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Cincinnati TV personality Rob Braun announced a new role at Heritage Bank after over 30 years as an anchor on Channel 12.
He has just now started to get into the swing of things as a spokesperson for the family-owned regional bank. But Braun is no stranger to the commercial side of business.
As a child of TV star Bob Braun, Rob Braun was in commercials growing up. Braun said he did TV ads for Pepsi, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Toyota.
Braun admits that it has been a long time since he was on this side of things, but insists that “it’s the same skill set” as being in TV news.
“It is different, I’ll say that,” Braun said, then chuckled. “And it’s a lot more fun.”
Why Heritage Bank?
Just as Braun is no stranger to commercial broadcasting, he is also no stranger to Heritage Bank.
“I’ve been a customer of Heritage Bank for years and years and years,” he said.
Braun said he had no intention of doing anything else after leaving Channel 12 except tending to his other entrepreneurial endeavors.
He says the bank really “surprised” him with this opportunity – and that surprise came fairly soon after Braun announced his departure from TV news.
“Literally, I think it was maybe three days after I left Channel 12, the chairman called me, Chris Caddell, and asked me if I’d go to lunch with him,” Braun said. “And he said, ‘I got this idea.’ And when he pitched it, and when I thought about it, it just all made sense.”
Braun will serve as a mouthpiece for the bank, and will also sit in on marketing discussions.
The bank’s beliefs and priorities line up with his own, Braun said. He especially admires the bank’s commitment to philanthropic efforts.
“They’re just old school enough to be comfortable and still offer all the more modern things, like depositing your check with a photograph,” he said.
“It just felt right.”
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Slowing down and enjoying Cincinnati
Back during his time at Channel 12, Braun said that he was working 10 hour days.
He would get home after midnight and pace the floor for an hour and a half “to try to slow down.”
Braun got a few offers from other stations during his tenure at Channel 12, but never took them. There was one offer that he took seriously from NBC, that would have taken him to New York City.
Braun and his wife even began looking at Manhattan properties while he mulled over the move. But Cincinnati won out in the end.
“It’s just a good place to live and a good place to raise your family,” he said.
Braun’s role at Heritage Bank doesn’t take up nearly as much time as Channel 12 did, giving him more freedom to enjoy his family and Cincinnati.
Although Braun said he never questioned his decision to leave Channel 12, he does miss one thing: the people. He says some of the best talent in television news in the entire country still exists at that station.
“We spent a lot of years helping people,” Braun said. “It was just so gratifying, telling people what was going on in their neighborhoods. And I don’t know that you ever are fully able to walk away from that, but you do also know when it’s time.”
He is not only talking about the people at the station. Braun says he truly values every person that has been a part of his career at Channel 12 – and now beyond.
“What has been the most gratifying since leaving was what was gratifying while I was at Channel 12, and that’s the overwhelming support by the public in the Tristate,” he said.
“It was time to go.”
Braun was featured Wednesday at noon on WVXU’s Cincinnati Edition with host Michael Monks.
He said his new life is “certainly different” but similarly busy as his life in the news industry.
Braun said the controversial scripted statement that many Sinclair-owned channels broadcast was “the beginning of the end.”
He said he didn’t believe the words and felt like a “puppet” despite some of them being true.
On top of being forced to read the scripted statement, Braun said he disagreed with the focus of national news stories over local stories.
“The business model was different and hard to swallow,” Braun said. “Those things just began to build up.”
Over the years, Braun said he was most proud of building trust with the public.
“I had a historic run and I can’t complain about any of that,” Braun said of his time at WKRC. “The support I’ve had from the public has been enormous for years and years.”
Much like he told The Enquirer, Braun said he missed the people but he hasn’t had second thoughts.
“It was time to go, it was time to turn the page,” Braun said.
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