NEW ORLEANS — Sheba Turk started near the bottom rung of the WWL newsroom. A part-time writer just out of college, looking to make a mark or pick up skills.
There have been hundreds of part timers since I started working at WWL-TV 40 years ago. Heck, I was one of them.
You can normally tell who has the drive to move on in the journalism profession. It isn’t easy. The pay isn’t as high as you can get in other fields and not everyone has time to help bring the younger people along.
Sheba was always different. She planted herself in the editing booth, sitting with photographers and reporters, watching what they did and asking questions. She was always personable, and you could see the talent.
However, someone being engaging in person and someone being so on camera are two totally different things. Sheba could do both.
You can quickly tell who has “it.”
Sheba's final goodbye.
"It" is an ease in front of the camera, making the audience feel like you’re talking with them and not to them. All good reporters do one or the other but the best – the difference makers – do the first. Sheba had "it" from the start.
Sheba was a home-grown talent. She just as easily could have ended up at any station in town, but she ended up here and her rise through the ranks was meteoric.
She went from part time writer to traffic reporter in no time – then to morning show reporter and then morning show anchor. If she were a stock, she’d have been Amazon. She moved up the ranks so fast, that before some had time to ask, as New Orleanians do, “who is this new girl?” she was co-anchoring with Eric and Sally-Ann.
Soon she was also hosting her own talk show – the 504. She picked it up from the previous anchor and totally revamped it into something New Orleans had been missing – a showcase for local talent of all kinds – chefs, musicians, authors, entrepreneurs, singers and actors – many of them young and African-American. She gave them representation and a forum and she worked her ‘you-know-what’ off. Sheba would get in at 4 a.m., anchor for four hours and then begin her second job as anchor and executive producer of the 504. Along with fellow producer Caegan Moore, she booked guests, planned segments and hosted the show, all the while also embracing a huge social media presence.
Sheba will tell you, as she did in her book, that she had times of self-doubt, especially after returning home from college in New York. She was a combination, as most of us are, of many things – at once she was confident, yet somewhat doubtful; enthusiastic, yet inwardly cautious; ambitious, yet emotionally and spiritually tied to her hometown and family.
And her journey in New Orleans TV didn’t come without its own trials. Not wanting to make waves, Sheba said she initially wore her hair in the “traditional,” straightened TV style. At some point, she gained the confidence to be herself, to show everyone that Black hair was beautiful in all forms. She said she felt an obligation to young women of color to show that they were beautiful no matter how they chose to wear their hair and that they didn’t need to change it to accommodate anyone’s view of what looks “good.”
As a father of three young adult daughters myself, I know how hard it can be for them to find themselves and to make mistakes, and deal with failures and victories along the way. Now, imagine having to do it all the while being critiqued by an audience of tens of thousands, all with the ability to throw barbs your way anonymously and the weight of having to do so while serving as a role model and realizing that how you respond could change things in a moment.
The fact that Sheba had to negotiate life as a young woman, unsure of exactly where she was going, all in the judgmental eye of the public, seemed more than a bit unfair. The fact that she dealt with it with a smile, positivity and by always responding in a manner seeking to teach and empower rather “get even,” was nothing short of amazing.
She went from a young woman full of doubts to a successful writer, reporter, anchor, host, author, public speaker and ambassador in front of our eyes. It seems, though impossible, that she’s simultaneously been a part of the local TV scene for a long time and that she’s leaving so quickly.
Sheba has always lauded and involved her co-workers. She had Mike Hoss dancing, Eric Paulsen wearing a wig, and Payton Malone being her foil for any comic and theatrical idea that she had – and she had hundreds.
If I had to define Sheba, I would say she’s someone who wants to achieve goals, help the public and keep them informed, all while having a good time. Most importantly though, she wants everyone else to share in the good time as well. Life’s too short to only deal in negativity.
Sheba can and has handled the hard news stories and tough interviews, and she’ll be tasked with doing so in Los Angeles, but she seems to want to make sure you also remember to enjoy life along the way.
I have little doubt that Sheba’s career arc will continue to rise. She said she’s never had an agent and never actively sought another job until recent years. In a recent NOLA.com article, she said that when she started seriously contemplating moving on from New Orleans, she only wanted to consider New York or Los Angeles – the nation’s two biggest television markets whose sheer size allows more opportunity and access to national and international news and entertainment. In her mind, no other market offered anything close to her hometown New Orleans.
Next week, she’s heading to L.A. to almost start from scratch, as a weekend anchor at KCAL-TV in a very large market where she will largely be an unknown.
The sky is the limit for Sheba Turk. Most of those I’ve written about have taken their leave of the journalism profession after long and distinguished careers. Sheba’s is just beginning.
I’ve seen Sheba from the start – as a quiet (er) journalist-in-the making, trying to find her way. She’s always welcoming. Always inclusive, always looking to learn and hone her skills, always wanting to have fun and to make sure everyone else has fun too. But, as she’s often said, hopefully, you learn something too. If the message is as positive as it can be, and sometimes fun, people will stay around. If it’s constantly negative, the opposite is likely to happen.
Sheba wants you to stay around, enjoy yourself, and learn some things along the way. It’s not a bad motto for anyone, in any profession.