Kelly Kaufhold, Ph.D., explains how to produce the MCTV Weekday Update to a student, Jason Pearson.
Always with a friendly smile on his face, Kelly Kaufhold, Ph.D., an assistant professor of journalism and electronic media, spends his week days bustling about the College of Media and Communication. He spends most of his weekend days home. But, the commute home is a little farther than the Lubbock city limits.
Kaufhold travels home to Austin most weekends. His wife, Nuri Vallbona, and two children, Vicente and Kachelle, live in Austin because of education. Vallbona is a lecturer at the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas, Austin.
“I got the job here, and we decided for the first year to sort of commute it and see how it worked,” Kaufhold said. “And they have been really supportive here about me doing this. So, I tell people, ‘It’s not a real job, I’m a college professor.'”
“You have to test to get in, write an essay. They have about a 40 percent admission rate, which is pretty amazing when you’re talking high school,” Kaufhold proudly said while talking about his children. “And both my kids got in.”
The control board in the MCTV studio.
Although it may seem like this would be hard on a family, Kaufhold said it works well. He said since he does not have to go home to his family every night, he is able to work more during the week, so he does not have to work on weekends.
Kaufhold is used to working long hours. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Kaufhold began his college career as a pre-law student at the University of Dayton. He quickly found out that was not the career choice for him. He said his politically inclined friends helped him choose journalism as a major.
“I remember thinking, even at age 18, ‘You’re kind of both right, you’re kind of both wrong sometimes,'” Kaufhold said with a chuckle, “And that sort of set me on a path of where I am now politically, but also as perfectly logical fit for a journalist, which was honestly, genuinely, sort of middle of the road.”
Kaufhold said his sister was working at the ABC affiliate in Kansas City at the time, and offered for him to come and intern at the television station between his sophomore and junior year of college. Kaufhold quickly fell in love with the job, and was offered a paid position in the news room.
“I had my first huge, breaking news story that summer,” Kaufhold said. “Which was, there was a Hyatt Regency Hotel there, and during a Friday night tea dance, this walkway collapsed and killed dozens of people, lots of injuries. And it was a huge, multi-week, breaking story. It became national news. And, as tragic as it was, it was really interesting to be on the front line, to be finding things out, to be sharing revelations. And that kind of was enticing, in a way, to feel like you were doing something important.”
When he returned to school in the fall, Kaufhold began working at the ABC affiliate in Dayton, working up to 30 hours a week at the television station. While taking news production classes at school, Kaufhold was actually producing the news in the media industry.
Kaufhold running teleprompter for the MCTV Weekday Update.
After graduation, Kaufhold learned every position he could in the newsroom. Through connections in the news business, Kaufhold next went to Dallas, where it only took a phone interview for him to get a job. He next moved to Houston, and then Miami.
While working in Dallas, Kaufhold met his wife, Vallbona. She is also a journalist, with a focus on photojournalism. Vallbona has won a a Pulitzer prize with a group at the Miami Herald, and was a finalist on her own in another year.
“We talk news all the time,” Kaufhold said. “And we help each other out with stories, and class design, and all kinds of stuff. Yeah, it’s helped a lot. It’s been a huge commonality.”
In 2003, Kaufhold began pursuing his masters degree at the University of Miami. He then moved back to Texas, to receive his doctoral degree from the University of Texas, Austin. Kaufhold said having such vast experience in the industry helped during graduate school, whether in classes or while getting teaching assistant positions.
Kaufhold came to Tech in 2011. Josh Robinson, media production manager, said he came at a transition time for the College of Media and Communication, and has been a great asset ever since.
“I think Dr. K came in right about the right time to be a pretty big influence in that, especially on the journalism side of things,” Robinson said. “He has a lot of experience with broadcast, my understanding is about 15, 20 years or working out in the field, and, obviously, at that particular time, besides myself, there really wasn’t anyone else in the college with any sort of broadcast experience.”
With that broadcast experience, Kaufhold and Robinson started the MCTV Weekday Update. The student produced daily newscast is unique, with the University of Oklahoma being the only other Big 12 school with a daily news show. Tech graduate student, Roxie Bustamante, produces the show on Tuesday and Thursday.
Anchors Patrick McNeill (left) and Lawrence Sierra get wired up for the newscast.
“What we do is, we really collaborate and coordinate with each other a lot, about what’s going on, who has what,” Bustamante said about working with Kaufhold. “And then, also, he definitely gives me tips on how to produce better, or if I am doing a good job, he’ll let me know that as well. And then, you know, just like how he is as a professor, he’s super flexible, super accommodating. He’s just amazing.”
Kaufhold hopes to continue being an innovator in the college. He currently teaches the Storytelling by Smartphone class, which teaches students how to use their cell phones for reporting.
“I used to tell people my two favorite jobs were, and I said this for 20 years,” Kaufhold said, “my two favorite jobs were swimming pool life guard and radio DJ, and they both paid minimum wage. Now this is my favorite job, by far.”
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