Introduced by Terry Merlo, Lynn Diehl worked most of her working life as a TV reporter/anchor person in San Luis Obispo and Sacramento County 's.  She is a member of the SLO Monday noon Club.  She is involved in many non profit fund raising projects and has a new enterprise she shared with us.

 

Ms. Diehl thought that we might want to know why she is not in the news business anymore.  When she was young, growing up in West Virginia , her father and grand father, both teachers, listened to the news programs on the radio and TV; and, read newspapers from cover to cover.  She enjoined the same habit and learned to read at an early age. 

 

She was a political science major and was selected by a local TV station out of more than 50 applicants and started her career in the TV news business.  She asked her boss how to determine which news items to air and he said it's a gut feeling; whatever makes you feel it's a good news story, will also be felt by the viewers.  She was the anchor woman at the local station, KSBY and when she left she was also the managing editor.  She left here and became an anchor woman for a local TV station in Sacramento and spent almost ten years there.  She lived in Sacramento five days a week, commuting back to her home in Shell Beach on the weekends. 

 

She said that with the internet and cable news, the news business has made a big change, going from what would appeal to local people, good stories, to more just reporting the day's tragic events.  The way we perceive and receive news has changed.  Continual reporting of tragedies day after day at the expense of news with local flavor became discouraging so she decided to get out of the business.  "I just didn't want to do it anymore," she said.

 

"So now what do I do?" she asked herself.  Through friends, she got a job at a winery in the tasting room and fell in love with the work and the industry.  She liked the agriculture and marketing part of the business and decided that she could help wineries and the industry to tell their story on a personal basis and not just strictly using an advertising approach.

 

She now has a program on KSBY, Wine Region Weekend, where she and friends explore the exciting wines of the region.  The program will focus on wine makers, chefs and trend setters and explore all the Central Coast has to offer.  She wants the world to know, especially tourists, about our wineries and other special events in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara County 's.

 

Lynn believes she has gone full circle from working on local stories to once again emphasizing local stories and sharing them with the world.  Lynn is a Paul Harris Fellow, proud of it and happy to be a part of RI worldwide effort to improve the lives of people.