By John Kiesewetter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Fifteen minutes before his live report from Covington Police headquarters, Frank Graff pulls out a small plastic comb and runs it over the top of his balding head.

"I think with my unique haircut, I'm kind of the Every Man reporter," says Frank Graff. (Tony Jones photo) | ZOOM |

"Yeah, I humor myself," Graff says.

The lead 11 p.m. reporter on Cincinnati's leading news station, WKRC-TV, may not have the handsome good looks of the typical TV personality. Nearly every other TV reporter in town has more hair - but few can tell a TV story better.

"How do I put it? I'm a reporter who just happens to do his shtick on TV. I love to report, and love to tell stories," says Graff, 43, who won a national Emmy Award last year for his coverage of the 2001 spring riots.

His insatiable curiosity and thorough reporting skills - combined with his distinctive look - make the 20-year TV veteran a victory of substance over style.

"I think with my unique haircut, I'm kind of the Every Man reporter," says Graff, completing his sixth year at Channel 12. "Hopefully, it's my personality and my skill on TV, but people feel comfortable talking to me. I'm getting people on the air who normally wouldn't go on TV... because I'm just a regular (looking) guy."

Just last month, the mother of 13-year-old Tiffany Farmer, the teen found murdered in a Covington apartment, was so impressed with Graff's story that she drove to the police station to thank him as the 5 p.m. newscast ended. Graff's exclusive interview with the dead girl's mother led the 11 p.m. news that night.

"She said, 'I liked your story. You were fair,' " Graff recalls.

GRAFF FILE

• Born: April 11, 1960, in Toledo. • Family: Wife, Gail Svensson, a former Baltimore TV news producer and a Forest Hills Schools substitute teacher; daughter Catherine, 6; son Roberto, 3. • Education: Bachelor's degree, Ohio University, 1982; master's in political science, OU, 1983. • TV: CNN video journalist (1982); morning anchor and reporter, WAGM-TV, Presque Isle, Maine (1983-85); weekend anchor and reporter, WBOY-TV, Clarksburg, W.Va. (1985-86); reporter, WSET-TV, Lynchburg, Va. (1986-87); reporter, WAVY-TV, Norfolk, Va. (1987-89); legislative reporter and Annapolis bureau chief, WBAL-TV, Baltimore, (1989-1997); general assignment reporter, WKRC-TV (since 1997).

As the night-shift general assignment reporter, Graff has one of the toughest jobs on TV. He starts his day with a 2:30 p.m. news staff meeting to determine his 11 p.m. assignment - usually a spot news follow or a scheduled event - to lead the newscast. He has only a couple of hours to reach officials or other potential sources before they head home from work.

"It's a struggle, because if you're doing hard news, a lot of the people you want to get (for an interview) go home by 5 p.m.," says Brian Mesmer, a Channel 12 photographer frequently paired with Graff. "A lot of time you end up talking to real people, the ones that the story actually affects."

After setting up the interviews, Graff and a photographer head out to shoot the story. He's back in the office by 8:30 p.m., where he looks over the video, selects the quotes he likes, and writes the story. Then the photographer assembles the final videotaped "package" that Graff introduces - usually standing outside a building somewhere - for the 11 p.m. news.

"In all of TV news, you've got a pretty short window to get things done," Graff says. "You're hustling from the moment you get out of the meeting. You've got to make the calls and contacts. You've got to hope the video works, that the equipment works, that you can get shots you need."

Vast experience

Having an old pro like Graff as one of two late-night reporters provides a high comfort level in the Channel 12 newsroom, which has produced the Tristate's top-rated newscasts for nearly four years.

It also helps that Channel 12's Every Man has literally done everything - anchor, assign, report, shoot video, edit and produce - sometimes all at once in small Maine and West Virginia stations.

FAVORITES STORIES

Frank Graff's favorite stories: •Vatican exclusive: Before then Baltimore Archbishop William Keeler left to visit Pope John Paul II in 1994 to talk to him about a possible Maryland visit, Graff told the bishop his station, WBAL-TV, would like to cover their meeting. Once in Rome, Keeler called and told Graff to meet him in five days in Vatican Square, and he'd get an exclusive interview with the Holy Father. And he did. • From Bagdad: During the Iraq war, Graff reported from Bagdad - the tiny mill town of Bagdad, Ky., about 10 miles northwest of Frankfort. Residents told him the town was named because the owner napped while his son filled the mill's bags. "As the bag was getting full, the son would yell to the dad, "Bag! Dad!" At least that's how the local legend goes." • Tornado story: After the 1999 Blue Ash tornado, Graff saw the contents of a damaged house being gathered and boxed up by students who said they didn't know the owner. He drove by the house daily until he finally saw "this woman walking around looking at all these boxes - and we did a wonderful piece on her." • Falwell scoop: Graff broke the story on WSET-TV in Lynchburg, Va., in 1987 that the Rev. Jerry Falwell was taking over the PTL Network from troubled evangelist Jim Bakker in 1987. "For some reason, Falwell really liked me, and we hit it off. Falwell called me from a plane and said, 'I'm taking over the PTL.' " • Koppel's tip: Ted Koppel's daughter, Andrea, gave Graff the biggest tip of his life - suggesting he should meet Baltimore TV news producer Gail Svensson, whom he married in 1993. Koppel and Graff were making small talk about relationships while covering a Baltimore chemical spill for competing stations in 1990 when Koppel said Graff should meet her boss. When they later met, "we hit it off, closed the bar that night, and we've been together ever since."

"I know what everyone in the newsroom does, and appreciate what they do, and their limitations," says Graff, who started as a CNN summer "video journalist" (writer-cameraman) after graduating from Ohio University in 1982.

"When Frank is on the story, you know you are going to get the real story, fair to all parties involved and complete," says Rob Braun, who co-anchors the weekday 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. news with Kit Andrews.

"Frank asks all the questions viewers would ask themselves, and tells it in a manner that is comfortable and easy to watch."

Says Elbert Tucker, Channel 12 news director: "I've seen him report under a lot of different conditions, and you always get the same compelling, concise report. He's very even-keeled. I've never seem him get upset."

"He's just a solid reporter, in this age of pretty boys and news readers," says Chris Sehring, Channel 12 general manager.

On a recent story about Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center treating a London teenager with a rare liver condition, Graff introduced the story by biting a cookie - to demonstrate how the girl's body couldn't process food.

"When I tell a story, I try to give you a sense of the people who are involved, and what they went through," Graff says. "If I don't do the who, what, where, when, why and how, then I haven't done my job. But what TV can do better than anybody is give you a sense of what it was like to be there."

Says reporter Jeff Hirsh, a Channel 12 colleague: "Frank can take something on the surface very boring or complicated, and make it understandable and entertaining. That's not a skill everyone has."

While covering a Westwood house fire, he heard a Cincinnati firefighter make an off-hand remark about the family's son. He pursued it and learned that a grade-school boy, who recently had fire safety training at school, urged everyone to flee the burning building.

"I think I have a gift of keeping my eyes and ears open, and I find things," Graff says.

When he finished an interview about the effectiveness of antibiotics last year, a doctor told him about some kids who didn't realize the danger of feeding a rabid bat, says Jim Feuer, Children's Hospital Medical Center spokesman.

"I don't think the antibiotic resistance story ever ran, but the bat story was the lead at 11," Feuer says.

As a general assignment reporter, each day is something new for Graff.

"The freedom is wonderful. You get to learn something new every day," Graff says. "The challenge is coming up with something new every day - and it's not easy sometimes."

But he's not complaining. Graff and his wife, Gail, a former TV news producer, moved from Baltimore to Cincinnati in 1997 when they started a family. They wanted to raise their infant daughter away from Baltimore's high crime rate.

Although Graff is never home for dinner with his family, his schedule allows him to spend mornings with his wife and 3-year-old son, and to volunteer at his daughter's first-grade class in Anderson Township.

"We were looking for a better quality of life, a slower pace, and a more family-oriented city," Graff says.

During his eight years at Baltimore's WBAL-TV, he was able to pursue all three of his passions - science (traveling to Florida for a shuttle launch), politics (covering the state legislature) and religion (interviewing Pope John Paul II in the Vatican before his 1995 trip to Baltimore). Graff, a devout Catholic, still wears the crucifix blessed by the pope that day.

Lucky in life

"We've been very blessed in this business," says Graff, who made a cameo appearance as a TV reporter on NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street, which was shot in Baltimore. "You get to meet people, and see things that a lot of people don't. I guess that's why we stay in the business."

And that's why Graff prefers to be in the field, instead of behind an anchor desk.

"Would I like to get into anchoring again? Probably. But I really enjoy reporting and getting to meet people," he says. "Right now, I like the job, and I like being a dad. And so life is good."

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com