B+C Station Awards: ‘Heartbeat’ of KTRK Goes the Extra Mile for Staffers

Julie Griffin has spent her professional life at KTRK Houston, staying on past her initial internship with the consumer reporter by about 21 years and rising to senior manager and managing editor. “The very heartbeat of our newsroom,” Wendy Granato, president and GM of KTRK, said of the La Marque, Texas, native and University of Houston graduate. 

Griffin, 2022’s B+C Station Awards Unsung Hero honoree, had a viral moment in 2017 when she caught a call in the newsroom that turned out to be a woman driving the pursued car in a 40-minute high-speed highway chase. Griffin advised the driver to pull over and surrender. (The driver did.)

More typically, Griffin’s actions are behind the scenes, as she juggles story-resource assets “on a minute-by-minute basis,” as Granato put it, along with supporting dozens of people at the station through hardships like the pandemic and deaths in the family. She earned kudos for helping colleagues after the deaths of four current or recent employees in just over two years, most recently this past October (editor Lewanda Sullivan). 

“Quite simply, she cares — about our people, our community, our audiences in a way that can’t be mandated or forced,” Granato said. “She is authentic and real, with a heart of service and humility. Julie Griffin represents the very best of local journalism and we are blessed to have her on our team.”

Griffin is right where she belongs at ABC13. “I tell people when they’re first starting out, you’re gonna have to love this job to do it or else it’ll eat you alive,” she said. “And I still love doing what I do every day. I think that’s the only way you can survive.”  ■