Thanks to BroadcastKC.com for uncovering some interesting video from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta where anchors Elizabeth Alex and Tom Lawrence do a wrap-up of the Olympics. The duo had just been paired together at the station.
Since that time when Alex and Lawrence first appeared things have changed pretty dramatically.
Alex now has a full-time job outside of TV and does just the 6 p.m. news at the station. Lawrence later left KSHB for a weekend anchor spot at WDAF-Fox4 and is now out of TV entirely. He most recently spent the winter as a ski instructor outside of Denver.
Anchors Jim Condelles and Lisa Robertson are long-gone from the NBC affiliate.
It was interesting to note the head of the Olympics said he felt the Atlanta Olympics were too commercial. One can only imagine what he would think about them today.
I enjoyed this. I started at KMBZ June 18th that year and it was a busy and fun summer.
I don’t know Mr. Lawrence, but I do know Ms. Alex and she is a great asset to our community. She has done many good things in her years here, but one I would particularly mention as important. She has offered to do a fair interview with the young policewoman Melody Spencer who was involved in the Salva tragedy to give her a chance to give her side of the story–the media and the bloggers were absolutely savage on Ms. Spencer so Ms. Alex felt she should get a chance to tell her side. That act took enormous courage given the power of the Politically Correct Thought Police locally and nationally. It also did a lot to restore morale in the KCPD–if we are ever to end the now more than four year explosion of violence in the black neighborhoods of KCMO that was sparked by the mishandling of the Salva tragedy a lot of the credit will go to Ms. Alex. Take care. Sincerely, Respectfully and In Christ, Ernest Evans