Morning news anchor Al Joens has seen many changes in broadcast journalism in his 35-year career at KTIV-TV.
- Tim Hynds, The Weekender
At least two generations of Sioux Cityans have welcomed KTIV morning news anchor Al Joens into their homes every morning. The veteran newsman is hard at work on the 5 a.m. newscast when most of us are still in our jammies,
- Tim Hynds, The Weekender
Earl Horlyk
At 8:45 in the morning, Al Joens was eating his lunch inside the KTIV newsroom.
"Today, I'm just having soup and a sandwich," the veteran anchorman explained. "It's become a habit for me to eat around this time."
Chances are you'd also be a bit famished if you woke up at 3 a.m., arrived at work at 4 a.m. and went on the air at 5 a.m. with a two-hour newscast, every weekday morning.
For Joens, 56, this is simply the start of his workday. He's also responsible for anchoring the news cut-ins for NBC's "Today" show before prepping material that will be used for KTIV's half-hour newscast at noon.
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At work long before the sun comes up and done with a workday that is done by shortly after 1 p.m. This has been Joens' schedule for more than 30 of his 35 years at KTIV.
It also probably the reason he beat out the Sioux City Journal's Bruce Miller and the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra's Travis Morgan to become 2020's best local Sioux-lebrity.
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"People tell me they wake up with me every morning and they've been doing it for years," Joens said with a smile. "I take that responsibility seriously because I want to start the audience's morning on a positive note."
One thing that he never takes too seriously is himself.
A Manilla, Iowa, native who graduated from Buena Vista College (now University), Joens originally envisioned a career as a print journalist.
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"I thought working at a newspaper would allow me to put a part of my personality into the writing," he remembered. "I discovered that unless you're a columnist, you really can't have your voice come through your writing."
Instead, Joens gravitated toward broadcast journalism and has never left.
"Writing for print is like writing a novel while writing for TV is like writing a short story," he said. "Everything has to be tight and everything has to be short for TV."
And if you're as fast on your feet, like Joens, TV news is all of the adrenaline you'll ever need.
Over the years, Joens has interviewed subjects as diverse as Ozzy Osbourne and Al Gore, plus everyone in between.
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All through that time, he's raised three children Philip, Rachel and Kevin, now grown.
In addition, he and his wife Melissa Lanzourakis-Joens (a former KTIV news reporter and anchor) met at work.
"Melissa began as an intern before coming on full-time," Joens said. "She's great."
To be honest, Joens credited his wife for securing him a Siouxland's Choice Award win.
"Melissa is a social media whiz," he said. "When she saw the Siouxland's Choice Awards was coming up, Melissa Facebook-ed everybody she knew."
As for Joens, he was never one to toot his own horn.
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"No, I've never ever thought of myself as a celebrity, much less a 'Sioux-lebrity,'" he noted with a laugh.
But Joens will acknowledged that he's seen local TV news evolve many times over the course of his career.
"When I started, we weren't doing two hours of local news starting at 5 a.m.," he said. "We were just doing cut-ins at first. Then, we'd do a half-hour show at 6:30 and, before we knew it, the broadcast just got longer and longer."
Even though the workload increased, newsroom actually shrunk.
"Reporters were asked to wear many hats," Joens said. "Plus they also had to become multimedia reporters since social media became so important."
Phew, that seems like a lot of work! However, Joens doesn't seem to mind.
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"I tell younger people that they'll never get rich doing TV news (in markets like Sioux City) but if you enjoy the people and you enjoy the work, it can be a great career."
Plus you can also be honored as Best Local Sioux-lebrity as well.
"Well, people do wake up to me every morning," Joens said with a smile. There's that."
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Earl Horlyk
Food and Lifestyles reporter
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