In the ‘80s I had the best accounting jobs—Johnson & Johnson sent me at 22 to Cape Town, Hong Kong, and Sydney …
Later I co-managed the finances of Stallone, Willis, Jackson Browne—and earlier in passing the CPA exam, I became a member of the 300 Club. (No wasted points). In those great accounting jobs, I didn’t overachieve. It’s nice to see Table Mountain or crunch numbers for Sly, but taxes taxed me. Not bitten by the accounting bug, I succumbed to most male journalists’ dream—become Bob Costas. Then during the D.C. portion of my master’s at Northwestern, it happened. Black Monday happened. Professor Kelly Burke sent us to the Federal Reserve Building to do “live shots” on the crash. I couldn’t quite get LIFO and FIFO cost accounting, but I did get the perils of an inverted yield curve. I guess I delivered that information well on Oct. 19, 1987. Professor Burke exhorted: “Sports? Go with your strength.” I came to Orange County a founding member of the OC Register’s 24-hour TV-gambit, Orange County News Channel. I covered Charles Keating’s fraud trial in Los Angeles—before Judge Lance Ito who’d later gain fame in the trial of a USC football player—as my first story. The Register fueled OCN for five years—it lasted 11—not a bad run. But OCN never made money. Handed a monopoly and goodwill, it should still be around. When Adelphia Communications took over—game over. I fell into that professor gig at emerging Film & TV powerhouse Chapman University—a lucky break. Teaching wasn’t the plan—now it was to be Neil Cavuto. I can only share that to teach, to teach at Chapman, is a gift. God bless our students. In 2007-08, I burned the candle at both ends, joined the next effort to bring TV news to Orange County—KDOC-TV’s “Daybreak OC,” and serial entrepreneur Bert Ellis. Ellis has had many more hits than misses. “Daybreak OC” was a miss, launching at the onset of the Great Recession. When I’m in the field, I’m often asked, “What’s it going to take to bring TV news here?” I reply that the opportunity remains, needs execution and luck, but if it happens, Pete Weitzner won’t be part of it. Why add weight to the venture? Chapman let me forge two simultaneous roles in business journalism: “The Chapman Business Report” with economists and gentlemen Jim Doti and Essie Adibi; and Business Editor at PBS SoCal with Hall-of-Famer Ed Arnold and run by Mike Taylor and Ann Pulice. I enjoy the classroom. I really enjoy finding and telling business stories. In March, Richard Reisman called. I’ve always respected the RRs—Richard and Rick Reiff—for making the Orange County Business Journal a lynchpin of the OC Community of Business. So back to Black Monday and unfinished business—telling stories in the best tradition of journalism: Gather facts absent an agenda and fold into eloquent storytelling.
The legacy built at the Business Journal is inspiring. I hope I don’t screw it up. I promise our readers that if I do, it won’t be from lack of effort—just the Pete Weitzner-Orange County Journalism curse.
