After spending 20 years coming into our homes via newscasts on WTOL, Chrys Peterson has relished spending more time in 2014 in her own home.
The former news anchor’s last day on the air was Feb. 28. The main reason she decided to not sign another contract with WTOL at that time was to be able to spend more time with her teenage daughter, Riley.
“I’ve really enjoyed my family time since I left WTOL,” Peterson said. “I’ve been able to spend a lot of quality time with Riley, attending all her basketball games, tennis matches and musical performances. But it’s also been nice just being able to be home when Riley has her friends over or be available to help with homework at night.”
When she was preparing to leave the news business, Peterson told Toledo Free Press she was ready to take on the more challenging parent roles she would be undertaking as the mother of a teenage daughter.
“When children are older they need you more than when they’re younger,” she said. “When they’re younger you meet their basic needs, and a babysitter can do that for you. They can feed them and make sure they get to bed on time, check their homework, that kind of thing,” she said. “But when they’re older they’re making choices and decisions about things that are really helping them to become the people that they’re going to be. I just don’t think I can do that over the phone effectively, and basically that’s what it comes down to.”
The decision to stop working in the news business also offered Peterson more time to see husband Tom Runnells, bench coach for the Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball team.
“I also had the freedom to travel more over the summer to see Tom,” she said. “We made two trips to Denver, a trip to Florida, two trips to California and were also able to drive and spend time when they played in Detroit, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The flexibility has been wonderful!”
Peterson isn’t exactly taking it easy in retirement, however.
She opened her own consulting business, working primarily with ProMedica Health System on leadership training and video projects.
Doing the training is exciting because it’s something new for me, and employee development is something I’m passionate about,” said Peterson, who has her master’s degree in organizational leadership from Lourdes University.
“I’m also excited that I still get to tell interesting stories about people in our community doing amazing things. … I absolutely love the work and love the people I work with there.”
The stories the ex-anchor tells now can be found on the ProMedica Health Connect Website, ProMedicahealthconnect.org.
While she does miss her friends from the station, she says she is able to stay in relatively close touch with them.
“I knew I would miss the interaction with the viewers, she said. “But I’ve continued to stay connected to many of them through my Chrys Peterson WTOL Facebook page and people still come up to me and say ‘hi’ when I’m out which I enjoy very much.”
But for Peterson, it’s all about the flexibility these days.
“I can plan my work and activities around my important family events instead of having to be sitting on the set at a certain time each day,” she said. “I’ve been surprised that my schedule has changed so dramatically. For years, I worked until midnight, so I didn’t really go to sleep until 3 a.m. most nights. Now, I get up with Riley around 6 a.m. so I’m not always able to stay awake to watch the 11 p.m. news! “Thank goodness I can still see Jerry on Fox at 10!” she said with a smile.
