Tom anchored 13 hours of wall-to-wall live coverage in the NY/NJ market during 9-11 which won the N.J. Associated Press’ station award for best 9-11 coverage. But 9-11 and its aftermath is just one example of the many thousands of hours Tom has been on the set delivering live coverage, interviewing Presidents and Governors, leading election and political coverage and guiding viewers through many hours of breaking news from hostage crisis’ to airplane crashes to natural disasters. As an on-scene reporter, Tom was at Camp O.J., in the Bay Area for the aftermath of the Loma Prieta earthquake, in the East Bay for the Oakland Hills fire, and at the scene of thousands of top stories and events in the markets where he worked as a street reporter covering crime, courts, the environment, state and local government, social issues and breaking news.
Layson is the past president of the New Jersey Associated Press Broadcaster’s Association, a prodigious winner of journalistic awards and recognition including an Emmy for KBTC’s Northwest Now, and is a recognized thought leader in public affairs having served a columnist for local newspapers, a commentator on local talk shows, a current media analyst for CBS radio, and a consultant who teaches the effective marriage of shooting, writing and editing to those working as one-man content creators.
When Northwest Now is in hiatus during the summer months, Tom shoots, writes and edits special projects which have their own page on the station’s website at http://www.kbtc.org/northwest-now/nwn-special-projects/
Readers of this website might find Tom’s interview with Northwest radio legend Pat O’Day particularly interesting. The show is in season nine of the Northwest Now drop down menu on the http:www.kbtc.org website, or you can just link to it on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8fapsRw540
In addition, for the sake of the historical record on this website, Tom hosted the Friday and Saturday late night Jazz Mosaic program on KPLU 88.5 from December of 1980 to the spring of 1984. Tom is the answer to a radio trivia question having (according to KPLU’s engineering staff at the time) played first CD to air in the Seattle/Tacoma market. His nightmares of not having a record cued-up finally stopped in the 2000’s.
Tom grew up in Maple Valley and is a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University, currently residing in the Puyallup area and you can follow him on Twitter (@TomLayson) and Facebook (Tom Layson).
To learn a little more about KBTC and the station’s mission, you can watch this nicely done “who we are” video produced by former PLU intern Joshua Wiersma: https://youtu.be/F1ypg3rx13g
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