Ch. 5's Bruce Lindsay was telling stories with an 8mm movie camera and delivering radio speeches while still in high school. By the time he graduated, he knew broadcast journalism would be his major at BYU.
Although Lindsay snared a job at KSL-TV even before he received his degree in 1975, the lure of excitement drew him to Los Angeles to work as a reporter for KABC. While there, he also entertained an opportunity to work for ABC News, but he was turned off by the extensive travel requirements."That puts enormous pressure on your real life," Lindsay said. "I like foreign assignments a lot, but I'm real happy to come home again after a month. I found I was more of a homebody than I realized."
So when Lindsay received an offer from KSL to co-anchor the 10 p.m. news with Dick Nourse, he jumped at it, in part because it would allow him to pursue an advanced degree in the mornings.
He enrolled in the University of Utah's MBA program, with the goal of acquiring a back-up degree to assist him in management should he need it and to balance his knowledge of economics and finance.
The 49-year-old Lindsay has spent 20 years as a main anchor at KSL, even though he has had several opportunities to go elsewhere. "This is a good place to work. I feel good about being here."
To Lindsay, the best times on TV are when he is "working without a net." He enjoys long-form, unscripted broadcasting, such as election nights or breaking news. "It's just you, the camera and the audience."
He also enjoys the written word and the craft of editing. "Now that I do three broadcasts right on top of each other, at 5, 6 and 6:30, some of the fun is gone from that process, because it's boom, boom, boom. Now I can't write everything I say, but I do edit it. I've been begging for a terminal on the set to keep me from running back and forth during commercials to work on scripts."
Although those are times of high stress, Lindsay says it is different from jobs "with unrelenting stress," such as management. "It builds to a crescendo, and then it's over. You get a night's sleep, and then you come back the next day."
Lindsay has always been very satisfied with all of his co-anchors. "When I came here, people in Los Angeles told me, 'You don't want to be there with Dick Nourse -- he has an ego that won't quit and he owns the market! You want to sit next to HIM?' Well, Dick was gracious from the word go."
Lindsay is married to the former Shari Anderson, and they have six children, ranging in age from two to 21. He anchored the 10 p.m. news for eight years, and longed for more time with his growing family, so he traded with Shelley Thomas, who preferred the later time slot.
Now Ruth Todd does the 10 p.m. broadcast, and Lindsay gets home by 7:30 and spends evenings with his family. He helps his kids with their pony, he gardens, he serves in an LDS bishopric and enjoys reading Mormon history.
Lindsay may write a book some day, but not about the news business.
Like the late CBS newsman, Charles Kuralt, he is intrigued by unique people with different voices. "It's storytelling. I tell my two-year-old the story of Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, then he wants to hear it again. Television is a wonderful medium to tell stories. But today we're all alike. We need to find fascinating people and tell their stories."
His philosophy is to be "as natural as possible in a very contrived situation." Lindsay accepts the maxim that "a successful anchor should appear both knowledgeable and approachable." Thus, he has tried to eliminate artifice from his delivery.
The anchor Lindsay most emulates is NBC's Tom Brokaw. He first saw him in person when they were both covering the Democratic National Convention in 1980. "I followed him down the escalator and thought I was in the presence of God!"
There are some anchor people, however, with whom he would rather not hang out. "There are some people on television who are ALWAYS on television."
He remains convinced, however, that long-term, stable anchors are the most successful. Lindsay fears TV news is "a minstrel business, where people move from town to town," never really connecting with their audience.
"When you're part of the community, not just passing through, you have a lot better chance to know what's important."
Lindsay also thinks that "if you're not terrible -- and this is the great secret -- but you ARE competent -- in time the audience gets used to you. It's like your uncle. He may not be the greatest person in the world, but he's your uncle and you're used to him."