Kerri goes to Frankfort
Posted: 12/1/2009
By James Mulcahy
For more than four years, she battled the elements, the criminals and the difficult deadlines to bring us the news every night. Kerri Richardson was our Shelby County connection to Louisville's movers and shakers, crooks and flakes as her on-scene reports captivated WHAS-TV audiences.In July 2007, Richardson accepted a job on the other side of the microphone and became a spokesperson for Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson. Instead of asking the questions, she began fielding them from the media and from the public about the goings on in City Hall.
As of Nov. 2, Kerri Richardson cleared another rung on the proverbial ladder and is now deputy communications director for Gov. Steve Beshear.
"I'll be the one who takes those phone calls from the media, coordinates the press conferences with the governor, and takes him around the state if he needs to present something," she said. "It's similar to what I'm doing now in the mayor's office, just on a bigger scale."
Newshound at heart
Richardson wasn't trying to change her career focus when the opportunity arose to work on Abramson's staff -- it just happened.
"I was not really looking to get out of news, but the timing was good, the position was right, plus it was Mayor Abramson, so it was a good fit," she said.
Likewise, the move to the governor's staff wasn't a planned one, but happened when she was made an offer she couldn't refuse.
"Working for Abramson has been the best," she said. "The mayor and staff are fantastic. When I went into his office to tell him I was taking this job, I sat on his couch and cried. I really wasn't ready to go yet. This was the best job I've ever had.
"I hate to leave, but when the governor calls and says, 'I need you up here,' it's really hard to say no."
Abramson had plenty of praise for Richardson as well.
"Kerri has been a shining star on our team," he said. "She approaches the job here with the same goals she had as a TV reporter -- to give people accurate, reliable information to help them better understand the issues at hand. People trust Kerri because she has earned their trust."
He said she has a knack for communication.
"She's very good at sorting through complex issues and distilling them into easy-to-understand language for people -- whether that's explaining how a city budget works or how brine dissolves ice and snow. I know Kerri will be a tremendous asset to Gov. Beshear because she is first and foremost a Kentuckian. She knows the challenges we face and she will help him move our state forward."
At ground level
While attending Western Kentucky University and for a short time after graduating, Kerri, daughter of Don and Brenda Richardson, was a weekend TV reporter for stations in Hopkinsville and Bowling Green, and then was hired full time and spent a year at an Evansville, Ind., station.
Then she got the call from Louisville.
"My first day on the job there was Dec. 23, 2002, and as soon as I walked in the door, they said, 'Hey, we're glad you're here. We have you working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day -- six days in your first week.' I thought, 'Yay, I've made it! I'm in Louisville!' I didn't really care."
At WHAS, Richardson covered a wide range of stories, from very bad weather (she survived gusty winds, heavy downpours and frigid winters) to cops and robbers.
"I covered a lot of crime and disasters," she said. "I worked 3 p.m. until midnight, and that tends to be when the mayhem breaks out."
She said she enjoyed the research aspect of reporting as well.
But her report that people might most remember was the emotional verdict from a high-profile murder case.
"I guess the big story I did was covering the second David Camm trial, and I pretty much moved to southern Indiana for two months and change," she said. "That's probably the story that most people recognize me on because they remember seeing me when the verdict came in. It was late, that's all I remember; it's all a blur." In a trial that caught national attention, former Indiana State Trooper Camm was convicted of murdering his wife and children. That conviction was overturned by the Indiana Supreme Court, and a third trial may be in the works.
From reporter to newsmaker
Richardson said her experience as a television journalist helps her do her current job better.
"I know what their timelines are, what they have to get accomplished in a short period of time," she said. "I know that we can't have a press conference at 5:30 in the evening because everyone's having a newscast."
She also knows the thought process of a reporter.
"A lot of this job is anticipation -- anticipating what the questions are going to be and how we're going to answer them, and getting the governor prepared to answer those questions, making sure they (the reporters) have everything they need to present the story in a way that's accurate and informative," she said.
But scandals and other situations can blindside even the best PR person, and although she hasn't had to deal with them and hopes she won't have to, Richardson believes honesty is always the best policy.
"There are some things you can never be fully prepared for," Richardson said. "It was very comforting for me when the mayor said during my interview: 'We don't craft responses to protect ourselves. We answer with the truth. That way you don't have to keep track of what you've said before. You don't have to cover your rear end. Just tell the truth.' You tell the truth, and you tell them quickly; you can't leave people hanging. That's the fastest way to lose the public's trust."
Final notes
Richardson said her best career advice for a high school student is to be patient.
"I would tell them they don't have to know right now what they want to do; they have plenty of time to figure that out," she said. "Find people who you think are interesting and just talk."
She also said that it's important to learn to accept rejection.
"The worst thing that anybody can tell you is, 'no.' Once you get over that, every kind of door opens for you. If you can learn to hear the word 'no' and then go down a different path, then you're going to be great. There's a ton of rejection being a reporter ... and you get over that and find another way around it."
Her most common-sense advice?
"Write thank-you notes," she said. "You wouldn't believe the difference that's made in my career. Everybody who has done something to make a positive impact for me gets a thank-you note. It's just the right thing to do, and it makes you stand out. Not everybody does that, and people remember it."
And then there's that burning bridges thing.
"I've had opportunities that very few people have, and it has just been extraordinary," she said. "I think the people I've met through some of those opportunities have led me to where I am now. You just never know who's going to be able to help you out down the line."
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