This July we hosted our Bourbon Conversations event, featuring guest speaker Rusty Surette. Rusty is a well known and loved local news anchor and executive producer, making a name for himself over the last 25 years in local television news as an award-winning anchor, investigative reporter, executive producer, assignments manager, and news photojournalist. In the past several years, his focus has been news coverage in the Bryan-College Station area, having worked for various media outlets including KBTX Media and KBTX-TV locally. 

Before coming to Bryan, Rusty worked all over the country, including Lake Charles, LA, Raleigh, NC, Las Vegas, and Oklahoma City. He is known for his comprehensive reporting on local crime, community events, and breaking news stories.

The event began with Jose and Joan opening the evening with a welcome and reflections on their 20 years of community and economic development work. They also announced new projects and upcoming events. Guests were then walked through the process of tasting three award-winning Tennessee whiskeys by sommelier Carl Ivey. The three whiskeys included Uncle Nearest, Jack Daniel’s, and Nelson’s Greenbrier, and tasters were able to explore the unique charcoal mellowing procedure known as the Lincoln County Process. Rusty closed the evening sharing stories about how he got his start in the news industry. He shared his views on the importance of local news, as well as the necessary need for community support surrounding local news outlets.