Re: cable access.

As a person who has been involved in cable in Tulsa and OKC/Norman/Edmond for several years, I can offer the view from the "other side."

Yes, cable operators don't like fooling with public access, primarily because it costs money rather than generating revenue. It takes up a valuable channel that could be used to offer a network of greater interest to more people. Of course, cable owners wouldn't call that greedy; that's just good business sense. To a cable operator, "greedy" is broadcasters demanding that cable companies pay the broadcasters for carrying the broadcast station, even though the cable operator enhances their signal and delivers a better picture into the home than viewers get with the over-the-air signal. And "greedy" is broadcasters demanding free spectrum for HDTV, then deciding they want to use that spectrum for other things, and then going into a snit when Congress wants to charge money if the broadcasters don't stick with their original HDTV promise.

:) :) :)

But I digress. Public access is required by city franchises in OKC and Norman, but currently not in Tulsa and not in any other OKC area franchise. As the person who was ultimately responsible for public access in Norman for several years, I had to deal with two scary incidents.

In a nutshell, the FCC does not require cable ops to offer Access; but the rules state that if you DO offer it (or if a city requires it) then you must follow certain rules, and neither the cable op nor the city can interfere with what the user wants to say or show (you can't even bar "indecency," although you can bar "obscenity." Of course there are very few guidelines to help you know the difference.)

Any time a customer called to complain about some access show they found objectionable (for example some of the art students at OU occasionally do a show that some customers inaccurately call "obscene" and another group produces a show - I think it's still on - called "Gay Newsbreak" which is a monthly 30 minutes of news stories about gays and lesbians) I tell the customer to contact their city councilor in Norman.

Anyway, the first incident involved an abortion doctor who called me up one day incensed that someone had broken into his clinic in Norman and had stolen patient records. A cable access programmer had gotten hold of the records (the doctor was convinced the guy doing the program was the one who broke in) and used his access program to name names and dates of women who had recently had abortions there. He also showed explicit pictures he said came from the clinic. The doctor wanted us to pull the program (it was scheduled for a couple more airings). I advised him that under the law we couldn't pull the show unless he could get a court order. I sympathised with his plight, but our hands were tied.

The other incident involved the Ku Klux Klan, which requested airtime for a series of taped interviews with the head of the KKK. Most of the shows were very inflammatory; they were filled with hate and used vulgar terms for various minorities. Our staff person in Norman rejected the shows (without checking first with the home office in Edmond) and naturally the KKK guy went to the press decrying censorship. I checked with our Washington attorney, and of course, we had to back down on the denial (as I knew we would) and -- following several days of publicity in the paper and on TV -- the shows started airing.

I always brought up both of these incidents whenever any city councilor in another city suggested we offer public access in their town -- and the topic usually died right there.

Since Lowell mentioned Leon's work as a session musician, it's also worth noting that he produced many Top-40 records during the 60s.

He produced the hit records of Gary Lewis & The Playboys ("This Diamond Ring", "She's Just My Style") on which he played piano and other instruments. Tulsan Tommy Tripplehorn (Jeannie's dad) was guitarist for the group. It's worth noting that last time Gary Lewis was in Tulsa for a concert, he didn't mention either of 'em.

Leon also produced some records for Brian Hyland and Harper's Bizarre ("59th Street Bridge Song-Feelin' Groovy").

Most remember his work with Joe Cocker in the late 60s and early 70s, as he was putting his own first album together on Shelter Records.

Here is Leon at Oiler Park, 1971.

Since this site is eclectic and covers TV-related and non-TV related topics, I have to tell you that I, too, would like to own a Rickenbacker. Maybe someday. I suppose the most famous one is the shortneck played by John Lennon. The brand became wide-spread among rockers and bluesmen after its exposure via The Beatles. Incidently, I saw a kid in Claremore playing a Rickenbacker bass at a show this weekend.

Speaking of Rickenbackers and basses, our own Leon Russell played the bass for The Byrd's Mr. Tambourine Man. Unforgettable bass line.

John, the first Fender Strat I played was borrowed from Steve Ripley in 1976 for a rock'n'roll show in Weeletka. That instrument played itself and I have been a Fenderman since then. I still have a recording of the show. The crowd was so loud that I was singing "Hound Dog" in one key and the band was playing it another, but the guitar licks were hot and it sounds like everyone was having a lot of fun. I know I was.

My youngest daughter is a devotee of Animal Planet, and I agree "Emergency Vets" is on the ookie side (That's a Technical Term), especially at mealtimes (as they used to say in Atlanta when a gross story was about to air at breakfast time, "Enjoy your grits"). Although, having had to take the house kitty to the vet emergency room twice in a year, I especially respect those folks who work all night sewing up pets who have arguments with the family Ford, and calm down verrry upset owners.

Been buried on a project of late, but enjoying the repartee. I had heard it as both Bob Mills and Bob Hower as Raquel's discoverer, but inclined toward B. Mills.

Never got near a Rickenbacker, either the flying ace or the guitar, but owned a Gibson gitfiddle and always thought I'd play a whole lot better with either a Gibson Les Paul, a Gretsch Chet Atkins, or one of those high-octane Strats. (Didja know that Fender was once owned by CBS?)

I finally got my hands on a friend's Telecaster, and, doggone if I didn't still stink. Just couldn't manage those Roy Clark big note color-coded chord charts. My pal Wade Medlock, on the other hand, got a ShoBud steel guitar as a gift and picked it up instantly, no lessons.

Say, didn't Billy Parker have his own play-the-guitar course, or did he flog Roy Clark's in TV Commercials?

More string trivia: I think ShoBud was an amalgum of Shot Jackson and Buddy Emmons, two of the giants of 50's Nashville steel, who had the steels made to their orders.

There was Roy Clark's Big Note Songbook, with stick-on color dots for the chords, and then there was a TV commercial was for a push-button device that clamped onto the neck of the guitar. The "C" button formed a "C" chord for you, etc. Seems like that one was Billy Parker, but I could be wrong.

Thought Bob Hower hired Raquel Welch at KFMB in San Diego first! Or maybe knew her from her first TV work there.

If Bob worked with Regis there and Bob is ?? years old - should not Regis be a lot older, too?

Thanks for the Fantastic Theater info.

You are welcome, sir.

Until the last few years I had always heard that Sun-Up originator BOB MILLS "discovered" Raquel Welch when he took himself and the "Sun-Up" show to San Diego. Lately two or three others have claimed to have been her "discoverer," and, of course, Bob is now dead and can't dispute this.

I don't claim to know "the truth" on this, but I DO know that Bob scoured Tulsa for good-looking girls to come in and read temperatures on Sun-Up while he was here...and he came up with some nifties!

In any case, the Arts and Entertainment (A&E) cable network is scheduled to repeat its Biography study of Raquel Saturday night (August 4) at 7 and 11 p.m., Central Daylight time. In the San Diego section of this program is a quick shot of Mills looking over Raquel's shoulder (don't blink or you'll miss it). That is, the Tulsa World shows Raquel to be "on" Saturday night; it's not in the current "Biography" Magazine, but programs have changed after press time before.

I see ex-KTUL anchor Rea Blakey - who formerly was with WJLA-TV here (channel 8's sister station in DC) -- is now doing medical reporting on CNN from Washington.

Let's just say Ed Dumit is 39+ years old!

Congrats!

Someone mentioned upcoming birthdays here a few days ago. That reminded me that I wanted to tell everyone that Edward Dumit has a birthday on August 14.

It doesn't seem wise to post Edward's home address here (there might, after all, be someone who still wants to dispute a grade from 1963), but if you guys who love Edward so much and are so grateful to him for your careers (such as they are) would like to send him birthday cards here at the station, I'll make sure that he gets them. The station address is KWGS, 600 S College, Tulsa, 74104.

And, no, I don't know how old he'll be. Most days, I can't remember how old I am....

Re my comments on infomercials - did not mean Proactiv is a charlatan brand - it does not seem to be.

But in the world of infomercials - you have hope, false hope and quacks. Proactiv is a "hope". Interspersed with any infomercial block of programming are the things that just don't sound right or smell right. Ever notice in the weight loss shows 85% of the models are under 30 and in a bikini? They needed to lose weight?

One of those "ab" shows does show rather bovine folks at a car dealer losing weight by using an "ab" machine at work - but ya know they never look like they lost much.

We used to joke about background players and models showing up in various different shows as different people. The folks at home never notice...

We have interns here - but we are PAID to have them by area colleges. Never have heard of this - remember when the World or Tribune paid interns either $100 a week or $100 a month in the 70's and you got use of a Nikon some days.

At a previous employer here in DC - the best interns were often immediately hired as entry workers after their internship. We would give the best interns any where from $300 to $1000 after a Summer of good works - in a good year.

With Chandra Levy - we joke - we can't find the interns we have - so someone started paging her here one day. The twisted humor logic? She's a missing intern. We can't find interns when WE need them here - therefore she must be here!

I am covering some Master Control shifts today - vacation relief for my staff.

Skills I learned too darned long ago at KTUL.

Unfortunately I am on duty during the "infomercial block" on GoodLife TV - a basic cable net. Ugh - Proactiv acne shows and near charlatan medical shows gross me out.

So as I type this at our QC (quality control) station PC - had to turn off the neighboring monitor - we are dubbing "Emergency Vets" For Animal Planet - this contract ends in 3 weeks. Had a surgical video running thru. Nothing like watching dog leg surgery at 8am. I know the dogs are knocked out but the surgical tray with 3 Makita cordless drills on it, scares the jeezums out of me. On a network that is supposedly animal-friendly and as previously posted here - can't show "animal genitals, animal on animal violence, animal sex or homosexuality.." the "play by play" of surgery with numerous shots of the actual work - is hard to stomach.

Gimme kitties needing quaaludes any day!

Have these animals no shame?

We just heard that TTM contributor Don Lundy's Dad - Denny - died last week.

He was a fun guy and will be missed.

So sorry, Don.

Mr. Lundy is cited here in the "Turnpike Express" section on news departments trading tapes with OKC stations. He was a career Greyhound driver and after he retired - he moonlighted shuttling Wonder Bread semi loads between Tulsa and OKC.

To Mike Bruchas: The mighty and majestic Rickenbacker line of guitars...they are in the same league as Gibson or Fender. For the definitive Rick bass sound, listen to Chris Squire of Yes (Close to the Edge is a good starting point). The fantastic 12 string sound is best represented by the Byrd's Mr Tambourine Man, 8 miles high, or Turn, Turn, Turn. My brother Steve has/had a Rick lap steel which he says has a rather distorted tone...maybe he'll post his comments. Eddie Ricketyback (a parody of the flying ace done in Li'l Abner's strip for a while). Amen.

Lowell, here's something for you and all other Six Flags Over Texas mavens:

http://www.jump.net/~alanr/

It's their "former employee contact" webpage. Once in, you'll see two scrollbars. Scroll down the left one and click on several different links, including "memories page", "gone but not forgotten" and several images of old park maps and rides. Scroll down the right one and click "This Old Park" for a few more memories and pictures, plus a concept of how the park may change later on. There's lots of other stuff to see, too.

I spent much of my childhood in Texas and went to Six Flags year after year from the early sixties to the mid-eighties (haven't been there since, I'm sorry to say) and remember many vanished features, such as the aforementioned Skull Island with the Tree House Slide (fun, but somewhat dangerous. Guests would be given a burlap rug to ride down on and would sometimes slip off and get friction burns.), burro rides for the kiddies, the fast, electronic "Big Bend" roller coaster (dismantled after a fatal accident), the Superslide, which was attached to the oil derrick (dismantled after many non-fatal ones), the riverboat ride (replaced by "Rolling Rapids") a Mexican train that took you inside a volcano, and many others, especially the beloved "Spelunker Cave" ride for overheated guests (There's a petition on the site to bring it back.), which I would ride time after time. There were also "pom-pom hat" stands for silly headgear with your name sewn on and little carts selling yummy cherry-dairy frozen concoctions called "pink things" (Anyone know where I might find some now? I miss 'em!)

Y'all have fun, now!!

OETA is running another fund-raising campaign in August, and one of the features to be seen Saturday (August 4) is titled, "The German Americans," noting the contributions of German immigrants and their descendants to the USA. It also touches on their troubles with the natives in World Wars I and II. This is the program I commented on in March which features Harry Volkman in several places. It set me off on the treatment of "enemy aliens," but my remarks happily led to the location of KOTV's one-time Japanese intern, Kazuo Gomi. Volkman wasn't an "enemy alien," of course; he eventually went into the Army when he became old enough and got training that started him on a lifetime of weather forecasting, at KOTV, WKY-TV, KWTV, and just about all the channels in turn in Chicago.

"The German Americans" is to run for an hour between four and five-thirty p.m. Saturday (interrupted a couple of times by "pledge breaks," of course).

Rickenbacker or is that Richenbacher? My compadre here has one of them guitars here. Any Tulsa-ite play 'em?

Sorry no relation to the late famous Cap'n Eddie R. I hear...Boy AM I dating myself to invoke the name of that WW1 ace!

BSO - one of co-workers has seen them 3 times this year in different venues and Setzer has a new jazzy trio album out I hear. If any of you are guitar madmen - e-mail me and I will connect you with that BIG BSO fan who is doing studio work here too besides workin' for me....He has a collection of guitars.

Me - I just wish I could play one! Am string-challenged in my old age but somehow played the cello for 8 years as a kid....

Are ANY of you having connection problems? The Code Red thing may have snarled up my work 'puter net...We shut down about twice a day irregardless of anti-virus stuff, in fact before Code Red last week had other viruses "testing" us....

Not TTM but boy howdy -I am gettin' addicted to the BSO.

No not the Bartlesville Symphony - the Brian Setzer Orchestra. Only big band led by a guitarist. Does rock & roll and boogie with a guitar twang with a big brassy band. Some country mixed in with an homage or 2 to Bob Wills but not in Wills style. Kind of the Ventures meets Commander Cody with the Les Brown Orchestra...Quirky but rockin'.....

He's moved back to more of a Stray Cats format recently, but that live BSO CD is awfully good. Saw the Stray Cats in T-Town back in 1983. They were promoting Dos Equis beer onstage at the Brady as I recall...

Dave Jones is/was Scott Blaker's brother-in-law I think. Dave left Tulsa and has done 1-2 stints at WATL in Hotlanta as Chief Engineer, been a Sony Systems bigwig, ran a video production unit at either Disney or Universal Florida and a scad of a lot of other neat things that I forget all of - now. I have not heard from him in 4-5 years - he was living in NC and I think had then lost his wife. He has a kid or 2 I think that he dotes on.

He came a long way from KRAV radio - when Kravis fired/laid off so many good voices back in the '70's - Dave was the luckiest survivor. You know he was at 2 as a weatherman way back when then at 8 as an announcer before the channel 41 deal. He's a good person with a great mind who works very hard at anything he undertakes!

If I remember right, the City/County Cable TV station was shut down as soon as Jim Inhofe was elected mayor and realized it was hard to look intelligent when people could see your meetings live on tv.

The last time I saw Dave Jones was in the late '80s when they had the NAB here in Dallas. He was working at a station in Missouri if I remember right.

At one time, after Tom Ledbetter left the library basement, Dave Jones ran the operation at Tulsa Cable TV's public access channel.

This was the same Dave Jones that worked at various times at most Tulsa radio stations, including KAKC while attending Memorial High School in '66. He's a TU grad.

Dave was responsible for helping me get into the door at Channel 8, and I followed him to KGCT TV-41 in 1981. He left after the noble experiment of news on the Main Mall ended in the summer of '81, and was later responsible for the Disney Studios in Orlando.

If anyone knows his whereabouts, please post it.

My first TV "job" was at the city/county cable TV channel in the basement of the central library.

I was a volunteer during my senior year in high school and spent many hours there doing programs and covering the city commission meetings.

It was run by Tom Ledbetter, and there was a small staff of great people who turned out some pretty nice stuff. They were also very helpful with advice on getting my first paid tv job.

Covering the commission meetings was very interesting technical accomplishment. The consoles with the switcher, audio and camera controls were on wheels. We'd unhook all the cables in the library control room and just roll the consoles across the civic center parking garage to the commission meeting room.

It was a great learning experience for me.

Thank you, Michael, it was indeed Robert Horton of NBC's "Wagon Train" who visited CBS affiliate KOTV. It was too long ago to remember the reason, although it was known he thought he was ready for the lead role in a series. I had enough trouble remembering that his name was NOT Robert Wagner ("Hart to Hart"), which reminds me that I connected with Stefanie Powers about 1961 or 1962 in Beaumont. She was on a promotional trip for her first film (no, I don't remember the name...probably "Tammy Tell Me True" or "Experiment in Terror"; see this link to the IMDb...webmaster) (and was traveling with her mother, doggone it!).

Yvonne DeCarlo may have been hyping "The Munsters," but I couldn't pay a lot of attention since I came on at 12 noon with the news and Betty Boyd followed immediately at 12:15 with the "Woman's Page." I believe OETA has shown some film of this interview in past retrospectives.

Norman Cable Access in the 80's was run by Susan Scull-Mathes - formerly of KOCO.

They and I think their sister system in Moore OK had great access programming - Norman was swimming in cooking shows done at restaurants. Some were exchanged with other cable systems across the country. Susan's access fiefdom expanded - before she & hubby moved to NJ - to running several systems' access programming and I remember her having to juggle 1 or 2 camera crews to cover 4th of July and other big event parades in different Central OK towns.

Norman native actor James Garner's brother - a Mr.Baumgarner who was then an exec at a Norman bank - was a big booster of access programming I remember.

Regarding M. Bruchas' question about other A&M schools in Oklahoma.

Yes, the school that is now called Oklahoma Panhandle State University was once an A&M school. It started out in 1909 as Pan-Handle Agricultural Institute and in 1921 was renamed Panhandle A&M College (or, as it was called by locals, "Pamsie," for its initials "PAMC"). They shortened the name to Panhandle State College in 1967. In 1974 they turned it into a 4-year school and gave it its current name.

The school is best known for its rodeo team, which won the College National Finals Rodeo this year for the third time (winning $14,000 from the makers of Skoal tobacco).

Thanks Ricardo. Tom Ledbetter (aka Shaggy Dog on Mr. Zing's show) was the person from Tulsa I talked with about access there. I couldn't remember his name. I should have: He was a Central graduate of 1950, and was married to my '51 classmate, Pat Hartline, who died many years ago.

Austin used to have the premier public access operation in the country. They had three channels that were filled with programming, most of it very good.

I made 563 one-hour programs over a 19 year period, and distributed them around the country to 258 cities and suburbs. It is ironic that my award-winning show could be seen all over the US and in some foreign countries, but not in my old home town of Tulsa.

In the earliest days of cable TV in Tulsa, when Tulsa Cable Television was chartered, it was mandated that to have and keep its charter, it must offer public access to the citizens of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Therefore, they built a rudimentary studio in the basement of the Central Library, downtown, and any citizen of the city could come there, and be given five minutes of wire time on the cable. I believe that Tom Ledbetter was the operator of the "studio" but I'm not entirely positive about this......anyway, as the days and years passed, and new and more greedy owners of the cable system came and went.....the public access end of the spectrum seemed to slowly (?) dry up and blow away, like the dust behind the 2" machines in KOTV's garage...........

For a look at great local access, check out Minneapolis...Paragon Cable......all kinds of things there..........one of the best government channels is there.....just flips through the highway surveillance cameras, while the audio is an FM jazz station, operated by Minnesota Dept. of Transportation......no commercials, regular traffic reports, (live) and great jazz.....if there is a major accident, the jazz is interrupted with continuous traffic update until the snarl is cleared......this station operates 24/7..........it is way cool

This is not TV-related but there are two birthdays this month that folks in the bizniss cannot slight. First, Louis Armstrong would have turned 100 on August 4 this year. Newly discovered baptismal records have revealed Satchmo's birthdate as 8/4/01, not July 4, 1900, as he always claimed.

Also, Six Flags is 40 years old this month. The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram is publishing a nice series on the theme park. Not only is the Six Flags name the best known in entertainment, world-wide, but it is based right here in Oklahoma (OKC).

P.S. I was pleased that the Ft. Worth newspaper interviewed me for the series they are doing on SFOT. If they use the material, I will let you know.

Please do!

I walked around Sheridan Village (seen and discussed in Guestbook 84) over the weekend. The ramp to the roof is still there, but fenced off at the top. The escalator has been replaced by stairs and an elevator...

Here are some free virTUal Tulsa greeting cards at TU's site that you can send to friends.

Great to see all the names of people I used to know and work with....wow!

Just to set the record straight.....and no ego here at all......I, Uncle Zip, was not part of the Uncle Zeb show......I had my own show......Uncle Zip's Do Da Day!....Sonny did all the voice overs for the bumps......arms up stretched....."Wahoo!"

Anyway........I am growing to really like this place.....kind of grows on ya huh?

By the way, Uncle Zeb taught me everything I needed to know to host a kids show.......he was great and I always appreciate what he taught me.....I had a blast doing that show. And, I miss doing it.......even to this day!

Dick

Thanks for the correction, Dick...it has been added to the Zeb page.

Thanks Andre Hinds! I NEVER knew of the A&M college there. What other schools are A&M class now? Was Panhandle State one?

My college room-mate, Dan Curran, was from Neosho, MO which was SW MO School of Mines as I recall - but I never knew of the college in Miami, OK!

Of course us old-timers remember when Rogers State U was Claremore College and before that - OMA - Oklahoma Military Academy.

Re: Name dropping. My two most memorable interviews were both conducted at Tulsa International Airport. Alice Cooper and Mother Teresa. How's that for extremes?

Let's not forget your interview with Jayne Mansfield!

I'm curious as to why public access TV never got developed in Tulsa. It has flourished around the country, even in towns that are considerably smaller than Tulsa.

I realize that the Tulsa power structure has always had a tight grip on things. Maybe the city fathers never put pressure on the cable company to provide this service. In every city the local power structure and media do not want it. The cable industry also has fought public access all around the country.

In 1978, I talked with a man who said he was hired by the Tulsa cable company to try to develop access. He said that there was no public interest in the medium---a highly unlikely claim, considering how many people are producing programs all over the country.

It is a real scandal that a city the size and character of Tulsa has never had public access.

I am here to correct a message posted on June 09 2001 at 22:30:3 by David Crow sometime ago in relation to what he called "to be the creator, host and producer" of OSU's first TV show. Maybe as a comedy show it was the first, but the most covered and denounced show was OSU's very first and only talk show called "OSU Shoot Out." I was the creator, and producer of the show rightfully labeled the very first of its kind at OSU. The URL for more info: http://www.ocolly.okstate.edu/issues/1999_Fall/991101/stories/osushootout.html and you may run a search at google.com under "Randy Lidster". As to Mr. Crow's show, congratulations but please do not take the title of OSU's first ever TV show.

Here is the O'Colly announcement about David's show: http://www.ocolly.com/issues/2000_Spring/000121/Stories/comedy.html.

If (as in Guestbook 85) we are going to "name drop" (Julie Newmar, Catherine Deneuve) I'll throw in my interview with the late Ginger Rogers in Shreveport in the late l970s.

As the photographer with me started setting up our camera backstage for the interview, he reached for the close-up lens. Ginger spoke up, "You're not going to do that to me, are you?"

Ginger need not have worried; she was still great-looking, in or out of a close-up. But we were certainly impressed with her knowledge of her "trade." On the other hand, we probably shouldn't have been. As women's groups like to point out, "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels!"

(No, Mike, I don't have a commemorative photo. I may still have a picture of me with Zsa Zsa Gabor somewhere, but I am reluctant to bring it out because it doesn't show her at her effervescent best.) I don't remember why she was in Tulsa, but this was November, 1956, at the exact time that Soviet tanks were crushing the revolt in her native Hungary. KOTV was still running "cheapo" at the time and we didn't have a sound camera to take out; any "outside" photos were taken with a camera Polaroid let us have for promotional announcements.

A few years later, Yvonne DeCarlo came to the studio for an interview with Betty Boyd...and the young secretaries were thrilled when a "young gun" from NBC's "Wagon Train" came by--I think his name was Robert Walker. I may have been most impressed the morning Phyllis Diller, just starting out, dragged herself out of bed in time to appear on "Sun-Up" with Bob Mills (at SEVEN AYEM!)

Probably Robert Horton or Robert Fuller from "Wagon Train"...but that series was on NBC and ABC, so why did a CBS affiliate get a visit? Was Yvonne DeCarlo's visit in support of "The Munsters"?

Ginger did about three movies (not all musicals) to every one she did with Fred. Fred did all the choreography with Hermes Pan, who played Ginger to Fred, and Fred to Ginger. Ginger had to quickly learn the fully worked-out dance steps.

Regarding M. Bruchas' question about NEO A&M in Miami:

It's only been around since 1919. It started out, I believe, as the Oklahoma School of Mines, what with all the mining activity in the far northeastern part of the state after the turn of the last century.

NEO is unique in that it is the only two-year college in the state with a football team. It has won several national championships (I covered one of those championship games when I worked for the Tulsa Tribune in the late 70's/early 80's). It was also notable in providing the Barry Switzer OU teams with a lot of talent (high school players who couldn't come up with good enough ACT scores would spend a year or two at NEO and then transfer to OU).

My old Berryhill high school football coach, Jerry Carroll, spent a couple of years at NEO as the President of the school a few years ago.

On job posting site www.flipdog.com is a listing for a TV instructor at NE Oklahoma A&M College in Miami, OK.

Is this a new school? Did not think OK was chartering any more A&M colleges.

Do they have a TV station like KRSC does?

To Dick Van Dera: sorry about Carol. She was a good doobie and a fun person.

Well it has been a long time since I have been here. I wish I would have stayed with it. Just read about Gene Tincher. I can't add to what I have read so far. I too worked late nites with him....he was a very funny and gentle man. Only wish I could have emailed him now.

I left channel eight in the early 90's and just cut myself off from everybody I guess. Stayed in touch with Gary, Davis, Doug, and Harold for a while. I haven't seen any of those guys in a long while.

For those of you who knew my wife Carol, she had a 3 year battle with cancer and passed away Dec. of '99. Thought some of you might like to know.

Closing for now.....but I will be back this time. Dick

Dick, I'm sorry to hear about your loss. We're glad to have you writing again.

For those not in the know, Dick played Uncle Zip on Uncle Zip's Do Da Day.

Just found a link of interest to those in search of TV News themes and more: NBC10 InfoSite.

Archived Guestbook 85.

Satellite Program Network/TEMPO Television was the last topic mentioned. Several available TV jobs were posted. There may be a "MAINTAIN: A concert of video realizations" page coming soon. TV jingle/music packages were discussed in depth. Extreme Tulsa weather of the past was recalled. TTM just got a whole lot of new space for media clips, thanks to Tim Schmitz. The webmaster boasted of his own private poolside radio station. Finally, we saw a picture of Julie Newmar from last year's Trek Expo. Looking darn good for 67.