Special Spotlight Insert
Rebecchi
promotes KNME- TV
By Carolyn
Gonzales
KNME-TV
Channel 5 Marketing Manager Joan Rebecchi stresses that working
hard and working smart are necessary when trying to balance
a career and a family.
Mother
of 8-year-old Zachary and 3-year-old Hannah, time with family
is precious, she said.
I
cant waste time. Time management is very important. I
have to be very organized in order to get the job done and have
quality time with my children, she said.
Prior to
her 1986 arrival at UNM, Rebecchi worked at independent television
station WGBO in Chicago, her hometown. The station was
like KASA, or PAX TV. I had to be really creative with the commercials
and promotions we ran. Sometimes we were pretty outrageous in
creating promotional campaigns for shows or movies like Elvira:
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, or Godzilla vs. King
Kong, she said.
Also in
Chicago, she worked as a publicist for Universal Pictures. It
was great. We got to hold movie screenings for critics, agents
and radio stations. When the films stars or directors
came to town, I set up interviews with the press, she
said.
Thinking
about moving out of Chicago, she thought about maybe California.
But while on vacation in Las Vegas she was invited to come to
Albuquerque for the balloon fiesta.
She came
to KNME in 1986, still on the career fast track. Once here,
she was recruited by the new Professional Writing program in
the English Department to teach a course for a couple semesters.
I
taught Writing for Advertising, Public Relations and Promotions.
The students probably thought I was too hard. They wanted to
give me excuses why they couldnt get assignments in on
time and I wanted them to realize that deadlines are real in
this business, she said.
By 1989,
Rebecchis résumé landed her a job with PBS
affiliate WQED-TV in Pittsburgh as communications director.
After one year she returned to New Mexico. She missed the state
and she missed Patrick Fry, whom she married in July 1990.
She returned
to KNME and is actively engaged in every aspect of marketing
and promotion for the station. We put together Ventana,
the KNME monthly member magazine, press releases, kids club
materials, the digital television newsletter and are responsible
for the production and writing of all the on-air break material,
she said. We are also responsible for the Web site.
The marketing
department, a four-person staff, is also responsible for all
advertising of programs and station activities including placing
paid print, radio and cable advertisements, she said.
Rebecchis
promotion staff also coordinates KNMEs special events,
local program screenings and promotion of local productions.
The advent
of digital television keeps the job fresh, challenging and exciting,
said Rebecchi.