Dave Martinson

Dave Martinson was first introduced to the broadcast world in 2006. He was modeling for Columbia Ski Wear on a morning show in Portland. This is where he first saw behind the scenes of the newsroom. “I saw that it wasn’t a big room and that it could be easy to do,” Martinson said.

After this experience Martinson began college as a communication major. He switched, however, to political science with the intention of becoming an attorney, but later realized this was not the path for him.

He felt that being an attorney did not match his strengths as well as being on TV did. “With political science you become versed and are able to regurgitate information,” said Martinson. This didn’t appeal to him. So, after three years as a declared political science major, he switched back to communication.

Since his calendar year didn’t require an internship, he didn’t do one. “Do as I say, not as I do…I highly recommend an internship, especially if in TV so you know what it’s like. You need to prepare yourself,” said Martinson.

If news isn’t your interest, Martinson still highly stresses the importance of doing an internship in a field that does interest you. He says that he wished he would of had a feel for what the professional environment was like before he graduated. “Do multiple internships!” Martinson said.

Martinson was part of iNews, BYU-Idaho’s digital news program, where he won the Newel K. Whitney award honoring him for his academic performance. He was the president of the French Association at BYU-I and worked as an event coordinator. He was very involved and busy during his time at BYU-Idaho.

One of the classes that influenced him the most was Interpersonal Communication with Brother Eric Embree. “Listening is a struggle for me,” Martinson said, “But Brother Embree taught me a lot about listening and body language-both of which have helped me immensely in my career.”

Upon graduation Martinson began work at an explosive manufacturing plant where he was the French representative who dealt with mining and raw materials. From there, he went to work at a marketing firm in Scottsdale, Arizona. He remembers pondering as he looked out the window of this Scottsdale office, “Do I have the chops to make it in TV?” So although it wasn’t his intent to be on TV when he first graduated, it was something that was on his mind.

TV came naturally to Martinson. He had done a demo reel that showcased his television talents when he was in iNews. A news director went into Costco one day in Pocatello where a friend of Martinson’s was working. Conversation between these two men led to Martinson landing a job with Channel 6 in Pocatello.

Martinson was in charge of starting up a weekend show for the station, and for the first six months at Channel 6 this is what he did. He produced the entire weekend show. He would start the day at 9 p.m. in the morning. He would shoot and edit stories until around 5 p.m. then he would begin pulling national stories. At 10 p.m. the show would air.

Martinson would time the show down to the second using a clock on the desk. He didn’t have anyone to help guide and direct the timing of the show. “It wasn’t an easy task,” said Martinson but he did it every Saturday and Sunday for six months.

Now, Martinson works Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 2-10 p.m. Saturday is a come-and-go sort of day. He doesn’t need to time the show manually anymore. His days are filled with making phone calls, setting up interviews, and running around looking for stories.

Martinson wants people to know that there are jobs for communication majors.  He had been told that there were no jobs, but he stresses that there are. “Ignore how journalism is just a dead end because somebody is filling these spots, and that can be a BYU-Idaho student,” Martinson said.