#RANDY BEAMER SHOOTING TV#

“Decades of service to journalism, even long after he retires - which we hope is not for a very long time.NORMAN, Okla. “His legacy is how much he's impacted every reporter, photographer, every producer, every editor that's walked through the News 4 newsroom,” Baucum says. I'm going to push her, every single day.’”īeamer is a news historian, a living embodiment of what makes San Antonio special - and how solid journalism, night after night, year after year, can make a community stronger. “I don't know how I got this lucky, but at some point early in my career at News 4, I think Beamer must have seen something in me where he knew: ‘She can do better. The anchorman she grew up watching is now her mentor. He just loves San Antonio that much,” News 4 Trouble Shooter Emily Baucum says. 'And he does all of this without expecting anything in return. In his spare time, he says yes to every emcee event, from hosting 5K runs to singing onstage with high school performers competing for college scholarship money. On week nights, Beamer’s in the newsroom until well after midnight. And they still ring true to this day.”Īnd play on, he does, with a schedule that defies expectation. And those words at that moment meant so much to me. “But on the card, it read: ‘Play On.’ And it had a piano, a picture of a piano. And I had just a terrible week,” Ortiz says. “I remember one time, he left a card on my desk. She remembers him as a tough critic, but also her biggest cheerleader. He used to edit Ortiz’s scripts, making sure every viewpoint was represented. And when I came back to San Antonio, I got the job at News 4. “Because I grew up here, I knew of Beamer. Longtime News 4 anchor Jacqueline Ortiz worked alongside Beamer for 16 years. And always tell people stories, not just a collection of facts,” Dorsey says. “He taught me to be out in the community. Sometimes it’s bigger, like the family restoring a house in a struggling neighborhood. Sometimes it’s small, like the perfect shot that captures our changing skyline. She still sees Beamer all over town, camera in hand, his roving eyes looking for the next big story. He taught me to probe harder, to be a really serious journalist and not just touch the surface.”

“I was fortunate enough to be able to sit next to Randy Beamer. “A long time ago, there was this thing: ‘Be Like Mike.’ Well for me, it's ‘Be Like Beamer,’” Dorsey says. Speaking of grabbing a camera, we found former News 4 reporter Darlene Dorsey doing something so Beamer-esque: snapping photos of a new mural in the heart of the west side.

#RANDY BEAMER SHOOTING TV#

And I remember my colleagues and I gathering around the TV in the newsroom because we wanted to see Beamer's stories. He'd come back and dig through the archives to put some historical context to it. “He would grab his own camera, he would shoot his own stuff. 'Throughout my TV career, Beamer was one of those rare individuals who I looked up to and thought, ‘That's how I want to tell my stories.’” Coyle says. He still turns to Beamer for both his credibility and street cred. In this era of TV personalities, he's never forgotten or lost his commitment to telling good stories,” former News 4 Trouble Shooter Jeff Coyle says.Ĭoyle is now the city of San Antonio’s chief lobbyist and spokesperson. And over the years, he’s made generations of reporters better at their jobs.

Simply put, Beamer is a legend - a San Antonio news institution. SAN ANTONIO – All week, we’ve been celebrating a special milestone: it’s our main anchor Randy Beamer’s 30th year at News 4.

Randy beamer shooting