Newspapers, TV, and radio. KABC afternoon drive host Kevin Tripp tried it all before finding his perfect place in the media industry. “It’s almost like the three little bears, you know, and this one is just right. And so, radio was the one that was just right,” he said.
His talent and enthusiasm for journalism was notable well before he stepped into his first newsroom. “I was actually one of those people in high school who knew I wanted to do this at an early age, which was always kind of an advantage. If you’re a sophomore in high school and you know you want to be a journalist and your high school has a journalism program, which mine did, it works out nicely.”
Tripp attended the University of Oregon where he studied Political Science. “That was the other area of interest that I had and still have,” he said. Afterwards, he packed up and moved to Aspen, Colorado. “I always wanted to be one of those people who worked in a ski town for a year or 2 or 3, in addition to being a journalist.”
Of the two daily papers in town, Tripp worked for the Daily News. “That was my first real experience as a professional journalist. It was fun because, I could ski. Yeah, I was broke like everybody else there who was out of college, who wasn’t a trust funder, and had a giant number of roommates, but it was a blast.”
Tripp noted Aspen might be a small town but there was a lot to cover. “As a journalist, you get to cover city government, county government, municipal government, political elections, all the things that might be kind of interesting or more interesting in a town like Aspen, but often times are just no different than any other small-town government.”
After three years he moved back to San Fransisco and tried his hand at broadcasting. “I didn’t have any formal experience in broadcasting, but I had journalism experience, and I did what many journalists do, which was start applying for jobs. And KPIX, which is the CBS owned and operated TV station there, had a job for a part time production assistant, and it was just Mondays. That’s all they needed. But I knew that was my chance to get my foot in the door, but also learn what broadcasting is about, how it operates, how it’s different from newspapers.”
Another three years later Tripp realized, “When I go home, I listen to the radio. I wasn’t seeking out TV news at the end of my morning shift.” Instead, he would turn to KGO radio. “I applied for a job, and it was nothing big. There were no full-time openings, and I was new to radio, but again, was willing to learn sort of organically from the ground up.”
Having been hit with the reporter bug from a young age, Tripp wanted to get back to reporting. “I was kind of missing being a reporter in general, regardless of the format,” he said. “I loved being a producer, and I learned a lot about writing, about producing, and I knew that, okay, if I’m going to be a reporter, it’s going to be hard to start in broadcasting in San Francisco. So, we moved to Phoenix, and I got a job at KTAR, which is a wonderful station still there in Phoenix. I had a lot of great coworkers, many of whom are still there. It’s one of those stations that holds on to its staff for good reason. It’s a great place to work.”
While in Phoenix, Tripp was able to cover the 2008 Presidential campaign. But after four years Tripp (and his wife) were longing for California’s sun and waves. “We have family [in California] too, our kids were both born in Phoenix, and we packed them up. They were babies at the time, and we moved to Huntington Beach and that was 2011. I’ve been at KABC for more than five years. Four of those years I’ve been anchoring and it’s an absolute blast. I love it.”
Tripp believes his experience of being a producer has helped him deliver a better show. “I think a lot of people in broadcasting have realized that if you know how to produce, you know how to build a newscast and you know how to anchor and you know how to look for the next big story,” he said. “If there’s breaking news or developing news, you know how to stack your newscast to make room for that.”
Over the years, Tripp notes the most notable change for him came during the pandemic. “I work from home now, which I did not do prior to COVID. It’s one of those things that’s just possible now from a technological standpoint. It was possible ten, 20 years ago, but it was more difficult, more expensive.”
Another major change is the pace of the news cycle, “News is faster because of technology, both on the consumer end and on the news organization. But there’s also a lot of things you can do, which I enjoy. And I’ve talked about how fun broadcasting is now because I got good at it. It’s also fun because you can do things quickly.”
No matter the type of newsroom, Tripp notes breaking news becomes more fun and less stressful “as you gain more experience.” So, for those just started he advises, “Figure out what you want to do and dive headfirst into it and be better at it than anybody else.”
“What I found is that when I got into broadcasting and I realized that all these different professions and job titles and specialties that I can pursue, I made sure to try out different things, to work as an assignment editor, to learn how to write broadcast news copy. And luckily, I had a lot of people who helped me learn those things. So, look for mentors too.”
Once one figures out what they want to do, Tripp’s belief is simple, “Pursue it to the ends of the Earth, which literally might mean to the ends of the Earth. I mean, maybe your first job is in Bismarck, North Dakota, maybe it’s in Alabama. Go there. I had an old coworker once tell me when he got his first job as a photographer in TV news, he knew he had to move somewhere small. So, he moved to a small market, and his thinking was, ‘I can live anywhere for a year.’ And that was a good attitude.”
