Tate takes care.
He takes care of the messaging for three different companies and he takes care of a plethora of non-profit organizations while organizing information distribution. Tate takes care of his social media followers by posting uplifting messages and memes several times per day, and he takes care of the audiences on hand for the events he’s hosting.
And people know Tate Blanchard throughout the Wheeling area because, frankly, he’s a newsman’s newsman. Tate, after all, is the son of Allan Blanchard, a veteran news reporter and producer for WTRF TV-7 who worked for the organization for more than 40 years.
Blanchard, himself, was a reporter and news anchor for the Wheeling TV station until he departed the organization in August 2018 to follow his planned path.
Since it’s been a marketing career that has allowed Mr. Blanchard to follow passions while helping and entertaining and serving and doing everything else the gentleman does so very well.
When you watch TV, what is it that you watch and why?
When I watch TV, I generally enjoy watching reruns of sitcoms like Martin and The Parkers. Shows that make me laugh and remind me of my childhood. I spend so much of my time engaging my brain in thought-provoking activities that I enjoy watching shows that don’t require much thought.
You post a lot of uplifting messages on your “personality” Facebook page. Why?
I tend to post a lot of uplifting messages on social media because we live in a society where it is far too easy to victimize others or become victims of what others think and say about us. I think that everyone should be free to be genuinely themselves. We all struggle from time to time and it’s very easy for us to be hard on ourselves or to get lost in whatever negativity there may be around us, so seeing something uplifting may change the way a person starts their day or feels about their day.
I know seeing uplifting messaging around me, makes me feel better and I hope others feel the same.
What are the best parts of your job with I.C. Care?
The best parts of my job with the IC Group of companies are everything. This is a conglomeration of small businesses founded by a fellow Bridgeport Alum (shoutout to the Bulldogs!) who is making a livelihood by providing quality jobs and services to the people of the Ohio Valley and visitors through our temp-to-permanent job placement agency IC Staffing Solutions, helping Ohio Valley seniors to remain in their homes as they age through our home care agency IC Care, and providing safe and reliable transportation for all through IC Cab.
Every day brings a new adventure and that’s probably my favorite part. I am the type of person who would get bored doing the exact same thing day in and day out.
What was it you learned from your father that helped you the most during your years in television?
Both of my parents worked in television, in fact, that’s where my parents met in the early ’80s and I have had others in my family that worked in TV as well – but my Dad had the longest tenure in the industry, working near 46 years at WTRF, working Nov. 11, 1963, through April 2009.
I have learned so much from my Dad, especially how to deal with people in general and treat everyone with dignity and respect. I always tell people that it was in my DNA to work in TV growing up in my family. One thing specific to working in TV that my Dad taught me at a young age was how to take a good picture! From the time I can remember, he would critique the pictures I would take and tell me “You have too much headroom” or too much “lead room” or not enough of either.
Of course, when I started in television and even in college he taught me a lot about using a video camera and editing video. But the most important factor of all for me was having someone to talk to on difficult days. Someone who worked in the business for decades and knew exactly what I was talking about, whether I was covering a difficult story or I had a rough day with management.
He had been there, seen, and experienced it all.
Which superhero is your all-time favorite, and why?
In terms of a superhero, I’ve never really looked up to fictional characters. I have been blessed to have so many incredible people in my life that have demonstrated qualities that I think are superpowers.
I tend to think of my parents in those terms and people like my paternal grandmother, Jean Tyler, my paternal aunt, Sandra Blanchard-Freeman, and my paternal uncle Gary Blanchard. My parents did a phenomenal job at raising their seven children, combined, and making sure that we had everything we needed and many of the things we wanted.
Instilling incredible values in myself and my siblings and teaching us to be the best versions of ourselves. To be strong, courageous, and accepting of others. My grandmother, whom we affectionately called “Bossy”, for the strength and determination she demonstrated throughout her life. A woman who had to drop out of the eighth grade, because her mother died and she had to help to raise her younger siblings and tend to the family farm.
A woman who had seven children and raise them on her own without the help of her husband. A woman who was strong beyond words, someone I never even saw have a common cold, was diagnosed with bladder cancer and never took any treatments and lived through cancer and dementia for nearly a decade before passing away from having a broken hip. My Aunt Sandra for her incredible heart and patients and love for others. She never met a stranger and would’ve offered the shirt off of her back to a perfect stranger.
And my Uncle Gary for being a local pioneer in the civil rights movement. My Uncle Gary led sit-ins at local restaurants, like Louis Hotdog when it was in Downtown Wheeling and they did not allow blacks to dine in. They only had a window at the time where blacks were allowed to take their food to go.
He would later become the President of the Belmont County chapter of the NAACP, where he fought for the rights of other disenfranchised people. Those are my superheroes.
