TV veteran sees new 'dawn' for Reno development
by Xiao Zhang, Outpost contributor
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EDAWN KOLO-TV |
When Chuck Alvey was asked to lead the search for a new president of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, he never thought he would end up landing the job himself.
"They asked me to be the chairman of the search committee to look for the president for EDAWN," said Alvey, now the authority's president and chief operating officer. "I came to do that, and I found it (the job) interesting."
Photo by Sean Horejs
He threw his hat in the ring and was hired a few months later.
Alvey, a 31-year veteran of the broadcast industry, started his new job Sept. 14 after resigning his post as general manager of Reno's KOLO-TV, Channel 8.
The new job's diversity attracted him most.
"I am not doing the same thing every day," Alvey said. "Everything is different."
EDAWN, founded in the early 1980s, is a private and public partnership committed to recruiting quality companies into the Reno area and expanding them.
He said that his new job gives him the opportunity to help the community in a different way than he did at Channel 8, although there are some similarities.
"When I worked in television, I always enjoyed being out with the community and meeting people and talking to people," he said. "This job is a lot of that, so I like it a lot." He says his two months on the job have been more than worthwhile.
"It's exciting because I am getting in on the ground floor of a lot of planning, helping to shape what people would like the community to be like in the next 10 to 15 years," he said. "It's exciting to be out and active with the things we are doing.
"It's challenging because it's not easy to bring an entire community to a simple consensus. And it's challenging to convince companies to move."
He also said the job is rewarding because he sees jobs and opportunities brought by new companies.
Enthusiasm has become hard work. He said he has been learning about EDAWN, discovering its problems and preparing to correct them.
He found that the organization had been drifting without direction for the past year and a half, and has tried to encourage action whenever he saw the right course.
"Mostly I am learning and listening at the same time," he said. "(I) still have a lot to learn. (I'm) still trying to understand what the course of direction will be."
His goals as president of EDAWN are to try to bring quality growth to the community. He also will attempt to bring high-tech companies that offer high paying, skilled jobs to the region.
With these goals in mind, he is putting his 31 years of television experience to good use.
"Some of the skills I learned in
television were very similar here," he said. "In television
you are marketing; you sell the audience. In this job, I am
selling the area. So it's still selling; it's just selling a
different
product." Building a better Reno makes
Alvey a busy man.
Photo by Sean Horejs
Alvey was born in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1949 and attended Western Michigan University. He majored in Speech-Radio/TV and worked as a radio announcer from 1967 to 1969. He has worked as director, producer, announcer, program manager and station manager at various television stations.
He recalled the years from 1980 to 1989 as the most exciting time of his career. He worked as program manager and general manager for KPHO-TV, Channel 5, in Phoenix. During his tenure, KPHO became the first independent station in the country to beat the network affiliates in its market.
"We made a lot of new, exciting things happen," he said. "That was the most exciting and fun time that I had."
Alvey joined the ABC affiliated station, KOLO-TV, Channel 8, in Reno as the general manager in 1990. He worked in Reno for eight years before becoming the president of EDAWN.
A large picture of the Channel 8 staff is the first thing in his office that catches the eye. Alvey said it was a gift from the Channel 8 team when he left. On the back, each staff member signed his or her name.
Lorna King, business manager of KOLO, said Alvey was so well respected at Channel 8 because he is nonjudgmental, professional and decent.
She used "fantastic" to describe his working style. But his fairness impressed her most.
"He always put aside his personal feelings and decided for the best of Channel 8," King said. "That's incredible. He let his business side come out, let the fairness side come out. I love him. He's a great guy."
Alvey started teaching Issues in American Media last August at the University of Nevada-Reno's journalism school, his first teaching experience. He said he finds it stimulating.
Having worked in television for more than 30 years, he has found that people coming into the industry don't really know what's going on, and this part-time job gives him the opportunity to teach some of them before they enter the industry.
Graduate student Mark LaPointe praises Alvey's teaching style.
"We have to hand in a paper of only one page," he said. "That forces you to write clearly and concisely."
Alvey has seen teaching benefit him in his new job.
"It helps me think," he said. "It helps me grow."
For example, one of his students was
doing an organizational chart for a newspaper project. The
student put the community, instead of the publisher, on the
top of the chart. The idea inspired Alvey to put community
at the top of his organizational chart for
EDAWN.
Photo by Sean Horejs
Outside work, Alvey devotes most of his time to his family.
In his brief biography, he underlines "proudest
achievement," which is "a great family."
He and wife Pam, a special education teacher, have been married for 27 years. They have three children ages 21, 17 and 15. The oldest is a junior at the University of Nevada-Reno, majoring in political science. The other two are high school students.
"I try to set two nights or three with the family, and the weekends," he said.
Success at home and at work is
something few achieve. Alvey seems to have pulled it off
rather well.
Chuck Alvey's office phone number: 829-3700
Posted March 12, 1999
Copyright 1999 Nevada Outpost