Life After TV: Julie Daniels

Julie Daniels has worked in media most of her professional career, from radio to tv and now media relations.

Daniels says although she started her journey in radio she knew from a young age reporting weather was somewhere in her path.

“You know I did not ever imagine that, but it was one of those things, one of those goals that I thought 'Hey that would really be awesome. I would love to do that and when we would study the weather in science I thought this was great this is exciting I want to know more', so I might say hey, pay more attention to the weather and learn as much as you can, because one day you’re going to do that on tv", says Daniels.

After being a radio personality for years Daniels decided to make a move to the TV screen..

She says she had a lot of help from mentors like Gary Pickens and Tom Britt while making that transition.

Daniels added, “I asked him about is it possible for me to, what do I need to do to do the weather. I would like to be able to do that. So, he was very helpful and very beneficial. And brought me over there, took me under his wing, showed me a lot of things and they actually hired me to do weekend weather so.”

Daniels did weekend weather for about 4 years throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s.

After she left the TV screen she started her own business of graphic design services for 10 years, but after a decade she longed to be back on a team.

“I thought, you know I really want to work somewhere, where I am apart of a group or a team, where is a great place to work? And I thought the chamber, so that’s where I am now, Jackson Chamber", she says.

She is now the communications coordinator for the Jackson Chamber of Commerce. And although Daniels is not reporting weather anymore she shared a few stories that she will always remember.

Daniels explains, “I had a little Shih-Tzu that I would bring with me maybe a couple of times to the station, because I had been told hey if you want to bring her, that’s fine. So, she was actually sitting under the desk, under my feet and she was always a good dog, I was talking about the weather and talking about what was going on with the tornado and with the storm and all of a sudden we had this big huge boom of thunder. Not only did it scare me, but you could hear the dog bark, you know she barked, so I was like ‘oh crap’.”

Make sure to tune in this month to see how your favorite west Tennessee TV faces are doing after they left the television screen.

For 39 News.. I'm Imani Williams.