Ron Millennor: The basics

For my Advanced Reporting class this quarter I had to write up a long feature story on a local sports figure, similar to the one I wrote last quarter on Elder Glee Club maestro Dave Allen. So a few weeks ago I sat down with Fox19 Sports Producer Ron “Rufus” Millennor to discuss everything from his journey in local sports to his favorite people to work with.

Rather than trying to weave it all into one big, long story, I’ve tried to break it all up into a few shorter, easier to read parts. Here’s part of Ron Millennor’s story.

To say Ron Millennor is a nobody in local sports would be a lie. Sure he’s not on camera (that often) but his behind-the-scenes work rarely goes unnoticed by the folks at Fox19.

Yet, Millennor didn’t start off with his heart set on being in TV until after an internship with Channel 5 when he was in college.

“I never really knew what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to be in the sports business. I didn’t know if I wanted to be a newspaper journalist, radio, TV, but once I had the internship at Ch.5 I knew that TV was what I wanted to do,” he said.

Millennor, who goes by his nickname, Rufus, began his journey into the world of sports reporting as the Sports Editor for the Northwest Press, the newspaper at Northwest High School. Millennor graduated from Northwest in 1980.

His teacher, John Michaels, allowed him to run a controversial article about the Northwest golf team, which Rufus recalled.

“I’m not even a huge golf fan, but [the article] caused a bit of controversy because one of the kids gave me some inflammatory quotes about the coach,” he said. “I forget the specifics but there were some issues between the golfers and the coach and it created a firestorm because the teacher let me run the story.”

According to Millennor, Michaels was one of the most influential teachers he ever had. “He really taught me a lot and guided me into this business,” Rufus said. “They say a few teachers have a big impact on you. He may have had the biggest.”

After graduation, Millennor took a year off from school to earn money to pay for college. He enrolled at UC in the Broadcast/TV program in UC’s College Conservatory of Music.

While in school he landed an internship at Channel 5 (WLWT) that set him on his current career path. The sports director at WLWT was Andy Furman, who now hosts a talk radio show in Cincinnati.

“That’s where my passion for TV really developed,” Rufus said.

Along with Furman, Millennor was fortunate enough to work with Thom Brennaman, George Vogel, Bill Hemmer and J.D. Hayworth. If those names sound familiar, it’s because they are a who’s who of television, and not just in Cincinnati.

“It was a great staff,” said Millennor. “Obviously, a lot of those people have gone on to great things.”

Brennaman now works for FOX and does some Reds games with his dad, and baseball hall-of-famer Marty. Vogel is still at WLWT and anchors sports coverage at Channel 5. Bill Hemmer, a graduate of Elder High School, now works for Fox News. Hayworth was a State Representative in Arizona from 1995-2003 in Arizona’s 6th District and 2003-2007 in Arizona’s 5th District.

Not a bad staff of folks to learn from, if I can say so myself. Rufus explained that he didn’t just learn the basics from these men, but he also picked up on the right way to do things.

“Not only did I learn a lot of things there like how to edit, and produce, but just dealing with the professionals that were there—the people like George Vogel and Thom Brennaman and Bill Hemmer—by osmosis you pick up their good qualities and good skills,” Rufus said. “You learn from the best and that’s what I did, I learned from the best.”

There’s nothing quite like seeing your first edited piece on the air, and as an intern there is no better feeling. When Bengals’ legend Bob Johnson was profiled by WLWT, Millennor’s handy work first hit the air waves.

“The first time I edited something that made the air, it was like the greatest thing in the world for me,” he said.

It’s an experience that even I can recall. The first thing I ever edited aired on a Friday night at WCPO, Channel 9, where I first interned. It was a 15-second soundbite from none other than IndyCar driver Helio Castroneves. It was nothing special, but for me it signified something a whole lot bigger: I knew what I was doing, and it was fun.

“It was so rewarding to get that thing on air,” Rufus said, of the Bob Johnson package. “It aired the following week on a Bengals special or something. I remember telling my parents and friends, ‘Hey, you’ve got to watch this show and see this.’ It was really cool.”

Rufus graduated from UC in 1986, and before he was hired at Channel 5, in 1988, he worked various little jobs around town, including stringing for the Enquirer, writing stories and answering phone calls for what is now the city’s only surviving newspaper.

But, he also worked the Reds scoreboard for a few years.

“For two seasons I worked every single home game, including the ’88 All-Star game,” Rufus said.

He was in charge of running the “matrix board” at Riverfront Stadium. “I was the guy that put up the scoreboard stumper and the league leaders and all that kind of stuff,” he said.

In fact, if you went to a Reds game in the time that Millennor ran the matrix board, you probably tried to answer the scoreboard stumper. The man that came up with the questions and answers was Rufus himself.

“I got to come with most of the scoreboard stumpers because I’m a huge baseball fan. I did all the research and came in with the stumpers. That was a fun job. I really liked that job,” he said.

But I have a feeling that Rufus didn’t like that job as much as the job he holds now.

For more on Ron “Rufus” Millennor, check back tomorrow. This small look into his background sets the stage for the rest of his story. He’s funny, in his own way, and as his story unfolds, hopefully you’ll see why he’s a TV legend in Cincinnati.

Thanks for reading today, and be sure to check back tomorrow for more on Rufus.