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Tom Bacon, ATC Host and Reporter

Tom Bacon joined the Spokane Public Radio staff in late September as a news anchor/reporter, and KPBX host of
All Things Considered.

Bacon has had careers in broadcasting and newspaper before coming to the Spokane area. He says writing is writing, whether for radio or print. “The format is different, but it’s
the same dynamics,” he says.

He made his first move from print to broadcast in a town north of Houston, where his paper’s owner also purchased an AM and an FM station. Bacon figured radio couldn’t be too difficult and accepted the offer to supervise both stations’ news reports and the staff.

Bacon did eventually go back into the newspaper business,
but was asked to apply for an afternoon news anchor at the region’s top news station.

“After the initial introductions, they said go on the air as an audition. It’s a 50,000 watt news station, the news voice of the Gulf Coast. Everybody in creation heard me – including my newspaper boss! As soon as I found out I had the job and
gave him my resignation, he told me then, ‘Yeah, I heard you – I’ve been expecting this.’”

Tom and his wife Judith have lived in Northern Idaho for the past eight years, coming here in part because the weather is so different from the “swamp” of Houston. “Ordinarily the humidity in Houston matches the temperature, and both stay above 90 – you can stand still and break a sweat. We flew up to see if winter would scare us away. I drove around in the snow and didn’t go off the road once. I did learn quick you can’t drive through a berm created by a snowplow!”

The Bacons also chose the region for its hills, which Tom
and Judith like to hike and cross-country ski in. It didn’t take
long for Bacon to find KPBX, with its mix of news and
classical music.

“Verne was the first guy I heard – I like classical music, so I made that connection right away. And I’ve always liked Morning Edition and All Things Considered, so it was natural for me to stick with KPBX. The programming is just tops, there’s nothing better anywhere.”

Music involves the only unfulfilled dream Tom still holds. “I’d
like to sing Beethoven’s Ninth,” Bacon says. “It’s one of
the grandest, most glorious pieces of music ever written.
The greatest is Brahms’s Requiem, but Beethoven’s Ninth is right close.”