By Melanie Escalante
Ricardo Cortez. Photo courtesy of Ricardo Cortez.
Ricardo Cortez came to Texas Tech to pursue a biology major and graduated in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in electronic media, two weeks before moving to New York to start his career in media production.
Cortez, from San Antonio, Texas, said he met a lot of great people at Texas Tech who guided him towards the career path he is on now.
“When I first came to Tech I didn’t even think about doing any kind of video or media, I always thought that was something you did as a hobby,” Cortez said. “I was thinking I was going to be a nurse. I took the classes and I was like no way this is for me.”
Cortez said his friend convinced him to participate in the radio show at KTXT and begin hosting.
Brian Jimenez, Tech alum, said he and Cortez were roommates in college. He said he began to notice that Cortez had an interest in other aspects of the college, other than KTXT.
“He kind of confided in me and let me know that – that seemed to be where he wanted to head,” Jimenez said. “From there he changed his major, got really involved and started pursuing other stuff in video production, editing, things of that nature so I suppose the rest is kind of history from there.”
Jimenez said he and Cortez co-hosted a two-hour radio talk show together at KTXT called Polar Opposites.
“We always had a ton of fun working at KTXT, we had a really good relationship with all of our coworkers, working on our own show — Polar Opposites was always a lot of fun because him and I always had a really goofy silly sense of humor and we just kind of combined our creativity and made something out of that so that was always really fun and rewarding and something I look back on fondly,” Jimenez said.
Cortez said his boss at KTXT told him that his talent in video was stronger than his radio skills and that he should pursue a career in the video realm; Cortez took this advice to heart.
Derrick Ginter, general manager at KTXT, said he was not trying to dissuade Cortez from pursuing a job in radio but to get him to recognize that his skill set was the video arts.
“I told him, ‘Ricky, I wish your on-air work at the radio station was as good as your video work,’ and he just laughed and said, ‘what do you mean by that DG?’ I said, ‘well, let’s just say you were stuck at the fork in the road and one fork was going to take you into radio and audio and the other fork was going to take you to video and all of that, I would take the video fork,’” Ginter said.
Ginter said he’s glad Cortez was creating a lot of video content for KTXT because he felt it was important that video content for radio increases as different forms of media converge.
“He was always cutting up and looking for a joke or playing practical jokes on the other and that was good because it helps to have fun in this environment because it can be very stressful,” Ginter said. “He was definitely part of the team that made KTXT a success during that period.”
Cortez said the features and documentaries class at Tech allowed him to create micro-documentaries that he was able to use in his portfolio when applying for an internship with Great Big Story. He worked with the company for six months as an intern before being offered a position.
“I don’t think anyone knows who they are anymore but essentially what Great Big Story was like, they were a branch of CNN where they told micro-documentaries so my first one was a guy who was a water advocate here in New York City,” Cortez said. “We don’t have the cleanest waters here so he swims in some of the most disgusting waterways in New York and I got to shoot that, I got to script it, I got to write it, I got to edit it, work with an editor, create a shot list — everything — and publish it so that was my first published piece as a documentarian.”
Cortez said he likes to do a lot of environmental work but has also covered events such as the 2020 elections in Vegas, the Alec Baldwin shooting, the exoneration of Muhammad Aziz and more.
“When I moved to NBC afterwards, I got to pitch an environmental piece, a longer form documentary called Solar City which was a documentary we did for nightly news and that was kind of the biggest piece I was able to pitch,” Cortez said. “It was essentially an hour long documentary on America’s first solar city in Florida. I got to go to Florida and shoot that and work with my producer to kind of bring it together.”
Cortez said working for NBC is where he learned how the bureaucracy in a media company works, specifically regarding the levels of approval and liability that the company will take in publishing a story.
“I had always wanted to work at NBC,” Cortez said. “I grew up watching Nightly News and I always thought NBC is such a high pillar of journalism and I wanted to be a part of that kind of storytelling so when I got the job I was elated.”
Cortez said he had a perceived notion that working in the industry meant there would be a lot of creative freedom. He soon learned that there were several steps one has to go through to get one’s idea to the finish line.
“You have to be persistent in ‘I want to shoot so I’m going to find stories and pitch as many as I can’. Rejection is — no one likes to get rejected — but in this industry you will,” Cortez said. “They will reject everything and anything but you don’t have to take it the wrong way. Lots of times I got stories rejected and I had great producers tell me why it was and they’ll help me flesh out the pitch and you can re-pitch and it gets greenlit later.”
Cortez said when he moved to New York he grew up exponentially fast and became very independent.
“I think the biggest challenge was just, and it’s a challenge I still deal with today, it’s just being so far away from my family and friends,” Cortez said. “I spent like my whole life in Texas and it’s hard to be away from — and I’m Mexican so family is everything in the culture so it takes a toll on you, only getting to see them once or twice a year.”
Cortez said working in the industry can consist of brutal hours and stressful work; something that was hard on his mental health.
“What’s most rewarding is the fact that I got to publish, not just one or two, but like four or five of my own pieces working here and being able to work on humongous news events and being able to have a part in telling the story and informing the public.” Cortez said. “I think I feel that way more now than I have before because of the job that I’m in.”
Cortez said his goal for the future is to take the experience and knowledge he’s gained over the past five years and create his own production company, taking a step back from the big city.
“I love Tech, it’ll always be a part of my identity to be a red raider. I really don’t think I would be where I am today without the mentors and the friends that I’ve met, the classes that I’ve taken,” Cortez said.
Cortez will be one of four Tech alumni serving as guest judges for JCMI Fest on May 3, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. at the Alamo Drafthouse.
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