Aurora grad thanks ANR for his start in long career
Signing off from his 28-year career with KETV (Channel 7) Television, Aurora High School graduate Vonn Jones was inducted into the Omaha Press Club Journalists of Excellence Hall of Fame on Saturday, June 8.
The son of Rod and Jo Jones attributed his start to a lifelong fascination with and passion for television since growing up in Aurora.
“My family says even at that early age I knew I wanted to be a broadcaster,” Jones said during his induction speech. “Good Lord, I recorded play-by-play of neighborhood pick-up games into a reel-to-reel tape recorder and pushed a cardboard TV camera down the alley. Yeah, I was a hip child.”
His first break in journalism occurred one night in 1978 when Jones was awakened by his father after a fire broke out at the Aurora Hotel, which previously occupied the southwest corner of the square next to The Grandview.
The story was documented in an article by the Aurora News-Register (ANR) in its July 13, 1978 edition. The article reported that Fire Departments from Hampton, Phillips and Giltner were called in to assist Aurora firefighters. The picture of firefighters battling the blaze was taken by Jones with his 35mm camera, having beaten former ANR publisher Butch Furse to the scene.
“Butch didn’t get the call from the fire department that night, so he did not get down to the fire until 3 a.m.,” Jones explained. “I had pretty much exclusive pictures of the big fire and that got me on the front page for the Aurora News-Register. Then eventually it got me a job writing sports and shooting pictures for the News-Register.”
Working at ANR throughout his high school years and after, Jones graduated from Aurora High School in 1981 and finally got a taste of broadcasting while studying journalism at UNL. In addition to working at campus stations he also took an internship at KETV.
“Success and mistakes along the way made me better,” he shared during his speech. “From intern to photographer to reporter after graduation, eventually Kirk Winkler (former KETV news director) had the foresight to make me a producer and gave me more chances than I deserved to be better. I owe him a lot.”
After working as a TV reporter at KETV for five years, Jones became a news and executive sports producer at the regional Emmy award-winning television station WITI (FOX6) in Milwaukee, Wisc. After working there from 1990 to ‘94, he returned to Omaha and KETV in 1995 to work as a producer, executive producer and later on as an assistant news director, a job he held for 22 and a half years.
“As executive producer, you oversee the newscast,” he explained. “So you’re reviewing copy from all the reporters, you’re working with the other managers to shape the editorial content of the overall product throughout the day—morning, noon, and night—and just looking for other opportunities to advance the brand and do good work. Not only are you worried about editorial content and the daily direction of the news product, but you’re also hiring people and managing people and trying to make the place a better place to be.”
In 2018, Jones took over the position of news director from his predecessor, Rose Ann Shannon. He credited and thanked Shannon for bringing him back to Omaha and for the partnership they had for 30 years at KETV.
“The real fun of it is to break the news,” Jones stated. “To get the stories that the other guys don’t have, to be the first, to be accurate, be relevant to the audience, finding material that shines a light on the good things happen in the community and exposes the things that need some attention or people who are not probably doing what they should be doing to make the place better. That’s the real gratification of our job.”
After having worked so many years at KETV, Jones said it was impossible to single out just one memorable story.
“(There was) all sorts of storm coverage that we did from like the Pilger Tornado (in 2014), which was just crazy with those two tornadoes,” he commented. “We had a live camera on the air from Pilger when these storms were rolling through that county.”
While tragic events like the Westroads Mall shooting in 2007 and the Little Sioux Tornado in 2008 were among the darker stories he covered, outstanding moments such as the National Championships for Husker Football in the 1990s and the volleyball game at Memorial Stadium last fall were among the most positive news events Jones had been a part of covering during his career.
Having started a new venture as a broadcast content creator last November, Jones retired from KETV in December.
“I thought it was kind of time,” he commented. “Television seems to be more of a young person’s business. There are lots of people with new ideas and I thought I was kind of in the spot where I think I’ve seen and done about everything I wanted to do and it might be time to make way for some people who maybe bring some fresher ideas into the place and KETV continues to blossom and go crazy.”
Commenting on his induction this year into the Omaha Press Club’s Journalists of Excellence Hall of Fame, Jones stated, “I started in Omaha as a kid, like 22 years old out of college. I guess my mindset kind of still sees me as that kid. Like looking in the mirror and I go, ‘You’re not a kid at all,’ and so to be mentioned in a group of iconic Omaha journalists is pretty crazy.”
In accepting the honor, Jones thanked his parents for encouraging him to follow his ambition.
“There was never any pressure or expectations to follow in the family business,” Jones commented, referring to Jones Plumbing and Heating which operated on the north side of the square in the 1980s.
“They said, ‘Follow what you want to do,’ and they gave me that wide berth to do so and I’m forever indebted to them for setting me up for such a nice career,” he said.
Jones also credited Furse in his speech for his work ethic and attention to detail which Jones modeled and carried into his work in broadcasting.
“He gave me lots of opportunities as well and just his work ethic and his attention to detail is something I think that has carried me through the years for a long time,” Jones said.
Jones also said the accomplishments he has achieved during his career, wouldn’t have been as memorable without the people he worked with at KETV.
“You work so hard and the deadlines are passing and sometimes maddening, but you’re doing this work alongside really talented people throughout and you don’t get it on the air without cooperation in that team sense,” Jones said. “As you step back and look at it, you don’t remember the story so much as you remember the people you were working with and the things you did to get things on the air.”