6 Questions: Celebrating 35 years at ABC6 with Ken Bell

July 26, 2017 9:55 pm

By: John DeLuca

Email: news@abc6.com

Twitter: @ABC6

John: Has it hit you yet…that this is it?

Ken: You know I had a moment last week when I was hiking in New Hampshire and was saying…’what am I doing…what am I doing retiring’? And then I go back to…..okay wait a minute…I’m at the stage where…it’s time.

John: Was it a certain moment…or a combination of things. What got you to the point where you realized…you know what, I’ve been doing this long enough?

Ken: I am not handling stress as well as I used to… and I think that’s you know not a good thing to hang onto and carry around.

John: Over all these years did you ever have that moment when you thought…they’re not gonna re-new my contract or I’ve got to leave this station or I’m gonna look for another job and move on to another market…at any point did you have that?

Ken: You know when I had a family John, and my contract was cut 3 different times…you know the money was cut and we were thinking ‘oh boy’…this is forcing our move. Then somehow we would adjust and I was able to stay and new management would come in or new news director and they would like me and we would stick around…but there were some times when I thought…’oh boy’ what am I going to do.

John: Did you ever think about doing anything else? It seems like you had this passion and desire from the get go…but if you didn’t do sports…or if you didn’t do TV news…what else…maybe would’ve interested you?

Ken: I probably would’ve been in the National Park System somewhere…been a forest ranger. I love to be out of doors. I love to hike. I love nature. I love being out of doors…so I grew up in Colorado. I love mountains…so it may have been something like that.

John: A lot of people come and go in the TV business…you’re still standing. A lot of people come and go…why do you think you’ve been able to stand the test of time in a business where it’s pretty transient…people turn over pretty quickly?

Ken: I think respect…John that’s part of the values I have. Respect others. I kind of live by Christian principles. I’m a man of faith and it’s like do onto others as they would do onto you…and when you treat people with respect…they seem to respect you.

John: How has you faith helped you in your career?

Ken: My faith gives me purpose that I know I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. It also gives me hope beyond the current world circumstances…that there’s always hope for the future and I think John…the best thing about this job is that It’s given me a platform to go into schools and talk to groups and talk about some of the values I believe in…of character. That character does matter and character is important.

John: what are you most looking forward to with this time away…no more deadlines…no more I have to be here at 5:25 you know 5:56…whatever. All those time deadlines are gone. What are you most looking forward to in your retirement?

Ken: it’s going to be an interesting journey because you go from total structure to not so much structure! I’m looking for ways to try to serve…try to help other people. I have been in the toy department for most of my life here…now it’s time for me to five back a little to the community.