Justin Pazera left 'ABC 15 Mornings' in Phoenix — and the reaction from viewers shocked him
Sometimes when local anchors leave a station there’s a lot of celebration around the departure — a big send-off, on-air goodbyes, that kind of thing.
And sometimes there’s not.
When Justin Pazera, co-anchor of “ABC 15 Mornings” in Phoenix, signed off at the end of June, he went the latter route.
“That's not really my personality — I didn't want anything, no two-week fanfare, one-week fanfare,” he said. “I guess I'm not that kind of a person. … I just wanted it as low key as possible.”
Although his colleagues did give him a small, on-air send-off with a video, and came out to wish him well. That actually surprised him. Pazera didn’t want a big send-off for a simple reason.
“I didn’t think people would really care,” he said.
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Viewer reaction to his exit from ABC 15 surprised Pazera
He laughed a little when he said it, but it’s clear in talking with Pazera that he is humble about himself and his job.
And, of course, it turns out people did care.
“That was one thing that I was surprised about, was the reaction from the viewers,” Pazera said. “Like I had so many people reaching out saying that they watched, and that they woke up every morning, you know, and then that's how they started their day.”
It sounds like a stop-and-smell-the-roses moment for Pazera, a genuine one.
“You go through your day, and you're just working, and it kind of just becomes a job, and you don't realize the amount of people that you're actually talking to,” he said. “So, that was pretty cool to hear.”
Of course, how Pazera left isn’t as crucial a question as why. He’d been with the station for nearly 10 years, after all.
Why Justin Pazera left 'ABC 15 Mornings'
Once again, it’s pretty simple: “I just think that it was time.”
Yeah, yeah, people say that all the time. Pazera knows that.
“I guess I've always heard that thing before,” he said. “And this was the first time that I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh, I get it.’”
Pazera’s contract was set to expire, so it gave him some flexibility.
“I will be 44 this year,” he said. “And I just thought I needed to explore other options. I've never really been able to look for a job in quite some time, because I've always been under a contract. And so I just thought, at this point in my life, this would be a good time to just not renew, and to look at other options. What else is out there?"
Quite a bit, evidently.
“I'm open to anything,” Pazera said. “I'm looking everywhere. I've had several interviews talking to several different people. But I just think that, you know, I want to find what's right. I want it to be a good fit.”
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Pazera isn't likely to leave journalism
"It's a tough business,” Pazera said. “I mean, it's, it's definitely changing. But I think going through the pandemic, and just how divided everything is right now, I do think that this job is incredibly important."
This wasn’t a blithely arrived-at decision. Pazera thought about it for a year or more, he said. He got married last year, “so my life is just different.” He also knows that there is risk involved.
“But I think sometimes when the really amazing thing happens is when you step out and take that risk,” Pazera said. “If I never take a risk, then I don't know. … It's a little scary, I'm not gonna lie. But I think in the long run, I will be happy.”
Just because he’s leaving ABC 15 doesn’t mean Pazera is getting out of journalism.
“I love the industry,” he said. “It's something that, I mean, this is my 20th year of of doing it, so I do love it ... I still think the business, it's an amazing business. It's an amazing job. You know, I've got to do some really cool things across the country (and) here in Arizona that nobody else has gotten to do.”
Pazera’s exit is also notable because he is one of the few openly gay TV anchors in the Valley. Again, while inclusion is important to him, it’s not something he’s made a big deal of — and neither have viewers, even in a time when tolerance is not at its height.
Being an openly gay anchor wasn't an issue for Pazera
“That was never an issue,” Pazera said. “I never got any (complaint) out of all the emails that I have ever gotten over the years. For as divided as the country seems, I never got a complaint about it.
“I got married and the station like, you know, did a story on it. I did not get one email that said, ‘I'm turning the channel.’”
This fits in with Pazera’s approach, seemingly, to how he does his job and lives his life.
“The fact that I'm married, you know, I mean, it's great,” he said. “Or the fact that I'm gay. Like, there's a whole lot of other aspects of me other than just that.
“And so I think that that's probably what people, the viewers, maybe picked up on, is that there's a whole lot of other other interesting things about me than just that. That was never just my one thing that I just needed you to know that I'm gay. There's like a whole lot of other things, you know, that that make up, Justin.”
Nearly a month after leaving ABC 15, Pazera said he has no regrets.
“I have to say like, there there is a sense of relief,” he said. “There's a sense of, oh my God, but then there's also a sense of like, this is gonna be good.”
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why anchor Justin Pazera left ABC 15 in Phoenix and what's next
