Steve Beverly leaving Jackson soon

Steve Beverly moved to Jackson in 1990 to serve as the news director at WBBJ.

While he would be in that role for less than three years, he and his wife, Rebecca, stayed in Jackson for 34 years.

That era of the Beverlys' life will officially end next week when they move to Dunnellon, Fla.

"Ever since I retired in 2021, Rebecca and I have discussed off and on the notion of moving closer to family, and we finally decided that if we're going to do it then we need to do it while we're still physically able to do it," Beverly said. "So it's not moving just to be moving.

"Rebecca and I are both family people, and we haven't seen much of our family for decades outside of family funerals, and then it's such a rushed time. You don't have a lot of time to be a family in those situations, so this is our chance to be a part of our family again."

Beverly worked at WBBJ for about 2.5 years before he decided to get out.

"Nothing against anyone that's there now because there's definitely not many - if any - more than 30 years later, but I had to get out of there for my own mental health," Beverly said with a laugh. "When I got there, they'd gone six months without either a news director or a general manager, and when you step into that situation, you're essentially starting over from scratch.

"And let's just say I didn't ask all the questions I should've asked during the interview process because I made too many assumptions about their equipment and how they did their reporting, only to find out after I got here that we here in Jackson didn't have a lot of things I thought were basic for stations that were half our size."

Beverly then made the move from WBBJ to the position that he's known better for now more than three decades later, and that was working at Union University as the broadcast journalism professor.

"That was a different world because it was a different job, and one that I fell in love with quickly," Beverly said. "And the students that we had come through our program over the years were some of the brightest, most curious, purpose-driven folks I've ever been around."

When going over some of the alumni who've made him proud over the years, he mentioned a statistic that probably not many know about Union or the broadcast program, which Union shut down after Beverly's retirement.

"Union isn't nationally known in every circle - mostly the Christian and Southern Baptist circles," Beverly said. "So I'm really proud because I feel like it says a lot about the work we put in as a department when I look back and can tell you our former students have won a total of 14 Emmy awards for the work they've done in their local markets."

Here are a few of the notable alumni from Union's broadcast journalism program:

Jodie Curtis - works for FOX News and makes a lot of decision regarding field news coverage for the network

Jacee Farmer - a producer at KCBS

Melissa Joseph - director at WREG Channel 3 in Memphis

Brent Green - producer at Channel 5 in Memphis

Beverly said there are a number of names locally people would be familiar with that he's proud of including current WBBJ anchor Teri Jelks, who graduated college with no job prospects, answered a call from WBBJ about an opening that would later become a weekend anchor desk position to her current role in which she is one of the main anchors for the nightly news at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.

Alicia Sails has been a producer for years for WBBJ after coming through the department at Union.

Others include Alex Northcut who was WBBJ's sports director for a couple years before going on to other positions. He recently moved to East Tennessee to take a position with the University of Tennessee.

And Keli McAlister was one Beverly thought would be successful early on because of her work ethic, organization, willingness to take on new roles and do them well and simple drive to succeed. She was at WBBJ, moved on to bigger things for a couple years, returned for family reasons to anchor at WBBJ before leaving to take public information roles with Jackson-Madison County Schools, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and finally Ford Motor Company earlier this year.

Beverly said he's proud of the daily newscast his students put together for more than a decade called Jackson 24-7.

"That show wasn't just a chance for me to get back into that situation where I'm working on a deadline, which can be addicting if you enjoy it for some reason," Beverly said. "But it gave the students a chance to jump off in the deep end and see this is how the world works in broadcast journalism.

"They were able to see the risk and reward of some of the decisions I made from a leadership level and their own decisions as well. Sometimes those decisions worked out great, and let's just say other decisions were learning experiences."

And there have been plenty of stories to tell from Jackson and the surrounding areas over the course of three decades.

When asked about the most memorable stories he covered, Beverly mentioned the comeback story Downtown Jackson has put together over the past decade since Jackson Walk was established.

He couldn't have that discussion without mentioning the six NAIA championships Union women's basketball won - one by the late David Blackstock and five by current coach and athletic director Mark Campbell.

"That became a bigger thing when the tournament came here for 22 years, and for the first few years, Union was chasing the championship and then Coach Blackstock got them over the hump," Beverly said. "I don't care what sport it is or what level you're playing. When you win that top championship and then stay at that level for as long as Union did, you've done something special.

"And I don't think a lot of sports fans at Union realize what they've had with Coach Blackstock and Coach Campbell being the men who've led that program for the last 30 years. Both great men."

Beverly's retirement from teach hasn't taken him out of the broadcasting booth. He's continued to broadcast basketball and volleyball games for Union and basketball, volleyball and football for University School of Jackson - both with Worthy Road Studios.

He's continued to do his "TV Classics" television show where he broadcasts well-known episodes of classic television shows. Beverly said that'll continue to broadcast in Jackson on West TN PBS.

"Technology is what it is and allows me to be able to put that show together in Florida and send it back to Peter [Noll] and the guys here at PBS," Beverly said. "So that show will continue. And there's Facebook and phones, so just because I may not live in Jackson anymore, that doesn't many my friends here have to become strangers.

"I'm a phone call or Facebook message away, and I look forward to hearing from anyone up here."

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news