From news beats to back beats: Journalist Jason Wert follows his dream

After a long career working as a journalist for the Branson Tri-Lakes News and other places, reporting on the courts, politics and what people were up to, Jason Wert is setting aside his pen and getting out his drumsticks. He’s recently moved from Branson to Nashville to play drums; he’s ending a successful career as a journalist and beginning a new one about making his dreams come true and doing what his mother asked of him as she was dying.

The reason Jason is making such a big change in his life now is very personal and comes from a sad time. More than four years ago – when COVID-19 was at its worst – his mother got very sick. Thinking they were going to lose her, Jason and his sons drove all night from Missouri to a hospital in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. At the time, the hospital didn’t allow visitors, and his mother could only wave to her family from a window on the seventh floor.

Luckily, the hospital’s head doctor and the nurses felt sorry for the family and let him and his sons get in on a freight elevator so they could say a real goodbye. It was in this last, face-to-face talk that his mother gave him advice that would, in the end, change his life. She said that since he’d left home, his life had been a constant effort to get through and to stay alive, adding, “I want you to find a way to go from getting through life to living the life you have left.” Six weeks later – while he was on a news shift at KWTO in Springfield – his mother died before he could see her again.

Jason is now doing what she asked. Having played the drums for forty-eight years, including gigs on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, much of it in conjunction with his journalism career, he is now taking a leap of faith to live the life that really makes him happy — playing the drums.

He’s leaving an amazing career as a journalist. During that career, he’s interviewed five American presidents: both of the Bushes, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. But when asked which story he is most proud of he doesn’t think of the Oval Office.

Instead, it’s a local story in Branson, remembering when he was the first to report that the city of Branson was buying the White House Theater. He actually got the information and wrote the story while on holiday in Pennsylvania, visiting his family. He put the story online before the city had even issued an official statement to the press.

Wert has some final thoughts about the town he’s known so well. He gives a word of warning about some of the people who come to Branson to do business. He says that over the years, many people have come pretending to believe in Branson’s basic beliefs of “faith, family and flag,” when in fact they didn’t. When it comes to that, Jason suggests people adopt the famous phrase of former President Ronald Reagan: “Trust, but verify!”

He also holds firm views on what Branson’s well-known live entertainment must do to succeed going forward. While other places people go to as tourists have lakes, go-karts, theme parks, and so on, the number of live theatres, along with all that, is what really sets Branson apart and should be a feature in its marketing efforts.

Wert didn’t hold back in giving the local live entertainment a couple of hard truths. He states that many shows, while changing the “playlists,” feature many of the same songs every year. He thinks shows ought to change what they play, the way “Rush,” one of his favorite rock groups, did on their tours. If a country music show wants to pay tribute to Willie Nelson, for instance, he suggests selecting different Willie Nelson songs each time, rather than all the same “covers,” year after year.

Even more to the point, he thinks Branson has to give up the “rewards mentality” where just about every show gets nominated in one category or another and rewards are seemingly rotated each year. He said, “Not every show in Branson is the same and rates “10 out of 10.” In terms of an entertainment experience, some are 10s, and some are 4s, and it damages the town’s live entertainment reputation when those marketing and selling tickets act as though they all are 10s.

One of the very best journalists The Ole Seagull has known is at last living his own truth and dream. He leaves Branson the better for his reporting, his straightforwardness and his continuous faith in what genuinely makes Branson unique. Also, he leaves behind an Ole Seagull, a friend who is sorry to see him go and values his friendship, his reporting standards, his integrity and his readiness to pursue his dream.

Godspeed, my friend, Godspeed!