Two Bays, Two Networks, Two Worlds 

Jace Dunlap

Staff Writer

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On the second floor of two different broadcasting studios, two men look out their windows onto a bay. A video producer and evening news anchor may be separated by thousands of miles, but are united by their morning view of crisp, crashing waves along a shoreline. 

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The Pew Research Center reports 32% of Americans often use TV as their main source for news consumption. In a country where one in three people relies on their television for their daily news, Americans are widely connected through their need for media consumption. A third of Americans tune into stations broadcast from studios with the smell of stale coffee hanging in the air, whispers of interns scuttling with their busy work, and the buzzing of phones in cramped newsrooms. 

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Dan Ashley and Morgan Burke-Beyers have both always lived with the water only a glance away, the only difference being that the water is on opposite sides of the country.

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Growing up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Ashley developed a love for all things newsworthy. He had a subscription to Newsweek in junior high and joined the debate team. As a young adult, he went to the University of North Carolina (UNC), majoring in English and Speech Communications. Ashley didn’t have a childhood dream of becoming a news anchor, but was inspired by watching journalists during the presidential elections.

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After graduating from UNC, Ashley moved to Charleston, South Carolina, for an internship at a TV station owned by ABC. After spending months with the company, Ashley worked his way up the corporate ladder to become the main anchor and investigative reporter, a position he comfortably held for a few years. 

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Ashley’s time in South Carolina soon came to an end in 1989 when Hurricane Hugo hit the states. As storms ravaged the southeastern US, wind whipping around buildings and taking their roofs off, Ashley was inside the studio.

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“I was the last broadcaster on the air before we lost power for a couple hours, and the first one back when we got power,” recounted Ashley, buzzing with nostalgic energy, “[It was a] scary night, I thought we were going to get killed where we were, but it was a great personal and journalistic growth experience.”

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San Francisco sent Red Cross relief to help Charleston, so when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit San Francisco in 1989, Charleston reciprocated, and Ashley followed the story to the West Coast. In San Francisco, Ashley covered the effects of the earthquake over many stories. After his time in California, he knew it was the right move to work for the same station that he covered the earthquake out of when he got the job offer from ABC7 in San Francisco soon after. 

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After 31 years at ABC7, Ashley now has his own office in the corner of the building encased in windows that capture the twinkle of lights from the Ferry Building off of the San Francisco Bay at dusk. On the windowsill behind his desk, photos from his earlier days as a journalist sit in the moonlight. Ashley, standing with various people in the photos, may look like two strangers smiling at the camera, but to him, they are each a timeless memory of his career encased in glistening frames. 

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Burke-Beyers also found his interest in broadcasting through politics. Growing up in Traverse City, he recalls thinking as a young boy, “I want people to be as interested in politics as they are in reality television.” This passion for TV led Burke-Beyers to attend Central Michigan University for broadcasting, with his original intent to work in radio.

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While Burke-Beyers figured out the ins and outs of his career, he made his way into TV news with various broadcasting companies in Northern Michigan. Eventually, he found his way to 9&10, where he currently works as a Senior Video Producer. 

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Burke-Beyer’s role with the company is working on the editing side of productions. He works with clients, manages shoots, edits video, develops content for TV and web, and creates internal promotional material. The career is a culmination of experiences working in photojournalism and editing/broadcasting knowledge. 

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Burke-Beyer’s career has been based in a much smaller market compared to ABC7’s in San Francisco. Most of the work that Burke-Beyers produces is what will generate the most money for the company. Because Traverse City is a smaller market, it is more important for them to follow whichever leads will generate the most revenue, which can be hard when many clients are small businesses. 

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Small markets also have to directly respond to what viewers are seeking, Burke-Beyers says. In Northern Michigan, it is the weather. “Weather is frequently a top priority for people within our community. We also have weather that’s all over the place… people are also connected with how they are going to get around [during a storm].” 

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At times, the work that Burke-Beyers does can feel like it has a direct connection to those who want to see it. In a town with a population of around 15,000 people, almost everyone has some connection to what is being reported on. Because of this connection, there is a feeling of tug-of-war with the viewers. He needs to produce what will bring in the most income because of the smaller viewership size, but what people want to see may not always be what the journalists deem newsworthy.

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For small market broadcasters to continue to produce news, they sometimes need to make sacrifices in what they are covering. “You have to make money off of something… the product you’re producing has to attract as many people as possible, not do the best job of being a journalist.”

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Burke-Beyers uses the example of a house fire. He believes there is not a lot of journalistic work in broadcasting a house burning down, but that is the type of content that will generate viewership. 

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Market big or small, all news media share the responsibility of informing the public and capturing their attention to keep them informed. Ashley said, “At the end of the day, you can’t Google what [we] do every day. We go out with a camera, and we record the news, and you know, somebody’s got to go do that.”