For What It's Worth
Ever have to write your life story? How detailed would that story be? Would it take the space of an index card to complete or are we thinking a 20 chapter volume found at your favorite Books A Million would fill it? How interesting do you think that life story would be to the readers?
Those are the challenges I will try to present to you about me in today’s edition of “For What It’s Worth.”
Some of the basic journalism questions we repetitively try to answer for a story come down to the questions of “who, what, where, when, why, and how?” Let’s answer some questions here.
Who: Bob Bakken, pronounced (BAHK-ken), a Minnesota native who has also lived in Iowa, and Kansas before settling down in Mississippi in the summer of 2008 to work with the now-defunct Mississippi RiverKings hockey team in Southaven.
That first week in Mississippi it was over 100 degrees for the Fourth of July. This Upper Midwesterner did not turn tail and head back north up I-55. My wife Jean joined me about a month later to begin work as a teacher’s assistant at an elementary school in Olive Branch, where she has been ever since. She was first in a special education preschool and the past seven years she has been working in a firstgrade classroom.
What: I’m taking over as editor of The South Reporter newspaper.
The back story: Since arriving in the Mid-South, I have been taking on all sorts of new challenges in the media. With the RiverKings, I was the team’s play-by-play radio voice for three seasons. I traveled with the team, did interviews, produced the weekly coach’s show, worked with media contacts and kept records for the franchise. But after three years, the team’s front office changed and I found a new challenge with a break that got me into television news.
A part time position as an assignment editor opened at a Memphis television station and the part time job became a full time position as producer. I was not in front of the camera but everything a news anchor or reporter said on the air came through me as producer. It meant juggling a lot of balls in the air making sure the newscast was presented, or “stacked” in the order I wanted it to, all the graphics were correct and spelled right, the “live shots” were ready and working, things like that.
However, a year and a half after being in the cesspool of Memphis television news, I yearned to go back and be a part of something else. That’s when the challenge with working in the newspaper world came about. The editor of the DeSoto Times-Tribune approached me about joining the paper as sports editor and general reporter. My acceptance of that offer led to covering Board of Aldermen meetings, County Supervisors meetings, new business openings, special events, sports events, and such. It was during that time I first met Barry Burleson, a name I know is familiar to readers of this newspaper and the Holly Springs community. You can blame him in part for me being here.
In the midst of the COVID epidemic (we all remember that, don’t we?) and becoming the DeSoto Times-Tribune’s managing editor, I felt I needed to step away from the newspaper world but continued covering local news and sports for a website, where I’ve been until now.
That is everything that has happened to this point since I stepped foot in the Magnolia State for the first time. Prior to that, I did everything radio, in Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, and South Dakota, from disc jockey, news reporter, talk show host, and sports play-byplay broadcasting. If a microphone was involved, I was there. It is my work on the air that led to me coming to Mississippi in 2008 to begin with.
Where: Pretty obvious, I would say. What is going on Holly Springs, Byhalia, Potts Camp, and the rest of Marshall County. My goal is to be a visible part of the community, being at meetings, games, ribbon cuttings and business openings. I want you to see me on Main Street, in the stores, on the football field or at the gymnasium, and if you do, say hello and share a word or two, know I am interested in your story and your community.
When: Officially as of Monday, March 16, 157 S. Center Street in Holly Springs becomes my second home. I don’t know “9-to-5,” I never have, being in the media never allows it. I do, “until the job gets done.” That becomes my pledge to the South Reporter and our readers.
How: A lot of what we will report comes after you tell us about something we should know about. You become our eyes and ears in the community to help us. I read something this week that spoke strongly to me about local newspapers. “If it’s a story I don’t think will be covered elsewhere, we need to be covering it.” We will be depending on your news tips for ideas we can work into the pages of the newspaper, the news no one else will be covering. I can’t promise I can be at everything, but one of my favorite compliments are from those who tell me, “You seem to be at everything going on.” Yes, I will try. Haven’t hit 100 percent on that but my percentages are pretty good and I’ll depend on you to tell me about what I’ve missed.
Why: Because “local” news is important to you, so it becomes important to me. This is information you need to know and will find nowhere else. Yes, we need to stay abreast of what is going on in Jackson or Washington, but what happens in Holly Springs and Marshall County will take supreme importance here.
Have I answered all your questions? Probably not, but that’s what the future is for, forwarding the story and the follow up.
Well, we didn’t limit the life story to an index card or filled a 20 page hard-cover volume, but the interest can only be judged by you.
That’s what we have for now...for what it’s worth.
Bob Bakken is editor of The South Reporter.