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CNN 1989 - 1993
After anchoring Headline News each morning for over three years and being nominated for Cable's ACE Award as Cable Newcaster of the Year Paul Amos asked me upstairs to Anchor on CNN. It was a rare experience! No more just reading the news.
Covering LIVE-breaking news was the best part!
We all anchored around the clock at CNN during the First Gulf War when it was a really serious news operation.
Under the pressure from FOX its Journalism got badly entwined with showbiz. I rarely watch anymore. And, the strange mish-mash they now call HLN looks like something Fox would have squeezed out.
My most Unforgettable Experience? Interviewing Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and interrupting with the bulletin that the Berlin Wall was being taken down. That was Thursday, Nov.9th, 1989!
Senator Mitchell was as moved as I was and said, "I never expected to hear those words in my lifetime."
This image on the right shows part of a T-shirt sent to the CNN Anchors & Reporters by a New York Hotel thanking us for the incredible around-the-clock coverage of the war - when the "World Was Watching."
Sadly enough this was the group referred to by then CNN boss Tom Johnson as Ted Baxters. They deserved better! Johnson liked to talk about hiring NBC's Tom Brokaw and Bill Moyers. How many times have you fallen alseep watching Moyers? And, the Brokaw reference gave everyone a big laugh. For those of us in the trenches at CNN Johnson was known by the sobriquet,"friend of the rich and famous."
It was on Johnson's watch that Murdock and Roger Ailes beat CNN so handily. Johnson had no clue how to save CNN from the FOX "Fair and Balanced" crap! That's a great advertising slogan for people who can't think for themselves.
Tap above image for a YouTube lookback at what Headline News used to be like.
It was an excellent format that is sadly missing these days. I wish Ted had stayed on so the format would not have been tampered with.
selection of outtakes from my Local News days. I was very lucky to have worked with so many good people.
Tap Here and you'll meet many of my friends from
WAGA-TV and 11 ALIVE.
You might call this a sort of Blooper Reel.
I hope you enjoy it.
WXIA-TV, Atlanta 1976 - 1985, 6 & 11 PM Newscasts
EMMY Winner Nominated Four Years In A Row!
On the left: This is my son Michael working with a crew while we anchored our news from New Orleans during Sugar Bowl week when Georgia beat Notre Dame January 1, 1981. Mike turned 16 a couple of weeks later.
On the right: My daughter Kathy in the Anchor seat during a Children's Christmas party in 1977.
I was part of the team that started Eleven Alive News in the Fall of 1976. The Press referred to our news effort as The News Zoo Review. They weren't far off the mark.
As a start-up newscast it got a bit crazy at times. In those days Ch-11 was as close to a UHF station as you could get. It was a major job trying to get the attention of news viewers away from two really fine news operations - WSB-TV and WAGA-TV.
The moment I showed up from Los Angeles I knew I had made a bad mistake, but I was stuck with it, and did the best I could under really trying conditions. I should have stayed in LA.
Reporter/Anchor
Tap image for News Narration!
The Morning Report, 7 A.M., M - F.
In those days you were a one man band. You wrote and produced your own newscasts. You made the rear projection slides, and edited film. No crew, no camerman, and no teleprompter. When you saw yourself on the monitor - start talking. It was what you might call "no-frills" news.
Early in 1958 I volunteered for the Draft and spent most of my two years of Active Duty at Third Army Headquarters, Ft. McPherson, Atlanta, in the Third Army Information Office as a TV-Radio Broadcast Specialist.
It was a choice assignment and introduced me to the city of Atlanta. It was a great experience, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Served with a wonderful bunch of guys.
This shot was made to send to my Mom. They gave us two uniforms and expected us to buy a 2nd Green one. I preferred this historic one.
A shot from my old Yashica Mat at Headquarters Company, Ft. McPherson, 3rd Army Headquarters, Atlanta, Ga. This is the only car I have ever loved - my '57 Ford Fairlane 500 Convertible. What a car! I bought it while serving at Fort Mac!
While in service I worked nights at the ABC Radio Affiliate, WGST - then owned by Georgia Tech. When I left the Army I worked for GST writing news for ND Jack Hurst and reporting from one of the station's news wagons. I covered some of the first sit-ins during the early Civil Rights movement.
A few weeks later the Storer Station in Atlanta, WAGA-TV, called and offered me a job as a Staff Announcer. Before joining TV-5 I visited old friends at NBC in NY, and the great NBC Announcer Bill McCord told me, "Go down there and learn everybody's job." Good advice!
I did everything they asked me to do, and more - weekend sports, kids shows, movie hosting, interviews, 'live' commercials, Weekend and Morning News, and Weather. As a staff announcer in those days you did a lot of everything. Great experience!
The Navy called and asked, "Would you like to fly with the Blue Angels?" That was the fastest YES I ever gave.
There is no greater thrill! During the flight we did every maneuver they do in their shows.
I even took control of this A4 Skyhawk and did a 360 roll.
I knew then I should have signed up for Navy Flight - I'd give my eyetooth to land on one of our great Carriers!
(This photo was taken by my son,)
"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-filled wings."
of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
with Conductor Robert Shaw.
Maestro Shaw and I worked together
on this Telecast three years in a row.
Robert and I did a number of long-form interviews about music, and he once told me, "You're the only newsman I trust."
My most favorite compliment!
I wonder whatever happened to these guys!
This is the Silver Circle Award given to me in 1995.
The nicest honor I ever received!