Baltimore Sun Magazine | WBEZ.org | Baltimore Magazine
When Oprah Winfrey arrived in Baltimore at age 22, her viewers were asked in station promotions, “What is an Oprah?”
To this day, I wish I had saved it. If anybody out there has it, please let me know, and I will buy it from you. I’ve been looking for it forever, and we have not been able to locate the ‘What is an Oprah?’ tape.”
Winfrey talks to David Zurawik about about being humiliated and sexually harassed on the job — and having problems with some of the conventions of TV news.
I was a terrible writer, terrible writer. I was a good talker, but it would take me much longer to sit down and write the scripts. So I got a lot of the live Action-cam assignments, because I could talk better than I could sit down and compose a story.”
After Baltimore, she co-anchored a 4 p.m. newscast in Chicago in addition to hosting a morning show. Her news director recalls:
She didn’t want to do it. And her morning show became so successful so fast that she had the clout to convince [the general manager] to end the experiment.
