ANCHOR [ WO]MAN

Clarice Tinsley embarked on her broadcast journalism career in the mid-1970s, the age of big hair and wide ties. Everyone smoked and swore in the newsroom and kept a bottle of scotch in a desk drawer. However, unlike Veronica Corningstone the fictional character who had to fight her way around chauvinistic men to gain respect as a reporter in “Anchorman” — Tinsley benefited from a range of experiences at her first job at WITI-TV in Milwaukee, which ranked 35th in the market at the time. As a 20-something fresh out of college (internships didn’t exist back then), she soaked up all the knowledge she could from her colleagues.

“These were people who had worked their whole lives to get to Milwaukee, and that’s where I started,” she says. “They could see that I was very open to learning. It was a special station to begin my career.”

The Detroit native came on the scene toward the end of the “man’s world” mentality often associated with early broadcast news. No one tried to keep her from covering gritty crime stories and other heavy subjects. Her first assignment involved a trip to the Milwaukee airport for an inside look at the weapons being confiscated from commercial airplanes in 1975, including machetes, brass knuckles, different types of knives, you name it.

About three years later, Tinsley landed a job with what is now KDFW FOX 4, where she has stayed for more than 35 years, making her the longest-serving network anchor in the Dallas-Fort Worth market — the reigning dean, some might say, of Ron Burgundy stature, although humbler. You won’t find the Preston Hollow resident strolling around parties in a silk robe informing everyone that she’s “kind of a big deal.” But if she were, she’d have plenty to tout.

In 1985, Tinsley won the George Foster Peabody Award for her investigative piece, “A Call for Help.” Every other news organization in town ignored Larry Boff when he came forward with a claim that a 911 operator argued with him over the phone instead of sending an ambulance — all while his elderly stepmother suffocated to death.

“There was something about him that seemed compelling,” Tinsley says. “I told him, ‘I can’t promise I’ll do the story, but I promise I’ll look into it.’ ”

That glimmer of hope was enough to bring Boff to tears, she says, because no one believed him. An open records request for the 911 tape more than confirmed Boff’s claim, and Tinsley’s weak lead became a national story.

“Everything that he told me was on that tape verbatim. It was emblazoned in Larry’s brain. It went from the story that nobody cared about and nobody wanted to the story that everyone cared about and everybody wanted.”

Most importantly, it resulted in major 911 emergency reforms that year.

From the Berlin Wall to Desert Storm, Tinsley’s assignments have made her a witness to history all over the world. While covering the Fort Hood troops in Kuwait City, Tinsley and her colleagues Tim Ryan and Max Stacy had to focus on every single step to avoid booby traps as they traversed the war zone. They ended up sleeping in a burned-out Holiday Inn — but that was better than sleeping out in the desert.

“That was the most dangerous assignment I had,” Tinsley says.

But the troops were grateful to see a familiar face. Upon meeting them, she could hear soldiers shouting, “Clarice! Clarice! I’m from Oak Cliff I’m from Waxahachie …”

“It was like a reunion, but we had never met.” newscast on FOX 4, Tinsley enjoys time with her husband, Stephen Giles, who is executive producer of “America Up Close.” They’ve been married 26 years. Tinsley works out at Cooper Aerobics Center and sings Alto II in the sanctuary choir at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church. Although she and Giles have not had children of their own — after two miscarriages, Tinsley learned that in order to have children, she’d have to spend her entire pregnancy on bed rest — she does have a stepson, Steve, 36, and two godchildren, Brandon, 30, and Kennedy, 13. They also have a very chatty Manx cat, Serenity.

When she’s not anchoring the 10 p.m.

Decade after decade, the broadcast news industry has evolved — beyond just the hair and fashion. The advent of CNN’s 24-hour news cycle in the 1980s prompted local outlets to add more time slots. That’s why we now have evening news at 4, 5, 5:30, 6, 6:30 Newsrooms became much busier.

“I have seen a lot of change in my career,” Tinsley says. “I’ve always been able to accept change as a part of life.”

Especially when it comes to social media. She was an early adopter of Twitter and Facebook and regularly uses them to report the news and interact with her audience.

“I have so much more access to my viewers.”

FOX 4 won a Lone Star Emmy Award in 2010 for its social media parody video in which Tinsley anchors a newscast about a shooting at City Hall — but the reporters are too distracted by their smartphones to actually report the news.

While Tinsley has some serious reporting accolades, the veteran broadcast journalist still can poke some fun at her own profession. She’s an “Anchorman” fan — so much so that she rented out a local movie theater and invited 80 of her friends and colleagues to screen “Anchorman 2,” while wearing signature Ron Burgundy mustaches. Uncontrollable laugher ensued.

—Emily Toman