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Behind the Mike: Back in the biz: Henry sets anchor at 27

Mike Lucas  —  8/27/2008 10:21 pm

There can be some awkward moments whenever television news anchors are permitted to ad lib while making a segue to weather or sports. Sometimes these innocuous chat segments are even scripted to avoid any uneasiness in the transition.

Most of the time, though, the co-anchors are given the freedom to be themselves for a few fleeting seconds without working off the teleprompter. From this standpoint, Diana Henry believes the "cross talk" can be put to good use as a vehicle to connect with the audience.

"There's a huge value because these are the moments when we become just like everybody else when we're talking about the weather," she said. "These are the moments when you learn the most about who we are."

That's an appropriate segue, since Henry is still in the process of introducing herself to Madison viewers. In late July, she began co-anchoring the 6 and 10 p.m. news with Greg Jeschke on WKOW/Ch. 27. Henry has taken over for Beth Wagner, who had a very short run with the station, after debuting in January.

Wagner had replaced Christa Dubill, who had been with Ch. 27 for three-plus years before taking a job in Kansas City, Mo. "Due to an illness in her family, Beth was forced to step down as an anchor and return to Dallas," WKOW news director Al Zobel said of Wagner's sudden departure. "We wish her and her family nothing but the best."

Wagner was recruited out of a mega-TV market: Dallas-Fort Worth. By comparison, Henry worked previously at KTTC in Rochester, Minn., and WKOX in La Crosse -- stations that are owned by WKOW's parent company. "This is the third time I've tried to hire Diana," Zobel said, "and we've finally got her here."

Henry was available. For the last 18 months, she was the manager of marketing and corporate communications for Logistics Health Incorporated in La Crosse. It was a new position that entailed a wide variety of responsibility. "But," she said, "I definitely missed TV -- it's my passion and fits me well. I think that I knew I would be back."

So why did she get out of the TV business in the first place?

"I wanted to be challenged and exposed to a different type of world," said Henry, who co-anchored the 6 and 10 at the ABC affiliate in La Crosse for almost five years. "And corporate is definitely a little different. I just felt like it was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up."

That's kind of how Zobel looked at it, too, when he took another shot at hiring Henry.

"Oh, gosh, she's such a doggone natural," he said. "She's everything you look for in the (anchor) position -- she's involved and cares about what she's saying on the air. But she's not just reading the 'prompter, she's actually talking to you. She fits exactly what we wanted to do.

"Clearly, your anchors are your point people," Zobel said. "They are the reason, more often than not, that people watch a particular station. So whatever direction, whatever type of news you're going to do, they're going to be out in front."

So, who is Diana Henry?

"From what people tell me, this is who I am -- I am what I am," she said of her on-air personality. "You just have to be yourself. That is something I find is not necessarily always a common trait in this business. There can be people who try to be something that they're not. I'm a pretty sincere person."

Moreover, she's a huge football fan with Midwest roots in Minneapolis and Minnesota. She went to school at St. Cloud State. "You'll find me every Sunday in the same place -- on my couch watching football," she said, humming the old Monday Night Football bump music and theme. "I just love that sound."

It doesn't hurt, either, that she's not a stranger to the state. "In this business, the one thing you really want to get right is pronouncing names correctly," she said. "I have a little bit of an advantage. I know it's O-CON-o-mo-woc and Ash-WAU-ben-on."

What about chess-LEV-itch? "It's definitely not like it looks on paper, so I've been practicing," Henry said of Madison's mayor, Dave Cieslewicz. "I'm just getting the flavor of the community. Wherever I drive, I try to stay off the Beltline and take a different route. But when I think I should be going east, I'm going west.''

Henry has already ventured out on a Saturday morning to take in the Farmer's Market on the Capitol Square. "That was fantastic and I also stepped into the Capitol -- what a neat place," she said. "Madison has a big-city feel, but yet a small-town attitude. I can't wait to go to a Badgers game."

Last week, she worked a solo shift because Greg Jeschke was on vacation. "To be honest, I was nervous about what my co-anchor would be like and whether we'd get along," she said. "It's like starting to date someone for the first time. I had a great relationship with my former co-anchors in La Crosse."

To this end, Henry has already begun to develop some chemistry with her new Ch. 27 family. And she figures the best way to do that is just be herself. Especially during those chat segues. "This is who I am," she repeated.

"And I'm here to stay."

Mike Lucas  —  8/27/2008 10:21 pm