BYU-Idaho alumnus teleprompts his way to the top
- posted: 03 July 2007
- scrollnews@byui.edu
When Brad Hudson put in his resignation after 15 years as a news anchor for KIDK Channel 3 in Idaho Falls, a BYU-Idaho graduate stepped behind the news desk. Nate Eaton took his place as the main anchor on the weekly news at 6 and 10 p.m.
Eaton, of West Jordan, Utah, graduated from BYU-I in December of 2005 and started reporting for KIDK in January of 2006, covering the Upper Valley, from Rigby to St. Anthony.
June 29, when Hudson resigned to go work at a public relations firm, Eaton was appointed as the news anchor at least until the beginning of September, said Terry Miller, KIDK news director.
“[Eaton] quickly grasped what needs to be done in the real world as opposed to college,” Miller said. “There are go-to people, and there are the rest. Nate is a go-to person.”
Eaton’s dream of becoming a reporter started when he met a reporter in the Salt Lake City Airport when he was 11 years old.
“I was fascinated,” Eaton said. “I couldn’t have imagined doing anything else.”
As the news anchor, he gave the station only one request: to allow him to continue reporting in the field.
Like Eaton, many college graduates go straight into broadcast journalism. However, Miller said that it is rare to have someone as young as Eaton become a news anchor.
Eaton had been assigned stories throughout the state, which are generally the most difficult news assignments, Miller said. Once the station sent him to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to try and sneak across the Canadian border. He was successful.
Eaton still maintains contact with professors here at BYU-I. Brian Howard, a professor in the Communications Department, said that he talks to Eaton a couple of times per month.
“A lot of reporters are ego-driven. Nate isn’t,” Howard said.
In fact, Eaton attributes much of his success to his experience at BYU-I.
“My education was very hands-on. I learned how to shoot, write and edit all of my own footage,” Eaton said. “I do a lot of stories on BYU-I. Those are my favorite.”
Eaton thought about going to BYU in Provo for school but decided against it. “You don’t get to report as much [at BYU]. Here I got to do a story every week,” Eaton said.
His BYU-I experience also included an internship with a CBS affiliate at KUTV Salt Lake City. He compiled 100 tapes of his work during this internship and sent them off to 100 stations throughout the nation, but focused mainly on the three local stations in Idaho Falls.
“I wanted to stay local because I like the area and could stay close to my friends,” Eaton said.
Although Eaton is happy to be here in Eastern Idaho, his ultimate goal is to work up to a bigger station.
“Most graduates stay at their first station for about two years and then move on,” Howard said. “It would be nice to have a couple of big-name grads work at CNN or something like that.”
Eaton said that students who want to go into broadcasting should be good writers and should know how to tell a story with pictures.
Although he is living his childhood dream as news anchor, it comes with its share of hate mail. “That just comes with the territory, though,” Eaton said. 
