What Hal Does...

Hal Eisner, a reporter for FOX's KCOP & KTTV, has been reporting news for Los Angeles television stations for 24 years. When you add in his years of radio before that his experience spans 39 years!

Hal Eisner & Videographer Kirk McLemore

Before joining the staff of KCOP as a general assignment reporter and long before the station was purchased by FOX to create one of the city's several duopolies, Eisner worked for such broadcast outlets as KTTV, KTLA and CNN. He also served as the West Coast Bureau Chief for Tribune Broadcasting's syndicated newscast, USA TONIGHT.

During his almost quarter century on Los Angeles television, Eisner has interviewed covered such major stories as the trial of Michael Jackson, the Robert Blake case, the Los Angeles riots, the devastating Northridge earthquake, the Simpson-Goldman murders, the murders at Columbine High School in Colorado, and the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

Hal Eisner & Shirley Neal at the Emmys

Hal's Projects & Involvement

Besides his day job, Eisner is very involved in local television industry organizations. He is currently the President of the Associated Press Television Radio Association of California and Nevada, has served on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Radio and Television News Association, is on the Executive Committee of the LA Area Peer Group of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, was a three term Goveernor of the TV Academy and served as the Executive Producer of the LA Emmys for 7 consecutive years.

Hal is particularly proud of the workshops and seminars he's designed to help college students and aspiring young reporters build their careers and programs he's helped develop for TV and radio news veterans. For those looking to get into the business, he founded APTRA Academy described in "The Communicator", published by the Radio and Television News Director's Association, as "the hottest workshop in the country." It's designed to help the aspiring make resume tapes by giving them a fake story to cover with the help of actors, public information officers from LA fire and law enforcement agencies and scores of reporters, anchors, photographers, editors, producers, news directors, real Hollywood actors and others who serve as mentors. For professionals, he's started such programs as APTRAPrep Las Vegas -- an annual tape critique workshop. He also started the industry related website HalEisner.com.

Hal's Achievements

Eisner has earned three Emmys for his work on KCOP specials and has received numerous Emmy nominations for his efforts in news, as well. He has been honored with journalism awards by The Society for Professional Journalists, The Diabetes Association, The L.A. Press Club and others for such things as "Best Spot News Reporting" and "Best Reporting on Media." Eisner has also received "Best of the West" and Associated Press awards.

Hal's Vision for HalEisner.com

Think of HalEisner.com as a triangle, one side is dedicated to news consumers.

For them, we've designed a world of massive links from small and big town newspapers to websites for television and radio stations. We have live newsfeeds and breaking news information. THE NEWS, as we call it, will continue to evolve. We will take what's in place now and add to it frequently. This is a side of the triangle, for which, I have a lot of respect. After all, as a television reporter, I spend my days gathering news so I can spend a few precious minutes every night at 10PM sharing stories with these very people. It's what I do for a living.

The second side of this triangle is for the aspiring broadcaster.

The late Larry LaMotte was a great inspiration and friend.

I remember when I was trying to work my way up in the business. There were no such things as mentoring programs. There were, however, a few people who made a real difference in my life.

One, a fine broadcaster from KTRH Radio in Houston, named Russ Harlow. I was a college student at the time. Harlow treated me like a son. KTRH had what was called it's "All News Weekend." KTTV's Steve Edwards, who was the program director at KTRH the time, hired me in effect giving me my first big news anchor job. Harlow took me under his week acting much like a mentor. Both were significant.

The late Larry LaMotte was a great inspiration and friend to Hal

Larry LaMotte was too.

Back in 1976, during America's bicentennial, LaMotte gave me a job. He was the News Director at KRXV Radio in Fort Worth, Texas; an all news station which carried NBC's onetime NBC/NIS (News and Information Service) format. I'll never forget that year or our news vehicles. Our mobile units were painted red, white and blue. The sedans even had blue police-like lights over the top of them. You couldn't miss us heading for a story! LaMotte was remarkably encouraging and supportive. A great boss.

A station format change and several jobs & years later, LaMotte became a bureau chief at CNN and offered me another job. CNN was new at the time, the bulk of my experience was in radio and I wasn't so sure how I felt about making the switch from radio to cable & the move from Texas to Los Angeles.

After some thought -- I headed west and took the job. It was the right call! Russ Harlow, Steve Edwards and Larry LaMotte were people who helped me. There were, of course, others. I'm greatful to all!

WIth my mentors in mind, I worked hard with the Associated Press Television and Radio Association and Pepperdine University to create APTRA Academy. The idea was to build from the ground up, the ultimate in mentoring. You can learn more about APTRA Academy on this site or at www.aptra.org, but this brings me to why the second part of this triangle is so important. I believe in helping those who are hungry to be tomorrow's broadcasters.

For this reason, part of this website is dedicated to resources for aspiring broadcasters. There are important resources for students such as scholarship programs and job & resume sites. Like the first part of the triangle, this section will also grow.

That brings us to the third part of the triangle.

This part is dedicated to those of us in the news business. It will include links to resources and broadcast-related websites. An enormously significant part of this site comes from you! Called FROM THE FIELD, we hear from many of you who work out on the line day after day. Photographers, editors, writers, managers, news directors, producers, reporters from both radio and TV, those in PR and Public Information Officers just to name a few. These articles reflect personal stories and desires, ideas that can help us do our jobs better. I hope you'll read some of these and feel motivated to craft a few paragraphs to share with the rest of us.

Also, as one who has been extremely involved in LA's awards scene, we'll try to keep this site updated with the latest rules, nominees and winners for our biggest award competitions.

Feedback is Welcome

If you have any suggestions on how to make this work better I'd like to hear from you. If you have stories you'd like to share I'd like to hear from you. You can reach me at hal@haleisner.com. Although this website may have my name attached to it, it's really meant to be for you. It's the way I do things.

Whether I'm working on the LA Emmys or APTRA Academy, my goal is always to bring people together from different stations and job classifications in a positive and constructive way, for the purpose of creating excellence. It is my mission to do just that with haleisner.com.

Pardon my Texas accent, but ya'll come back now hear :)
Thanks for stopping by!