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Show ' 1 " y m . 1 a I J ' - " - - 1 : I i - - J i -1 if h ;i " w. K'Ap.z - " "- r it' I vn V . ; - "If it 3i"i'S V. : 'V A.' 4 -.4, : r v ' K s , ', S-:i ; 4 f , v - : PHOTO BY TOM HARALDSEN Dave and Kathie Fox relax at their Bountiful home with children Katie, 6; Andrew, four months; and Lauren, 4. Back in Bountiful KUTV's Dave Fox is certain: There's no place like home By TOM HARALDSEN Sports Editor BOUNTIFUL Dave Fox is living liv-ing proof of the old axiom that you can come home again. But before you do, you need to have a plan. Such was the case for KUTV's popular weeknight sports anchor long before he joined the station last summer. Since then, the 1976 graduate of Bountiful High has become be-come an integral part of Channel Two's news team, travelling to places from Australia last fall with the BYU football team, to Cedar City last week for the station's coverage cov-erage of the Utah Summer Games. Broadcasting wasn't part of the future for Dave when he moved to Bountiful with his family before his junior year in high school. He "stumbled" onto the profession when he began working as a discjockey disc-jockey at the Front Page disco in Salt Lake City. "I enjoyed doing the D.J. bit, so while I was in college, I got on with KLUB radio. That didn't last long, because shortly after I began, the station went to automation (recorded (re-corded programming), he recalled. He enjoyed a stint as an intern at KTVX, and worked for a while at KCPX radio. With the help of former for-mer KTVX reporter Ken Adelson, Dave produced an audition tape when the time came for him to enter en-ter broadcasting full time. In December of 1983, Dave was hired as sportscaster for KCWS, a station in Glenwood Springs, Colo. "We went there with high hopes," he stated. "We were excited ex-cited about the opportunities of joining a new station and beginning a career." But the next spring, the station went off the air and out of business. Disappointed but not discouraged, Dave and his wife Kathie, a 1978 Bountiful High graduate, whom he'd met while working as a D.J. at the Broadway, another Salt Lake dance hall, returned to Bountiful to contemplate their future. "We set out a three-year timetable," timet-able," he recalled. "We wanted to do whatever it would take to be back here in this market in three years." In July of 1984, Dave was hired as the weekend anchor at KLAS in ' Las Vegas, the CBS affiliate. He quickly became a popular fixture in that market, and when the week-night week-night anchor and sports director retired re-tired the following year, Dave moved into the head job in October 1985. The Foxes were happy with Las Vegas, though Dave kept his eyes open for other opportunities. His agent, David Crane of San Francisco, Francis-co, had discussed a possible move to Phoenix at one time, but Dave rejected it. Then came the July day of 1987, almost three years to the day that Dave and Kathie had put their "three-year plan" in motion, and the telephone rang. "It was Mike Youngren, the news director at Channel Two. Carl Arky had just left the station to join the Utah Jazz, so they had an opening," Dave remembered. Ironically , the opportunity would bring Dave back to Utah just as he had hoped, and would unite him with Bill Marcroft, the veteran sportscaster whom Dave had admired for years. "My agent was against me taking tak-ing the job, because I also had an offer from Philadelphia, which was more lucrative and of course in a larger market. But Kathie and I really real-ly wanted to come back home," he said. He's elated at the opportunities KUTV has given him. His quick wit and sharp delivery have proven popular with viewers, and his "Plays of the Week" provide a not-so-serious look at the world of sports. He's also happy to be part of a competitive television news market. "There's no question that the competitiveness of our station and KSL makes for better newscasts, and KTVX is working harder than ever as well. I think the fact that CBS was able to find Jim Nantz here speaks highly of Salt Lake City, and says something about the quality of the news directors in this market," he said. The future appears to be getting brighter for Dave by the day. With Marcroft spending more time these days on special KUTV projects, such as the Summer Games, Jeremy Ranch Shootout and St. George Marathon, Dave may well be the "air" apparent to the top job in the market. "We really like it here. I love Utah, and it's become a great sports market," he said. Kathie is thrilled to be home as well, often visiting her mother Ann Winn in Bountiful with the couple's cou-ple's three children: Katie, 6; Lauren, 4; and Andrew, four months. But no one may be more thrilled about Dave's career than his mother, Marilyn, who lives in Bountiful with husband Norm Fox, a federal court clerk in Salt Lake City. "My mother probably gets the biggest kick out of it," Dave said with a smile. "When the station ran an ad with my picture in it, she cut it out and tacked it up on her wall." If the past year is any indication, Mrs. Fox may need lots of wall space in the future for her son's accolades. For now, she can take comfort in the fact that Dave has truly proven there's no place like home. |