John Boel was an award-winning reporter and news anchor at Louisville’s WLKY-TV for 22 years. But in 2010, he was fired after receiving a second DUI when he blew a blood alcohol level more than double the legal limit.
“I lost a lot when I tried to drive home that day,” Boel writes in his new book, “On the News, In the News.” “I lost a job that I adored and poured myself into for 22 years. I lost a work family that I spent more hours with each day than my own family. I lost my freedom for a while. I lost the ability to drive for a year. I lost the respect I worked decades to build.”
Boel’s book is a collection of personal essays that he started writing more than 15 years ago. The first section, “On the News,” offers an insider’s look at some of the news stories Boel covered over more than two decades. He writes about house fires, murders, car wrecks, child abuse, pedophilia stings, homelessness, and the 1989 Standard Gravure shooting, in which eight people died.
“The most compelling interview I’ve done was with Mike Campbell, one of the survivors of the Standard Gravure massacre,” says Boel. “I bet he told me the story five different times and I was riveted every time.”
Boel abruptly shifts gears in the second half of the book, “In the News,” which starts shortly after his second DUI arrest. An intense and personal mea culpa, the essays chronicle his month in rehab, trips to the unemployment office, home incarceration, and his ongoing commitment to sobriety.
Boel writes of his peers in rehab: “They think I’m a self-absorbed, bragging blowhard who’s judgmental, superficial and doesn’t care about anyone else. I’m shocked. Then I realize they nailed it.”
Now sober more than a year, Boel is committed to recovery and personal growth. A comment during a recovery meeting helped him find his way out of a suicidal depression. He realized that while being a public figure sharpened his humiliation, it also positioned him to help others by telling his story. That’s when Boel decided to finish his book.
“Reaction has been incredible,” says Boel. “Almost nightly, I find myself on Facebook or regular email or the phone, sharing with people who’ve just read it. I didn’t anticipate the book would speak to so many people in so many different ways.”
A lot has changed for Boel since that day he was pulled over – that day when he suddenly learned how it felt to be on the other side of the daily news. In January, he started a new job on WAVE’s Sunrise, a morning news program.
“I’ll continue to go to at least three meetings a week, and do all the things my sponsor and others tell me,” he says. “But I think I’ll do a better job of seeing things from the other side of the fence ... and I think I’ll do a better job of listening to others instead of jumping to conclusions like the know-it-all I used to be.”
“On the News, In the News” is published by Butler Books. It is available at www.butlerbooks.com, as well as Carmichael’s and Barnes & Noble bookstores.
Susan E. Lindsey is a freelance writer, a professional book editor and publicist. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.