Local News Journalist Moves To Anchor Position In North Dakota

CRI's Molly Thorvilson seen here interviewing firefighters before their recent trip to Joplin (photo D.Hubbard)

Oskaloosa, Iowa- Soon, the face of Oskaloosa and CRI will be changing. Molly Thorvilson, a producer and anchor for CRI will be taking over her new position at WDAZ News in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Over the last few months, we at Osky News have gotten to know Molly as one of the few people to measure yourself against. She sat down with us to tell about her new job, and the time she has spent in Oskaloosa.

Plymouth, Minnesota is Molly’s home town, and it was there that she knew she was destined to be a journalist. Her interest in the field of journalism goes back to her elementary days, with one day in particular that stands out. They had a Kids College Day at school, “Some professionals from the Minneapolis area came in, some sports anchors and reporters and I took those classes at Kids College cause I knew I wanted to do that some day.”

Throughout her school years the journalism bug stayed with her. She could be found doing school announcements from 5th grade on into high school, where she would also be found doing some PSA’s (public service announcements) and sports commentaries.

In college, at The University of Iowa, Molly became involved with Daily Iowa TV. By the age of 19 she was reporting for KGAN/KFXA, a CBS affiliate in Cedar Rapids. Molly hadn’t quit school, not at all, she was working full time as well as attending school full time.

From there Europe called. Molly packed up and headed for London where she interned for CNBC. After graduation, her first full time job offer landed her at CRI in Oskaloosa.

Molly Thorvilson (background running camera) has been on hand for many important community events over the past year.

Since coming to Oskaloosa, there are a few things that stick out in Molly’s mind. The floods of last year being one of those. Molly explained, “That was the first time I got to work and somebody said major flooding down in this area out side of town and I grabbed my camera and went out the door, in like 2 seconds. That’s kind of what I live for, the adrenaline of breaking news.”

Along with that story, her research led her into finding out “that Oskaloosa wasn’t part of the National Flood Insurance Program and I brought that to the attention of the city council.” Having such a positive impact in the community, that she is a part of, and being able to help and inform others with her work gives her the satisfaction that she’s doing her job.

“The people that I’ve met” will be one of those things Molly misses most about Oskaloosa. “Almost everybody that I’ve met have been extremely nice and welcoming.” Molly goes on to say that at times getting people to talk can be difficult. “Getting people to talk in a small town about sensitive subjects can be difficult, which is understandable, because they’re good people and they don’t want to say bad things about somebody else.” Molly goes on to say, “I’ve made a lot of good friends, and that’s going to be the hardest part about leaving.”

“The people that I work with, we’re so close; we hang out all the time outside of work; while we’re working. It’s just a really fun place to be, a good atmosphere and a good group of people.” Molly says of working at CRI and with her co-workers there.

Molly says that one of those things she won’t miss about Oskaloosa is having to, “drive an hour for good shopping, for sushi, or even for a Target.” Luckily for her at her new home, “There’s a Macy’s, there’s a Target, there’s sushi places.”

Molly (left) with some of her co-workers from CRI helping to cover election night in Mahaska County

“A lot of people think there isn’t real news in a small town, and this experience has proved to me there IS real news in small towns, anywhere and everywhere, because we’ve had a ton of huge stories. And if Des Moines affiliates and papers paid attention to a lot of what we’re doing here [CRI], they’d have bigger stories on their newscasts from Oskaloosa all the time.” Molly said of what she has learned about news during this past year. “Oskaloosa is lucky in the sense that it has Osky News, The Herald, and CRI; watchdogs for everybody in the community when there is huge news; we all know that if you have been paying attention to anything in the past year.”

That desire for breaking news is what helped to make the decision for Molly to move on to the next step in her career. “Breaking news is what drives my forces, that’s what really makes me tick.” This new opportunity will allow her to return to the “daily live motion of news” and she goes on to say that, “never did I think that I’d be anchoring the 6 and 10 o’clock news cast at the age of 22. I never ever thought that would happen, but I feel very fortunate.”

Molly Thorvilson (left) interviews Oskaloosa Fire Chief Mark Neff (right) before a local group of firefighters left for Joplin (photo D.Hubbard)

Molly has her goals in life, where she wants to be at some point in her career. One of those would be being able to break into the Minneapolis market, but then she smiles and says, “I wouldn’t necessarily stop there.” “Who knows, maybe one day the networks will want me.” Molly says.

Honestly, I won’t be surprised to see Molly show up, at some point in time, on one of our favorite cable news or network evening news shows.

Investigative reporting has been one of those things that Molly has certainly taught me a lot about in the last year. She says that there will be opportunities there. [Here new job] She goes on to say, “Isn’t every story an investigation? And when you look at it that way, there’s 2 sides to everything. You always have to be wary of who’s telling the truth and who might not be, no matter what the story is.”

As my time with Molly ran out, I asked her if she had anything else she might like to pass along. Her response was, “The people that I work with are some of my best friends, I’m going to miss them so much. I’m excited for my new journey, but it’s bittersweet leaving.”

Those of us at Osky News will miss seeing Molly around at different stories as they happen, and we wish her great success in her career.

Make sure to catch her final broadcast with CRI this friday on MCG 12 or online at www.critv.org.