Today we’d like to introduce you to ART RASCON.
Hi ART RASCON, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I can clearly remember the day that I shared my inner desire to become a journalist—a reporter who would cover events around the world. I was a high school student in my 9th-grade English Class. The teacher went around the room asking each of the students to talk about their career choice. The purpose was to discuss how critical English instruction in grammar, reading, and writing would be in our lives. When my English teacher turned to me, my thoughts quickly raced to my evenings watching the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite with my father. I would watch reporters telling stories around the globe and often told myself, “That’s what I want to do!” I shared this with my teacher and the students. To my dismay, my instructor was not the least bit supportive. “Oh, Arthur,” she said, “that won’t happen. You are flunking out of English. Your writing, grammar, and sentence skills are way below standard and you can’t read worth a darn.”
She was right. I was not a good student, and growing up with first-generation immigrant parents made it even more difficult. My grandparents had a 3rd-grade education. My parents were 9th grade dropouts, eventually got married and started having children. I am the 2nd of 9 children. I was socially inept, awkward, and an introvert. My communication skills were terrible, and I certainly couldn’t speak to a crowd of more than one—me. So, my English teacher was spot on when speaking of my substandard English, reading, and communication skills. But what she failed to recognize was how a deep-rooted passion, heavenly help, and an incessant, disciplined desire to improve was engrained in me from childhood. My parents eventually had an incredible success story, and I wanted that for me as well.
I continued my education, becoming the first in the entire Rascon ancestral line to graduate from college. I excelled in my college studies of journalism, political science, humanities, Spanish, and European politics, spending 6 months studying abroad in Madrid, Spain, and traveling throughout Europe.
My first job started two weeks after my college graduation in 1986, in Abilene, Texas as a reporter. I then moved to El Paso as a weekend anchor and reporter, then off to San Antonio to do the same. I left Texas in 1989 for the ABC Owned and Operated station of KABC-TV. It was the biggest break of my young career and an incredible opportunity. I would travel to a wide variety of places throughout the West to cover stories for the Los Angeles area. Then, another big opportunity came in 1994. CBS News with Dan Rather called and offered me an international Correspondent position for the Dan Rather Evening News. I worked out of New York City but was based in Miami, covering all of Latin America and the Southeast United States. What an incredible experience this was traveling the world as an international correspondent. My high school dream and aspirations were being realized.
Along with me on this amazing journey from city to city and suffering through ever-changing news events and spontaneous travel, was my dear sweetheart, Patti. I married her two days after I graduated from college. She, above anyone else, has been my constant support, counselor, chief advisor, teacher, and ever-wise eternal companion. None of this would have been possible without her by my side.
By the time I left CBS News in 1998 for a return to the ABC Network, we had 6 children. A 7th was adopted in Houston. Our next stop was Houston at the ABC Flagship station of ABC-13. I was the 11 am, 5 pm, and 6 pm anchor at the station and was assigned to travel and cover every major news story throughout the world over the next two and a half decades. Wow…what an adventure!
Upon leaving journalism last year, I created my own Media Consulting firm, Rascon Media Group. My company trains and consults company executives around the globe. I help coach and work with these executives on how to give presentations, work with the media, how to take control of an interview, and generally how to become a more powerful communicator. I’m a talent and image consultant coach. I am also a Spokesperson for two companies and on the National speaking circuit, presenting to groups, charitable functions, and corporate events everywhere. I also do a lot of commercial work for my spokesperson roles, which keeps me on TV daily at not only ABC-TV but several other media outlets throughout the State of Texas.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not,, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, it has not been smooth. There have been plenty of bumps along the way, especially during my time of extensive and spontaneous travel. I’m a family man and love my wife and children, and this business, when traveling for the networks, is not conducive to a family lifestyle. We had to make adjustments to make it work. My wife and children had to make many sacrifices of time when I was away. We are also deeply religious and involved in our community as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have always had many responsibilities in our various congregations, which stretched us greatly. The life of a journalist is demanding. It’s a 24-7 job, with a lot of weekend work, and rarely do you have holidays off. There were several vacations that were interrupted over the years because of a breaking news event that I had to fly off too. It was not easy for my dear wife. But she has been an angel through all of it.
These are all very real challenges. But we made commitments to make it work. When I was home, I was committed to being home and engaging in family activities, meals, gatherings, evening prayers, taking kids to school, etc. In fact, when I was traveling, I would always call every morning and evening for a family gathering over the phone and family prayers. No matter what time zone I was in throughout the world, I would make the call. On the rare occasion when I was not able to call, I would leave a message so that my wife could play it back for the children.
There were other challenges of not wanting to cover a story that I was assigned to or having disagreements with managers or editors, but all of these were worked out through patience and good communication. I have always tried to be a pleasant person to work with and to be a good team player.
What I have learned, perhaps more than anything else, is how these challenges in life—our trials and the many obstacles that each of us face—have not conquered me, but have made me a better person. Life’s trials strengthen our faith, our resolve, and our resilience—if we allow them to. An accomplished and skilled sailor never learns his craft on a calm sea. We need to be tested and tried and sometimes knocked to the ground on occasion. Our reaction to the challenges of life makes all the difference.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I left the journalism world last year in 2022, but my name, image, and voice is still heard throughout all of Texas on a host of television stations. I’m a spokesperson for two Houston-based companies, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic and Terry Bryant Law Firm. I do commercials, billboards, radio, and other media for these companies. I am also a noted public speaker at corporate events throughout the country and as I mentioned, a talent, image and media coach.
I absolutely loved my decades of work as a journalist. I loved meeting Individuals around the globe, learning about their lives, and putting together compelling and engaging reports that reached the audience in a remarkable way. I executive produced dozens of documentaries and hundreds of special reports over the years, many of which were recognized with some of the industry’s greatest honors, including 21 Television Emmys and more than three dozen other National and local reporting awards from press clubs in Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami. I’ve reported from more than 77 countries, Five continents, and nearly every State in the Union.
All of these honors are simply the accolades of the world—which are hardly sustaining. My love and joy come from being among my own family—my best friend—my wife, and our 7 children and 12 grandchildren…and among regular people and hearing their stories. I continue to do a lot of work in the community, serving and offering time, talents, and energies to a wide variety of charitable organizations and sitting on their executive boards. I also travel around the Southeast United States in my service as a “Seventy” in The Church of Jesus Christs of Latter-day Saints. A “Seventy” is a service office in the church that keeps me busy on most weekends traveling to congregations to minister to them and assist them in their responsibilities. It’s a great joy to serve the church and the Lord and His people in this capacity.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The industry is constantly changing. When I was a teenager, there were 4 networks that offered a choice for news: ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. Today, there are dozens. Social media and the advances in technology have revolutionized the industry and really allowed everyone to be a journalist. Back in 1985, while working at my first station in Abilene, Texas, I carried around a massive recording device with 3/4-inch tape that looked very similar to a cassette tape recording device but was 30 pounds and hauled around your shoulder. The camera was an additional 25 pounds. To go live one needed a microwave truck that would send the link back to the station, or if you were out of town it had to be a satélite truck. Satélite trucks were monstrous machines that could send the live shot signal anywhere in the world. Advancements over the years have made it so simple to broadcast “live” as the trucks and satélite equipment we worked with became increasingly smaller and lighter.
Which brings us to our day. All we need is a cell phone and we can go live from anywhere in the world.
With regard to where I see this industry headed in the next 5-10 years? Technology will continue to make it easier to broadcast but it also makes it more and more competitive. The news viewing audiences are shrinking because there are so many options for viewers. The industry has become more divisive and polarizing than ever before. It truly is alarming. If you want stories from the far right or far left of the political spectrum, then you turn to certain networks that offer this. Sadly, the media (including social media) are contributing to and becoming the messengers of anger, hate, envy, comparing, loneliness, addiction, depression, anxiety, and an incessant appetite for viewing a small screen in our hands.
What is making “news” today, in 10 years, will hardly be considered “news”. Our minds and, sadly, even our hearts have become desensitized to the glaring display of societal problems—all of which is not a good thing. But despite this outlook, I’m hopeful and I’m eternally optimistic, knowing that everything will be where it needs to be in the coming decades—because there will always be good people genuinely willing to advance that cause.
Contact Info:
- Website: RasconMediaGroup.com
- Instagram: artrasconabc
- Facebook: ART RASCON
- Linkedin: ART RASCON
- Twitter: @ART RASCON
