Whether it’s ice cream or breaking news, Tracy Briggs wants the scoop.
The local media personality best known for her history reporting and human interest storytelling visited residents and staff at Eventide Sheyenne Crossings on May 17 where she divulged some of her favorite stories from her amazing career, which has spanned more than 35 years.
The lecture was part of our ongoing educational series called Eventide University, which brings local personalities and experts to our communities for interesting discussions, stories and workshops.
Tracy Briggs, a Forum reporter, describes some of her favorite stories she’s worked on in her 35+ years as a local journalist during a May 2024 Eventide University session at Sheyenne Crossings in West Fargo.
Many folks remember Tracy from when she first started in broadcast TV, reporting and anchoring the news at WDAY-TV in Fargo.
Her interest in reporting on regional historical topics piqued in 1989 when she was assigned a story celebrating North Dakota’s centennial. The yearlong series took her across the state to meet many interesting people.
A decade later, Tracy did another yearlong series ahead of Y2K called “Our Century,” where she outlined the biggest news of the 20th century. Due to the series’ popularity, the next year, Tracy shifted her focus to “Our People,” covering notable figures in the communities.
Television is notorious for expecting grueling hours from its staff. For Tracy, that was early mornings and sometimes being on call for breaking news at all hours of the day and night. Once she had kids, though, it was time for her to find something in the industry that didn’t tax her time so much.
“I was in television for 17 years and wanted something that was more conducive to my home life,” Tracy said.
In 2005, she took a job as a morning radio talk show host, a role that allowed her a more balanced work and home life. “I was super sleep deprived,” she said.
Radio also allowed her to take part in the region’s Honor Flight, a program that helps military veterans travel to Washington, DC, to take part in services and ceremonies that celebrate their contributions to the country.
From 2006-2008, Tracy led efforts to communicate and promote Honor Flight throughout North Dakota and Minnesota communities. Her reporting on the program also helped her fully realize her passion for historical storytelling.
“With Honor Flight, I helped families talk about things they never talked about before, especially between generations,” she said, recalling one instance when an adult son and his father attended an Honor Flight at the same time. Prior to their trip, the two had never discussed their experiences in combat.
“That dad and son finally talked about their wars and realized they had lived through a lot of the same stuff,” Tracy said.
When the father passed away five years after their Honor Flight experience, the family buried him in his Honor Flight shirt and the son told Tracy that he and his father were closer than ever.
“It gave them a chance to open up with each other,” she said. “It was wonderful for everyone.”
Due in part to the evolving nature of news, particularly local and print outlets, Tracy made a slight pivot in her career yet again by joining The Forum in 2010 to become a digital content and multimedia news reporter. The role opened opportunities to embrace new technologies and platforms for storytelling, most notably with video.
“We started doing online videos. I love to bake and did a cooking and baking show called The Great Indoors, which was inspired by (former colleague) Ed Schultz, who had a hunting and fishing show called ‘The Great Outdoors,’ ” Tracy said.
She also tried her hand at covering entertainment news in a segment called “Starwatch,” though that was short-lived once she realized “entertainment was not my forte.”
Later, Tracy started “The Scoop,” which highlighted local food and restaurants, like the annual opening of Moorhead’s Dairy Queen. More recently, she has turned her focus to history, and in addition to regular history features, contributes to The Vault, a Forum podcast that features historical stories of interest as well as true crime.
“People like to remember and recall people from the past. I get asked in the grocery store a lot, ‘Whatever happened to so-and-so?’ And I will often follow up with a story if it has enough interest. I love getting suggestions from folks,” she said. “I think that’s why they like reading stories from The Vault as much as I like writing them.”
“Back Then,” a series based on the history of people and places in the region, is another segment that allows Tracy to use her love of research and storytelling.
When she’s not in the archives or writing, she loves to bake, do genealogy and unwind with “way too much TV,” she said. Tracy also loves to spend time with her husband, two daughters and their two “crazy dogs, McKenna and Winnipeg.”
Now a longtime veteran of the local news scene, Tracy intends to continue writing historical features and contribute to the preservation of our region’s rich past. She also teaches speech and communications classes to college students at Concordia in Moorhead, which gives her a chance to impart some of her wisdom and experience on the next generation of storytellers.
“I have a really fun job,” she said.
And we have a really fun time reading all your stories, Tracy. Thank you.
Connect with Tracy
Tracy said she is always looking for story ideas, especially from older folks who have stronger ties to the region than many younger people. She can be reached at her email at tracy.briggs@forumcomm.com.
