Phone: 406-457-2725
Email: eric.jochim@ktvh.com
What is your job?
I am the executive producer at the Scripps Helena station.
When did you start working here?
I began working at KTVH in August of 2016. I started as assistant news director.
Where else have you worked?
I began my career in 2005 at KECI in Missoula, Montana as a part-time camera operator and technical director. My first full time job was at HTV in southern Louisiana in 2007. I shot and edited a half-hour hunting and fishing show and an hour long week COPS style show. In 2008 I returned to KECI and worked my way up from photographer to producer. In 2012 I was named Executive Producer of KTVM in Bozeman, Montana. I took my first news management job in 2014 when I was hired as News Director at KPVI in Pocatello.
Where did you go to college?
University of Montana
Where did you grow up?
Oklahoma City, OK; Santa Fe, NM; Ronan, MT
What are some of the biggest news stories you have covered or led coverage of?
I have covered or helped cover elections between 2006 and 2020, the 2009 downtown explosion in Bozeman, the 2009 plane crash in Butte that killed 14 people, the 2009 WR Grace Libby asbestos trial, the removal of Northern Rockies wolves from the Endangered Species Act, the 2015 disappearance of two-year-old Deorr Kunz Jr. in the Idaho wilderness, large wildfires in nearly every part of part of Montana (including the historic 2017 fires).
What is your philosophy on news?
Local journalism should be independent and delivers information that is truthful, accurate, fair and impartial to its viewers and readers. It should seek to hold those in power accountable for their actions, while never failing to turn the lens of accountability on itself. It should also be reflective of the community where it reports. It should share the stories of the people who, for good or ill, impact the everyday lives of those around them. It is my vision that 200 to 300 years in the future an anthropologist studying the early 21st century would pull one of my archived newscasts off the shelf and, in watching it, see an accurate reflection of what was most important to the community on the date that aired.
What do you love about living here?
Montana truly is the Last Best Place. It is the accessibility of its people and its land that make Montana special. In all of Montana's largest cities you are never more than a few minutes from a natural and wild environment. I've always felt that Montana is the largest small town in America. It is the fourth largest state geographically and has just over a million people. Yet you can travel for hours and still run in to some one you know.
