Ted Simons: 15 Year Anniversary

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The host of Arizona Horizon, Ted Simons, is celebrating his 15th anniversary being part of the show.

“I had always loved Horizon,” said Simons. “A distant dream was ‘If Michael Grand ever leaves Horizon that would be something I would like to do.'”

Before Horizon

Prior to Horizon, Simons was working as a talk show host and news anchor at KTAR. When Michael Grant was leaving Horizon, the show’s Executive Producer Mike Sauceda, mentioned the job offer to Simons. After a couple run throughs it all worked out pretty well.

“I would describe Arizona Horizon a program that speaks in paragraphs as opposed to sentences,” said Simons. “We take issues and we flesh them out.”

Simons’ Studies

Simons describes always being into Journalism when growing up. However, that was not exactly the studies he followed in college. Simons is a Political Science Graduate from Arizona State University. “Before the Cronkite School, I used to tell students all the time that the best way to get into Journalism was to not necessarily to go to Journalism school,” said Simons “It was to go to English, Sociology, Political Science, or History. Because that teaches you how to learn, how to read and to write and to think. And those things will help you no matter what job you get into.”

Interviews

When preparing for interviews, Simons prepares by doing as much research as possible on the topic. “I’m looking for a foundation for the interviews. So when I do research before the interviews I need that foundation to make sure that we go on the right directions,” said Simons.

Simons describes the best interviews as being the ones with the best guests. But, what exactly is a good guest? “A good guest is someone who listens to the question, who not only answers the question but adds to the answer, and makes it conversational,” said Simons.

During his time at Horizon, some of Simons’ most remarkable interviews have been Al Franken, Jimmy Carter and Ken Burns.

Moving Forward

Simons expresses happiness and fulfillment with his work and is looking forward to all that’s yet to come. “I’m proud that I have been able to keep the legacy of Horizon going on,” said Simons. “We’re still doing what Horizon has always done and I hope that we continue to do so,” said Simons.

Ted Simons, Arizona Horizon Host

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