News Veteran Moves Up to Leadership Role at KCET

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A veteran news show producer, Bret Marcus has recently switched gears to become vice president of programming, publicity and promotion for KCET (Channel 28).


Rather than focus on one specific television show, Marcus now will oversee most of the station’s communication departments.


Marcus has more than 20 years of experience in broadcast news, including time spent at MSNBC as executive producer of “The News with Brian Williams,” and at ABC producing “Good Morning America Sunday.” He originally came to KCET at the invitation of Chief Executive Al Jerome to produce the statewide news program “California Connected.”


Marcus is looking forward to the challenge of making KCET a top destination for viewers in the nation’s second largest media market. A goal is to make a bigger splash in the market by revamping the station’s local news magazine, “Life & Times,” and creating a documentary titled “California at War,” along with an array of other pilots.


He didn’t’ study journalism and never even took a class in broadcasting, although he has taught them. He has a degree in philosophy from Middlebury College in Vermont.


“I’m kind of old fashioned in that I learned TV by doing it,” Marcus said. “We are in the art of telling stories and what you need is a firm grounding in how to write.”


The biggest difference Marcus has found between network and public television is the funding. Even though money is hard to come by in public television, he believes the glory days for network news has passed.


“In 1993 I was working for a program called “Turning Point” which had Barbara Walters and Peter Jennings and it was basically a made for TV news movie every week,” Marcus said. “But there isn’t the funding for a program like that today.”


Marcus has won five national Emmys, four New York Emmys and a handful of other awards, but he is proudest of his DuPont-Columbia Award for a “California Connected” piece titled “War Stories From 7-D.” The news team documented the lives of U.S. soldiers recuperating from psychological damage incurred during their time in Iraq.


“It was the most emotional thing I’ve produced. Veterans groups are showing it in order to educate people,” Marcus said.


Marcus enjoys sailing, and spending time with his 14-year-old son and his wife, Maureen, a director at the Food Network. He also claims the last season of the 1980s sitcom “Kate & Allie” was based on the first year of their marriage when they were working at television stations in different cities.

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