For more than four decades, Sam Shad has been asking Nevada’s newsmakers questions and, perhaps more importantly, listening to their answers.
On Sept. 30, Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve turned the tables a little, proclaiming the day “Sam Shad Day” in recognition of Shad’s long career in Nevada journalism.
The proclamation recognizes Shad as an entrepreneur, award-winning journalist, longtime Nevada news personality and “a true Nevada newsmaker.”
Shad came to Nevada from England and built a career in television and radio, including years delivering weather reports to Northern Nevada viewers. He founded Sam Shad Productions in 1980 and, in 2002, established Nevada Newsmakers, the statewide public-affairs program that has become a regular stop for elected officials, business leaders and others shaping Nevada.
Over more than 4,600 programs, Shad has interviewed the people making Nevada history as it happened.
The Reno proclamation credits him with “curiosity, journalistic integrity and a rare ability to ask direct questions and then actually listen to the answers.”
That last part may be the most important, and the characteristic we at RANGE Media work to emulate.
I’ve had the privilege of working with Sam and watching him work. What I appreciate most about him is that he remains genuinely curious. He can sit across from people who disagree completely with one another, ask both of them serious questions and give each the room to answer. He isn't trying to become the story. He wants to understand the story. And he wants the community to understand the story.
That sounds simple in practice, but journalism today, is a different animal.
Sam has also spent his career doing something particularly important in a state like Nevada: connecting the different parts of it. Nevada Newsmakers brings conversations taking place in Reno, Las Vegas and Carson City to audiences throughout the state, while bringing rural Nevada voices into conversations that too often happen without them.
There is something else I admire about Sam: after all these years, he still seems interested.
More than 4,600 shows is an extraordinary body of work. Think about the governors, legislators, congressional representatives, business leaders, advocates and ordinary Nevadans who have sat across from him, and the history contained in those conversations.
Shad was inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2000.
The Reno proclamation also memorializes another contribution to Nevada culture that should not be overlooked: Shad’s longstanding habit of pairing impeccable suits with tennis shoes, which the city credits with making him a trendsetter “in journalism and footwear alike.”
Mayor Schieve concluded the proclamation by encouraging journalists to emulate Shad’s “independent and fair approach to the news.”
I’ll second that. At a time when trust in journalism has become increasingly difficult to earn, Sam's career is a reminder that there really isn't a shortcut. You show up. You do your homework. You ask fair questions. You listen carefully. And then you come back and do it again.
Four thousand six hundred times, apparently.
Congratulations, Sam. Sam Shad Day is well deserved.
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