Television is not famous for treating anyone kindly, even Hope Woodside, KSTU-Ch. 13's anchorwoman, who in real life could easily be mistaken for a model. While the only "runway work" she has done was in high school in Chicago, her mother used to be a model and an actress.
In fact, Woodside always thought she would follow family tradition and pursue a career in entertainment. At the University of Illinois, she majored in film studies, but then she "talked my way into a TV journalism class and loved it."Fourteen years ago, she moved to Midland, Texas (number 137 in the TV market hierarchy), and learned how to report. She covered the police, courts and city government, and by the time she left, four years later, she was producing and anchoring the news on weekends.
Anyone who may think TV reporting is initially lucrative should know that in Midland, Woodside worked 70-hour weeks but earned only $12,000 a year. From Texas, she went to Toledo, Ohio, then gravitated home to Chicago to work the grueling morning shift, from 2 a.m. until noon, on a new 24-hour cable news network.
Sleep deprivation drove her to seek normal hours, so three years ago, when Ch. 13's news director invited her to anchor the news in Salt Lake City, she eagerly accepted.
Besides, she had excellent chemistry with Bob Evans, her co-anchor. Since she and Evans both love music, they sometimes get carried away on the set. "I can sing the lyrics to almost every musical known, and Bob is very musical, so we just get up here some nights and SING."
But not on the air.
Woodside considers Evans "a wonderful partner" who sometimes saves the day when the TelePrompTer goes down. "If one of us gets in trouble, the other will jump in and take the focus."
She has heard horror stories about anchors who "hang each other out to dry. So I'm learning to be a good partner, and hopefully I'll be moving that way in my personal life, too, someday soon."
In Chicago, she learned that "bigger doesn't necessarily mean a better product. When you're in traffic on the way to a story, you're traveling when you ought to be doing the story. So what happens a lot is you do a live shot, one interview and a few pictures, whereas in a smaller market, you're actually interviewing people and getting the story. I like the size of this market."
Mostly, she works from 2-10 p.m.
"You're really blessed if you love what you do. My boss assigned me a story about 10 medical tests women should take before they're 40, and I thought, 'Oh, this is a lame story!' But I got a ton of positive responses from it. I did another story about a woman who got AIDS from her husband. I couldn't believe the number of people who didn't realize women can get AIDS. The stories I like are the ones that reach out and touch you."
Despite her current contentment, Woodside does not close the door to going elsewhere, so she retains a New York agent. "Fox 13 is a wonderful place to work, so it would have to be a really special opportunity for me to leave."
At "30-something" she seems surprisingly at home on the air. "That's the ham in me," she says. "I'm pretty much 'what-you-see-is-what-you-get.' I'm mushy, so I choke up on the air all the time. I really care about what we're doing. On the other hand, I may occasionally cross the line with a robust joke. It's just what makes me me."
Although she abhors the term "celebrity," she loves it when people approach her and say, "'Hi, I enjoy what you do.' If nobody watched, I'd be out of a job."
She is grateful for a 9 p.m. newscast that allows her to get to sleep before her competitors. She looks forward to a long career in broadcasting because of the pioneering work of national figures like Cokie Roberts and Connie Chung.
Yet Woodside has learned about the little things that plague anchorwomen. In Texas, she "had that glossy lipstick and big hair going, and a fly was buzzing around my head and got stuck in my lip gloss."
While producing and anchoring in Ohio, she had to do some fast footwork when a tornado hit. "I barely had time to comb my hair and get on the set. After the show, there was a phone call. I thought, 'Oh, people are calling to thank me for that weather information.' Instead, I had two calls asking me what color my lipstick was and where I got it. So sometimes, you go, 'Ohhh, does it even matter what we're saying?' "
As a single woman, Woodside has more time than some of her colleagues to indulge side interests including skiing, golfing, movies, reading and the company of friends.