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Carol Daniel Feels Liberated by the Freedom of Nine PBS | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

11 months ago

November 13, 2023

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click to enlarge COURTESY PHOTO Carol Daniel

In May, KMOX newscaster Carol Daniel shocked the media world when she announced her retirement. But just four months later, Daniel started a new gig — as senior producer and host at Nine PBS. Her new podcast, Listen, St. Louis, dropped its first episodes late last week.

Daniel joined us to discuss why she quit journalism, her speedy return and why she may end up being the Joe Rogan of public television podcasts.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

You were one of the most prominent voices on the Voice of St. Louis. Why leave KMOX?

I had been thinking about retirement for a long time. I’m 61. Work was just taking a toll on me and trying to be in that sandwich generation. It was the tightest squeeze of a sandwich I could feel — helping to care for my parents, caring for my kids. My husband’s a small business owner. The stress of talk radio during the Trump administration. I was looking to hang it up, put those headphones down for a while.

My husband is from the Virgin Islands, and I went to St. Croix to visit my mother in law and my brother in law, and while I was there, I just had this epiphany while the ocean breeze was washing over me. That’s when I just had this thought, “OK, I can do this. And I think I need to do it.” It was an answer to a prayer to be in that mental space and that spiritual space that I could walk away. I didn’t know what the future held, but I knew I would be OK.

Yet you picked those headphones right back up.

Someone asked me, “Well, what would you love to do? What would the dream be?” And I said, “To tell the stories of Black St. Louisans, to tell the stories of people who are making change, to tell the stories of the issues we face and who’s facing them and what we’re getting right and what we’re getting wrong.” And when that question was asked of me, the first entity I thought of was Nine PBS.

I have known Amy Shaw, the CEO, and Aja Williams, the vice president of content, for over 15 years. We’ve always wanted to work together, but there was never an opportunity. And so I reached out to Amy and then Aja and boom. I mean, boom.

Was it somewhat bittersweet not to get that retirement?

Yeah, but I will tell you that I’ve talked to people who have worked in public broadcasting. One said to me it was the most freedom she’d ever had. There is such a freedom. And the overarching foundational principle here is purpose; there’s just such great purpose in what we’re trying to do. And so that’s something that I definitely can jump into.

How is Nine PBS different from KMOX?

My husband goes, “You sound so relaxed.” I don’t even look at the clock. At KMOX, there was a clock five feet from me where I paid attention to the second hand all day long. And now — I just realized talking to you right now, there’s no clock on the wall here.

When you’re actually taping the podcast, do you need to pay attention to the clock?

Well, I don’t pay attention to the clock, and I predict that I will be getting an email — a gentle reminder that you are not Joe Rogan, you cannot go on for three hours. I predict that’s coming.

But it may or may not. I’ve listened to the very first one that will drop, and that’s with the president of the Heartland St. Louis Black Chamber [Marvin Steele], and it’s about 52 minutes.

You would never be able to do that on commercial radio.

Never! I was listening as I was driving home, a 25-minute drive, paused it, got in the house, started cooking, listened to the rest of it as I was cooking. And if St. Louisans will engage in that way, 45, 50 minutes, we’re good.

We’ll go, always, at least 30 minutes. I want to have the conversations that I want to hear when I’m in my car. And these are conversations we aren’t having in depth. We’re getting 90 seconds, or if we’re lucky, we’re getting two or three minutes. And it’s so much deeper than that. And so I’m so, so grateful to be able to do this now in this way.

I’m intrigued by this idea of you driving home listening to your own interview. Are you able to listen to yourself and enjoy it, as if you were a stranger?

That’s a great question. Growing up, I was told that my voice was too deep for a girl and I sounded like a boy. I would answer the phone and more than once I would hear, “Son, can I speak to your mother?” And that was always a blow to my femininity, my sense of my womanhood, that I sounded like a boy.

So I did not listen to myself, because I didn’t like the way I sounded. I only started listening to myself in my late 30s and 40s. Listening to that podcast, on my way home that day, I could listen to that podcast as if it wasn’t me. I was listening for enjoyment. I was listening for information. I was listening for enlightenment. I was listening for joy.

And when I can get to the point that I forget that it’s even me? That happened. That’s a great feeling.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

5 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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