PORTLAND, Maine — When Lee Nelson began anchoring the morning report at NEWS CENTER Maine, it started at 6:30 a.m. and ran for thirty minutes. A few years later it expanded by a half-hour. That happened again. And again. And again. Now the news begins at 4:30 a.m. and runs until 7 a.m.
With each expansion, of course, Lee had to set his alarm clock earlier and earlier until he was no longer getting up early in the morning—it was the middle of the night. There’s no counting how many dinners, games, concerts, and parties you miss when you have to go to bed at 7 p.m., and you’re still tired all the time because you never get eight hours of sleep.
After more than three decades, that schedule ended for Lee in 2019 when he swapped shifts with Lee Goldberg and began anchoring newscasts in the early evening. Now he’s ready for an even bigger change: no newscasts at all.
When he finishes his shift on Friday, Lee will hand in his key and walk out the door into a new chapter in life. He’ll be working as a personal trainer, turning a longtime passion into a steady job. Other new opportunities will no doubt come his way and, for the first time in decades, he’ll be able to seize them. We sat down with him on 207 for one last talk about a life in television.
Lee has been a friend of mine for more than thirty years, and I’ll miss seeing him in the newsroom, talking about what’s happening across the street or around the world, swapping gossip, cracking jokes. But I admire his enthusiasm as he leaves behind the only professional life he’s known as an adult and heads down new roads. As I’ve had to say too many times over the years when colleagues depart: Good for him…bad for us.