Betwixt and Between

So Thanksgiving was two weeks ago. And Christmas is two weeks ahead. We're in the tweens. Recovered from all the turkey and fixin's and settling into getting ready for Christmas.
This will be the first Christmas for our grandchild, so we're looking forward to that. And most of our children are out of the "expecting lots of presents lined up under the tree" phase. We're more pratical now.
And, besides, with an expanding family base, grandchild, two daughters married, their husbands and their families, its becoming a big group. But one, big happy family so far.
The best part of this time of year, is getting to see our grown children. They may not all make it for Christmas on the same day, but its okay as long as I get to see them sometime. They all made it for Thanksgiving, altho we saved the big meal for Saturday when work would allow everyone to be here.
I wish for you the most joyous Christmas. A holiday is just like any other day, with some tinsel added. Even if family and friends are not part of the picture for you, remember, you are never really alone.

I Missed It

I meant to write this on October 6th. That was the date in 1979 that KTAB-TV first signed on the air. But here it is now.
As I've mentioned, Bill Terry was the moving force behind KTAB. While manager at KRBC-TV, he hoped to be a part owner, but the family owned business declined to make that offer. So, Bill started his own TV station. It took less time and less money than most new operations. And he made money and ratings from almost the beginning. He was a real broadcasting whiz.
And he surrounded himself with good employees. So with his brains and our brawn, we had a winner. That first Saturday (October 6, 1979)we signed on with CBS children's programming, sports in the afternoon, followed by prime time programming.
And at 10pm, NewsTAB32. Larry Fitzgerald anchored, Bill Chaney did the weather and I did sports. Those are the positions we had been filling at KRBC-TV until mid-August, so the newscast looked very familiar to the viewers. I moved in to news and weather after that first night, with Bill Bourland doing sports. That was our on air line up for the next 2 years. David Bacon became sports director around Christmas of 1981.
In those early days we had a limited, but talented news staff, including Skip Watson senior reporter, with Frank Chavez and Jeannie Miller reporters, and Bobby Farquhar photographer. That was it.
We increased the size of the staff over the years, with as many as 8 reporters, 3 photographers and anchors for morning, noon, evening, night and weekend broadcasts.
But that size staff, just as the ratings, took time to build.
I will leave names off the list, so please send them along if you have one I don't.
Ron Rosseau, Monte Brock, Ned Austin, Fran Adkins, Frank Healer, Janis Cochran, Joel Fox, Kevin Palivec, Loren Halifax, Diane Dotson, Jennifer Douglas, Byron Webre, Buzz Lopez, Dan Edwards, Randy Turner, Bill Saunders, Jeannie Blaylock, Rusty Rhodes, Bill Carter, Elaine Martin, Paul Serrel, Artie Ojeda, Paul Osman, Brad Burns, Julie Adams, Lisa Aquafredda, and the list goes on. I'll do some research before I do this again. There are many I haven't mentioned, including the more recent and current team members. If you're one I missed, it must be the 30 years taking a toll on me. Forgive me, and let me hear from you.

Thanks Dan

People come and people go. It is part of life, part of any company. But, when you visit thousands of people in their homes every night, departures are much more obvious. So when we said so long to Dan Edwards the other night, we got calls and e-mails. There is a lot of turnover behind the cameras, in all parts of the KTAB building, but it's those of us who are on the air that people know and react to when there is a change.
Dan was with us for more than 2 years, doing his weather thing at 5, 6 and 10pm. And doing the overnight severe storm coverage thing which has been a staple of KTAB since we signed on the air. Any type of weather is important to those of us in the Big Country, but when it gets nasty, we really pay attention. Dan had the technique of sitting at the computer, moving us around the area getting different views of the storms and then walking back to his position in front of the radar image. Talking (and making sense) the whole time. Very smooth.
Dan also enjoyed working with various maps and charts, to create something which would visually show the weather he was talking about. He called the forecast more accurately than most meteorologists we've seen come and go over the years. His goal was to make his air time meaningful, educational, even fun. He did that.
Here's wishing Dan and his family well. Thanks, Dan.

30 Years Ago, Part II

Maybe you were watching the 10pm news tonight. Parts of it were about me. I don't know that I agree with the decision to devote valuable newstime to cover me, but they didn't consult yours truly. It turned out to be great, and I'm humbled by the kind words that Angela, David, Dan and Victor Sotelo had to say about me.
There were other nice things said, at a gathering at The Grace last Saturday. My family was all there, along with KTABers and friends from the community. From my bosses to current co-workers to former teammates it was a very flattering evening. And some of what they said may be true. Besides David Robinett, "kind" words from the past by former Sports Director David Bacon, former co-anchor Fran Adkins, Chief Videographer Andrew Carlson, General Manager Eric Thomas, and News Director (and soon to be stand up comic) Austin Kellerman. The "social" was not a roast, altho the Bloopers you saw on the air were played and stories about me and us (which some found hilarious) were told.
What I've been able to do for the last 30 years (+8 at KRBC) is to tell stories about you. Some were sad, some were uplifting, some were funny. But our reporters and photographers have been on many of the back roads of the Big Country to find out what's going on.
We've traveled the world together, you and me. I've been to several places in Europe and Africa covering Dyess missions. Co-anchor Jennifer Douglas and Jason Kumalo also reported from Africa. I have reported live from Las Vegas and the MDA Telethon, from Fort Worth after a tornado tore thru downtown Cowtown, from College Station when the Bonfire collapsed, and from around Abilene and the Big Country. Our crews have covered elections, Super Bowls and special events from across the country.
And it all started from a very nice studio on South 14th in Abilene, Texas.
Our total number of employees has never been large, but founder Bill Terry lived up to his original hiring goal: hire good people, work them hard, pay them well. (All true, except for the pay part). He did a great job of selecting and hiring good talent.
Next time, I'll bring back some names that you old timers might remember.

30 Years Ago, Part I

August 20, 1979..... A date to remember, at least for me... That was exactly 30 years ago... It was my first day as an employee of KTAB-TV... We didn't actually sign on the air for a month and a half, but it was a brand new tv station in a brand new building... Like any new business, we started with nothing... When I walked into the newsroom that day, there were no desks, only folding chairs, and the phones were on the floor... News Director Larry Fitgerald and I went about the task of putting together a news department... NewsTAB 32... But owner and GM Bill Terry was the spirit of KTAB.... He had given those of us who applied, the unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new tv station... That rarely happens... Most tv stations signed on in the 1950's or a little earlier...
Here we were in 1979, putting on the third tv station in the Big Country... A majority of the crew had followed Bill from KRBC where he was station manager... I'm the only one still around KTAB that made the move, although chief engineer Glen McCandless started work on the same day, August 20th...
Larry Fitzgerald taught me about the news business... Bill Terry taught me about the broadcasting business and how to manage and work with people... It was a real family atmosphere... Both of these great leaders and broadcasters are no longer with us...
I was the assignments editor, selecting the stories the reporters were to cover... Of course, they also came up with their own ideas... And Larry as news director guided all of us in what and how to cover the Big Country...
As a new tv station on UHF (Ultra High Frequency) channel 32, we were a strange duck... The other local channels were VHF (Very High Frequency)channels 9 and 12...
It was very similar to the confusion surrounding HD tv in 2009... Many tv sets didn't have a UHF dial, and if they did, nobody knew how to use it because they had never had to...
To promote the station, Bill put together a traveling caravan which took us to almost every community in what would be our viewing area... We had the opportunity to talk with people who would be in our tv audience... We had a booth at the West Texas Fair, handing out free antennas and explaining how to receive channel 32.. Working in our favor to attract viewers, besides good CBS network programming and a well known local news team, was the Dallas Cowboys... In 1979, CBS televised the Cowboys games and people would do almost anything to figure out how to watch the Cowboys... And they did...
We signed on in October, and in the November ratings period, we were the number two station in a three station market... We became the number two station in less than a month... It took a while longer to be rated #1, but we did that in 1984 and '85, and that's where we've been ever since...
Bill Chaney was our first weatherman (he moved from KRBC too).. Bill Bourland was sports director for a year until David Bacon joined us...
Fran Adkins and I co-hosted NoonTAB 32... Natalee Powers joined me at noon when Fran became pregnant... And Fran rejoined us later... I did news and weather at noon, plus the 5 minute cut-ins in the CBS Morning News, along with co-anchoring the news with Larry and the weather on NewsTAB 32 at 6, and assignments... It was a full day...
When I started, the transmission tower was in pieces on the ground... It had not been erected... The control board to select the studio cameras or video tape or commercials had not been delivered... The studio was like a big barn with no lights, no news set, no cameras... The cameras ended up being old ones which had been used and used and used to tape the Grand Ole Opry on WSM in Nashville... It took every engineer we had to coax true color out of those cameras, we often looked green or red... But everyone worked together... All the departments: news, production, engineering, sales... All to help make KTAB The Spirit of the Big Country...
I've rambled enough... But thanks to all of you many loyal viewers who have been so nice to invite me and my co-workers into your homes these many years...
There are many stories to tell, and I will in future postings...
I would like to thank my family, too, for putting up with news calls in the middle of the night, family outings cut short by breaking news or weather, and most of all, the police scanners which are constantly on at my house and in my car..... I Love You...
To Be Continued.....

News Takes No Vacation

We are a news gathering organization. We have reporters who work beats, an assignments manager who checks emails, faxes, phones, and photographers, producers, news management and anchors who take calls, get messages and talk to people. And police scanners are constantly chatting away.
That's the way we find out things. But one of our best sources is you. When something happens, we often get phone calls or emails either telling us what happened or asking us to find out. That's the kind of help we really need and value. We can only hear so much on the scanners, or talk to so many people. But with all of you out there acting as our eyes and ears, we can pass along information that the rest of KTAB Country needs to know. We always verify information that we get from non-official sources.
I bring this up because some of our tipsters are really loyal. I got a call today from a woman on vacation in Michigan. She had heard about an incident in the Big Country and called to make sure we knew about it. That was the lead story on NoonTab,and KTAB News at 5, 6 and 10pm.
News takes no vacation. Its 24/7. A newsperson is on duty all the time. But we can't be everywhere. You don't have to be on call for us 24/7, but when you see something out of the ordinary, keep KTAB in mind. Remember, what happens a minute from now could be "The News That Hasn't Happened Yet."

This Time It Was Four

Tragedies come in threes.....not this time. David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. That's four. The biggest name in the recent string of deaths of entertainers, of course, is Michael. Carradine did tv and movies. Ed was the sidekick on the Tonight Show and did lots of commercials and Star Search. Farrah Fawcett was extremely popular for her tv shows and toys and dolls and her courageous battle with cancer. Any death is tragic, and these four leave families, friends and fans distraught. When you see or hear someone as often as we did these people, they can become a part of our extended family. Their passing can be emotional. And it points out our own mortality.
Of these four, though, Michael Jackson was the star. A Super Star. I played The Jackson 5 music when I was still a radio disc jockey. And, of course, followed his career from the news desk when he ended up in court.
It took 40 years to build his impression in our minds. Hard to believe that's all we have left (plus a record or cd and a poster).