Should Auld Aquaintance be......

If you live in this neighborhood (Colorado), you likely know this guy. For those of you who don't you're missing something. And we're all going to be missing it next week.

That is because Ernie Bjorkman, news anchor here in Denver for more than a quarter century, will be re-inventing himself. Friday is his last night on the air. Less than a year ago he got an Emmy for his lifetime work. He just signed a one year contract in October. And then somebody must have taken a look at his driver's license. FIFTY SEVEN? HE'S GOTTA GO!

This is a big deal for those of us who've known and worked with Ernie. What a professional. He is one of those anchors who loves to go out and report. He loves to write. He's always cared about the product. And for some reason he keeps everyone around him talking because he hates wearing socks. ( You could understand that when he was growing up in the South, but "Ernie, these are the Rockies, where it occasionally snows.)


Now here is something that is not an exaggeration. I have never heard Ernie utter an unkind word about anyone. And here is something even more incredible in the media world. I've never heard anyone, in or out of TV, utter an unkind word about Ernie.

I've always said I judge a man by "whether or not I'd have a beer with him." Well as the years pass, beer sometimes needs to be replaced by a good stiff cup of coffee. (In the good ol' days it would have more likely been a martini. Ernie was, and may still be, a connoisseur of said beverage and has them ranked all over town.)

Well we imbibed some stiff caffeine laced liquid this morning as we shared some great memories and laughs. No Tears!

But that's the personal stuff. Even if you've never heard of Ernie Bjorkman? Hang on to your hat. He is in the process of becoming the "poster boy" of what happens to baby boomers in a tight economy.

Somehow the New York Times found out his contract wasn't being renewed and all of a sudden his likeness was on their front page last week. And in case you hadn't heard that all forms of media are symbiotic (we feed off each other)?

Well apparently somebody at ABC reads the New York Times and Ernie is going to pop up on 20-20 here pretty soon. In Ernie's words, " I never got this kind of media attention when I was working."

Elizabeth Vargas wants to fly Mr. and Mrs. Bjorkman out to New York this weekend and entertain them on ABC's (Disney's) Tab.

Paraphrasing Ernie, " I don't know Elizabeth, 'The Big Apple' during the holidays? You know all those lights, and the theatre and all that. I just don't know." I think he is going.

Is he sad age is knocking him off the air? I think all of us who've faced being put out on "Ice Floes" bemoan the trend. But a funny thing happens on the way to forced retirement. We get to reinvent who we are, and that is exciting.

Ernie, who has always been able to read graffiti (writing on the wall), has been going to school to become a Veterinarian's Technician. He has graduated and will be taking a certification test soon. And once again paraphrasing the old man , " it reaches a point where the idea of working with injured animals becomes a lot more important than being on the air."

I have the same feeling about my piano lessons. I think I'd go into deep depression if somebody took that away from me.

Now I said just about everybody in Colorado knows Ernie. But I'm noticing in class that fewer and fewer of my students ever watch TV news. They say they are getting what they need off the Internet.

Will somebody PLEASE wake that kid up sitting behind Ernie.