Jokes with Justin

Justin Lundy.

You may know him as, "that guy who knows *insert any name here because he knows everyone,*" or as "the best news anchor Charlotte has ever seen, or as "one of the best friends anyone could ask for."

Justin Lundy is an Electronic/Media Broadcasting Major at Appalachian State University. He is a friend to everyone, and if you can't tell by the picture shown above, he has an electric personality.

Here is the conversation we had a few weeks ago:

What is your favorite color?

Purple. My sister went to ECU, and I always liked it because of that for some reason.

Where are you from?

I’m from Raleigh. Born and raised!

What made you want to go into journalism?

In high school, I was on a broadcasting team. I was on a morning show called, The Morning Growl, and I became a popular kid. I thought, “You know what? If I’m good at putting a smile on people’s face, I might as well be on the radio or TV.” So, I decided to go into Broadcasting.

Where do you think your "funniness" comes from?

My dad. He’s very good at telling stories, so I think that’s where I picked up that trait from.

I know you go App State, but what made you decide to go there?

I got into State, ECU, Virginia University, and App State, but I didn’t want to go to State. On senior skip day, I ran into my friend Karl who asked me if I wanted to go to IHOP. He convinced me to go to App, and by the end of the day, we were roommates.

Are you two still friends?

Yeah, we’re roommates right now.

You recently obtained an internship at WBTV in Charlotte. What do your day-to-day duties look like there?

I shadow reporters and follow news stories. It’s a lot of fun.

One thing I didn’t see coming was that reporters don’t dress up like we think they do. We only see them from the waist up, so they usually wear jeans.

What kind of stories do you see?

Sometimes there’s hard news and sometimes there’s soft news. My first day out, I did a fun heartwarming story on a prayer drive-thru at a church, and it was a bunch of people in Gaston County holding out signs that said, “Hey, come get a prayer,” but then, days like that can go a complete 180. That day, the police found a dead body in the lake, and I went straight to a press conference.

Sometimes I get to meet famous people. Craig Robinson, best known for playing Darrel on The Office. He’s a great hugger.

I’m meeting Gayle King next week. She’s the woman who interviewed R. Kelly, and she’s really good friends with Oprah. I want to get her story on how she managed to hold her ground during the R. Kelly interview.

How did you get the internship?

I got to shadow John Carter, the lead anchor at WBTV. Dr. Spiceland took his students on a tour to WBTV, where we met John Carter, so I emailed him afterward and asked if I could shadow him. Coincidentally, my friend wanted to throw her 21st in Charlotte, so I thought, “Okay, I’ll kill two birds with one stone,” so I shadowed him that morning and went to my friend’s birthday that night.

While I was there, I got the contact information of the woman in charge of the summer internship program. John Carter recommended me to her and after twenty-billion emails, I got the internship.

I realized when it came to jumping for opportunities, you have to risk it all sometimes, and that’s what I did with that.

I also shadowed Tisha Powell, a news-anchor I grew up watching on ABC11 in Raleigh, who told me to sign up for NABJ (National Association of Black Journalists). So, I went to the NABJ conference in New York over Spring Break. I just took a flight by myself and luckily had some friends up there, so I stayed with them.

While I was staying with my friend, I realized I left all my business cards at home. My friend took me to King’s University, I printed out some business cards, and we cut them before the conference started. At the conference, I dropped my business card into a bucket for a chance to win a trip to the NABJ’s even bigger conference in Miami.

They pulled out my business card and said:

“Okay, Justin, you got the free Miami trip.”

So, two days ago, I booked a twenty-hour train trip to Miami.

I’m not really sure what God has in store for me in Miami right now, but I’m really excited for it.

What’s your dream career?

Maybe to have a talk show where I go and do “a day in the life” with famous people. That would be dope. I love hearing stories and presenting them. Like, how the hell did Kendrick Lamar’s music make it out of Compton? I wanna know! I want the world to know as well!