When Bob Evans sat down in the studio of KSTU, an E.W. Scripps-owned Fox affiliate in Salt Lake City, he was prepared to shoot a scripted promo for the station on another subject altogether.

Evans is the co-anchor of KSTU’s of Fox 13 News at Nine and has been since 1995.

Then Darcy Stapleford, a senior news promotion producer at KSTU, decided to ask him a question.

“Bob was simply asked why he comes to work every day,” Stapleford says.

“I have been anxious to share that why,” Evans says.

Evans began “a very powerful speech we didn’t see coming,” Stapleford says.

That powerful speech became a two-minute-plus promo of Evans in his own words describing his motivation.

“That has been percolating inside of me for quite a long while,” Evans says.

When you watch the promo, you get the feeling Evans has just been waiting for someone to ask him that question.

“The reason I come to work every day is because democracy demands excellent journalism,” Evans says.

At times in the interview, he pauses.

“I’m sorry, I get emotional about this,” Evans says. “There’s nothing more important, nothing more vital and necessary than clear, accurate, unbiased information.”

“There’s very little cut from the original take,” Stapleford says.

Stapleford says the promo was shown “to all of our staff during a quarterly luncheon and the room erupted in clapping and cheers.”

Stapleford says Evans conveyed “the feelings of frustration and desperation that we’ve been feeling in recent years. It’s very upsetting for local journalists who aim to protect and inform the very communities they live in, when they are looked at as the enemy.”

Turning Evans’ speech into a promo was important for viewers to see Evans “fired up and hear his message,” Stapleford says.

Evans says his hope “in expressing these deeply held convictions of mine, is that viewers will feel the same way and know they have a home here with Fox13 because this is how we feel about our role in the community.”

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