WTVJ NBC 6 Morning/ midday News Anchor Eric Harryman

Interview Date: June 26, 2017

MIRAMAR, Fla.- Every morning, people wake up and rush to work or drop off their children but before they leave the house they need to get their daily dose of news.  However, this morning I rushed to the WTVJ NBC 6 News Studio to sit down with Morning/Mid-day Anchor Eric Harryman. Every weekday Eric, along with his co-anchor Sheli Muniz, light up the morning and inform viewers about what’s going on down their street, in their neighborhood and all around the world.

            Eric Harryman always knew he wanted to be involved in the news but struggled to find the right medium for him. One day, while working at his college newspaper writing columns and interviewing over the phone, he was asked to do an in-person interview. He felt comfortable working with this kind of interaction and this sparked his interest in television.

            Prior to working in South Florida, he worked in Idaho, Colorado, Virginia and California twice. When he worked in Sacramento, he worked closely around the political activities and learned a lot about the political perspective.

Eric believes his connection with viewers is not just as an anchor but also as a family man. He says at work he puts on a suit, presents the daily news and then goes home to be a loving husband and father to his three children.  Being a father gives him a different perspective on certain stories.  He recalled reporting on a school lockdown from the same perspective as those worried parents wanting desperately to know if their child’s school was okay.  Another story he brought up was from his days reporting in California. He dropped off his daughter to kindergarten and heard on the radio of the incident that would become the Sandy Hook Massacre. He pulled his car over to decide what to do. He was overwhelmed and distraught by this awful event and spent the next 13 hours covering the horrific events as they unfolded. Reporting on this shooting had a significant impact on him and it made him very emotional on this subject.

             Working in South Florida, Eric enjoys the diverse market in a population where many speak Spanish. The various languages spoken in this market have created fierce competition and pushed the station, and other stations around South Florida, to include each and every demographic viewership area into their reporting. With Miami drawing a large number of immigrants, there are many global issues that are more locally relevant.  An example of one of these idiosyncrasies is the Wet Foot Dry Foot policy, which Eric only learned about when he first came to this market. With major events occurring such as those happening politically in Cuba and Venezuela, people have turned to news in the United States to help understand what is going on and have their voices heard.

Eric believes in the importance of the morning and evening news and its impact on creating positive change and awareness in the community. In one example, a story he did resulted in the creation of a recycling program that hadn’t existed prior.  Another story involved a teenager who found a new medicine because of Eric’s reporting. 

With the fall of newspapers and other news outlets, Eric says that Social Media has become a major benefit for connecting with viewers and allows them to watch the news as it’s happening. As a 44-year-old journalist, his career has spanned the birth of all of these new and emerging platforms. Hashtags allow viewers to participate in the reporting by posting their own content and commenting on already reported stories. 

Something viewers wouldn’t know about Eric is that he used to skate for Disney on Ice. On the ice rink, he met his wife. He used his ice skating to help pay for school in the early 90s.

            Some advice Eric would give to student journalists is to be prepared for the adventure.  You will start working with little money and will probably have to move around to different markets. During this intense weeding out process you will pay your dues but it is important to maintain your passion as you climb up and have bigger and better positions in the markets.

Eric’s first live shot was a free ham giveaway at a local grocery store. Though one may find a story like that trivial, Eric said he presented it with the importance of any other major story.  It’s all about connecting to your viewers and giving importance to those stories that affect their everyday lives.