Nearly a year ago, Newsmax viewers woke up to a new host on Wake Up America. What started as a childhood dream for then-conservative commentator Marc Lotter became a reality in the most surprising way.
“I always had kind of a call for performing, whether it was announcing Little League baseball games as the PA announcer or something along those lines,” Lotter told Barrett Media.
The son of a police officer, Lotter’s father was the head of the Crime Stoppers program in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It required the elder Lotter to be on local TV often. “And I remember having to go to the local ABC station in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where my dad was going to be on set and interviewed either prior to or after one of my baseball games,” Lotter recalled.
Sitting in the newsroom, watching the newscast preparations, Lotter realized, “This is what I want to do for my living.” A few years later, his parents moved so Lotter could attend a high school that had a TV operation.
This experience helped the then-aspiring TV anchor realize one thing. “If I was going to be a network television anchor, I needed to know something about politics.” So he went to Ball State University, double majoring in broadcast journalism and political science.
The dream of becoming a network anchor would have to wait, however. Lotter bounced around from town to town, rising through the ranks from writer to associate producer and, in multiple cities, executive producer. This all changed in 2002.
“I was executive producer at the CBS affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia,” Lotter remarked. “The opportunity was going to come to get promoted again, but I would have had to move again. By that time, my daughter was in first grade. I think she’d lived in four or five different cities by then. And I really just didn’t want to keep moving.”
So he came home to Indiana, where he was able to flex his political science knowledge a little more than he did in the TV world. “It was a great move for my family, for my daughter,” Lotter noted, but there was definitely a change in mindset.
“My very first day in the office in my new job in politics, we came to the end of the day, and I remember going to one of my young staff people and asking, ‘Well, how do we know when it’s time to leave?’ And they looked at me like they were very confused, like, ‘Why is he asking us this question?’”
Then Lotter realized, “For the previous 12 or 13 years of my career, my anchors thanked you for joining us today, thanked you for bringing us into your homes, asked you to watch, and told you we’d be back tomorrow morning, or tomorrow afternoon, or tomorrow night. So I’d always had this very nice, clean break. In the real world, outside of media, you don’t have that.”
It was one of a few notable differences outside of the media world. One thing that didn’t change was knowing who your audience is. “So you have to learn to tailor your messages,” Lotter stated.
His life in politics took Lotter to the governor’s office and even the White House. Spending more than a decade in TV news allowed him to “translate [press releases] into, ‘How can I use that information, those skills, to better the Republican Party or the candidates that we were supporting?’”
After ending his tenure in the White House, Lotter made his way back to the TV screen, this time as a commentator. “After the 2024 election, the administration was coming together for President Trump. I realized that I’d been doing a lot of television, both at Newsmax as a fill-in person and as a commentator, and with other networks.”
Waiting in Reagan National Airport to head home to Indiana, Lotter was reading an ESPN story that struck him with such motivation that it changed the course of his career.
“It was about Indiana football coach Kurt Cignetti. All of his mentors were telling him not to go to Indiana, because it’s not a good football school. It’s a career killer. It’s not where you want to go. You shouldn’t do it.” But Cignetti didn’t see it that way, nor did Lotter. “And [Cignetti] took a chance on himself, a belief in himself, and obviously took the job at Indiana, did great things at Indiana, and got this massive new contract.”
Inspired, Lotter decided to text Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy.
“Sitting there in the airport, waiting to board my flight, and saying something along the lines of, ‘Now that the election is over, I’ve been doing a lot of fill-in work. I’d love to get an opportunity to talk to you at some point in the future about what, if any, role you might see for me at Newsmax someday down the road.’”
Lotter expected to get a generic text back, but instead he got a phone call. “He called me maybe five minutes later and offered me the job at Newsmax on the spot,” Lotter rejoiced.
“I literally — it moved me to a tear — because I realized at that moment, right then and there, sitting at Reagan National Airport, that the dream that that little 12-year-old, 13-year-old kid had, sitting in his Little League baseball uniform, had just come real.”
For those looking to follow one or all of Lotter’s media paths, he suggests first to “get into the arena.” Lotter noted, “Whether it is politics or media, you may have a goal of a job you want down the road, but you have to get yourself into the newsroom, or into the campaign, or into the office.”
Second, “taking the opportunity to expand your knowledge,” Lotter effused. “Had I gone on the air, or even just stuck with my television career as it was playing out, I would not nearly be as prepared had I not taken a 20-year diversion into politics and government.”
“It gives me a background that I think very few other people offer, and it gives it additional context.” Lotter’s parting words of advice were, “Don’t be afraid to take that job that has nothing really to do with what you think you want to do, because A, you might find out you like something better. But even if you do find yourself back on that original dream track, it gives you a level of background, knowledge, and experience that maybe somebody else in your field doesn’t have.”
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns 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.
