The guest post former abc13 KTRK assistant news director/reporter Don Kobos wrote for my blog was such a hit, he is back at it again!
Make sure to read his post: "The changing world of TV News - why not back to basics?"
This time, Kobos tells us the interesting career path former ESPN, WSB and abc13 KTRK reporter Darren Lyn has taken.
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The Unique Career Path of Reporter
Darren Lyn
How does a Chinese-Jamaican-Canadian-American become a television and radio reporter for a Turkish radio and television network?
Ask Houston resident and international correspondent Darren Lyn.
“I guess you have to have a map of the world to see the many television and radio jobs and stops I’ve made throughout my career,” says 52-year-old Lyn.
These days Lyn lives in Houston with his family but finds himself as a freelance correspondent for Turkish Radio and Television news channel, TRT World, based in Istanbul, as well as a stay-at-home dad, caring for and home schooling his 11-year-old son, Logan.
But how in world did Lyn who was born in Jamaica to Chinese parents who moved to Canada and later to Orlando, Florida earning citizenship in each country find work for a TV network based in Turkey?
Lyn’s unique journey started after accepting a full scholarship to Tulane University, where he was bitten by the reporter bug while writing for the school newspaper and doing an internship at WWL in New Orleans.
“I knew after doing the internship, television reporting was what I wanted to do.”
As a college journalism graduate searching for a chance to be on television, Lyn’s career path made five TV stops—Florida, two Wisconsin stations, and a San Diego station before landing in Houston in 2001 at KTRK, Channel 13.
“KTRK was a wonderful opportunity for me,” says Lyn. It was a major market station that covered news stories all over Texas and the United States. “That’s what I wanted to do.”
But Lyn’s career adventure was just beginning. While covering Hurricane Katrina in 2005, an executive with ESPN called. He was watching his hurricane coverage and offered him a job.
“To work for THE best sports network was an amazing opportunity. I was based out of Houston and covered major sports stories in Texas and the Southwest.”
However, the ESPN position lasted only three years, and he found himself again chasing news stories, this time in Atlanta at WSB-TV.
It was while reporting in Atlanta that his life path changed dramatically.
“My wife Lori, was pregnant with twins, when complications during pregnancy developed and we lost my daughter, Lilly, and my son Logan was born premature only weighing a pound and a half.”
“I left my job to be with my wife and son. It was a no brainer. I became a stay-at-home Dad caring for Logan as he grew.”
Eventually his wife went back to work as a teacher, and today, eleven years later, Lyn remains at home teaching his son and helping him navigate childhood.
“I’m blessed to be at home with him. I am a stay-at-home teacher, and we are all doing well.”
Lyn’s reporting career, however, took a strange twist in 2017, giving him a second shot at a TV news reporting career. It’s all thanks to another hurricane, this time Hurricane Harvey.
Close friend and Texas “news blogger” Mike McGuff called Lyn during Harvey and said, “Darren, a TV network in Turkey is looking for a reporter to file stories about Hurricane Harvey, and I can’t do it because I’m working for another news service. Are you interested?”
It did not take Lyn long to respond. An opportunity to get back into reporting was too good not to consider. But a Turkish network? After discussing it with his wife, he accepted the job.
Lyn filed several reports for TRT World. Since then, the phone never stops ringing. He continues to get calls from TRT and is now one of its regular United States reporters.
“So many important stories originate in Houston and Texas that are of interest to people in Turkey,” says Lyn. “For example, Houston is the leader in the energy industry, aerospace technology, and the medical arena. Add to that the hurricanes, the border issues, and Covid-19, it’s not difficult to understand why TRT World requests stories from me.”
In addition to TRT, Lyn began working in 2022 as an international correspondent for the Anadolu Agency the oldest news organization in Turkey based in the capital city of Ankara.
Lyn finds he has the best of both worlds. He’s a stay-at-home dad helping his son, and he can continue pursuing his passion as a news reporter who covers and tells stories that impact audiences across the globe.
