Les, Gerrad and Lance at the KGNC studio. [Provided Photo]
I recently had the opportunity to join former Amarillo Globe-News sports editor Lance Lahnert on his daily radio show “The Sports Drive”, which is located in Amarillo, Tx. Lance allowed me and my instructor Kale Steed to be guest’s during a sports segment. The experience gave me a better grasp with interviewing and responsiveness.
I focused my questions on Lance and distinguished career:
-Where did you start?
-How long have you been in this profession?
-What is the difference between 1981 to 2019?
-How have you seen the media change?
Lance was with AGN for 37 years. The biggest difference he saw from 1981 to today was the time a journalist had to write a story, or do a television package. As Lance says, everything was on “snail mail time”, meaning a journalist had a full day to work ok one story, unlike today where a journalist is asked to do multiple tasks. With the fast moving world of social media there is an immediate response to get a story out as quickly as possible.
Lance mentioned a story from when he was younger, talking about a time he wrote an article over a girls basketball game and a boys basketball game.
Lance wrote heavy on the boys game while barely mentioning the girls. He even said he saw so little on the girls he saw it fit to say girls basketball was boring at that time. Responses were so slow then he’d wait on phone calls and mail to see what people said about his statement, good or bad.
One thing Lance never feared was putting his opinion out there for the public to see. It’s part of the job. The public is always curious when it comes to what the local media has to say. Lance still voices his opinion proudly on his daily talk show, and it’s a reason he’s been loved by the Texas Panhandle for three decades.