Former announcer Baek Ji-yeon revealed the behind-the-scenes story of how she achieved the titles of first, youngest, and longest-serving anchor.
On the 21st, MBC’s ‘Radio Star’ featured guests Baek Ji-yeon, Hong Hyun-hee, Choi Jeong-hoon, and Min Kyung-ah.
On that day, Kim Gook-jin began by saying, “Baek Ji-yeon is a legend of MBC News Desk. She holds the titles of first, youngest, and longest-serving anchor.” Baek Ji-yeon responded, “I didn’t know those titles would last so long. I thought someone would take them away from me in the meantime.”
Baek Ji-yeon recalled, “I was assigned as an anchor in 1988. Our country has made remarkable progress in recent years. Back then, it was an era where people said, ‘How dare a woman’ and ‘If a hen crows, it’s doomed.’ But I won first place in the internal audition and was assigned as an anchor just three months after graduating from university.”
She continued, “When I was a trainee, the company held an internal audition saying, ‘Let’s also assign a female anchor.’ I was excluded from the selection because I was a trainee, but I attended to observe the senior anchors and ended up winning first place. The company said, ‘How can a trainee win first place?’ and invalidated it, so they held the internal audition again, and I won first place again.”
She added, “There were rumors that I was the daughter of ‘Baekgom,’ a big player in the stock market, because of my last name. There were even rumors that I secured the anchor position and bought 10 years’ worth of advertising at MBC with powerful financial backing,” which drew attention.
Baek Ji-yeon said, “At that time, there was a lot of opposition within the company. It was considered a risk to have a trainee take on the anchor position for important news, and many said it was nonsense. One senior even said, ‘If you last six months, I’ll eat my hat.’ Instead, those perspectives made me stronger. It gave me the fighting spirit to become the representative anchor. It became a medicine, not poison,” she revealed.
In response, Hong Hyun-hee asked, “Were you originally mentally strong?” and Baek Ji-yeon replied, “I had a fragile mental state, but at that time, I had no one to rely on.” She added, “I prayed and calmed my mind every day before going to work. That’s how I made it this far.”
[Lee Se-bin, Star Today Guest Reporter]
