Brokaw goes from TV to TC

Life

TOM BROKAW IN TRAVERSE CITY

Fundraising dinner with Tom Brokaw

When: 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, May 12, at Bowers Harbor Inn on Old Mission Peninsula

Cost: $250 per seat; proceeds benefit the Traverse City National Writers Series and its scholarship fund

To check ticket availability: Visit the website www.treatickets.com or call (800) 836-0717

An Evening with Tom Brokaw

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 12, at the City Opera House

Cost: Tickets are sold out.

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Brokaw

Newsman, writer will speak to sold-out crowd

By VANESSA McCRAY vmccray@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Fri May 07, 2010, 07:42 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — Tom Brokaw's voice — deep, resonant and instantly familiar — filled the phone line.

It's the same, well-known delivery that greeted, informed and explained the news to television viewers for decades. On Wednesday, May 12, followers of Brokaw's books and journalism can see and hear him in person when he visits the City Opera House for a sold-out appearance at the 2010 Traverse City National Writers Series.

Brokaw agreed to the event because of his relationship with author, local resident and Writers Series founder Doug Stanton. Brokaw, in a telephone interview last week, said he will focus his remarks "on big ideas and how to move the country" without "spending a lot of our energy on school-cafeteria food-fights."

"Tom Brokaw's an example of what a great storyteller can do for his own community and for the nation, as well as telling stories for people who otherwise don't have a voice. And, he did that brilliantly in 'The Greatest Generation,'" Stanton said.

The longtime anchor of "NBC Nightly News" left that high-profile slot in 2004, and since then has made documentaries, written books and worked a stint as "Meet the Press" moderator. His projects varied from a short, moving piece on the relationship between Canada and the United States that aired during the Winter Olympics to the release of the 600-plus-page book "Boom! Talking About the Sixties." The book examines the movement and individuals who followed the World War II-era "Greatest Generation," of which Brokaw has written extensively about.

He interviewed the most notable newsmakers, covered the biggest stories and traveled extensively during his time as the face and voice of "Nightly News."

"I had a great run, and I have more choices now, and I don't have to be somewhere every night at 6:30," Brokaw said. "I have more freedom."

Some of that time he spends in Montana, where the South Dakota-born Brokaw backpacks, climbs and fishes. His wife, Meredith Brokaw, authored a cookbook on ranch-style food that features recipes for bacon -and-egg pie and bison burgers. The Big Sky state boasts the "felicitous combination" of small towns and fly fishing that Brokaw finds particularly appealing at this stage of his life.

"I grew up in the American West, so to speak," he said. "(I) left there wanting bright lights, big city, but before too long I was called back, if you will, to the wide open spaces."

The stories he chooses to tell now are mostly ones that interest him personally. What other septuagenarian, clad in navy sport coat and khaki pants, could appear as at ease as Brokaw did while talking with a T-shirted Kevin Pearce about the snowboarder's recovery from a severe injury? Brokaw came off unforced, even when referencing Facebook and casually dropping the abbreviated term "'boarding" during the "Today" show segment this week.

Staying relevant, is, of course, his job as a journalist. Brokaw will make time while in Traverse City to meet with local high school students. He developed a reputation for his generational studies and called today's youth "energetic" and "engaged as citizens."

Brokaw and Stanton first connected when Stanton was writing a piece on Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. The outdoor clothing company businessman is a friend of Brokaw's, and Stanton interviewed the newsman for the article.

Tickets to the Traverse City event sold out quickly. The Writers Series benefits a scholarship fund for area high school writers. Brokaw's acts of community service exemplify "the kind of culture we'd like the Writers Series to create, which is of being entertaining but also giving something back to the community," Stanton said.

The event will include a chance for the audience to ask questions, and Stanton hopes Brokaw will talk about the future of writing, storytelling and news. Journalists are producing "astonishingly good work," Brokaw said.

"What we have not sorted out (is) the economic model and how we get it all paid for," Brokaw said. "We allowed the canard 'Information is free' to linger... . It is not free."