Damon Bryant, vice president of creative services for WDAF-TV-Fox 4 in Kansas City, shifts uncomfortably when an interviewer mentions that he is receiving one of the University of Missouri-Kansas City's most prestigious alumni awards (the "Defying the Odds" Award) in recognition of the many obstacles he has overcome.
"I don't look at it as overcoming obstacles. I was just doing what I was supposed to do," he insists.
"Less is more" may be the mantra of the promotions business, in which Bryant makes his livelihood, but it can't begin to tell the story of Damon Bryant. He may be reluctant to refer to the circumstances of his life as "obstacles," but there is no question that he has traveled a terrain far rougher than most.
Bryant grew up in Kansas City's inner city, near 18th and Brooklyn. In his neighborhood, many junior high and high school kids died, went to jail, or ended up addicted to drugs. As a youth, he preferred to sit quietly in his room holed-up with a book or an artist's pad, making sketches of his high school mascot (Lincoln Preparatory Academy Tigers). He was most assuredly out of step with his environs. But he knew that at an early age.
Domestic relations in his household were rough, with an abusive relationship between his mother and father. When Bryant was in 6th grade, his father went to jail. As the eldest child in a poor family, he became "the man of the house." By age 12, he was working odd jobs to pay for his own clothes and other needs.
At about this time, he had three very important things going for him: his mother's belief in him, the Marching Cobras Drill Team, and his participation in activities at the Boys and Girls Club of Kansas City.
"When I was in junior high school, I took a test that indicated I was gifted in reading and language arts. This inspired my mother, a display analyst for Hallmark Cards at the time, to encourage me to go to college and earn a degree, and to become the first person in my family to do so. She planted the seed," he recalled. "She observed my talent for drawing and encouraged me to become an architect. I was later accepted by KU's architecture school. But my mother could see I was not quite prepared for the rigors of that program. She guided me to Penn Valley Community College first, where I learned the self-disciplined I needed to attend classes regularly."
Bryant also credits his sister, Dana, three years his junior, for frequently standing up for him against bullies and for sharing the belief that he could succeed in college. He did not inherit his father's quick temper, streetwise ways, or penchant for defending his honor in the style of a Golden Glove boxer. "There was some bit of family controversy over my subdued personality. I just wanted to stay in my room and draw," he said.
Bryant always did well in elementary school, perhaps too well. "I would get my work done and start clowning around. Then I would get in trouble," he said. "That's when the teacher started giving me more work to do. I was always reading, reading the hardest book I could find."
When Bryant was in 6th grade, the Boys and Girls Club of Kansas City was "the place to be." He credits being "a club kid" with keeping him involved in worthwhile activities and out of trouble. He believes so strongly in the Boys and Girls Club and the special contributions it makes to at-risk youth that today he sits on the marketing committee and serves as mentor to other "club kids."
"Even while he was a student at UMKC, Damon spent three years participating in a work-study program that brought him full-circle -- returning to Thornberry Boys and Girls Club as a mentor for youth after school and on the weekends," noted David Smith, president of the Boys and Girls Club of Kansas City, who recommended Bryant for the Defying the Odds Award.
Bryant's involvement in one club activity not only kept him on the straight and narrow, it also changed his life. In 8th grade, Bryant joined the Marching Cobras. He remained a member of this acclaimed performance unit until his freshman year at UMKC.
The Marching Cobras, whose indescribably dexterous drum-based performance routines are legendary, is composed of 150 largely inner-city youth from Missouri and Kansas elementary, junior high, and high schools. Motivation is high. Discipline is strict. Members are expected to accept responsibility, hit the mark, and be creative. Good conduct and scholastic achievement are required for membership.
Cobras founder Willie Smith was instrumental in Bryant's life, giving him confidence, making him a leader of the Cobras, and sharing the media spotlight for interviews. The Cobras gave Bryant the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. and other places to stretch his imagination for the promise life might hold for him.
"Exposure to television with the Cobras gave me the idea that I might want to pursue broadcasting," he recalled. "I was doing an interview in West Virginia at the Strawberry Festival parade and thought maybe I'll be a sportscaster. I knew I didn't want to do journalism. I thought that was boring." Bryant enrolled in communications at UMKC where he was buffeted and propelled to success by two very different professors: Carol Koehler, Ph.D., and Pierre Renner, Ph.D.
"Dr. Renner was harsh and demanding, and one of the best professors I ever had," recalled Bryant. "On the first day of class, he was late and he acted like he didn't care. He made me angry. But he also expected the best. He'd say, 'If you want a better grade, do it again; if you want to be the best, you're going to have to deal with people like me in the real world.' He was a dose of reality and he taught me persistence and tenacity."
The other outstanding professor for Bryant was at the opposite extreme, almost motherly in her guidance of her young student. "She was instrumental in getting me an internship in the promotions department at WDAF-TV. I loved it!" he said.
Since his time at UMKC, Bryant's career has taken him from Kansas City, where he began as a producer/director for what is now KSMO TV, to Miami (promotion manager, WTVJ TV) to Detroit (creative services director, WXYZ TV) to Chicago (director of advertising and promotion, WBBM TV) and back again to Kansas City and his current position.
The Lee's Summit home that he shares with Alisa, his wife of 15 years, and their two sons, Blair, 10, and Joshua, 6, is a far cry from the inner city neighborhood of his youth. Blair and Joshua don't experience the struggles their father faced, quietly ensconced in the video games that serve as trademark entertainment of their generation.
Bryant sits in a leadership position now -- for his sons and for other minority youth, he speaks at local schools, the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists' workshops, and at UMKC classes. He takes that role seriously. "I have a terrific job -- the most fun job at any tv station. I am doing something that a lot of minority students never consider because their parents don't know about promotions as a profession," he said. "I like telling kids about lesser known opportunities like promotions. I had to figure it out for myself.
"At WDAF-TV, I am the keeper of the style and the tone. I make sure that Fox 4 looks like Fox 4. I lobbied for the colors and the graphics the station currently uses to identify itself. I enjoy teaching my staff how to be better, more strategic. My style has been described as sophisticated, but edgy," he noted. "I work to help my staff develop their style, to get the best out of them. I expect us to be the best; otherwise, I would be bored. I give them the resources to be the best," he said.
Bryant has given his mother, Dorothy, 62, and his father, Elmer, 60, every reason to be proud. Both will be at the awards dinner to see their son being honored. They will hear others extol their son's accomplishments, including 7 Emmys, 21 Emmy nominations, four Michigan Association of Broadcasters Awards, and a host of others. They will know that the young boy who retreated silently to his room to write and draw has stepped out into the world to make his mark in a way that has remembered and honored his humble beginnings.
