Vanderford Comes Full Circle
By Emily Haarberg
Finding a niche in life isn't always easy. But sometimes the niche finds you.
Trial and error with a dash of adventure drove Jon Vanderford, news anchor for KOLN/KGIN-TV in Lincoln to seek out things that intrigued him.
"I'm the type of person that likes to try everything," Vanderford said.
During his teen years at Murdock High School, he said, he was infatuated with radio and its lights in the dark. He also enjoyed band and speech.
His high school infatuation with radio and a desire to be a broadcast announcer found Vanderford testing radio-land in college. He worked at B104 (now KISS 104.1) in Lincoln where he decided he wanted to join the journalism crew in Avery Hall as a broadcast major.
After three years in radio, Vanderford turned his attention to television. He applied for an internship at 10/11 KOLN/KGIN-TV. He started as a sports-taker, updating scores of high school or college games while the game was being aired. Later he earned a part-time position as a videographer. In his spare time he would play around with the equipment until eventually he convinced the news director to let him try doing newscasts and stand-ups.
That's how it all began.
"I think it's important for college students to do a bunch of different things until you discover your talent and what works for you," Vanderford said.
After graduation in 1993, Vanderford packed up and headed to St. Joseph, Mo., where he worked for KQTV for a year. He returned to 10/11 KOLN/KGIN-TV in 1995 as a reporter and weekend anchor. Vanderford accepted an offer in Knoxville, Tenn., as a reporter and co-anchor for WATE-TV in 1996 and stayed in Tennessee until January 2003. Since January, he has been working as the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. news anchor in Lincoln.
Randy Lube, news director at 10/11, said Vanderford's strengths are his character and integrity.
"Jon is someone you can trust. He grew up in Nebraska, and he knows how people think and what they care about," Lube said.
News is Vanderford's game and news, to Vanderford, is whatever people are talking about.
"In the news business you have the obligation to let people know what's going on," Vanderford said.
Vanderford and co-anchor Deb Collins have a natural chemistry that works to their advantage on-air.
"We pretty much agree on everything," Collins said.
Collins said prior to anchoring together at 10/11 both she and Vanderford had experience anchoring with someone else, so the skill of working on-air with a partner was established.
"What you see is how he is," Collins said of Vanderford. "He is a hard worker and always reliable."
Television is Vanderford's passion.
"Each day I wake up in the morning, and I keep wanting to do better," he said. "I'll watch my tapes at night and want to do better."
Lube said Vanderford is not hyped up when he delivers the news.
To keep calm and focused on-air, Vanderford said he imagines a family in a small town, laid back and getting ready for bed.
"I want to be like a friend, someone you can turn to," he said. Sometimes friends make mistakes, right?
Vanderford said he experienced his most embarrassing moment while working in Knoxville, Tenn. It was nighttime and with the outside light came bugs - all kinds of bugs. When he went on-air he could feel a moth crawling up his jacket. It ended up on the tip of his nose. He brushed it off, and three minutes later if flew back to his nose.
Vanderford has no plans to relocate anytime soon. He said he is happy with his current situation, schedule, co-workers and management at 10/11 KOLN/KGIN-TV. But he said, "I'm always looking into the future."
