Jon Duffey Email & Phone Number

Fairfield, Ia, Us

California, Florida, Indiana,, Iowa, Www

Consulting, Field Production, Web & Social Media ImplementationPrevious activity: (1995-2022)Publish online services for people with life threatening arrhythmias, including the various ZapLife.org programs for defibrillator implant recipients. Activist efforts in the areas of health care, media and employment reform, human rights, and the peaceful resolution of international conflicts.

Media Ratings Data Collection

I got antsy sitting on the sidelines running my small internet business, missing life in the newsroom for nearly 9-years. So when a part time job at the local NBC station came up, I jumped at the chance to return to work in TV news.This was the most well equipped (technically and talent wise) station of any I worked for. It was also the place where ALL resources (among the company's broadcast, print, and internet operations in Tampa) were the most mismanaged and squandered. The result is an abysmal service to viewers, readers, and web users in a top rated operation serving the 13th largest media market in the country.In less than a year, I fell victim to a clear case of age and sex discrimination.. and while angry about the skulduggery that forced my departure, I was not really sad about leaving the newsroom again - likely for the last time. As my wife, Sheri, often reminds me: The newsroom so many of us old news boys loved really does not exist anymore.

After sitting on the beach for six months, another job (paying much less than the one originally offered) opened up at WTSP. Without knowing I did it... I saved the best place to work full time in broadcast news for my last "duty station." 10NEWS, for the most part, offered an environment that encouraged people to do their best... not out of fear of firing but a place that provided personal incentives to give the audience the best service possible. There was also a unique camaraderie, where everyone took joy in sharing their skills and knowledge to teach and learn from co-workers how to improve their repertoire of abilities.For the first time in a quarter century, I found myself working someplace where I actually considered sticking around long enough to retire. Unfortunately, a heart attack lead to my early retirement at age 46.

Like most Florida companies, WWSB underpays workers claiming sunshine is part of the compensation package. Doug Barker and Linda DesMarais forced me to take an even bigger pay cut in exchange for a promise to not have the stress of producing newscasts as Assistant News Director.That assurance became a falsehood. As soon as I signed a contract, they admitted WWSB had money trouble, layoffs were coming, AND I had to produce a daily newscast. In a month, I was doing two shows/day and a month later.. THREE! I protested but they refused to honor or kill my contract.They convinced me to make the move south with the most tempting, but disengenous part of the deal – to boost staff and program diversity. I tried to fill an anchor opening with the awesome p/t black woman reporter with a masters degree, but DesMarais said, "Sarasota was not ready that." I kept pushing, hoping they'd change or fire me. Eventually they did let me go – saying I was not a "team player." In a few days I got a job offer from a Tampa station. But DesMarais threatened me and my prospective employer with a non-compete lawsuit. The offer was pulled.

After WSBT, I started a company to produce syndicated news features. When that failed, I did a short stint as a supervisor at an opinion research firm. One day out of the blue, I got a call from one of those nasty TV consultants who wanted to talk to me about a job in Saginaw ag WNEM News5.The pay was great, so we moved north where I implemented various format, production, and pacing changes - bolstering the dominance of primary newscasts. I also directed the installation, staff training, and management of the BASYS newsroom computer system.GM and the UAW are the primary newsmakers in Saginaw & Flint. Seven out of every ten jobs in the area depends on the auto industry. If you think Michael Moore's movie "Roger & Me" exaggerates the situation, think again. An iceberg floated past us on Lake Huron on July 4th '90. We decided to fly south. When I got a job offer from Florida, an anchor who had worked in Tampa tried to talk me out of moving. I frequently regret NOT taking his advice.

I came home from Mexico with a full answering machine. Many long lost friends had seen Martha Teichner's interview with me on the Today Show. One message was from Dan Quayle's former press secretary. Larry Smith, was currently a TV News Director in South Bend, with a job opening.Totally burned out on California, I flew east to Indiana and went to work at WSBT. The REALLY best thing about the move was meeting the love of my life, Sheri Shulmier. Ironically, the night we met was the same day I saw Hilliard for the last time before he died... an amicable encounter at (what else?) a high school basketball tournament at the Fort Wayne Coliseum.There were no great occupational achievements at WSBT, just a place to get my head screwed on straight again and start over. The most important thing that happened at this time was meeting and getting to know Sheri, an electric company executive. We have now been been together 34 years.

When I first moved to San Francisco, I attended a public meeting on what to do in case of a natural disaster - such as an earthquake. The Salvation Army had sign-up sheets for people with medical and other skills who might be called on to help in a catastrophe. As a former Army medic, I jotted down my name and phone number.Just as my work at Target Television ended, a deadly calamity erupted in Mexico. Because of that sign-up sheet, I got a phone call from the Salvation Army inviting me to join the team flying to Mexico City the next morning to aid disaster victims.Being a member of the first foreign relief team to arrive in Mexico City after the 1985 earthquake, was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. When I got home, I wrote a story about the episode and my home town newspaper (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette) ran it on the front page of their Sunday edition. You can read that story at http://www.duff.net/samex.htm

A college friend gave me a much needed job after my life went into a Sacramento tailspin. The great investigative reporter, Steve Wilson, asked me to do a couple health stories. The Deadly Antidote, provided the first public link between Karen Carpenter's death and Ipecac misuse. The revealing clue was two typed lines buried in 300-pages of the singer's autopsy report in the L.A. Medical Examiner's files.Retracing a tissue sample to the Pennsylvania toxicology lab which perfected a test on liver samples, we located the Philly doctor who documented the first death of a patient who misused the vomit inducing chemical. The series earned a California Emmy nomination and resulted in the FDA ordering drug label changes. The Forgotten Veterans series was honored by many veterans organizations for its focus on female Agent Orange victims. The series prompted the CDC to expand dioxin studies to include women. View both series at http://www.duff.net/DuffeyDemo.mov

I got on the company's E-mail machine and sent a message to the News Director: "Your new producer is the EP at WANE." That was all, simple: No resume. No references. No videotape. Not even my name." I got a call less than five minutes after I hit the SEND button. A week later, I flew out for my first trip to California. I was hired the next day (then KXTV-CBS News5,) came home, and started packing.I was clearly over my head, producing an hour long daily program for the first time in my career. The job was made a lot tougher by two producers already on staff, who each thought they deserved the promotion I got. They did their best to sabotage me time after time - even after I got a handle on what I was doing. But in the end, my downfall was completely MY doing. When my personal life exploded, I brought problems to work where I made a mess of things.I eventually got demoted and canned, but later than I deserved... two years to the day from when I started: Valentine's Day. How appropriate.

I received public acclaim and numerous awards for production of newscasts and documentaries: Mother Teresa, Fort Wayne Floods, and the Demise of International Harvester. In addition to shepherding technical advances such as extensive use of microwave and satellite remotes, I bolstered station coverage of local business news.Because of my success, the corporation sought to transfer me to a station in a bigger market. They first flew me to Virginia, but the station there was in an area that was frighteningly like the culture I experienced in Arkansas... so I rejected the offer. Then I discovered an opening in Sacramento.

Just as I admitted I could no longer tolerate Arkansas racial prejudice, Harry Gallagher called from Fort Wayne. The News Director offered me a job at was 21-Alive News, and I accepted before being told I was getting a lot more money.It was a great place to work. GM Ed Metcalfe gave me a single mandate: "Give viewers the best newscasts possible." He said he trusted me to do that. All decisions were mine to make without regard to ratings or awards. Ed said he'd worry about that and give me any tool I wanted to do my job. I was never happier.I moved the newscasts from 3rd to 1st place in one year and earned the Gannett Award for coverage of the Vernon Jordan shooting. After we got all the programs in first place, greedy corporate consultants moved in to "make us better." They did not help with demands to take out the kinds of stories I believed our viewers wanted... to provide airtime for features that worked well at Gannett stations in Denver or Atlanta. I felt like a violated whore, so I quit.

In Jonesboro Arkansas,I developed a newsroom format within the initial month of my first television producing assignment. The newscast earned an 83-share in its first ratings test. I also launched the conversion from film to tape news coverage.Bill Clinton was the Arkansas Attorney General when I worked at KAIT in Jonesboro. I did a monthly show with him, dealing with various consumer rip-off and grifter warnings, crooked business "opportunities" and other scams. There was no changing the social and racial attitudes in this part of the country - not for several generations and my stay there would not change that one iota. That bothered me more than the joy I got from what I was able to accomplish in broadcast journalism at KAIT.

Fort Wayne, In

I started my reporter job at WGL on July 5th, '76. It meant a 50% pay cut - but I was back in news and ecstatic. After six months, I was promoted to News Director and host of Intercom, a daily talk show.I leaned to the left, to balance the right leaning listeners. I opened myself to 24/7 personal attacks by endorsing the Equal Rights Amendment. The station's hate mail doubled, but so did the ratings. The show was #13 in a 12-station market when I started. Within one book it was #2, and very close to #1 - the 50 Kw powerhouse, WOWO. So, the boss doubled the show's air time!Dan Quayle launched his Congressional campaign on MY show! For weeks, callers attacked me for my rough treatment of the future VP. But they also reacted with outrage, when I was "nice" to author Richard Bach. He started his ILLUSIONS media tour on my show. Hundreds turned out for my going away party. Mayor Moses gave me a nice plaque and key to the city when I jumped at a chance to work in TV news!

I worked at what was formerly Tony Hulman's WKJG/TV33, three times: As a teenager, 1966 & '67; after the Army while attending the IU-Purdue regional campus, 1970 &'71; and again when I left grad school, from 1973 to '76.. doing farm & kid shows, newscasts, high school basketball and pro hockey games. I hesitated when Operations Manager Bill Nichols offered me a chance to return to WKJG for a third time - really wanting a news job. But GM Hilliard Gates promised me "first shot at a News Producer job we have on the drawing board." So I returned. Three years later my goal was still on the drawing board. Working for union scale, it was tough walking away from a comfortable income.I finally ripped off my security blanket - after getting into a ugly confrontation with Hilliard about his unfulfilled promise. He fired me the next day - with a "6 month notice." Haha! He went ballistic the next day when I got another job. My last day at TV33 was 200-years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

I volunteered for the draft as a CO to prove: Patriots don't have to kill people. While volunteering for duty in Viet Nam, I was sent to Europe. I served most of my time in the 3rd Armored Division 1st Battalion/32nd Armored Recon Platoon, starting with service on the Czech-German border, days after the Soviets stormed Prague.My final duty was in the 3rd Brigade Dispensary - running the Emergency Room and (Friedberg am Hessen) post Ambulance Service. I left Germany with the respect of even the "lifers." I showed them a draftee could be a perfect soldier - even without a gun: * Reached the rank of Specialist 5th Class.... * Earned Europe's 3rd highest score for the Expert Field Medic Badge - EFMB test... * Won dozens of commendations... * Lead the rescue of nearly 40-school kids overcome with carbon monoxide... * Sewed up lots of drunks and talked down a lot more guys on drugs... * Delivered a couple babies - the last on my birthday in 1969.

B.A., Radio/Television (And Speech/Theater At Ipfw)

Activities and Societies: WFIU: Produced documentaries and daily newscasts IURTS: Directed and ran camera for classes beamed statewide..

Certificate, Online Journalism Seminar

Activities and Societies: Semanarian

Certificate, Newsroom Computer System Manager

Became WNEM-TV System Manager on completion of the program, guiding installation and weekly maintenance of newsroom computer used.

(Transferred Credits), Speech-Theatre

Activities and Societies: Purdue Indiana Theatre Wrote and directed critically acclaimed one act play: Anti-Goal Acted in Richard II.