Erin Kiernan — who’s been a journalist on Central Iowa airwaves for nearly 30 years — is transitioning out of the main anchor role at WHO-TV.
The move was a personal decision, Kiernan, 52, said, and the result of more than a year of thoughtful consideration privately and months of discussion with station management.
Quality of life was the main driver of her choice, as was having more freedom to spend time with her family, including her children: son Michael Francis, 10, who has autism; and, daughter Audrey, 7.
“This is a job where you can only do the job by being at the job and at the job at very specific times, so you miss a lot,” Kiernan said. “As the kids have gotten older, I’m missing out on more and more and more.”
“I’ve been mulling it over for a long time, but it also took me a long time to get to the point of saying I’m ready to walk away from the only career I’ve ever known.”
Kiernan spent more than 20 years at WHO-TV — better known locally as “Channel 13” — heading up the station’s 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts. The team at 10 p.m., which includes Ed Wilson, chief meteorologist, and Keith Murphy, sports director, represents some of the longest tenured journalists in the market.
Winner of multiple regional Emmy Awards and Edward R. Murrow Awards, Kiernan is known for her investigative work on a wide-range of issues, including the proliferation of date-rape drugs, racism at metro bars and meth’s ongoing scourge across Iowa.
She has been equally celebrated for her inspirational features on Iowans navigating the tragedies and triumphs of life, including a piece on Mark Block who overcame partial paralysis twice to climb the stairs of the Willis Tower in Chicago.
In the past decade or so, Kiernan has trained the camera lens on herself, discussing her choice as a teenager to place her son with an adoptive family, her later struggles with infertility and, most recently, her son’s autism diagnosis and the difficulties he has in navigating the world.
A Nebraska native, Kiernan attended Drake University before spending a few years at WOI-TV and joining KCCI-TV in 1998. She moved to WHO in 2005 and got the top chair in 2006.
Over the summer, there had been local consternation as to whether Kiernan was stepping away when she took family leave. Indeed, the extended time off gave Kiernan an opportunity to explore life as a full-time mom and wife, and to put down the burden of having to be connected to the news all the time.
“It gave me the opportunity to just take that work pressure totally away and immerse myself in really having fun with my family instead of feeling like I could hear this clock going, tick, tick, tick, in my head because there’s something I should be working on or I got to get back to work,” she said.
“And it also made me realize that I don’t want to just jump right into whatever the next thing is.”
Kiernan’s last newscast will be Nov. 24, and an internal email from Robert Totsch, the general manager, sent Monday afternoon signaled the station’s support of her decision to step back and promised lots of celebrations between now and then.
“There is so much that can be said about what Erin has meant to our station, our viewers, and the communities we serve — and we will have many opportunities to share those reflections in the weeks ahead,” Totsch wrote.
As Kiernan embraces this new chapter, she will stay on at the station as a contributor and “will remain an influential voice in the Central Iowa community,” Totsch wrote.
Since being announced to staff yesterday, any shock around Kiernan’s news has worn into nothing but good cheer. And personally, she feels great, peaceful even, she says.
“My gut has been working and saying, ‘This is the right thing to do. The best thing for you. The timing is right,’” she adds.
For now, she’s still got to get ready for a newscast, three actually. All beamed into Central Iowa kitchens and dens and living rooms, as they have been for three decades.
“I have loved this job,” she says. “It’s all about people and their stories. And that’s such a privilege to be trusted with, especially when people are going through some of the most horrific things in their life and they let you in and share that with you.”
“It’s such a huge privilege and, for that honor, thank you.”
Courtney Crowder, the Register’s Iowa Columnist, traverses the state’s 99 counties telling Iowans’ stories. Reach her at ccrowder@dmreg.com or 515-284-8360.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa television anchor Erin Kiernan is stepping back from WHO-TV
Reporting by Courtney Crowder, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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