John Carpenter

John Carpenter

November 15, 2006
In 1984 when John Carpenter was hired on at KTUU, Ronald Reagan was in his first term as president, the Detroit Tigers were the hottest team in baseball and the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird rivalry was lighting up the NBA. That was more than two decades ago, and while the country, baseball and the NBA have moved on, Carp hasn't.

Originally from Los Angeles, Carp moved to Alaska in 1966 as a 7-year-old, and has been in love with the state since. In 1973, one of Carp's junior high school teachers, in front of the entire class, informed John he would never make a living being a "smart aleck," and the gauntlet was thrown down.

Carp began his career in broadcasting in 1980 as a late night disc jockey and realized right away there was an "upside" to a vocation that didn't require manual labor. In 1983 Carp made his small screen debut with KTVA-TV as a weekend sports anchor. A year later, KTUU called, and as they say, the rest is history.

So there was Carp, making a great living watching sports, getting paid to fish and making fun of Maria Downey, yet he knew there had to be more to life. In 1989 he met Kelley and after a whirlwind seven-year romance, Kelley relented, and they were married. Married life has suited Carp just fine, though he's found the subtleties of adulthood from time impinging on his "play time." In February 2004, Kelley and John became the proud, happy parents of Sam, and now, the boy who has refused to grow up, has a boy of his own to play with.

E-mail John Carpenter at jcarpenter@ktuu.com