In late 1970, I was hired as the News Director at KTVN. It wasn’t my first television job. Nearly 3 years earlier I had been hired midway through a senior year internship to anchor the 11 o’clock news here at KOLO-TV.

Now, after a tour of duty in the Air Force, a job as reporter at the Nevada State Journal (later merged with the Reno Gazette to form today’s RGJ), a local news service and graduate teaching at UNR, I was back in TV news. I was young, untested. My station, still in its early years, had had a difficult time establishing any news reputation and I was a rookie, unknown, young to be a guiding or creating a news operation.

One of my early stories took me to Stead. I don’t remember the assignment. I do remember the ribbing I took from reporters who had gathered for the same story. It wasn’t mean minded, but to the new kid on the beat frankly it stung. One of the group stepped forward and introduced himself. “I’m Tad Dunbar,” he said, “good to meet you.” I never forgot the gesture.

In the years that followed Tad and I were competitors, often fiercely so. Fast forward 16 years, I joined KOLO and we were co-workers for nearly the next two decades. Tad as anchor, consummate communicator, terrifying young reporters with probing questions on live shots (always asking the question that would be on the viewer's mind, one the reporter might not be expecting).

During that time I was at various points reporter-anchor, news director, and once again reporter. There was, I think, in all those years a good measure of respect. A year ago, Tad left us. The goodbyes in that well-publicized farewell were genuine. Appropriately, there’s a plaque on the wall of our newsroom recognizing his contribution to the KOLO legacy.

Rumor has it Tad’s about to reappear on another station. We are once again competitors.

The experience, I think, will be good for all of us. We’re old news horses, proud, life long, card carrying members of the mainstream media, whatever that means. Over the years, on the rare occasions when a valued co-worker left to join another station in town, I gave them my personal best wishes while recognizing our relationship was entering a new phase. It’s time to do it once again.

Tad, good to see you back on the air and I wish you ‘moderate’ success.