Farewell Friend: A conversation with Kevin Gregory
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INDIANAPOLIS — Kevin Gregory began his career at WRTV on August 7, 1989.
“I remember seeing the people that I had watched on TV: Clyde Lee, Diane Willis, Bob McLain, Howard Caldwell, and all of a sudden, being a co-worker,” Gregory said. “It was unnerving.”
This wasn’t Gregory’s first foray into television. Gregory previously worked at stations in Champaign, Illinois, and West Lafayette, Indiana. It also wasn’t the first time for someone with the last name of Gregory to deliver a weather forecast in Indianapolis. Bob Gregory, Kevin’s father, worked at WTHR from 1972 until the early 2000s.
“I’d go to work with him on Friday nights,” Gregory said. “I think my first time on TV was by accident when I walked between a camera and the camera card. I was banished from the studio and had to sit in the control room.”
Years later, Gregory would be back in front of the camera at WRTV.
“When I showed up, Ben Morriston and I were doing the cut-ins for Good Morning America,” Gregory said. “We didn’t have a morning show then, so I did the cut-ins and then the midday show.”
Gregory credited this gradual introduction to his enduring career with the station.
“I would not have worked at WRTV for nearly 36 years if I was given a ton of responsibility when I started,” Gregory said. “If I would have been in a high-profile fill-in spot for Bob McLain, it would have been obvious to everybody that I wasn’t ready for that. I was put in an environment where the long-term goal was to let me grow into this position.”
And grow he did.
Gregory would soon find himself as the host of a year-old television program called At The Zoo. The show, a joint venture between WRTV and the new Indianapolis Zoo on West Washington Street, was a way to take Hoosiers behind-the-scenes at the zoo. The show was scheduled to run for just 13 weeks.
“It became obvious then that there was an endless amount of stories that could be told,” Gregory said.
Stories that would take Gregory around the globe.
“They asked me to be a host of a trip, and I didn’t know where,” Gregory said. “I thought maybe we’re going to Greensburg to see the tree coming out of the courthouse.”
The trip would take Gregory more than 8,000 miles from Indiana to Africa.
“We went to South Africa, Botswana, [and] Zimbabwe,” Gregory said. “We put together an hour-long prime-time special.”
It was the first of several travel trips that would become television specials for At The Zoo. The show would earn several regional Emmy Awards.
Whether it was exploring the Galapagos or crawling with walrus calves at the Indianapolis Zoo, Gregory took every opportunity to share every moment with the viewers in central Indiana.
As his coworkers can attest, Gregory delivered plenty of smiles both on and off the air.
Click the video above to hear more about Gregory’s memories of his current and former coworkers, his childhood fear of severe weather, and what he plans to do after retiring from WRTV.
