Yle’s longtime news anchor Matti Rönkä will retire this week. This is how colleagues Piia Pasanen and Pirjo Nuotio describe him.
Yle’s long-term news anchor, journalist Matti Rönkä64, will retire and make his final broadcast as a news anchor on Wednesday, February 28.
Yle news anchor Piia Pasasella there is nothing but good things to say about Matti Rönga. Pasanen has managed to work with Röngä for 25 years. During the first years, Rönkä was Pasanen’s front man as news manager.
– He was a really good and listening predecessor. I have no words of reproach. He knew what work was and knew how to put himself in someone else’s position, Pasanen describes.
Since then, Rönkä moved to Yle as a news anchor and Piia Pasase and Matti Röngä became colleagues.
– He has been a very good and well-liked colleague. We are united by our Eastern Finnish roots and we both understand Savo humor. You could always trust Matt, Pasanen describes.
“We are united by our Eastern Finnish roots and we both understand Savoland humor”, describes colleague Piia Pasanen. Pete Anikari
“Presence and charisma”
The work of a news anchor is fundamentally serious, but when the subject has allowed humor, according to Pasanen, Rönkä has mastered that as well.
– In the news, you rarely tear things apart, but sometimes you can take liberties related to your personality. You don’t always have to be frowny. Mati’s presence and charisma have also been passed on, Pasanen describes.
– Mati has had good and funny stories outside of broadcasts. Humor flies, Pasanen continues.
Pasanen says that he learned from Rönga that things must be said in a common sense and avoid consultant language.
– It has been an honor for Mati that the Finnish language is good. He is also good at summarizing, Pasanen praises his colleague, who is also a writer by other profession.
Pasanen thinks that he will follow Röngä’s news at least through social media.
– We are going to eat with a smaller work group and in the winter you can bump into Matt on the ski slope. We have also already joked that Matti will start sending us viewer feedback and feedback about the Finnish language from retirement, says Pasanen.
Pirjo Nuotio was Matti Röngä’s partner in MTV news in the 80s. Pete Anikari
“The so-called third pair”
Retired news anchor Pirjo Nuotio worked with Matti Röngä for a couple of years in the 80s. Nuotio and Rönkä were a working couple on MTV’s evening news at the time.
– We were the so-called third couple. Others were regular news anchors. I have positive memories of him. He was always more cheerful than sad, says Nuotio.
In particular, he remembers how the working couple sang along in the studio when there was an insert on the newscast about the performances of the Tango market’s competitors.
Since then, the ex-colleagues have met for work a few times over the years. Nuotio encourages Rönkä to continue writing and enjoy free evenings.
– I recommend that he continues to write, because he has written good books. You should do exercise and you should enjoy the fact that you have free evenings, Nuotio adds.
He himself says that now that he is retired, he likes to go to the theater and the opera, for example. Nuotio retired at the age of 64. He said goodbye to the news for the last time on Christmas Day 2016.