NewsDepth Host Rick Jackson is also the Host and producer of Ideas, a live, weekly news and information program produced from the same studio as NewsDepth, at WVIZ/PBS ideastream in Cleveland.
Rick grew up in Pittsburgh, but his maternal grandparents and much of their family had earlier settled in Ohio's Mahoning Valley, and some are still there today. As a child, Rick would often visit Cleveland, Columbus, and Youngstown to see them.
Rick also graduated from a Prep School that often played sports opponents in Ohio. He just never realized that one day the state would be his home. He eventually graduated with a Communications/Journalism Degree from Bethany College, which is just seven miles across the state line, in West Virginia.
Rick has been a professional news broadcaster more than 25 years, working at TV stations in Wheeling, West Virginia; Memphis, Tennessee; Charlotte, North Carolina; New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and in Cleveland, for WVIZ, WKYC, WUAB and WOIO Television. He has also worked on the air for radio stations in four cities, including Cleveland.
While based in New York, Rick was the anchor of an international news program seen in more than 40 foreign countries, and in 48 of the states.
Among the many thousands of stories he has reported, Rick has particular fondness for the eight times he has interviewed one of the Presidents of the United States (Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton), and interviewing Space Station and Shuttle Veteran Shannon Lucid, and Dr. Jay Apt while they orbited the earth on STS-79 (Shuttle Atlantis). Rick and Dr. Apt attended the same Prep School in the 70's. Rick also has twice covered National Political conventions – New Orleans with the GOP in 1988, and Chicago with the Democrats in 1996. But his most fun stories have been the opportunity to skydive with the US Army's Golden Knights in 1986, and to pilot an F-16E with the USAF Thunderbirds when they were in Cleveland in 2000.
Rick currently lives in a Cleveland suburb with his wife, and his son, who is an eighth grader.
You could say Elaine Falk has been rattling off the headlines since she was a schoolgirl herself. Nearly every night, her father would start family dinner with one question: “What's happening in the world today?” At first she would groan about it---but then she began to discover that news is really a window into the world, a world full of endless things to learn. After that, she started looking forward to family dinner and her dad's news quiz. She never guessed that years later she'd be the one quizzing kids!
Elaine is a reporter/producer for the WVIZ/PBS show “ideas,” a live, weekly news and information program. On every story it's her responsibility to ask questions and explore, or as she likes to explain, it's her job to learn. Her Emmy nominated work has taken her from the secret storerooms of famous museums to trailing emergency doctors in the middle of a crisis. (She'll never forget when she was asked to put down her microphone and help with the IV.) Perhaps her most exotic assignment was the job she took on a Universal Pictures movie project (still in production) about Mt. Everest . By plane, taxi and yak train she traveled to the most famous mountain in the world. She spent that “spring” (brrr) camped out in an icy tent in the Himalayas and produced a radio documentary about the trip… and she brought back a Nepali newspaper for her dad.
Alright, here's the NewsQuiz---you knew it was coming---in what country is Mt. Everest?
Tip: There are 2 answers!
Click here for the answer!
