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News MakerA Baylor grad who's in prime time
By Lisa Asher
NAME: Richelle Carey '95
CLAIM TO FAME: As a news anchor
for Headline News, which is owned by CNN, Carey presides over the
two-hour "Prime News" telecast. "The main anchor is opinionated with an
emphasis on right and wrong," she says, "while I deliver the
straightforward news with an emphasis on being observational."
BEHIND THE SCENES: Carey's
major at Baylor was telecommunications, with a minor in political
science. After graduating, she returned to her native Houston for a
news job with KPRC-TV, but the job was behind the camera, not in front.
"I knew all along I wanted to be a broadcast journalist," she says,
"but working as an associate producer was great experience to prepare
me. It helped with my writing skills, and it gave me an appreciation
for what it takes to get a newscast on the air."
AIR TIME: Carey soon returned
to Central Texas, serving as a military reporter for KWTX. "Covering
Fort Hood was a fantastic experience," she says, "but I didn't realize
it was the largest military installation in the world before I began
reporting on it." She covered everything from deployment and
change-of-command ceremonies to families being reunited. She also spent
a week in Bosnia, where she completed a four-part series on the work of
soldiers in the 1st U.S. Cavalry. "They were amazing young men and
women who knew the history of the region and the suffering that people
there had endured," she says.
FOLLOW THE STORY: Carey's
career took her from Texas to Las Vegas to St. Louis, where she
anchored the morning news show for three years. "That was a great
job--once I got used to the hours!" she says. In 2006, she planned a
return to Texas. "Then my agent asks if he can send tapes to [national]
networks to see what happens," she says. "Next thing you know, CNN
calls for an interview."
A NOSE FOR NEWS: Now based in
Atlanta, Georgia, Carey says "Prime News" is not a typical newscast.
"We talk about stories that really get people talking and can provoke
outrage," she says, "like the safe haven laws that allow parents to
abandon kids as old as seventeen at hospitals and not be prosecuted."
And although she says their focus usually isn't political, last year's
presidential election dominated their airwaves. "It's fantastic to be a
part of the news business now," she says. Asked what her dream job
would be, Carey's answer is clear. "This
is the dream job. I truly love coming to work because I learn something
every day. There are new opportunities here that surprise me all the
time."
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