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May 2-8, 1997

Broadcast Journalist

Breaking the on-air barrier to hard news

Chang: "Sometimes it takes someone like me to shake things up."

by Lia Chang

Six months ago, WNBC-TV reporter Ti-Hua Chang thought to himself, "I would like one day to win a Peabody, a Dupont, or a national Emmy for my work, but I probably never will."

When the 56th Annual Peabody Awards for broadcast and cable excellence were announced last month, the native New Yorker's wish had come true. Chang was informed that he had won a 1997 George Foster Peabody Award for his documentary Passport to Kill. He actually thought someone was playing an April Fool's Day joke on him and asked if some mistake had been made. He felt his documentary work had great potential but, given the tough competition, had no expectation of winning an award this big.

"Nobody submits for the Peabody on a local level--it's too hard to win," he said.

Unlike other industry awards, Peabodys are given solely on the basis of merit, rather than within designated categories. Out of 1,100 entries, Chang's was one of 31 selected this year. Even more impressive, he is the only local reporter to be recognized with the honor and is the only New York recipient.

A general assignment reporter for WNBC-TV News since 1993, Chang wrote, directed, and produced Passport to Kill and pursued the investigative work for his documentary in his spare time outside of maintaining his regular "day" job.

Passport to Kill aired last June in a 15-minute segment on WNBC's "Live at Five." In the piece, Chang uncovered how the Dominican killers of more than 20 New Yorkers, including some children, fled to the Dominican Republic and were shielded by outmoded extradition laws and rampant corruption. He also filed eight follow-up reports which resulted in further investigation by the New York Police Department and the enforcement of extradition laws in the Dominican Republic.

"I'm lucky my station allowed me to run a 15-minute piece--fairly unheard of for a local broadcast," he said. The fact that Chang's documentary did air in that rare fashion is indicative of his clout in the nation's number-one television market.

Chang is one of only a handful of Asian Pacific American male television reporters. Prior to coming to WNBC-TV, he broke through the barrier between on-air talent and off-camera producer when he landed a reporting job at WCBS. Before that, he was an investigative producer for ABC News and worked as a reporter at WLOX in Biloxi, Miss.; KYW-TV in Philadelphia; KUSA in Denver; and WJBK in Detroit.

Chang's ability to tap into some of the most compelling "hard" news--while navigating his way through the nation's toughest broadcast market--is a testament to his talent. His work has taken him to the far reaches of the globe, including Bosnia, Israel, Iran, Lebanon, and the Philippines. He'll also be in Hong Kong to cover the July 1 handover to China. Chang considers his best story when he found four witnesses who helped re-open the case of the 1963 assassination of civil-rights leader Medgar Evers. The murderer, Byron De La Beckwith, was finally imprisoned.

"It is his ability to cover both international and local stories that makes him an excellent journalist," said Roger Pang of the New York Times.

In addition to the Peabody, Chang has also been honored for his reporting with three regional Emmys; Philadelphia, Denver, and Detroit Press Association awards; AP and UPI awards; and a 1993 AAJA award for his story that focused on Cammy Lee, a Chinese American patient's search for a bone-marrow donor.

Looking toward the future, which in the highly competitive world of broadcast news can be a daunting prospect, Chang's ultimate goal is to be an anchorman. But he doesn't see that happening any time soon. "I think it's wrong that there aren't more Asian American men in broadcast," he said. Chang has spent his life and career fighting for Asian American rights, his rights, and peoples' rights; he finds the field of broadcast journalism to be a very unstable business.

"The Asian American community doesn't fight for its journalists," he said. A self-professed rabble-rouser in his workplace and in the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), Chang doesn't mind having that reputation. "Sometimes it takes someone like me to shake things up," he declared. "Too many people accept things as they are--I don't." He founded and served as president of the AAJA chapter in Detroit and has held positions as a national and local board member in the New York chapter.

Outside of the newsroom, he is committed to furthering the achievements and issues of Asian Pacific Americans. He believes the solution lies in promoting AAJA as a nationally recognized organization, increasing voter registration of Asian Americans, and changing the country's entertainment media so Asian Americans are seen as people first and as Americans.

On May 12, when Chang steps up to the podium at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City to accept his Peabody, what the audience can expect to hear from this second-generation Asian American of Chinese ancestry is, "I am thankful my parents taught me that if you are born a minority, you still deserve to have justice. I am thankful that in America, at least for now, that is still true."