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My name is Derek McGinty. I came to American University in 1977, and I studied broadcast journalism. Wonderful.

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Tell us what brought you to American University? Well, it's funny, I only applied to one school that was AU. And I knew I wanted to be in

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journalism. And my father said, well, Willard Scott went to AU, and I said, okay. And so I came to AU.

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It was right across town. It was really, to be honest about it. It was really because it just seemed easy, right? I was still I was a commuter student.

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I lived in DC. AU is a great looking campus. I said, okay, I'll do it. Are we having struggles?

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Are you okay? Wait. Okay. So you're from DC? I am.

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A Washingtonian. What was that experience like at American? It was at first a little lonely. Didn't know a lot of people here.

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Um, and because I was a commuter student. I had a car I would drive to here every day. I went home in the evening, so I didn't get the social aspect of it.

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So the most people I knew were in class and at the Eagle, where I, you know, immediately began to work because I wanted to be a reporter. So it was a little lonely.

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Um, but the classes were rigorous and, um, you know, it grew on me. Where did you find community here? Didn't really much at first.

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It was. It was difficult. Um, like I said, the Eagle was really the only place where I had friends outside of class.

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Um, and there were a couple of guys there. I was just thinking about them today. A guy named Tom Flynn, a guy named Andy Alpert. And they were hilarious.

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And we had a great time, and I loved working with them the whole time I was here. For a lot of the time, I was the only Black person on the Eagle. And so, like I say, it could get a little lonely.

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What were some of the challenges during your time here at AU, and what was going on in terms of sort of the national landscape at the time. Well, let's see, at the time,

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while I was here, Ronald Reagan got first elected. There was the energy crisis during the Carter years. Um, there was the fall of the Shah in Iran and the hostage crisis. Right.

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And a story about that, that happened because we had a lot of Iranian students here at that time. Um, and so that was what was going

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on in the national politics, you know, in terms of school. What was the question again? So, so given what were some of the challenges that you faced during the time that you were here? Some of the challenges that I faced.

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You know, honestly, I didn't feel how can I say this? What were some of the challenges? I feel like most of my challenges were social and getting to know people. You know, I mean, I wasn't the only Black student in my classes,

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but that's the only time I ever saw most of everybody was in class. And so again, you know, I went home every night and all my friends from the neighborhood had

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gone off to school in other cities. So, you know, my big challenge was, was having friends. And so looking back after you finished at American University, what did you end up doing? Well, tell us about your career.

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Oh my goodness. Well, I had one of the great things about AU is that the really robust internship program. So I had an internship at ABC News my senior year, and because I had

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that internship, I ended up with a job at ABC. I was a desk assistant. That's, of course, the lowest job one could have.

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But that's what all I was worth doing. That was, you know, 20 years old. And I stayed there for a year.

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And then I got a job at WTOP Radio as a news writer. I don't even think they have news writers anymore.

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But back then, they chained us to typewriters for about seven hours, and we hammered out wire copy. It wasn't fun, but I learned how to write broadcast. Then I had a job at United Press International, another place that

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no longer really exists. I was a reporter there for a year. Good, good, good journalism experience working there. And then I got my first on air job at WHUR.

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Um, and that was a that was a obviously a breakthrough thing for me. I was on the air. I got better and better at that.

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I ended up being the anchor of the daily drum newscast in the evenings, and we had an interview segment, which I learned kind of was something I was good at. I was good at interviewing people and allowed me to apply for the

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job at American University at WAMU, and I ended up hosting a talk show there, The Derek McGinty Show, which went national. And that was really sort of that was where my career really took off.

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You know, you've had quite a career. Well, thank you. As someone who is well known.

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Um, what's been your secret to success? You know, I will tell you this. I mean, I think I have some abilities. I'm not going to be so modest.

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Not to say I don't have some talent, but I'm a guy who shows up. And when I was at WTOP, I was not the best news writer they had, but I was there every freaking day.

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And if they needed somebody to come in on a day and they reached me, I came in. Right. So, you know the old saying, what

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did Woody Allen say? 90% of success is showing up. I really do believe that if you become very reliable, that's a big thing. And I think that really, really

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helped me. I wasn't always the best, but you could count on me to be there and do my best. And that, I think, counts for something.

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Given the profession you've chosen. Um, if one was to ask you, what do you think has been your most important contribution? What would you say. Most contribution to what? To the field.

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To the profession. Oh, shoot, man. What's my most important? Well, that's a tough one. You know, I. You know, I don't know that.

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I'm not sure. I would say that. You know, the talk show job I had at WAMU, which was from 91 to 98. Right.

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It's been a long time since I was there. That was the best job I had. That was the thing I was, I think, best at, and, um, felt like it

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meant something to people that people cared about that show. They cared about the ideas we talked about. And if that's the contribution that I made while I was there, then I'm very I'm very proud of that.

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You know, students today will have an opportunity to go back, take a look at what you've done and everything else. And what they will see is success. What have you learned from

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failing? Well, I've learned a couple of things from failing. When I was a writer at WTOP. They always they were pushing us to be clever.

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And I wrote a very bad story about some alligators that were in Israel. Now I'm 22, 23 years old. And I said my my line was as if they didn't have enough big

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mouths. Right? Israel is getting some alligators. Well, some people were offended by

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this. And the next day I get a call from the news director at my house and I had to go in. It was my day off.

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I had to go in and he said, look, I'm not going to fire you because you're very young. But if something like this happens again, you're gone. Scared me to death.

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But what I learned from that is that words have power. Words matter. So you got to be careful when you're in this business.

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What you say makes a difference to a lot of different people right now. I made a mistake born of my my naivete and youth.

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Right. But the key thing was I didn't do it again. And to me, I mean the mistakes I made over the years, those are what kind of, you know, helped form me into a better journalist.

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So that's just an example of, you know, you make mistakes. You do things that, you know, especially when you're young, you're going to hopefully survive them and then end up getting better because of them.

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Well, this is a perfect segue to what is the best advice that you to you could give to your 21 year old self? Oh my God. To current or future generations, what would you say to them?

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Don't be scared. That fear of it keeps you from that fear of failure. That fear of being in these days

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being canceled. You know, the fear of of of that is crippling. So don't be afraid to say, say

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what you believe and be prepared to back it up. The difference, I always thought the big thing I had going for me as a talk show host was I had opinions, I had ideas, but I would always listen.

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And if someone convinced me that I was wrong, I was willing to say, you got a point. I'm going to change my way of thinking on this, because you're right.

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And that is the biggest, you know, I think, biggest piece of advice. Be prepared to defend your ideas, but be prepared to change them if someone you know shows you the

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error of your ways. Important points. Um, we're working on this documentary. Sure.

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About what I would call Black trailblazers from American University. Oh, goodness. And is there anything else you

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think is important for us to know? Or that we may not have asked you. Off the top of my head, no. Can I ask what was your most memorable interview? Oh, I get that a lot. And, you know, there's a couple of them.

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There's a couple of interviews I remember very well. One was the guy who wrote a book called What It Takes, Richard Ben Cramer. He's now deceased, but that book

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is like 800 pages long. Amazing political story of one presidential campaign. And I ended, I spent the whole

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weekend going through that book and did what I think was one of my best interviews with Richard Ben Cramer. And the fact that I remember his name at this late date, which I don't remember anybody's name, that tells you something.

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But the other one that I really remember was Leslie Nielsen, who was hilarious. And he came on the show and we were talking about The Naked Gun and the various the Airplane!

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and the various funny movies he had done. And somebody might have been a plant called in and said, I understand, Mr. Nielsen, that you'd like to have fun with whoopee cushions.

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I've heard that you'd like to have whoopee cushions. And he said, I don't know what you're talking about, brah.

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He had one and he had it up next to the microphone. I thought I would die so funny. He just kept doing it.

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Brah, brah. Oh. It was. I mean, you know, good Lord knows I'm.

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I'm a big kid at heart. So some good fart jokes I can't resist. I was on the floor with laughter. It was so funny.

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And like I say, I remember that interview, you know, and so you asked. But those are my two. Those are the two that come to mind.

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Yeah, yeah. For, um. This generation that wants to get into this business. Mhm.

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What do you think is important for them to know. They got to they got it much tougher in some ways than I had it.

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Um because now they expect you to be able to do everything. I always had this idea that most people are really only good at 1 or 2 things. You know, you're not.

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If you're a good shooter, then maybe you're not a great editor. If you're a good reporter and a good writer, then maybe you're not probably going to be a great shooter. You know all these things now.

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They want you to do it all, you know, and it's very challenging. I don't know that I could have done what they want these kids today to do.

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Um, so, you know, the thing today I would say is be as multifaceted as you can, right? I used to joke that when I was first in radio reporting, I'd be on the street and I'd see TV reporters and there'd be a cameraman, a sound man, a producer

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and a reporter and probably a guy back at the station who would edit the tape when he got came in. That's five people to do one story.

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Now one person has to do all that. I always say the good news is they can't go below one, right? They're probably going to need one person. So it's much, in some ways, much more challenging.

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The good thing is there's way more jobs right now. There's there's so many different outlets and networks. And so there's a lot more jobs. But the jobs you'll get, I think

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are much more difficult. Wow. Thank you. One of my last question.

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Sure. Um, I know after you left American University, you continued to give back to your alma mater. What made you want to do that? Well, I will tell you, for a long

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time I didn't for a long time I wasn't involved. I was focused on what I was doing, focus on my career and then like, you know, probably right after 2010 or 11, I realized that I was no longer really ambitious, right? That I had, you know, I'd done

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most of what I wanted to do in the business. I was an anchor at my local hometown station. I didn't really care if I got any bigger, so to speak. Right.

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And then when that happens, you start to think, well, what's important, right. What do I have to do? And I realized that my job was to give back to the next few that are coming along.

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And so that's when I began to get more involved at AU. I began to, you know, speak at classes and so on and so forth. And then when I left Channel 9 in 2015, then that just continued on and became more important to me because at this point in life,

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really all you got is what you give back, you know? I don't need to accumulate anything else. I do need to help and mentor and be a part of some young people's lives.

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That's what gives me the most satisfaction right now. So that's why. Thank you, thank you, thank you.