said, great. What would you like me to do? They asked, ‘how do you see the news right now?’ I said, I see the news is propagandized. I think the American news media is hopelessly broken. I don’t want to say hopelessly, but I am not sure how to fix it other than doing something different then getting a guest to do a five-minute hit, especially on the difficult, vexing issues of the day.” It’s this out of the box thinking which has made her the superstar she is today.
For those looking to follow in Gilberg’s shoes she noted, “I would take advantage of the internet. We are a divided nation. We don’t really have the affiliate system in place anymore. Or if you’re doing the affiliate system, a lot of local is pretty vapid, nice people, but pretty vapid. So, if you would like to get a news show going that is anchor oriented with the truth of news as you know it, get a website. Start doing it from your basement. Do it every day. Cut your teeth on it. Get professionals like me to look at it. Get your appearance together like an anchor would be, neutral, strong voice. Look into the camera, write your own copy.”
She noted her advice is a tall order but the biggest part of it all, “Pilot it on the web. And then just only put forward your best stuff on the web after having a critical eye look at it and help you with it.” For those leaning more towards commentary Gilberg advises, “grab the headlines of the day and start that oral commentary. But it can’t just be blabbermouth. You can’t be blabbermouth because you’re competing against people who really study the topics and not just have an opinion, but an educated opinion.”
“I’m mentoring two young people here in DC right now to try to break into conservative media because let’s face it, it’s [the left] side or [the right] side. There really is no middle and that’s a shame. But it’s the way we are. So, you’ve got to know the truth about a topic. And I don’t mean just half truths. It’s the whole truth and that takes study and work and a way to articulate it.”
Most importantly, to follow in her footsteps Gilberg noted, “You better know your stuff.”
Krystina Alarcon Carroll is a news media columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
