Former News 12 Anchor Shares Behind the Scenes Stories

Three and a half years ago, Frank Cipolla set out on a mission. He was finally going to write down all of the funny things he had seen and done during his thirty years in journalism when the cameras weren't rolling and the microphones were off.

This includes, but certainly is not limited to, rowing out to a radio antenna during a flood and witnessing two anchors fist-fight over a contract.

"Everybody who has ever worked in small market radio or TV, it's their story too. It's endemic to every single market out there," Cipolla said of his book, "It Shocked Even Us!" And more crazy stories covering local news, which was published in Spring of 2011.

Underlying the light-hearted commentary is Cipolla's personal reflection on the changes in the media industry and what it means to be a journalist in a digital world. He notes the increase in user generated content, beauty becoming more important than brains on TV and the popularity of bloggers. However, Cipolla said, the book is ultimately about the mayhem that ensues right before a show goes live.

Cipolla, now living with his wife on the border of Matawan and Old Bridge, grew up in Queens, NY and has spent the last 35 years pursuing his passion for journalism.

"I decided at the age of 10, after watching all of my news idols on TV that I wanted to be a TV or radio news man and that's all I ever wanted to do," Cipolla said.

At the beginning of his book, Cipolla writes about using an old typewriter as a child to report on his neighbors in Queens, calling his 5-cent-per-copy tabloid the 118th Street Gazette. The small publication never made it beyond the first edition, when his mother put her foot down after receiving several unhappy calls from those very neighbors, Cipolla recalls.

Although Mary Cipolla ended the Gazette, she fostered Cipolla's interested in current events. Each morning, as she put on her make-up for work, the single mother had her son read her the New York Daily News.

Cipolla never stopped chasing his dream of becoming a journalist like Jim Jenson. After graduating from Saint John's University, he went on to work at several radio in TV stations, including as a news director at both WCRV and WJDM, an afternoon news anchor for both the Soupy Sales Radio Show on WNBC and the All Sports Station, and an anchor on News 12 New Jersey when it launched in March of 1996. Cipolla currently works as a news anchor for the Wall Street Journal Radio Network.

While at the Wall Street Journal Radio Network, Cipolla worked part-time on his book. One by one, he went through the stations he worked at and recorded the funny experiences he had or witnessed. He edited and organized them and after three and a half years, he self-published his book.

"I remember holding the book. I held it in my hands and I realized that all my work created this," Cipolla said, recalling the first time he held a published version of his book. "It was a great feeling. It was an accomplishment and I was very happy I did it."

For more information on the book, visit Cipolla's website.