#MediaMonday – Sean Mooney
Today’s Media Monday comes to us from the KVOA-TV anchor desk in Tucson, where Sean Mooney anchors News 4 Tucson at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. Last month, he was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) Rocky Mountain Chapter Silver Circle, recognizing and honoring his decades of work in the media. I was similarly honored in 2012, when I was inducted into the Silver Circle.
Sean, time to share:
When I got on a plane 40 plus years ago in Tucson, with three bags, going to a place I had never been, New York City, I could never have imagined what kind of a crazy ride I had just embarked on.
Fresh out of the University of Arizona, after working on a kids show called “The Baseball Bunch” hosted by Johnny Bench in Tucson, I was promised a job as a game logger at Major League Baseball Productions if I could get to New York City. I leaped at the chance.
During my years there I got to spend time with some of the greatest baseball players of all time, including Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Reggie Jackson and many others. It was there that I became a producer and on-air talent while covering several World Series and produced several highlight films and shows for the production company.
My next move was completely unexpected but looking back, typical of the way my career would play out, when I was hired as an announcer for the WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment. There I spent five years being sweated on and sometimes throttled by the greatest superstars in sports entertainment, including Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant. It turned out to be one of the greatest experiences of my life and certainly prepared me for my next challenge, working in television news.
I would spend the next five years working as an anchor/reporter, first in New York at WWOR and then in Boston at WBZ before heading back home to join Fox Sports Arizona as a correspondent/producer for the new regional sports network. Over the next decade I would work with the network, eventually starting my own production company, Moonrise Productions, Inc., producing and hosting shows for the network. With the creation of the Pac-12 Network it was time to move on and that is when I returned to local news as an anchor/reporter at KVOA where I have been for more than a decade now.
Along the way I have received several awards, including two local Emmys and one national Emmy and now induction into the Rocky Mountain Emmys Silver Circle.
I truly love broadcasting the news in the community where I grew up. I have also enjoyed working with so many great organizations that help so many people like the American Heart Association, Steele Childrens, Ronald McDonald House, Community Food Bank Of Southern Arizona and so many more.
Wherever I have roamed, Tucson has always been home. My very large family lives here, it is where I raised my children and where I have so many cherished friends.
As I mentioned, it has been one crazy ride but I wouldn’t change a thing.
