Well done, Larry Baker!

I already miss him!

It's only been a few days but Larry Baker's retirement last Friday is already making an impact, at least on me.

Larry Baker, jack of all trades, retired after nearly 5 decades in broadcasting. I'm not going to call him a videographer because he was so much more. That description just the tip of the iceberg to what this true journalist accomplished in his career.

First of all, working with the same company (or sister stations) for an entire career is unprecedented. When I began at Channel 3, Larry Baker was part of our power house Akron Bureau. Through the years, it dwindled but not its potency. To this day, the reputation the wkyc Akron-Canton Newsroom has among viewers, business people, contacts, and sources still shines bright.

They were a small unit, but definitely got the job done and everyone had the utmost respect for the Akron Bureau's staff.

It was great having people down there around the clock. In its hay day when it was staffed at night as well, we whooped the competition. They all knew the lay of the land and would always come through when you asked.

I remember so many instances when, though few, they packed a punch and kicked some booty. Way back when in our old studios on East 6th, we had a pretty sizeable fire which thwarted how much and what we could do from Cleveland. The entire building except the control room had to be evacuated. We rigged a truck from outside but also had a truck in Akron so they could broadcast and fill a good portion of our shows.

So many times they filled much of our show --with stormy weather, flooding, a huge Summit County power outage, the Canton Football Hall of Fame Inductions....Ah, the good old days!

Though I shudder to bring this man's name up, the wkyc Akron Bureau was hot on LeBron James' trail before any other sports agency, agent, local station knew who he was. They covered him from the very beginning knowing he would be big.

I'd talk to Larry on the phone --maybe seeing him only a few times a year. Though not in the trenches or even in the same county with him on a daily basis, still learned so much from his example, his work ethic, his attention to detail, his integrity, and the pride he took in his craft.

Oh, the stories he told. He had/has a memory it seems from every single story he's ever covered.

Working on a news assignment desk, you learn fast that your best sources are your cameramen. Sure, you have your reporters who go out on a daily basis. But your cameramen are constantly out on the streets, often times, shooting multiple stories in the course of a day--by themselves. They meet with the real people. They stir up conversations to get other stories. They gather the facts. You have to trust them 100 percent.

Larry, working in the business so long, was as well known in the Akron area as any on-air personality. He'd get calls from the Mayor's Office, from his contacts, from the Prosecutor's Office. He'd walk into a press conference, whether in Akron OR Cleveland and every television personality knew who he was.

Larry was real. He cut through the proverbial 'you know what,' spoke his mind, told it like it was and never let anyone push him around. Let's face it, pretty much everyone working at the station today can't hold a candle to his long, illustrious history. He is our elder (not necessarily in years but in experience). He'd tell me what he thought about people and why (which I'd keep to myself of course because at the time, I did not have the respect he garnered!). He'd tell me how to be a good desk person, how not to compromise my beliefs or the integrity of the story and what 'real news' was. Larry never minced words, which was part of his charm and was never at a loss for words. He was always on the mark.

Larry DID it all. He's covered every story imaginable from wars to politics, from major sporting events, traveling, soldiers dying, the ups and downs of the Akron landscape and economy, and local breaking news (plane crashes, huge North American power outage, CWRU standoff).

Besides being one of the best cameramen around, he would shoot packages and edit them but also write the script, coordinate with the producers--the whole darn thing.

He'd crank out stories non-stop which could air on any newscast including our weekend morning shows. Never was Larry Baker a 1 story a day guy.

There are those people in this business when they ask you to do something, you bend over backwards. Larry was one of those guys. When he called on the phone to ask me to look something up, or send me pictures he needed re-sized and put into our system, or relay info to the anchors or producers, he became the priority.

I am so fortunate that I got the opportunity to work with Larry just weeks before his retirement during our Heroes Help Northeast Ohio Drive. I was stationed out at the Bainbridge WalMart with so many wonderful people including Larry Baker. I saw him in action one last time and realized, yet again, the amazingly high level of his professionalism. He gets it. He really knows his stuff. His leaving will not only leave a void at Channel 3 but in the entire broadcasting circle of Northeast Ohio.

He will be missed.

He said he'd like to do free lance work. I sure hope his work continues to find its way to our air on occasion to enrich all of our lives.

In case you missed it, The Akron Beacon Journal's Bob Dyer wrote a fabulous article on Mr. Larry Baker. Be sure to check it out!