Talk:Thomas Joaquin Darby (1960-)

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Tom Darby (born 20 July 1960) is an American journalist, Nevada Broadcast Hall of Fame inductee, author and blogger. Since April 2014, he has been a news contributor for Real Media, headquartered in Columbus, Missouri.

Early life
Thomas Joaquin Darby was born in Chateauroux, Indre, France. He is the eldest of four children of Margery Ann Olivera and Thomas Junior Darby, who was assigned to Chateauroux-Deols Air Base at the time. The family moved to Mather Air Force Base, Sacramento, California in 1962 and two years later to Klamath, California. Darby attended Margaret Keating School, graduating from Del Norte County High School, Crescent City, California in 1978. He was raised as a Roman Catholic.

Adulthood
Following his high school graduation, Darby enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was assigned to Lackland Air Force Base for basic training with the 3723rd Training Squadron, followed by attending technical schooling at Brooks Air Force Base in the field of Environmental Health Services, with his permanent duty station being Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

In 1987, after being discharged five-years earlier, Darby married Mary Elizabeth Conklin during a small church ceremony in Ramona, California. By this time the couple had already made Reno, Nevada their home.

In 1992, Darby’s son, Kyle Thomas was born at Washoe Medical Center. They later moved to Spanish Springs, Nevada northeast of Reno, in 1998.

Career
At the age of 16, Darby began as a guest announcer at KPOD-AM, in Crescent City, California. He also worked as the voice of Paul Bunyan at the Trees of Mystery, in Klamath California for three summers.

Between serving in the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps, Darby returned to radio, landing a part-time overnight position on-air at KCRE-FM in Crescent City, California. He later transitioned to a full-time position, first overnight and later swing shift at KPOD-AM, which was by this time under new ownership.

Darby soon found a new position as a part-time announcer for KATA-AM/KFMI-FM in Arcata, California. He also worked part-time for KEKA-FM in Eureka, California before moving to Nevada to take on full-time duties at KPLY-AM/KROI-FM in Sparks, Nevada.

However after arriving in town, Darby discovered the full-time position had been filled and instead he was hired on a part-time basis. To supplement his income, he found employment as a Keno writer with the Club Cal-Neva in downtown Reno and later at John Ascuaga's Nugget in Sparks.

While he worked in the casino industry, he also moved from KPLY-AM /KROI-FM to KNSS-FM in Reno. When KNSS-FM was sold and the entire staff released, Darby applied for an overnight position and was hired at KONE-AM, which was also in Reno.

Two years later, Darby was hired away to work the overnight shift at KIIQ-FM, in Reno. He remained with the station until a year later when he returned to part-time at KBUL-FM, formerly KNSS-FM.

After moving from part-time to full-time overnight and later, swing-shift, Darby left the broadcast industry to work as a dispatcher for the Washoe County's Regional Transportation Commission’s paratransit unit, CitiLift. He would eventually take on the responsibility of operator and later training supervisor for the service.

As he trained operators, he also worked at KHIT-FM in Reno and later KOZZ-FM. Both stations were owned at the time by Lotus Broadcasting.

Eventually, Darby left the employ of the RTC and began working full-time, first for KHIT-FM and when the station’s format changed form Country to Alternative Rock, he was moved to the overnight at Classic Rock station, KOZZ-FM.

In June 2000, Darby was inducted into the Nevada Broadcast Hall of Fame, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Along with a black granite obelisk, he was honored with a Proclamation from the Clark County Board of Commissioners and certificates of recognition by Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn and Lt. Governor Lorraine Hunt, U.S. Senators Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, and U.S. Representatives Jim Gibbons and Shelley Berkley.

While working full-time overnight at KOZZ-FM, Darby also worked as a paid instructor for the Sierra Nevada Chapter of the American Red Cross. He taught workplace CPR and first aid courses, earning him both the Clara Barton Medallion for Volunteerism and the Spirit of Excellence Award.

He left both positions in 2002 in order to complete his doctorate in Theology from Global University in Springfield, Missouri.

In 2005, Darby was hired as a reporter for the Daily Sparks Tribune. His main beat included school board and city council meetings.

However, he excelled at crime reporting, including covering the attempted assassination of District Court Judge Chuck Weller, by former pawn shop owner Darren Mack, who was sentenced to prison for murdering his wife, Charla. Darby earned a third place award for Best News Feature Story, Class II from the Nevada Press Association.

While he continued to cover school and council meetings, Darby also wrote articles about local soldiers and Marines, killed in action during Enduring Iraqi Freedom. The series of reports earned Darby three awards including “Outstanding Journalism’ from the Department of Defense and “Media Service Award’ from the Pentagon as well “Outstanding Military Reporting” from the American Forces Information Service.

He also showed a penchant for political reporting, covering the campaign’s of several candidates running for Nevada Governor. While reporting on the ‘big ticket’ stories, Darby didn’t fail to write at length about local political races either.

It was during the contest for Sparks Municipal Court Judge that Darby found himself at odds with the newspaper's editorial board. Following the receipt of a ‘Letter to the Editor,’ where one candidate accused Darby of favoring his opponent, Darby published the letter online, in his personal blog.

This action caused him to be terminated from the newspaper’s employment. Darby was also the subject a series of weblog articles as well as a panel discussion regarding the ethics of reporting for a news organization and personal blogging.

Darby found the loss of his job beneficial as the newspaper industry as a whole found itself in a slump at the time. So he returned to broadcasting, finding a part-time position at Citadel Broadcasting Corporation’s KKOH-AM in Reno.

He published his first book "Growing Up Klamath," a collection of stories from his childhood, in September 2010. In June 2012, Darby published a second book titled, “Final Flight,” the recounting of the search for missing adventurer Steve Fossett.

He remained with KKOH-AM for nearly six and a half years, eventually being laid-off in October 2013, following the stations purchase by Cumulus.