By ROBERT HOMAN
Alumni News staff
Being an assignment manager for CBS News in Washington may look like a glamorous job for a Nebraska boy. But Walter “Wally” Dean doesn’t think of it as the most important part of his broadcasting career.
That ranking may go to a 1976 event in his hometown. Dean was on the air for WOWT television from 4 to 6:30 p.m. on June 26, telling his fellow Omahans what was happening as a tornado tore through their town.
“That was probably the single most important thing I’ll ever do in this business,” he said. “It was serious, and we probably saved some lives.”
It was fitting that Dean found himself reporting on a major event in the city where he grew up, where his father was an Associated Press editor for 18 years, where news was an integral part of family life.
“At the dinner table, you heard about current events and the fascinating personalities that make the world go,” he said of his family.
That early immersion in news convinced Dean he wanted to be a journalist — eventually. But he took an unconventional route to get where he is today: He earned a degree from NU’s Teachers College.
In Teachers College Dean took as many history, political science, economics and English composition classes as he could.
“I sort of carefully picked my classes and picked good instructors,” he said. He fully intended to teach after he earned his degree.
But he also pursued his interest in news during his college years, working for a variety of radio stations. Before his senior year began, WOWT in Omaha hired him to do radio and television newscasts.
“It was fun. It was thrilling,” Dean said. “It was great to be where the action was.
“You tended to get a report card every day. It was competitive.”
In 1971, he went to work for WOWT full time and did almost everything, including reporting and serving as weekend television news anchor. In April 1975, Dean became the anchor for the 6 p.m. news and co-anchored the 10 p.m. news.
It was just two months later that he found himself reporting on the biggest story of his career. Thinking back on that disastrous afternoon in June, Dean is proud of what he and his station accomplished.
For instance, one man visiting Omaha saved himself when he hid in the bathtub of his hotel room because of the warning on the screen urging people to take cover.
The station managed to stay on the air through the entire storm without losing power. Dean kept broadcasting until 6:30 p.m.
But not everyone fully appreciated his bravery. When he got off the air, Dean said, he called his mother to see if she was all right. She didn’t even know he had been broadcasting.
“Well, the tornado passed by, and it sounded like a freight train,” she said. “What have you been doing?”
During his years at WOWT, Dean was promoted from anchor to executive producer to associate news director. He also managed to get in some teaching during those years, conducting a broadcasting class at the University of Nebraska at Omaha during the 1977-78 school year and another at Creighton University during the 1981-82 school year.
“Those were a lot of work, but they were a lot of fun,” he said of the classes.
But by that time Dean had a more permanent commitment to the newsroom than to the classroom.
Steve Murphy, retired news director for WOWT, said of Dean, “He was a real bulldog. I most remember him as one of the most aggressive and capable reporters.
“As a reporter, he was the kind of guy you would say ‘Go’ and he’d get the story before the other guy. He knew what he had to do.”
Despite his good experiences in Omaha, Dean said he knew by 1985 it was time for a change. CBS News in Washington, D.C., offered him a job as an assignment desk editor, where he produced afternoon and evening prime time “newsbreaks” for television.
“It was a whole new world,” he said. “It was exciting and new.”
Dean said the network’s resources are tremendous, and story possibilities in Washington, D.C., seem endless. His job simply amounts to picking the best news to cover because something is always going on, he said.
“That’s something I don’t miss about local news,” he said, “filling a news hole.”
Dean has been the assignment manager for CBS News since 1991, coordinating the activities of 20 producers, 16 cameramen and eight assignment desk editors. They provide coverage for all the hard news programs including “CBS This Morning,” “The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather,” “Sunday Morning” and all special events.
“Most days, it’s a matter of picking and choosing from a lot of different things,” Dean said. “Part of it is out-guessing the news gods to figure out what’s going to happen.”
Dean said journalism is a rewarding field but involves a lot of work and long hours.
“Unless you work at it,” he said, “it can and will consume you.”
Dean offers this advice to those considering a career in journalism:
“You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room to succeed, but you have to stay focused and play fair.”