Jim Swift

  What's your name?
Jim Swift

What's your position?
Reporter/Photographer

When did you start at KXAN?
August, 1977

What was your most memorable story?
In April of 1988, I had an opportunity to cover a reunion in the Soviet Union of an American pilot and a Soviet pilot whose lives became intertwined during World War II. They had been unable to find each other for over 40 years, due to the Cold War. But with the thaw in American-Soviet relations that came with the rise to power of President Mikhail Gorbachev, they were reunited in a telephone call made from our newsroom. The reunion trip followed and we spent eight days shadowing the American contingent as they renewed friendships. Despite the thaw, the Cold War was still very much in play, and the opportunity to get inside the Soviet Union for a close look at life there was invaluable to me, personally and professionally. When we returned, we aired a series of reports and a 30-minute special on the trip.

How did you get started in TV?
At Southwestern University in Georgetown, from 1966 to 1970, I worked part-time as a disc jockey at the old KGTN radio. For two weeks every summer, while the General Manager was on vacation, I replaced him as the station's news reporter and anchor. After graduation, I spent some time at Perkins School of Theology at SMU before joining a repertory theatre group out of Dallas. When it came time to seek a career, I recalled the thrill and challenge of those days doing news at KGTN. I also recalled growing up watching network news correspondents dodging riots and bullets while covering the Civil Rights Movement and the war in Vietnam. All these influences came together to point in the direction of broadcast news. I found a job at KWHI radio in Brenham for two years and then moved to Austin for a one-year stint at the old KOKE radio here. A year later, there was an opening at KTVV-TV, and I was lucky enough to get the job. Later, KTVV became KXAN, and here we are together some three decades later.

Where did you go to college?
Southwestern University.

What's your hometown?
Georgetown.

What's your favorite thing about Austin?
The music, the culture, the informal vibe and the process of change that comes with growth and the issues it raises.

Who has been the most influential person in your life? Why?
Former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite and the late CBS News correspondent Charles Kuralt. They paved the road on which I would embark.

What's your guilty pleasure?
Wallowing in the freedom we enjoy in this country to avoid answering such questions.

How would you like to make a difference?
Participating in the vital role of informing the public about the issues and events that shape our lives. Also, trying to keep the spontaneity and freewheeling spirit of the "Old Austin" alive.

What's your favorite band or musician?
Far too many to list, though I really enjoy the Austin country band, Stop the Truck, and its reggae alter-ego, the Mau Mau Chaplains.

What's your favorite movie?
Braveheart.

What's your favorite TV show?
Any NFL football game, especially if it involves the Dallas Cowboys.

What's your favorite food?
Grilled shrimp shish kabob, barbecue sausage and chocolate ice cream.

Tell us about your family.
I enjoy the blessings of my wife, Austin artist Katy Nail; Katy's mother, author Frances Nail; Katy's sister, poet and editor Leslie Nail; Katy's daughter, singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez; Carrie's husband, Spanish jazz musician Javier Vercher; my son, Nathan Swift, a captain in the United States Marine Corps; Nathan's wife, Katie Joswiak Swift, a deaf and hearing impaired interpreter; their son and my beautiful grandson, Connor; my daughter, Shayla Swift, currently in graduate school at the University of Nebraska; and two "once-and-forever" step-daughters, Jessica and Catherine. My brother, Tom Swift, and his son, Taylor, live in Georgetown. Tom's daughter, Elizabeth attends college in Virginia.

You can e-mail Jim at Jim.Swift@kxan.com .