CLEVELAND — The 3News family officially welcomed anchor and reporter Matt Rascon this past May, and as our team and our viewers have started to get to know Matt on-air, we thought it was time to get to know a little more about Matt behind the camera.
As Matt tells it, he really grew up in the TV business. His father, Art Rascon, is a longtime anchor and reporter. In Matt's early childhood, the family moved to several different markets for his dad's job -- from San Antonio to Los Angeles to Miami, before they settled in Houston, where his dad became one of the main anchors at ABC13.
His uncle, Dan Rascon, is also an anchor and one of his brothers, Jacob, is now also in the business.
"My dad would probably tell you, he always knew I was going to get into [journalism], and I would dispute that," Matt recalled with a laugh. "I had spent a couple of summers growing up in high school in Guatemala and Paraguay and doing different service projects, so I was very interested in international relations."
But that all changed when Matt was in college and served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Africa.
"Lived there for two years, came home, I got married shortly after that," he said. "We went to China and taught English there for six months. Coming back, and realizing, holy cow, the impact of the media and the press and the restrictions that are placed on it there, [makes] you realize the influence of [the press]."
As Matt recalls, the storytelling aspect of a career in broadcast journalism also appealed to him.
"Then I realized, this storytelling is nothing like the essays I used to write in high school and I love it," he says. "So it was the storytelling, it was realizing the power of the press that made me sort of change directions."
After a college internship in Salt Lake City, Matt and his wife Marisa, decided to be open to career opportunities in new cities.
"When we first got married, I did learn a little bit more [about what this job entailed] because Matt's dad is in the business, and so is his uncle," Marisa says. "Knowing that as we went through school, and I do feel like Matt's father really helped prepare me for maybe what our life could look like. And I think Matt and I have always been really open to change,"
And so over the next few years, they moved from San Diego to Boston and back to Salt Lake City, growing their family along the way. They're now parents to daughters Taylor, Jocelyn, Lyna and Abigail, and also have one on the way!
And then, Cleveland came calling.
"We came out here for a visit and we thought, this place is awesome. I mean, just the trees, the rolling hills, I mean the awesome lake right there," Matt said. "We're coming here with the idea that we're going to just be here and our kids are getting older. Our oldest just turned 11 and we don't want to be bouncing around forever."
"I think having another baby coming on the way, that's always super exciting," Marisa added. "But as my kids are getting older, I want them to feel that this is our home. This is where we're making our home. And I'm excited to get to know people in our community and in our church community, in our neighborhood community within Matt's work. It's all very exciting and this is where I want our family to be and to feel that these are where our roots are going to be."
And at home is where Matt shines in his other job - as dad.
"When Matt gets home, everyone's so excited," Marisa said. "Matt is a great dad, I mean Matt is definitely a peacemaker at heart, he's humble and he's gentle."
"At work, I'm in the front of the camera and then when I go home, it's behind the scenes and it's everyone else doing stuff and I get to just watch it," Matt reflected. "It's actually a better view there."
And as Matt's family life and new role at 3News begins to settle in, he says he's looking forward to the opportunity to share more with viewers here in Northeast Ohio.
"This was an exciting opportunity [to come] here to be able to bring stories and really guide and direct the sort of news that we feel like matters most to the people in Northeast Ohio," he says. "I think that this is a really good team and we've already, I think, done some really great stuff on air, and I'm excited to see where it goes."