Doreen Gentzler – Iconic News Anchor and Award Winning Broadcast Journalist

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Doreen Gentzler on breaking in Jim Vance and George Michael during one of her first days on the job ~

“I think of one of the first broadcasts I did with those guys, brand new, they’re all 15 years older than me, they’ve all been working together for many years. They’ve got all these inside jokes and everything. I can remember George and Vance would kind of get into it. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah about alimony payments and this and that. . . One of the first broadcasts, they start going off about something, probably sports related or something like that. I think I interrupted them and said ‘Well, let’s …’ Something to change the subject. I didn’t think anything of it, I just did it. . . that’s how I roll. I remember after that broadcast, the two of them looking at each other and looking at me and saying, ‘This is going to be okay. This is going to work.’

Andy Ockershausen: This is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town. I can’t believe that I’m so fortunate enough to have this very special guest, Doreen Gentzler. She’s an award winning broadcast journalist, she’s absolutely an icon, but the best part of all is she’s a friend, and I am so delighted, Doreen Gentzler, to have you on Our Town.

Washington, D.C. | Charleston, SC | Athens, GA

Doreen Gentzler: Well, it’s my pleasure, and you’re the one who’s an icon and a legend, Andy. You have outlasted a whole lot of people in this town.
Andy Ockershausen: Well, that’s true, been a long time. Janice keeps me going, of course. We created this podcast, I didn’t even know what it was. I never heard of it until two years ago. It’s radio without a transmitter. This is a radio show, and thank you for being here Doreen. A Washingtonian, you were born in Our Town and lived here until you were 11 years old, and then left Our Town.
Doreen Gentzler: Right, true, true.
Andy Ockershausen: The family took off and took you with them.
Doreen Gentzler: To Charleston, South Carolina. Boy, how things have changed. I remember so many things from when I was a kid growing up here that have, that are just-
Andy Ockershausen: Oh my …
Doreen Gentzler: Completely different. You know what I’m talking about.
Andy Ockershausen: You live through it, just talking to that Councilman, Charles, he was telling me what’s happened in his ward. I got to go over and visit. It’s nothing I could ever relate to. That’s the great part about Our Town, it’s constantly changing.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: Boy, think of your year. The first time we met was at a wedding, and it wasn’t yours. It was Allan Horlick’s daughter.
Doreen Gentzler: Oh, oh, it was a Bat Mitzvah I think.
Andy Ockershausen: Something like that.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes, yes.
Andy Ockershausen: We sat at the same table and you had not been there very long. This must have been in ’90 or ’91.
Doreen Gentzler: Right.
Andy Ockershausen: I met your husband, I met … Since then I consider you a friend. It took us a long time over the years, Doreen, to arrive at this, but you’re so special to us.
Doreen Gentzler: Well, thank you.

University of Georgia Alumni

Andy Ockershausen: To Our Town. You have made Our Town so good for us and the years you spent getting, honing your skills are important. That’s what I like reading about you. You went to University of Georgia. I don’t why you lived in South Carolina but there’s a young woman … We were down there for graduation, our niece graduated from down there, last year in ’15, and the …
Doreen Gentzler: From Georgia?
Andy Ockershausen: From Georgia, University of Georgia. The woman that did the talk-
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Amy on Channel 7. Amy on ABC.
Doreen Gentzler: Oh, Robach.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yes.
Doreen Gentzler: Amy Robach, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah, she’s a Georgia girl.
Doreen Gentzler: Sure. She’s a Georgia alumni, right?
Andy Ockershausen: Thinking about that, what a great school. Wonderful, wonderful school to go to.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative). It was a lot of fun. Good journalism school.
Andy Ockershausen: You learned there. You learned that you didn’t know anything. You had to go out and get it, correct?
Doreen Gentzler: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: Going to Chattanooga, that ain’t no bad place to start actually is it?
Doreen Gentzler: It was.
Andy Ockershausen: They let you do everything.

Chattanooga, TN – Getting Started in the Media Business

Doreen Gentzler: I did do everything. It’s not they let you, in those days. They didn’t let you do everything, you had to do everything. It was, I was a one man band some days. What is now called a multimedia journalist was then called a one man band, only the equipment was a whole lot bigger.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, that’s right.
Doreen Gentzler: Big, great big cameras, big heavy light kits.
Andy Ockershausen: A producer, and an easy three-person crews. You had to do it all, but that’s the way you learn.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: We had, we owned a television station in Lynchburg, and that’s the way it was at WLVA. They had one guy that learned the whole business because he did all the work. Radio, TV was one unit, and that was great.
Doreen Gentzler: It helped me understand what the other people’s jobs were. I was the photographer for my own pieces, I edited the videotape for my own pieces, and then later if I’m asking a photographer to get a shot for me, I understand what he’s talking about. “I can’t get that shot and here’s why.” That kind of thing.
Andy Ockershausen: That is really why you went there. Not so much for your journalism skills but to learn the business.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: The business of television news. Then you moved from there to Charlotte.
Doreen Gentzler: Right.
Andy Ockershausen: A bigger market, but still doing a lot of work there, I’m sure.

Charlotte, NC – A Bigger Exciting Market

Doreen Gentzler: Charlotte was great. It was an exciting television news market to be in.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh my God.
Doreen Gentzler: There had been a dominant station, a dominant CBS station there for decades. I went to work for the ABC station and really kind of the up and coming.
Andy Ockershausen: Competition.

A Young Crew of 20 Somethings

Doreen Gentzler: Yeah, yeah. We were all 20 something, or most of us were. We were all just really excited about what we were learning. We’d finish a long work day, and then we’d get together at the bar afterwards all the different stations. It was just, it was a really, really fun time.
Andy Ockershausen: You could mingle, you knew each other.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes, yes.
Andy Ockershausen: It was a small group. Washington was that way too at one time I can tell … That was all my friends, I knew them. Both male and female would all gather. Charlotte was exploding also as a central and a banking city, correct?
Doreen Gentzler: Sure was, you’re right.
Andy Ockershausen: In those days.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: I mean, big banks were there. The Taj McCall and all that.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes. I barely recognize Charlotte. I’ve been back once or twice since then.
Andy Ockershausen: The big, beautiful football or sports stadium they built. That was the beginning of Charlotte’s explosion.
Doreen Gentzler: They didn’t have football or basketball. It was all ACC basketball when I was there.
Andy Ockershausen: Tell me about it.
Doreen Gentzler: They didn’t have the pro sports teams then.
Andy Ockershausen: No, that’s right. They were coming. Then you moved to Cleveland, it’s the third C, Chattanooga, Charlotte and Cleveland, and each time you’re moving up and doing more work, correct? You got married somewhere in there, did you not?

Cleveland, OH – News Anchor and Marriage

Doreen Gentzler: I got married in Cleveland.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, I see, when you went to Cleveland.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative), mm-hmm (affirmative). Married a guy who was born and raised in Cleveland.
Andy Ockershausen: He’s a writer?
Doreen Gentzler: He was a newspaper reporter at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Andy Ockershausen: A great newspaper.
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: Is it still in business?
Doreen Gentzler: Yes, it is. It is.
Andy Ockershausen: A lot of newspapers have gone.
Doreen Gentzler: I know.
Andy Ockershausen: Like our newspaper, The Washington Star was our home, and it’s gone. A lot of people miss it, not because it was great but because it was an anecdote to The Post. It made The Post better too. See, newspapers fading to me is sad. It really is, Boston, you see it all over.
Doreen Gentzler: To all of us, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: The Plain Dealer was a great place for your husband, a great place for you. You learned more skills there and then you were an anchor there, were you not at one time?
Doreen Gentzler: I actually started anchoring when I was in, still in Charlotte. I was coming up at a time when they were looking to put more women on camera and I was in Chattanooga looking for a reporting job. The news director in Charlotte said, “I like your reporting. I also need a weekend anchor. Will you give that a try?” “Sure, why not. To move to a bigger market, Charlotte instead of Chattanooga, let’s give it a try.”
Andy Ockershausen: It must have worked for you because you met the man of your dreams, obviously, in Cleveland and married him, and then took him out of Cleveland.
Doreen Gentzler: That’s exactly right. He’d always been in Cleveland and then he linked up with me and we-
Andy Ockershausen: Went to Philadelphia.

Philadelphia, PA – From NBC to CBS

Doreen Gentzler: We went to Philadelphia together, yes, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: What an experience that is, from Philly … They were both owned by the same company?
Doreen Gentzler: No.
Andy Ockershausen: WCAU was a CBS property, correct?
Doreen Gentzler: It was a CBS owned station at the time, right, and I was coming from an NBC owned station in Cleveland.
Andy Ockershausen: KYW … Whatever it was.
Doreen Gentzler: WKYC.
Andy Ockershausen: I remember there was a reason for that swap. It was something to do with protection of the New York signal. They swapped the NBC owned station in Philadelphia for Cleveland.
Doreen Gentzler: Philadelphia and Cleveland, right, right, right.Andy Ockershausen: I remember that vividly and the reason for it. Then that opened up another world because … While you were there, did you ever get a chance to work with George in Philadelphia?
Doreen Gentzler: No.
Andy Ockershausen: Or Glenn Brenner?
Doreen Gentzler: No, mm-hmm (negative). They were both already gone from Philadelphia by the time I was there.
Andy Ockershausen: They both came down here.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh my goodness. Philadelphia, at that time, was also growing.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: I mean, things were changing and you were anchoring something in Philly, correct?
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah, so it was a challenge to move two careers in the media from Cleveland to Philadelphia. My husband got a job first at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Then it was-
Andy Ockershausen: Another great newspaper.

Weekend News Anchor – “Crazy Breaking News in Philadelphia”

Doreen Gentzler: At the time, it was a really great newspaper. Lots of Pulitzer Prizes and so that was a great opportunity for him. Then it was up to me to find something in Philadelphia. The CBS station there offered me weekend anchor.
Andy Ockershausen: Put you back on the weekends.

Doreen Gentzler: Sure, yes. They moved me, let’s see after a few months of anchoring Sunday nights and reporting for the live shots at 11:00 and …
Andy Ockershausen: Were you doing street reporting too?
Doreen Gentzler: Street reporting, lots of-
Andy Ockershausen: You had a crew with you then.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes, I did have a crew with me then. You need a crew with you to go out on the streets of Philly at night.
Andy Ockershausen: I know that.
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah, no, crazy, crazy breaking news in Philadelphia. I mean, we covered some wild stories.
Andy Ockershausen: You got all the New Jersey, all of southern New Jersey to cover.

Bumped to Weeknight News Anchor, then back to Weekends and Time to Go

Doreen Gentzler: Yes, yeah, but just some of the strangest news stories happened in Philadelphia, I can tell you. Anyway, so I did that for a little while, and then they moved me to weeknights at 6:00.
Andy Ockershausen: As an anchor?
Doreen Gentzler: As an anchor, and I would anchor the 6:00 news, and then I’d go out and do the live shots for the 11:00 broadcast. Then they hired an anchorwoman from another station, more established than me, moved me back to weekends and I said, “It’s time to go.”
Andy Ockershausen: “Bye, bye. Bye bye.”

Doreen Gentzler – On to Channel 4 and Back to Our Town

Doreen Gentzler: That’s when the opportunity at WRC came up.
Andy Ockershausen: You were smart enough to keep an eye on other markets, knew what was going on in the industry, right?
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah, yes.
Andy Ockershausen: Not just where you were but there were other good things happening.
Doreen Gentzler: Right, right.
Andy Ockershausen: You knew, you spied that Washington might have an opening.
Doreen Gentzler: Well, I had worked for years, four years in Cleveland for the NBC owned stations.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah.
Doreen Gentzler: I knew them, they knew me so …
Andy Ockershausen: That Michael Jack, did he move down here from Cleveland?
Doreen Gentzler: No, no. He was in Columbus for a while.
Andy Ockershausen: Ohio, yeah that’s right. I remember that.
Doreen Gentzler: Some of the same guys who I’d worked for in Cleveland, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: NBC, wonderful company to work, everywhere. It ends up so that you knew there was an opening and you applied for it.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: It must have worked because they hired you.
Doreen Gentzler: They did, yeah, it must have worked. There was a little-
Andy Ockershausen: You left your husband in Philadelphia again.

2 Year Commuter Marriage

Doreen Gentzler: I did.
Andy Ockershausen: You got to move him down here.
Doreen Gentzler: We had a hard time with that because we both agreed that it would be a mistake to not take the opportunity in Washington. At about the same time as my job wasn’t going as well in Philadelphia, his at “The Inquirer” was going really well. He was loving the paper and it was … We commuted back and forth for a couple of years. Got to know Amtrak really well.
Andy Ockershausen: You started to build a family too, did you not? Both of your children were born here, weren’t they?
Doreen Gentzler: Yes. That’s right, that’s right.
Andy Ockershausen: You really then became part of Our Town when you moved down and started a family and dug in. Tell me, the world that you left to come into this world with these characters that were suddenly thrust into a big part of your life. That must have been not only exciting but intimidating.

Working with Vance, Michael, Ryan and Campbell

Doreen Gentzler: By those characters you mean Jim Vance and George Michael and Bob Ryan and Arch Campbell.
Andy Ockershausen: Willard Scott, occasionally. I mean, it must have been a wonderful experience but also threatening. We’ll be right back on Our Town and talking to Doreen Gentzler about the beginning of the powerful Channel 4.
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Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town.
Andy Ockershausen: This is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town. I’m having a wonderful conversation with Doreen Gentzler. To envision her, to envision Doreen coming from Philadelphia to be thrown into, not thrown in but welcomed into this mess of very, very talented people in Our Town, the guys she worked with, that must have been intimidating.
Doreen Gentzler: Well, I look back on it now and I think I probably should have been more terrified than I was. At the time …
Andy Ockershausen: I think you terrified them. What do you think of that?
Doreen Gentzler: Well, I grew up with brothers and I can remember-
Andy Ockershausen: Two brothers.

On Becoming Accepted By All Men Crew, Having Grown Up with Two Brothers Helped

Doreen Gentzler: … One of the first … I’m the bossy, older sister of two brothers. I think of one of the first broadcasts I did with those guys, brand new, they’re all 15 years older than me, they’ve all been working together for many years. They’ve got all these inside jokes and everything. I can remember George and Vance would kind of get into it. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah about alimony payments and this and that. This would go on, and it just, I’d been told that before I-
Andy Ockershausen: It was going to happen.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes. One of the first broadcasts, they start going off about something, probably sports related or something like that. I think I interrupted them and said “Well, let’s …” Something to change the subject. After that … I didn’t think anything of it, I just did it.
Andy Ockershausen: Just happened.
Doreen Gentzler: I just didn’t. You know, that’s how I roll. I remember after that broadcast, the two of them looking at each other and looking at me and saying, “This is going to be okay. This is going to work.”
Andy Ockershausen: “She isn’t afraid of us.”
Doreen Gentzler: Well, and they actually, I think, appreciated somebody putting a stop or putting a period on a sentence for them.
Andy Ockershausen: The old boys. Then you got a Bob Ryan, who was … I would never imagine Bob in that because he was so focused on the weather, as your weather guy is now. Then Arch from another world.

Arch Campbell

Doreen Gentzler: Yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: There could never be another Arch. I used to call him Davy Marlin Jones clone, remember him?
Doreen Gentzler: Oh sure, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: Arch hated that, of course.
Doreen Gentzler: I know, he did.
Andy Ockershausen: That was an era when every local station tried to have a critic.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: That was exciting to see, but it didn’t last that long, but Arch lasted forever. I’m so happy.
Doreen Gentzler: He is a character. Just had lunch with Arch and Bob last week.
Andy Ockershausen: Did you? Bob …

Bob Ryan

Doreen Gentzler: So, so silly. Just laughing at their ridiculous jokes for two hours.
Andy Ockershausen: I don’t know how Bob Ryan survived in this business, because he’s such a great gentleman.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: A lot of the people he worked with weren’t gentleman. They were different, but that’s what made them so talented, George and … How would anybody be Vance? I mean, there’s one, one thing and you did the most beautiful eulogy to Vance that we’ve all heard.

Jim Vance

Doreen Gentzler: Thanks.
Andy Ockershausen: He was just … We had him two weeks before. He had told me that, “I’m not well, and I’m going to be getting out of this business and do something.” He was a good friend of my friend Pete Wysoki.
Doreen Gentzler: Sure.
Andy Ockershausen: Brmm, brmm, the Harley Davidson group. A matter of fact, Vance lived in our neighborhood in Spring Valley. We knew each other and had the same dog handler and all that. He was just a great guy, and you two together were embeddable, It’s just fabulous. I know you miss him every day.
Doreen Gentzler: I do.

George Michael

Andy Ockershausen: We talk about that watching the show. The same thing with George. Your stories must be incredible about George Michael. Oh my god, and his horses.
Doreen Gentzler: Many of them not for …
Andy Ockershausen: Publication?
Doreen Gentzler: Public release. Yes, yeah. No, what a character, all three of those guys and Arch as well. All of them, just great characters.
Andy Ockershausen: All different.
Doreen Gentzler: All completely different, all just great to work with. I think one of the things that made our team special is because we have all these people who were very strong personalities.
Andy Ockershausen: Very talented.
Doreen Gentzler: All very different and all capable of handling whatever you could throw at them, which meant that we could have fun with each other and tease each other, and but knew that we had each other’s backs. If somebody was having a bad day or needed a …
Andy Ockershausen: A lift.
Doreen Gentzler: A lift or needed some backup when you can’t think of a name, and the news is breaking, that kind of thing. Just really, really, I have a huge, a huge appreciation for how fortunate I was to get to work with all of those guys.
Andy Ockershausen: Thank you so much for sharing that with us, because it showed. As a viewer, I could see it and feel it. Then as something in the business, I would see the guys, and I knew them, and they accepted you. Accepted you as an equal, and an equal news person, and not as a female but as a good reporter. That was your edge, you were very good. When you came there, you were trained.
Doreen Gentzler: Well, I’d been … 10 years.
Andy Ockershausen: Maybe you weren’t ready for that, but you were trained in broadcasting.
Doreen Gentzler: Well, I got home training. I had to be ready for them with growing up with brothers, I think that made a difference.
Andy Ockershausen: Right, and your dad.
Doreen Gentzler: That made a difference.

Family

Andy Ockershausen: Both of your children were born at WRC, so they’re responsible for that, huh? Your husband must have come back, but he didn’t come back to The Post.
Doreen Gentzler: He did, he did. He came …
Andy Ockershausen: For a while with The Post?
Doreen Gentzler: He was 17, 18 years at The Post.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Wow.
Andy Ockershausen: Is that right?
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: I thought he had his own business for a while. Never?
Doreen Gentzler: It must have been one of my other husbands.
Andy Ockershausen: Doreen.
Doreen Gentzler: No, he covered courts and crime and …
Andy Ockershausen: For three great newspapers.
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: He’s not working now? He’s got talent.
Doreen Gentzler: He left The Post a few years ago and went to work on the other side of the stories that he had covered. Homeland security and all that.
Andy Ockershausen: Okay.
Doreen Gentzler: He’s now the spokesman for the U.S. Attorney.
Andy Ockershausen: How about that.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: For the District of Columbia, that’s a big job. Is his pay-
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative). It is the biggest U.S. Attorney’s Office in the country, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, I know. That’s incredible. To get into a court here is a good place to get.
Doreen Gentzler: It’s been funny though, after years of covering those guys and trying to get information out of them now he’s on the other side.
Andy Ockershausen: He’s protecting them.
Doreen Gentzler: He’s oh, he’s Mr. No Comment. I can’t tell you …
Andy Ockershausen: That’s funny. Doreen, and your two children grew up here now.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes, yes.
Andy Ockershausen: One of them’s in college or …
Doreen Gentzler: I’ve got one out of college and in grad school and the other one about to finish college at American University.
Andy Ockershausen: Local.
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: You live in Northern Virginia, don’t you?
Doreen Gentzler: I live in Maryland. I’m in Chevy Chase, close to the TV station.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, do you?
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: I always thought you came from Virginia, I don’t know why. You never lived over there, did you? You’re from …
Doreen Gentzler: I grew up in Arlington, so maybe that’s where that comes from.
Andy Ockershausen: I don’t know, but then you moved to Maryland. That was a surprise.
Doreen Gentzler: To be, well to be closer to … I know. People don’t usually cross the …
Andy Ockershausen: No, the bridge. It’s a barrier, you know that.
Doreen Gentzler: Right, you need a passport, but for me, it was the TV station is in Upper Northwest, so if I was going to see my kids at …
Andy Ockershausen: You go home for dinner?

“The goal was to be home for dinner most nights”

Doreen Gentzler: … at dinnertime, then living close to the station was-
Andy Ockershausen: Did you have a plan that so many nights you’d be home for dinner or was it every night, to be with the kids?
Doreen Gentzler: I wish I had had a plan for a lot of things, Andy.
Andy Ockershausen: Doreen.
Doreen Gentzler: The goal was to be home for dinner most nights.
Andy Ockershausen: Most nights.
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: Well, I’m sure the people that you worked with did the same thing. Vance went home, I know that.
Doreen Gentzler: Well, I-
Andy Ockershausen: Or went to the bar over on Wisconsin Avenue.

Kids Thought Everybody’s Mother Went Back to Work at 9PM

Doreen Gentzler: Well, my kids growing up, for many years thought everybody’s mother went back to work at 9:00 at night.
Andy Ockershausen: Right.
Doreen Gentzler: It would seem perfectly normal to them that we’d do the bedtime story. We’d have dinner, the bedtime story, the homework or whatever and then I’d-
Andy Ockershausen: Got to get back.
Doreen Gentzler: … Put my shoes back on and go back to work.
Andy Ockershausen: Then you had to get ready for a new, new broadcast, a new life at 11:00.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: Whatever it was.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: You did it and you’re still doing it Doreen. It’s amazing.
Doreen Gentzler: Still doing it.
Andy Ockershausen: I mean, you kept your sanity, to a point.
Doreen Gentzler: Well, I’m not so sure about that.
Andy Ockershausen: I would hope so.
Doreen Gentzler: Here I am. It gets harder to go back to work at night.
Andy Ockershausen: Your husband has put up with you with this life for … Then he’s always worked at good papers, but God, good markets, good papers, that’s important to you, right?
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: I mean, his involvement.
Doreen Gentzler: Sure, it is. Yeah, yeah. Very much so.
Andy Ockershausen: Because he was busy, and you got a lot in common with him both being in the news business.
Doreen Gentzler: Right, it helped, it has helped a lot. My hours are kind of crazy but he was used to some crazy hours as well.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, I’m sure.
Doreen Gentzler: Being a newspaper reporter.
Andy Ockershausen: A reporter, particularly for a morning paper, right?
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: I mean, they didn’t put that paper to bed until after midnight, so they all worked in the evenings. Doreen-

Commentary on “The Post”

Doreen Gentzler: We all just went to see the movie “The Post.”
Andy Ockershausen: “The Post,” you did?
Doreen Gentzler: Yes, when it was so fun to go see it with him. He worked at The Post with both Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee. Just watching him, seeing them set the type and putting the copy into the pneumatic tubes, and send it to the press room.
Andy Ockershausen: That’s right.
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah, so it was-
Andy Ockershausen: All that’s gone now. That must have been great for him to see.
Doreen Gentzler: Now newsrooms are silent, just everybody tapping in their computers, not the same.
Andy Ockershausen: There’s a group of ex-writers at The Post that meets once a month, and we have lunch together, for local Washington broadcast people. They all love Katharine Graham, but they were not excited about Tom Hanks. Because evidently, my experience with Bradlee, he was so overwhelming as a personality.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee

Andy Ockershausen: That Tom Hanks, no matter what he said, can’t be Ben Bradlee.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative), well Jason Robards, who are you going to …
Andy Ockershausen: Oh-
Doreen Gentzler: How are you going to follow that, right?
Andy Ockershausen: How can you beat that?
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: You can’t, but she did. Everybody said … I haven’t seen the movie, we’re going to see it. We’re going to go over vacation and see the movie. She was Katharine Graham, she’s going to win everything, Meryl Streep should.

Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham

Doreen Gentzler: She was awesome. As a woman watching that movie, watching the evolution of Katharine Graham from this society wife to watching her become the leader, the gutsy leader that she was …
Andy Ockershausen: It must be a great, great feeling.
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah, it was-
Andy Ockershausen: To see that happen, because I knew her husband and, of course, he was local around town as we all were, and Donald and the family. He didn’t include her in the business and her father didn’t either. He turned the whole business over to his son-in-law, so Katharine still grew up as a socialite.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: All of a sudden, it’s in her lap, so it’s a great story.
Doreen Gentzler: Watching the movie, you see her walking alone into all these situations full of men. She’s not-
Andy Ockershausen: The character’s like you.
Doreen Gentzler: Well, she’s not flanked by staff or … They did a good job of portraying that.
Andy Ockershausen: I bet. Seriously Doreen, she was thrown in a thing. You weren’t thrown in, but you went into a situation that was there already.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: Katharine’s got to work with all these powerful personalities, right? There was a big personality conflict at The Post at one time.
Doreen Gentzler: I don’t think she was welcomed in the same way that I was.
Andy Ockershausen: No, you’re probably right.
Doreen Gentzler: I kind of had to prove myself, but I didn’t have to …
Andy Ockershausen: She was-
Doreen Gentzler: It was a much more fair process.
Andy Ockershausen: Nobody ever called her a fox, like Jim Vance referred to you, Doreen, and I loved it too because you are a fox. Okay, this is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town. We’re talking to Doreen Gentzler.
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Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town with Andy Ockershausen. Brought to you by Best Bark Communications.
Andy Ockershausen: This is Our Town, Andy Ockershausen. In spite of what you might have thought, that Doreen and I are friends, and I so admire her and her work and what she’s done. Doreen Gentzler, where do you go from here? I mean, you’re at the top of the heap.

Still Happy as a News Anchor at NEWS4

Doreen Gentzler: Well, that’s a good question. I’m happy doing what I’m doing right now. I still love coming to work every day.
Andy Ockershausen: Every day?
Doreen Gentzler: I really, I miss Vance, I miss some of my long time coworkers, but I get to work with a great team.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Doreen Gentzler: We have … They are the best ever, and you see how many people stay at Channel 4 News for so many years, that’s why. Because the people are so great, and the people do care about what they do, and they do it well.
Andy Ockershausen: They care about each other.
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: It shows.
Doreen Gentzler: Yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: I think the weather was a coup. He’s a fabulous weather man.

Doug Kammerer – Weather

Doreen Gentzler: Doug Kammerer.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Doug Kammerer.
Andy Ockershausen: Doug is not Bob Ryan, but he’s not trying to be Bob Ryan.
Doreen Gentzler: Right, right.
Andy Ockershausen: That’s worked great. He’s a great addition to the show.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: Having your friend from Channel 7 now, is doing some co-anchoring.

Leon Harris – co-Anchor

Doreen Gentzler: Leon Harris, mm-hmm (affirmative), mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: Leon did a lot of work with us with Don Bosco, the school we represent, Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School. All of the people that you work with are so special. There’s nobody like Wendy, I mean there’ll never be another.

Wendy Rieger

Doreen Gentzler: Thank goodness.
Andy Ockershausen: That’s so true. I have to call her and say, “What’s the romance like this month, Wendy?” Now she’s got the farm, so …
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: She’s a great character and I know you … Jim Handly is such a gentleman.

Jim Handly

Doreen Gentzler: She is, I love working with Wendy and Jim Handly is wonderful too. He’s been a great partner at 11:00.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh my God, that’s a 10 strike for you to get him.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: He really, really helped at that 11:00, didn’t he?
Doreen Gentzler: Agree. Yes, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: He’s such a good guy. Everybody on the cast is so special to us because we grew up with them maybe in the neighborhood, and we see them. Nobody bigger than you too in their eyes, Doreen.
Doreen Gentzler: Well, that’s very kind of you.
Andy Ockershausen: You hold that whole thing together.
Doreen Gentzler: Andy, thank you. I don’t know about that, but I’m-
Andy Ockershausen: Yes you do.
Doreen Gentzler: I really appreciate that I get to work with that crew.
Andy Ockershausen: I know you do, and it shows. You got enthusiasm. You’re there every night, you’re on time. You’re part of the community now. You’ve done a lot of things like the Washingtonian of the Year, you do that luncheon occasionally, I see you.

Washingtonian of the Year Luncheon

Doreen Gentzler: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: You won it as Washingtonian.
Doreen Gentzler: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Andy Ockershausen: There was one time there were five people from WMAL and I wasn’t one of them. I called them up and said, “How can five guys that work for me be Washingtonians and I’m not?” They said, “Okay, we’ll make you one.”
Doreen Gentzler: Well, that’s one way to make that happen. Why didn’t I think of that?
Andy Ockershausen: Our talent was recognized. Yeah, you got to go up and demand it. I had to call Leslie Milk, and I finally got to be Washingtonian of the Year. That’s a great group that they salute people and I know that you emcee that event a lot.
Doreen Gentzler: Yes, yes. I think very highly of them and I love Leslie Milk, she’s a terrific writer.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh my god, well seeing you Doreen, you look so good. I can say that without fear of contradiction because you’re going to go on the air tonight. Will you go home before the show tonight?
Doreen Gentzler: No, no. I’ll-
Andy Ockershausen: You’ll stay in town.
Doreen Gentzler: Go ahead and go to the office from here. Yeah, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: Well, it’s-
Doreen Gentzler: I think we have a meeting. I think actually there are two meetings on my schedule.
Andy Ockershausen: News meetings or people meetings?
Doreen Gentzler: News meetings and …
Andy Ockershausen: I don’t know what the news is. It’s …
Doreen Gentzler: I try to avoid meetings as much as possible. Don’t you? I mean …
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, absolutely. They’re too long and too negative. We have had so much fun, and watching you and seeing what’s happened with the show. It’s sort of like carry on, but you’ve carried on, it really works. I think the audience stayed no matter how much everybody loved Vance, and we all did. It was you held it together, Doreen, so congratulations and thank you for being on Our Town.
Doreen Gentzler: Well, it’s my pleasure. Thank you for inviting me, Andy, and talk about carrying on, you are the original of carrying on.
Andy Ockershausen: You’re not the last, believe me. That wasn’t anything, I didn’t want to approach you because I know you were going through a tough time, and I didn’t feel it would be right.
Doreen Gentzler: True. Well, I appreciate that.
Andy Ockershausen: I’m so glad you did, and thank you for being on Our Town. There’s a lot of things that I hadn’t heard before that I loved to hear. Congratulations to your husband. He’s got a great new job defending the people he’s been attacking.
Doreen Gentzler: Okay.
Andy Ockershausen: Thank you Doreen Gentzler.
Doreen Gentzler: All right. Thank you, Andy.
Andy Ockershausen: This has been Our Town with Andy Ockershausen.
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