Kathy Kemp wrote a beautiful story about the end of my job at APT for The Birmingham News.
(She died four months later, in November of 2010.)
Laid off from Alabama Public Television, journalist Tim Lennox stays in the profession on his blog
Tim Lennox can't help himself. After being laid off in February when Alabama Public Television eliminated his program, "For the Record," the journalist has continued to report and analyze the news, and also shoot photographs and video.
He does it not for money, but for the joy of it - and for a growing body of fans who visit his blog. It's called Tim Lennox OFFair and Online, at www.timlennoxonline.blogspot.com. Right now, you can read his comments about the ABC board banning a wine because of its risque label and about the Henry Louis Gates arrest in Cambridge (and the over-usage of the word "stupid"). "I don't get a penny for it. Advertising is nonexistent. But it's fun," Lennox says. "It's kept me sane for the last six months."
The 59-year-old broadcaster spent a chunk of his career - from 1976 to the early '90s - on air with Birmingham AM radio station WERC, where he gained local fame as a talk show host. After a stint as a weather and features reporter at Birmingham's WBMG TV-42, he moved to Montgomery and spent 11 years hosting "For the Record." One of APT's premiere programs, it featured Lennox talking with state politicians and other newsmakers, as well as the journalists who covered them.
"It was the perfect job for me," he says. "I still grieve for the loss of that show."
Although he prefers to stay in Alabama, Lennox, a New York City native, has sent job applications to dozens of cities in 24 states. Most have gone unanswered. Lennox is in talks with at least two interested stations.
"This is the longest period of unemployment I've ever had." His last APT show focused on the dour economy, an irony not lost on Lennox. It was the economy, he says, that killed his show.
"More than 1,200 TV journalists were let go in the last year," Lennox says. "So every time there's a job opening somewhere, an avalanche of resumes and tapes land on news directors' desk. In my lifetime, it's never been harder to find a job."
Between sending out resumes and running his blog, Lennox has been refocusing on a first love - taking photographs. After enlisting in the army in 1969, he was trained in photography and journalism. One of his army-era photos became semi-famous, depicting Gen. Westmoreland at the exact moment he decided to plant a kiss on the cheek of Gen. Mildred Bailey.
In recent months, Lennox has found a new forum for his photographs - The New York Times online. Out of more than 1,500 entries, The Times selected Lennox's photo of New York's Verrazano Narrows Bridge in the rain as part of its gallery of best cell-phone pictures. Lennox shot the image on his Razr phone from the back of a limousine as he was heading to his aunt's funeral in Brooklyn.
The Times online also featured Lennox's photo of his cleaned-up APT desk, with his lonely coffee cup, for a gallery of images showing how personal the recession has become. And it ran a picture of Lennox in 1969 to go with his reminiscence on the lunar landing. (To find Lennox's pics, visit www.nytimes.com and click on blogs and then Lens.)
Lennox has been able to make do on his savings and small real estate investments, but he's eager to get back to work - the kind that pays money. "I feel like I have so much to offer," he says. "I'm waiting for the recession to wear itself out. I just hope I don't wear out first."
Leaving APT, ties in hand.
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