Channel One News had many on-air personalities who acted goofy. Tom Hanson is shown here mugging for the camera.
At the time, he was trying to look “younger” for his captive audience of middle school students. Many Channel One “reporters” thought that acting immature – making silly faces – would fool students into thinking they were younger than their years. Channel One executives wanted student to be able to relate to the older reporters that appeared on the show.
Channel One never gave the ages of their on-air personalities. Hanson was probably in his mid-thirties at the time of this photo. That was considered an “elderly” age at Channel One.
Hanson came to Channel One News from CNN. That was a goofy decision by itself. No one goes from a legitimate news organization to a much discredited marketing organization like Channel One. That’s like moving from a very nice house to a van by the river.
Congratulations to Hanson who has recently been named as an anchor for a new CW-network news program. He’s going in the right direction now.
