Veteran Phoenix TV reporter Mike Watkiss to retire from 3TV, CBS 5

Randy Cordova | The Republic | azcentral.com

Mike Watkiss, one of the most colorful personalities in the Phoenix news market, has announced that he's retiring from Channel 3 (KTVK) and Channel 5 (KPHO). The final day of his contract is Aug. 17.

Will there be any on-air celebrations to commemorate his 22 years with the stations?

"I hope not, I pray not," Watkiss says in his instantly identifiable rumble of a voice. "I don't need to see my checkered career all dredged up again. I want to be able to walk out of there with my head held high."

He's kidding. Well, sort of.

Watkiss is an honored journalist who produced the Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning documentary "Colorado City and the Underground Railroad." For 3TV, he has covered such momentous events as 9/11, the death of Princess Diana and the Timothy McVeigh trial.

Watkiss' beginnings

Before joining 3TV, Watkiss was doing a freelance piece for the TV show "Hard Copy" that ended with him getting punched on camera.

"The news director from Channel 3 called me," Watkiss recalls. "He said, 'We saw you get punched on TV last night. That was great! Come work for us!' And that's the way my family and I ended up here."

Watkiss earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Stanford and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. He then enjoyed an eight-year run on the syndicated TV show "A Current Affair."

"When 'A Current Affair' came on the air, all of the American purist journalists said, 'This is horrible,' and the ultimate result was the whole industry jumped in behind us. I did some of the best, most hard-hitting work in my career for 'A Current Affair,' and also a lot of bull (expletive)."

During his "A Current Affair" years, Watkiss covered such headline-making stories as the Los Angeles riots, the Oklahoma City bombing, "Night Stalker" killer Richard Ramirez and the Tonya Harding scandal.

You figure with all his years in the industry, he should have a great book in him. He does, and in typical Watkiss fashion, he downplays it.

"I don't delude myself that anybody is going to be interested in my stories, but it's kind of the stories behind the stories: How I got into a jail cell with the Night Stalker, ambushing Elizabeth Taylor on an airplane, things like that. Honestly, I feel like the luckiest guy in the world. I'm just a hyperactive kid, sort of a storyteller, and I've serendipitously been in the right place at the right time. Or wrong time: I was there the morning they found Ron Goldman and Nicole Simpson's bodies."

What's next

Post-retirement plans including finishing the book — he's written 200 pages — and acting (he has a surprisingly robust IMDB page). He's recently finished three films and is working with his son on a screenplay inspired by his career.

He plans to stay in the Phoenix area and has no desire to work in another television market.

"I'm not going to do day-to-day news anymore," he says. "I'm an old man now, and (I don't want) the day-to-day pressure. I've lived most of my career going too fast and beating myself up."

His distinctive old-school personality and style — he writes his script longhand on a yellow legal pad — made him a unique figure in the sea of TV reporters.

"There’s a lot of folks in television, and not all of them would stand out like Mike," says Edward L. Munson Jr., station VP and general manager. "He has a very unique style. He's a guy that grabs the throat of the story and hangs on to it. He's not afraid to go into situations that others would be timid to do. He's a bulldog that way."

'A fearless reporter'

Munson came to work with Watkiss when 3TV and CBS 5 merged.

"When I first came here, I thought, 'He doesn't quite fit with the AZFamily image that well.' It was like that kids' game, 'Which one of these things is not like the other?' " Munson recalls with a chuckle. "But I’ve come to appreciate that he is pretty much a fearless reporter. His loyalty is getting to the truth more than anything else."

Granted, the two men don't always have an ideal relationship.

"It’s hell to get him to fill out a time card on the computer," Munson says. "Instead of researching in the newsroom on a computer, he'd rather be out talking to people to find out what happened."

Watkiss says he appreciates that 3TV let him be himself.

"I'm a little bit out of the box, and it takes some fortitude for management to allow a spicy character like me to do my thing, and Channel 3 has always been really good," he says. "They've been very accommodating and hospitable. They've never changed me, God bless 'em."

He says he'll "desperately" miss his newsroom family.

"I love the people there," he says. "The one thing I always tell young reporters is to make sure the crew gets lunch. My career has been based on working with some great camera people — they do all the work and I get all the credit. I'm so grateful. I liken it to playing jazz with Miles Davis. When you've got a really good camera guy and a reporter working out in the field, you're playing together and you can create some really beautiful stuff."

Perhaps his loss will be felt most by viewers, who have relied on his no-holds-barred storytelling. He says the feeling is mutual.

"I've never been that person that takes viewers for granted," he says. "If somebody's going to be kind enough to allow somebody like me into their front room for a couple of minutes every day, you better have some respect for them and be grateful that you're a guest in their home."

Reach the reporter at randy.cordova@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8849. Twitter.com/randy_cordova.

MORE ENTERTAINMENT: