Derek Nastasi
While going to KDKA News headquarters for a match of Hometown High Q, I got the great opportunity to meet and talk to one of KDKA’s most beloved news anchors, Rick Dayton. Like us at the Mustang Roundup, he is also a journalist and fights to bring the truth into every American household. I got to know him, and he is a very nice guy who cares about informing the public and making the people of Pittsburgh area more knowledgeable of the world around them.
Derek Nastasi: What inspired you to do the show Hometown High Q?
Rick Dayton: It actually started back before I got to KDKA, back in 1999. I didn't get here until 2009. Ken Rice had done it for the first 11 or 12 years as the host of the program and as his kids got to a certain age he wanted to spend a little more time with them on the weekends. That’s when KDKA asked me to do it, and I absolutely love this because both of my teachers were college professors at one point so just the yearning for learning, the ability to do different things and sort of look at all different subject matters - it kind of hits a sweet spot for me because we have three boys who were sort of in that same age range and so I felt like I could relate to the kids because we had kids at home who were sort of that age-so it's been a wonderful opportunity for me.
Derek Nastasi: So how did your journalism career start?
Rick Dayton: I started actually in radio back in the 1980’s in the little radio station in Grove City, Pennsylvania, which is my home town, and went from there to doing it in college-and went from there to starting to do it commercially and professionally and then switched over to TV. I was in sports then switched over to news- and one thing leads to another and here we are in KDKA.
Derek Nastasi: What is the best part about your job?
Rick Dayton: (Without hesitation) The best part about my job is that you never know what it's going to be. I mean every single day when you come in - I start at 4:00 in the morning and you don't have any idea what the stories are going to be. You don't know what direction you're going. Even when you go out and you're assigned a story to say this is what we want you to do-you don't know what people are going to say, you don't know what their answers are going to be, you don't know where it's going to lead. It’s [journalism] sort of the creative option of how do you put together those sometimes dissimilar facts to make a comprehensive story in a minute and 15 seconds. Or, if you're the anchor, how do you describe it to people at home so they know what’s going on. So, that's what I love about it; it's different every single day.