Say Six!

The First WCIX News Team

2012-01-05T21:01:00.008-05:00

I always love hearing from former Channel 6’ers, especially when they are willing to share pictures and memories from the old independent days.

One such person is Glenn Lewis, who ran the film lab back when the news department was first getting started. Glenn was kind enough to share a photograph of the first WCIX news team, along with some of his recollections.

Click on the picture to view it full size.

"The man on the left, I think was Ned Powers, and he did the weather. The story behind the picture is that Bob Sheridan (screen right, next to Prescott Robinson) and Ned had opened a bar and wanted something to hang behind the bar.

I think this was the first news set. Also, I think it was the only station where you had to punch in at a time clock. Ted (Adams, the general manager) was such a tightwad. He thought we were cheating on overtime.

Moving the cobwebs from my brain, I remember things from the first Ten O'Clock news. I might get their names wrong.

The first news director was John Pike, Dick (Descutner) was asst ND at the time.
Nancy Palmer was production manager.
Jack Cowart was chief engineer.
Guss Cado was the assignment editor.
Mike Jueao was chief photo.
Andy Kay was a news cameraman.
Cliff Albertson was the director."

Thanks Glenn. This was well before my time at the station, but some things were slow to change. When I started (March 1980) we still had the time clock. It was there for several years, at least until Taft took over.

Do you have any pictures, videos, or just plain memories of the old WCIX? Please feel free to share them with this blog and its readers. WCIX may now be a part of Miami’s past, but its history is still very much a part of who we are. Don’t be shy.

1992 News Bloopers… After Hurricane Andrew

2011-11-08T13:56:00.004-05:00

It’s been said that laughter is the best medicine, an adage that was proven time and time again at the old Channel 6… especially after the summer of 1992.

1992. Just the mention of that year brings trepidation to many South Floridians, who remember a visitor named Andrew who tore, uninvited, through the neighborhoods of South Miami-Dade. Newsroom employees were not immune.

It’s tough enough reporting a hurricane of that magnitude, which caused billions of dollars in damage and dozens of deaths. It was even tougher, considering so many of us – from our general manager and news director on down – lost possessions, even our homes in the storm. Andrew also blew down our tower in the Redland, meaning no one could see our newscasts for several days (unless they tuned in to low power Channel 27, which wasn’t very likely). For many at the station, nothing would ever be the same. It was tough enough just holding on, let alone having to report on all the misery, all the destruction, all the scars and traumas. Like the song from the musical Mame said, “We need a little Christmas, right this very minute.” What we needed… was laughter.

Enter WCIX videographer Mark Griffin, who assembled some of the best news bloopers from the year. The tape you’re about to see proves several things:

1. We had no luck with white Bengal tigers.
2. You never know when the moon will be coming out at a Ross Perot “victory” party.
3. Dan Rather doesn’t wait to celebrate Thanksgiving.
4. Judge Murray Meyerson is one calm guy.
5. Former U.M. quarterback Gino Torretta was a good player, but not good enough to inspire Beatlemania.

It’s great to see some of the faces from the past here on this tape. A word of warning, though: all news blooper tapes contain profanity, and material of a sexual nature. You might want to wait until the kids or the boss leave the room to play this, but by all means, DO play it. It’s sure to bring a smile.

Thank you, Mark, for sharing this, and reminding us of the importance of laughing – even if it’s at ourselves.

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Look At Us, We're Walking

2011-07-13T12:11:00.013-04:00

“Look at us, we’re walking!
Look at us, we’re talking!
We who’ve never walked or talked before…”

If you were anywhere near a television in the 1960s, you might have a vague recollection of those haunting lyrics from the ghost of telethons past. There are earworms, and there are earworms: songs that stick in our heads, and remain there for decades, somewhere in the mirror of our minds. You can dice ‘em, slice ‘em, and Shout ‘em out, but they remain like distant echoes from what seems like several lifetimes ago.

Telethons are almost an anachronism today. Yes, they still exist, but with so many channels to choose from, and so many entertainment options, who has time to sit through a weekend full of people begging for money? Back in TV’s so-called golden age, that was not the case. The annual telethons – Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy – were events. No matter how cool we were, we still tuned in to the Labor Day tradition, which at one time was also a WCIX tradition.

“Look at us, we’re laughing.
We’re happy and we’re laughing.
Thank you from our hearts, forever more.”

No one is more closely associated with those lyrics -- that earworm -- than Dennis James, for a long time the face of the annual Cerebral Palsy Telethon. James would be singing while the kids paraded around in wheelchairs and braces, some of them looking like they’re rather be on Mars than on that stage. That awkward but effective scene serves as a reminder of a time, before political correctness, when anyone who looked different was “them”, and the rest of us were… well, “us”--and yet once a year we reached out, and said “I’ll be there”, in the hope that a cure would be right around the corner.

“There are so many other children,
Who only speak with a silent prayer.
For those who haven’t been so lucky,
We hope and pray you will always care.”

I’m not sure how Vic Damone, a pop singer best-known for his recording of “On The Street Where You Live” (and this provocative, cleavage-heavy video from the early ‘60s), came to record the song… backed by the Barry College Choir. The Brooklyn-based entertainer made the recording for Art Records of Miami, a label whose roster through the years included a teen garage band (The Echoes), rockabilly artists, and even WCIX weatherman Don Franklin. Damone’s recording brings back a lot of memories for me, and might do the same for you. I’ve uploaded an .mp3 to megaupload, for those who would like to check it out. (Please right-click on the link to download the song, so you don't lose the rest of this post.)

Of course the granddaddy of all TV fundraisers is Jerry Lewis’ Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, which through the years has brought its share of surprises… and train wrecks. One year actress Joan Crawford showed up visibly sloshed, reading a rather inappropriate poem about clumsy children. Another year Jerry Lewis, exhausted and sleep-deprived, referred to somebody as a fag, a horrible choice of words that caused its share of controversy (rightfully so).

Somewhere along the way I lost interest in telethons, and simply stopped watching… as did many people around my age. But I bet there will be a larger than usual audience this year, when Jerry Lewis takes the stage one final time. The 85-year-old comedian, suffering from heart problems and chronic back pain, will call it quits after September’s telethon, having already helped to raise more than a billion dollars through the years. He plans to sing his signature song, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, one last time -- for after all, it is music that moves us. It is music that calls us to action, and remains in our minds for decades and decades. For me, it’s that other song that refuses to let go; a call to action for the so-called TV Generation that has, time after time, responded in abundance.

“Someday they’ll be walking.
Someday they’ll be talking,
Imagine walking to the candy store.
But the fight has just begun.
Get behind us everyone,
Your dollars make our dreams come true.
Thanks to you.
Thanks to you.”*

*“Look At Us We’re Walking!” by Gettinger & Reed. An internet search turned up no current publisher or copyright information.

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** UPDATE August 4, 2011 **

Now it turns out Jerry Lewis has been "released" from his position as national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association... and he will NOT be appearing on this year's telethon. No one is saying exactly what happened, but there's no doubt something did happen. This could not have been an easy decision for the MDA, since it will likely cost the organization millions in donations. Of course, somewhere some TV programmer is bemoaning all the additional viewers that have been lost, too.

Ralph Renick's Final Years

2011-04-26T00:01:00.003-04:00

The end of the line is a sad place to be. We’ve all seen it.

Willie Mays, one of the greatest baseball players ever, stumbling with the Mets in 1973… hitting only .211 with just six home runs.

Chuck Berry at age 84, going through the motions on stage, not really concerned about what he’s doing to those classic old songs he created.

Yet we cheer for them. Encourage them. Want so much to see them, be around them, and to share in their auras, for the performers they once were and will always represent.

I don’t know Willie Mays or Chuck Berry, but I did know a living legend. Even though he was just a shell of the giant he created, it was still an honor to know, and dare I say, help him.

If you’re under 30, don’t live in the U.S.A., or paid no attention to television news, then you might not know the name Ralph Renick. The rest of us, especially those who grew up in South Florida, know the image, the accomplishments, the legend.

Renick came into my life in 1988, when his agent – the man who ordered my firing from WNWS eight years earlier – negotiated a comeback deal for the veteran newsman. WCIX News Director Larry Wallenstein, who’d worked with Renick at WTVJ, had the idea to return Renick to the South Florida airwaves… as a commentator. It was a familiar role. Renick had pioneered the television editorial, nearly 40 years earlier. Heck, Renick had pioneered just about everything, when it came to TV news in South Florida.

It was hard not to feel intimidated by the man’s accomplishments, but the ego that I’d heard so much about was not on display. The Ralph Renick that went to work at Channel 6 was a lot more down-to-earth than we could have expected. When Renick was given the added task of hosting Insight, the Sunday morning public affairs show that I produced, I got the chance to work closely with him; to write his copy, and to help with questions for our guests. Renick had the final say in what topics we chose, which meant indulging him at times. (He earned that right. I didn’t.) Then, on January 23, 1989, Renick was called on to anchor one final newscast – the last he’d ever do. He insisted that I produce it. Surprisingly, he opted not to write any of his own copy, concentrating instead on the performance he’d need to give that night. Had I known it would be his last-ever newscast, I would have kept the aircheck. Unfortunately that show is lost forever. I’d be lying if I said it was one of his best, but it didn’t need to be. It was Ralph Freaking Renick! Like Willie Mays and Chuck Berry, this was a living legend, doing the thing that made him that way. Not all of Picasso’s etchings are aesthetically pleasing, but they’re still Picassos.

Memo from our bosses about Renick, dated August 29, 1990. Click image to view it full size.

Ralph Renick left WCIX in September 1990. To the casual observer, it might have appeared that he’d been coasting during his last few months at the station. Officially, he was moving on to devote more time to public broadcasting and his community work, but unofficially, there was something else brewing that just wasn’t talked about. Ralph Renick was ill.

It was one of Miami television’s best-kept secrets… to the general public… but we insiders knew that something was wrong. As the months passed, it became clear Renick was dying. Had it been any other local legend, the news reports would have been plentiful, but this was a colleague whose right to privacy we all respected. I’m not saying that was right or wrong, but again, he earned it. After all, where would any of us had been had Ralph Renick not taken to the airwaves back in 1949?

Renick’s battle with hepatitis and liver cancer ended on July 12, 1991. He was 62. We all wrote tributes to the man and his legend, but it was the station he put on the map – WTVJ Channel 4 – that captured his spirit the best. What follows is the first block of a 30-minute special that WTVJ aired that night. It was co-anchored by Bob Mayer, who was given his start in TV news, decades earlier, by none other than Ralph Renick. The audio is low, and there are a few video glitches, but still the pictures are priceless.

Renick had been chairman of the advisory board of the Louis Wolfson Media History Center. The footage that follows (about the blight on Miami Beach) is part of their archives, which stand as a tribute not only to him, but to all the other local broadcasting pioneers.

I still have the Christmas card that Renick sent me in December 1990 – less than 7 months before his death. In it, he wished me good luck on my forthcoming book, which he called “fascinating”. I consider that one of the greatest compliments I ever received.

Christmas card from Ralph Renick, December 1990. Click to view full size.

Ralph Renick might not have been the powerhouse he once was, but for those of us at the old Channel 6… he didn’t need to be. He just needed to be himself, and an important part of our team, as we slowly grew more competitive in the tough Miami news market. Twenty years after his death, he remains the single most important figure in Florida broadcasting history. None of us will ever forget him.

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1-11-11 (Remembering 1111 Brickell Avenue)

2011-01-11T10:19:00.009-05:00

Anyone with even a passing interest in numerology is talking about this date (1-11-11). The internet is abuzz with theories about prophecies, new cycles of light, and spiritual awakenings.

I don't have a clue what it all means, but seeing all those 11's reminds me of a now-demolished, funky round building at 1111 Brickell Avenue in Miami. An office building behemoth now stands in the spot where we used to produce newscasts, The White Baron, To The Point!, Frankly Speaking, Duck Duck Goose, and so many other shows. The bankers and brokers that now occupy that building probably have no clue that at one time, it was our home away from home.

WCIX was a numerologist's dream in those days. Not only was our address 1111, but our phone number ended in 666! I got my start in television there, and many others did, too. A round building with a cement pond in the middle isn't exactly the ideal design for a TV station, but somehow we all made it work.

Most of us were anxious to move to a more functional location. When we made our exit to Doral in September 1985, I for one was thrilled. I remember saying I wanted to look forward, not back. I felt nothing when Cuyahoga Wrecking came in and demolished the rotunda blunda. Good riddance! I didn't think I would miss it one bit. Looks like I was wrong again.

I don't know much about new cycles of light or whatever. All I know is the number 1111 will always be significant to me. Maybe we should all meet on Brickell at 11:11, when 11/11/11 rolls around later this year. If only we could find a spot with an old cement pond...

The Morning After Blues

2010-12-27T17:40:00.010-05:00

With New Years Eve approaching, and with it the temptation to coddle the bottle, I felt it was my duty to share this music video by Dr. Steve Greenberg & Rafael (Ralph) Murciano. Doc Steve was WCIX’s health reporter – and a master of creative storytelling--so this was not your usual “don’t drink and drive” message. Nothing preachy, no stiff talking heads, none of the usual TV clichés: Steve and Ralph instead decided to drive the point home, using music. Powered by a Willie Dixon blues riff, they wrote, produced, and directed the video you are about to see.

I opted to use the off-the-air version, because it includes the intro from weathercaster-turned-newsman Bob Soper. Some people have forgotten that he spent many years at Channel 6, following his stint at WSVN Channel 7. One of my jobs around this time was to work with Soper, showing him the ins-and-outs of news writing. Soper, as you’d expect, was a quick study, and made a rather seamless transition to the anchor chair.

The Say Six! Blog wishes all of our readers a safe and happy new year. If you must drink, then follow Steve and Ralph’s advice. And be sure to check out Steve’s Gadget Nation, for a look at his successful post-news career.

Christmas In The Newsroom

2010-12-17T00:02:00.003-05:00

December 24, 1989:

General Manuel Noriega is given asylum at the Vatican embassy in Panama City, four days after President George Bush orders an invasion of Panama.

Uh oh.

How dare the indicted strongman-turned-drug-trafficking-suspect give in, and give up… on Christmas Eve?

How could he do something so… how do I say it?... NEWSWORTHY… on a night when there are like three people in the entire newsroom?

Welcome to my nightmare.

So it was off to the phones, first calling manager-on-duty Caryn Brooks. “So Caryn, what do you suggest?” Caryn had some wonderful ideas… for a normal night. But this was Christmas Eve! Where were we going to get three reporters, three camera operators, another editor, and the engineering help we’d need to pull this off?

Caryn went into full manager mode, pretty much telling people they HAD to show up… on short notice… on Christmas Eve.

Oh, they were pissed. One cameraman – I’ll refrain from naming him, because he was basically a nice guy – railed several times how it was Jews forcing him to work, and why didn’t we bring more Jews in instead of him? I never saw this side of him before, and never saw it again after that night. It was Christmas Eve, so he gets a mulligan. But I mention it to show just how much people hate to have their holiday celebrations interrupted by the chance that (real) news might just break out.

I thought of that fateful Christmas Eve after watching this skit reel offering, from the early years following the CBS takeover of WCIX. Reporters Al Sunshine and Stephen Lankford, videographers Ralph Murciano, Luis Medellin, and Tony Jerez, and writer/producers Caryn Brooks, Dan Leveton, and Shannon High (pre-Bassalik, several years before returning as news director) all take part in this light-hearted spoof. You’ll also catch a glimpse of news director Paul Stueber, and feed room coordinator Evy Woods. A word of warning: Christmas reel skits often contain profanity, and this one is no exception. Even without the sound, some might be offended, so you might want to watch this clip when the kids and the boss aren’t around.

A Night At The Oprah

2010-10-28T05:00:00.005-04:00

It was my first time inside a television studio in more than eleven years. That self-imposed drought ended in a big way this month, not at some small-market network affiliate, but at one of the biggest media outlets in the country.

I’d never even watched a full episode of Oprah… but all of a sudden I was chosen to be a participant in not one, but two tapings that the producers were calling “historic”. An estimated 10,000 men applied, but only 200 were selected. Don Shetterly and I were among them.

Harpo Productions took care of everything. They paid for the flight. They arranged for a Lincoln Navigator to transport us from the airport to the four-star hotel. They paid for the room, and even gave us meal vouchers. They arranged our transportation to the studio, and then back to the airport. It cost us nothing, but in a way, all 200 of us paid a price. A huge price. We are all men who survived childhood sexual abuse.

Getting selected wasn’t easy. All of us had to answer some extremely personal questions. We all had to share our stories with the producers – stories that nearly all of us kept inside for a long time. How and where we were abused, and by whom. How it affected our lives – the shame, anger, rage, dysfunction, depression. How it took a toll on our personal and professional lives. And – here’s the good part – how many of us have overcome these things, and have gone on to lead productive lives, despite having parts of our childhood stolen away from us.

There was never any doubt Don would be selected. His abuse was extreme, and the effects, including a conversion disorder that left him paralyzed for weeks, made him quite the X-File. My abuse happened over a much shorter span of time, but anyone who saw my occasional newsroom mood swings (and the times when I’d lose all confidence in myself) might have been tipped off. I’d worked countless child abuse stories in my time in TV news, including a news series on the topic with former anchor Giselle Fernandez. Yet I kept my own story to myself, like so many others who’ve lived with the shame. Well, those days are gone forever. I flew to Chicago, fully prepared to tell my story to millions of viewers, should Oprah decide to call on me.

I’m not an early riser, but on this day… I had to be. Our bus left at 5:30AM. Sharp. Upon arrival at the studio, we had to stand in line for a security check. We didn’t have to remove our shoes and belts like we did at the airport, but cell phones and pens were confiscated. We were then whisked upstairs for a very quick breakfast of bagels and bananas. Those who weren’t fast eaters had to choose between the two, since time was so limited.

From what I understand, the vast majority of Oprah viewers – and audience members – are women. The studio has just one men’s room, which has no urinals and just one toilet. No way was that going to cut it! So just this once, the ladies rooms were opened to the men. I can now say I used the women’s bathroom at the Oprah Show. Hey, they told us this was going to be a special show!

Both Don and I wound up sitting three rows in back of where Oprah was standing. I enjoyed watching the Teleprompter, and the way the famous host used, and sometimes didn’t use it. It was fun to watch the producers, director, floor director, and everyone else. TV production was a huge part of my life for so long, so it’s natural that I watched the behind-the-scenes goings-on as much as I watched the actual interviews.

I know how hard it is to coordinate a show with just a few in-studio guests. I can just imagine what it takes to fly in 200 participants, get them where they need to go, ON TIME, and make it all come together. I wouldn’t want their job, for all the bagels and bananas in the world!

The first show opened on a poignant note. We had all provided a picture of ourselves at the age when the abuse was occurring. The show’s producers had those pictures blown up, and turned into large posters for us to hold up and show. It was hard for me to look at that little boy’s face. All I could tell him (me) was “I’m sorry I hated you so much”. I still struggle with that sometimes.

Even though we came from different backgrounds – a superstar Hollywood actor/director, a former NFL football player, and a celebrated gospel singer were among those in that studio – we had a lot in common. Some of the men are just starting their journey, and are still going through their own private hells. Others of us have been dealing with the issue for a while, and our focus has shifted more toward recovery, forgiveness, and moving forward.

TV is TV. People have short attention spans, so every segment has to be compelling. That means focusing more on people whose lives continue to be filled with turmoil, and less on those who’ve turned the corner. I would have liked to have seen more on recovery, healing, and thriving, but I’m not complaining. I’m just honored to have been part of a group of men that is taking their power back. We all stood tall that day, and we will continue to stand tall. I couldn’t think of a better reason to return to a TV studio.

Oprah, featuring 200 male sexual abuse survivors, airs on November 5, 2010. The second part airs the following Friday, November 12.

(Thanks to Donald D’Haene for the Harpo picture.)

The Shirt Hits The Fan

2010-09-16T11:37:00.007-04:00

Mistakes happen! There would be no blooper reels if they didn’t… but as we all know, not all mistakes are created equal.

Just ask WESH-2 News in Orlando. Somebody was asleep at the wheel, when they let this one get on the air. They meant to point out that the Gainesville pastor who planned to burn Qurans put some of his young followers to work making and selling T-shirts, mugs, and hats. Yes, that’s what they meant to say!

But no! Someone had to go and leave out the “R” in “T-SHIRTS”. So not only did the graphic have a huge error, but whoop, there it is, one of George Carlin’s “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television”!

Click image to view it full size

I’m not posting this to pick on WESH News. I’m posting this because of my four-plus years as the main electronic graphics guy at WCIX in Miami. I’m not saying I was perfect, but I never made a mistake of this magnitude. I’m also sure that if I had, that night’s producer, or director, or whatever, would have caught it. I’m floored at the WESH mess, not because the error was made, and not because it aired, but because no one had the presence of mind to cut away from it. Punch out, and go to the anchor, or another graphic, or ANYTHING but the S-word! As my former colleague Ileana Varela pointed out on Facebook, “Quality control today has gone to shit… with no R.” I could not have put it any better!

The Intern

2010-08-16T03:44:00.003-04:00

Some people refuse to take “no” for an answer.

Some people see only possibilities, and potential results.

Along the way they encounter doubters, teasers, and haters. They get talked about, scorned, and vilified… but they become immune to the roar of the crowd. The reward is great, and so is the risk, but they can see what’s waiting at the finish line, and run, sometimes recklessly, toward it. I worked with such a person at Channel 6. He wasn’t my boss, or one of my paid colleagues. He was an intern.

I was the weekend producer -- a thankless job, if there ever was one. In terms of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I was everybody in the WJM newsroom except for Ted Baxter and Gordy The Weatherman. It felt like I had a million things to do, every day, with very little help. We had no night reporter. We had no night assignment editor. We didn’t even have anyone to help the three of us in the newsroom (yes, just three of us!) answer phones from irate viewers, wondering why their favorite contestant on Star Search didn’t win, or some other similar drivel. We needed help… badly… and management’s solution was to have interns work the night assignment desk. Usually they had no training. Some had no skills. It was a nightmare.

But then… he showed up: a know-it-all kid with an obnoxious streak. The kind of kid that was probably a bully-magnet for most of his life.

But this wasn’t school. It was the real world, and a real assignment desk in a major market newsroom. The Intern walked into our party like he was walking into a yacht. He had no clue about our limitations as a shoestring operation, and he didn’t care to hear it.

When President Ronald Reagan took an interest in 7-year-old transplant patient Ronnie DeSillers, who then moved to the top of the organ transplant list (not once, not twice, but three times), DeSillers became a national cause célèbre. After the boy died and his mother, Maria, was accused of misusing the funds meant for her son, every station in town was hot on her trail.

We asked The Intern to try to get some kind of statement from Maria DeSillers. Not good enough for him! Before we knew it, he had set up a live satellite interview (utilizing our sister station in Pittsburgh), for Beverly Counts Rodrigues to conduct on The Ten O’Clock News. An EXCLUSIVE live interview.

Management was gob-smacked.

Other times there were exclusives, such as a civil disturbance in Naranja Lakes that the police really didn’t feel like talking about. We had it, and nobody else did. The Intern again. There was some exclusive involving Panamanian President Eric Delvalle, the details of which I can’t remember nearly 24 years later. And the time a former Apollo astronaut who’d passed through town changed his plans… at The Intern’s insistence… so we could talk to him live on the air, instead of settling for a vacuous soundbite from questions fed to him by a cameraman. Our paid assignment editors didn’t always have that good a success rate!

Believe it or not, there was a downside to this. All interns leave after a matter of months. Management was now convinced that we didn’t need to hire any weekend assignment desk help. They used this as proof that interns were good enough to man the desk, even though most just didn’t have the know-how. Most wound up having to ask me, or Beverly, what to do, and of course that wasn’t their fault. He spoiled them. And in a way, he spoiled us too.

The intern’s name was Jeff Liebman, and after his time at Channel 6, he moved on to a real job at WTVJ Channel 4 (which didn’t last long, but it was a foot in the door). He is now the news operations manager at WDIV-TV in Detroit, overseeing a newsroom that includes former WCIX reporter/producer Rod Meloni.

The entrance of CBS into the picture in 1989 would bring more staffing, and much higher expectations. But the network infusion would not signal the first time someone came in believing that he or she could make a difference… and instead of just demanding a better newscast, actually took initiative to personally make it better.

While he came to Channel 6 to learn, along the way he taught us a lesson.

It’s been a long and winding road for Liebman. I can bet you he still doesn’t take “no” for an answer.

Twist Of Fate In '88

2010-07-13T00:01:00.007-04:00

(Note: All TV news blooper reels contain profanity, so you might want to wait until the kids and the boss are out of the room to click the arrow.)

This was the end of the innocence.

The 1988 news blooper reel (above) would be shown at the WCIX Christmas party, just three weeks shy of one of the biggest changes in Miami TV news history. CBS was about to take over, transforming our humble newsroom from an independent operation to a network-owned news machine. The bar was being raised like a drawbridge over the Miami River, meaning lots of new faces coming in… and lots of old friends saying Sayonara.

In some ways, this is a bittersweet 8 1/2 minutes of tape. I think it’s hilarious, but I also feel a little sadness for the Mike Bradleys and Jennifer Rehms that were soon forced to look for work elsewhere. THEE Ten O’Clock News was about to become just a memory, as new producers Brian Jones and Zahir Sachedina, and new reporters such as Al Sunshine, ushered in our brand new evening newscasts, with the prime time show (produced by Caryn Brooks) moving to 11PM. Soon Ten O’Clock would belong to WSVN, which was losing its NBC affiliation… and still developing its future flash and trash philosophy. Did I say things were changing? In the words of David Bowie, turn and face the strange!

Look for director Jim Lawrence, Bryan Glazer, Jim Dyer, Barbara Sloan, R.J. Heim, Dave Game, Jennifer Rehm, Beverly Counts Rodrigues, Solon Gray’s nose, John Turchin, Ed Berliner, Ken Ober (MTV), Mike “OK” Bradley, Ralph Murciano, and John Deutzman on here. You’ll also see memorable cameos from Dade County Commissioner Beverly Phillips and former Immigration & Nationalization Service honcho Perry Rivkind.

A few notes about this tape:

1) Jim Lawrence is goofing on the fact that we were being forced to call the show “THEEE” Ten O’Clock News, as though it was something biblical. All pray to the mighty teleprompter!

2) Reporter Bryan Glazer wasn’t just having a bad day. He tended to lose his cool quite often, though usually not to this extent.

3) There is a mix of live TV, and behind-the-scenes bloopers on here. Obviously, Jim Dyer’s “quack sweep” and Ed Berliner mooning John Turchin, never made it to air.

4) The idea to have our interns do the watusi came from a record I’d just purchased at a Goodwill store (for a dime). After looking at the label for New Interns Watusi, I thought it would be fun to have the NEWS interns watusi. I recognize Pam Suchman, but can’t recall any of the other names. These were some of the best interns we ever had – and good sports, too. (Some past Channel 6 interns included future success stories Steve Boyer, Jeffrey Liebman, and Shannon High-Bassalik.)

(Click image to view full size)

5) MTV’s Remote Control seemed just made for our blooper reel – especially considering all the Channel 6 references, and the fact that the host was named Ober!

6) Note to Jennifer Rehm: it’s not spelled Boyo!

7) Thanks for showing me your… umm… cat, Jennifer!

8) The tape of Beverly Phillips trying to walk a straight line became a newsroom classic that year. Phillips, a Metro-Dade Commissioner, had been stopped by police on suspicion of driving under the influence. Brian Wilson’s “Walking The Line” provided the perfect soundtrack.

9) Mike Bradley is not a bimbo, he’s a weatherman!

10) Dave Game combing his hair, live on the air, might have seemed funny on a blooper reel… but at the time it was a major deal for everyone involved with that newscast (myself included). News director Larry Wallenstein’s memo is a reminder that behind every blooper is a mistake that affected hours and hours of hard work by dozens of people. Hey, there are no do-overs in live TV. Might as well laugh at ourselves!

(Click image to view full size)

11) Perry Rivkind of the INS was the coolest bureaucrat in South Florida. Here he’s encouraging us to vote “yes” on bringing in a union to represent certain segments of the news and engineering departments. In the end, we said no to IBEW Local 349, but until that happened, management was really running scared.

12) Lyn-rid Skyn-rid? That dog won’t hunt. That bird ain’t free.

This would be the last news blooper reel that I would produce or co-produce. After moving to the special projects unit, I (temporarily) had less contact with the daily newscast grind, and handed the blooper mantle to others. But it was lots of fun to handle that portion of our skit reels for six years (with help from Mike Medrano, R.J. Heim, Bill Retherford, and many others). Still to come: the 1986 and 1987 news blooper reels. I don’t seem to have 1984, so if anyone can help with that one, I’d really appreciate it.

See you later on THEEE Say Six! blog.

And Then There's Rue...

2010-06-04T05:15:00.003-04:00

1980: Producer Don Adams had a lot of rules to follow, while timing out The Ten O’Clock News, but one rule was etched in stone. One rule could not be broken under any circumstances: the show must end on time. It could not run long, not even by two seconds. Not even when Liberty City was burning during the riots of May 1980! Rules were rules, after all.

There was a reason for this. The Ten O’Clock News, which was an hour long in those days, was a low-rated show. The program that followed it, reruns of Maude, brought in better numbers -- and as a result, was a more valuable property. Even though we put our blood, sweat, and tears into our nightly newscast, management put more stock in the syndicated rerun, since… well, to put it bluntly… they could charge more for commercials. And that, in a nutshell, is what it was all about to them.

I thought of this on Thursday, after hearing of the death of Maude co-star Rue McClanahan. Long before she found greater fame on The Golden Girls, McClanahan did her thing opposite Bea Arthur in the Norman Lear comedy. I may have resented Maude during those nightly news days, but I watched the show during its original run, and thought McClanahan, in particular, was a standout. One day I decided to write to her, and let her know that she had a fan in Miami.

Usually when you write to a celebrity, you’re lucky to get an acknowledgment. Maybe they’ll send you a picture, and maybe they’ll take the time to sign it. Rue McClanahan was one of the rare ones. She not only sent me a signed picture, and a signed dinner theater program, but she wrote me a personalized letter that showed she took the time to read every word I had written. That meant a lot to me, as a teenager back in 1975. It still does.

Click images to view them full size.

McClanahan’s passing won’t get nearly as much ink as other high-profile deaths, such as Gary Coleman or Dennis Hopper. You won’t see many marathons of her work, and in time she’ll become just another footnote. But in our age of plastic celebrities whose only talent is being bombastic or showing off their booty, I thought you’d like to know what Rue McClanahan was like. How she appreciated her fans. It’s a cliché, but it’s true: they don’t make ‘em like her anymore.

On The Record

2010-05-14T06:27:00.004-04:00

I love records! Everyone who’s ever met me is well aware of that fact. I can’t remember how to do some of the simplest things, but I can tell you the name of just about any artist that issued vinyl from the mid-60s on (labels and B-sides, too). It’s both a blessing and a curse to be a vinyl junkie – a curse, when it comes time to move, and to transport tens of thousands of records. But it’s a blessing when a recording artist discovers that someone actually has – and enjoys – that piece of music that they were convinced no one on earth has ever heard of, let alone owns a copy of.

So I guess this post was inevitable. Combine nearly two decades in the WCIX/WFOR newsroom, with a lust for records, and you get this selective discography of Channel 6’s greatest (non-)hits. The recording artists at the station ranged from anchors, to weathercasters, to tape editors, to interns. Here are just some of the musical souvenirs that our illustrious employees left behind.

Any look at Channel 6’s recording artists has to start with the one and only Hambone. Future superstar anchorman John Hambrick first started recording in the ‘60s – while based in Ohio. Before striking out on his own, Hambrick recorded this folk-inspired obscurity with two of his brothers. The oddly-named “John Jud Mike” appeared on the Fraternity label, which had several hit records in the 50s and 60s (including “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” by the Casinos, “The All-American Boy” by Bill Parsons (nee Bobby Bare), and “Memphis” by Lonnie Mack). This record, engineered by former Floridian Lee Hazen (whose credits include “The Little Black Egg” by the Nightcrawlers) went nowhere, but undaunted, John Hambrick pressed on, eventually winding up on Terry Knight’s Brown Bag label.

Hambrick’s 1972 LP “Windmill In A Jet Filled Sky”, featured a who’s who of Nashville studio musicians, including Southwest High grad Charlie McCoy and Harold “Pig” Robbins. Knight, whose main claim to fame was managing rock bands such as Grand Funk Railroad and Bloodrock, had high hopes for the album, but it failed to take off, leaving Hambrick to pursue his long career in TV news. Hambrick told us many stories about this LP, and his brushes with some of Nashville’s finest songwriters and artists. If ever there was a natural born storyteller, it was John. An unforgettable character in many ways.

(My personally autographed copy of John's 1972 single. Click images to view them full size.)

I remember when Don Franklin recorded his remake of the “A Deck Of Cards”, the T. Texas Tyler/Wink Martindale hit of several decades earlier. Franklin was a terrific announcer and weatherman, but he wasn’t a singer… which was okay, considering this record falls in the “spoken word” category. Don Franklin was a real class act. It’s a shame so few people seem to remember him, and I’m sure even fewer have any idea that he ever made a record.

Chuck Zink didn’t come to work at Channel 6 until the 1980s, but during his amazing run as Skipper Chuck on WTVJ, he took part in this children’s recording on the Vak label. Music played a big role in the Skipper’s program, though I’m sure few would remember songs such as “I Love Little Kitty” or “Wiggle Nose, The Flop-Eared Bunny”.

Steve Hass started working at WCIX in either 1970 or 1971, and I’m sure there were those that didn’t know about his past. Hass had been the drummer for the Gents Five, a Miami band that recorded a couple of very elusive singles back in 1967. “I started as a projectionist, then ran the video and audio boards,” Hass remembers. “Operated the camera in the studio mostly, and went on to shoot news footage. Those 16mm mags were a bitch to load.” The A-side of the Gents Five’s record was written by group member Dave Tubin, who is better-known to South Floridians as Cosmo Ohms, the long-time sound man at Tobacco Road.

Jim Hayek is best-remembered for his graphic designs, but his guitar was never too far away. (Jim was the first guy I’d call on, when producing my K-Tel album spoofs for the Christmas reel.) As half of Danny & Desi Doodrop, Jim entertained children on Duck Duck Goose, and entertained the rest of us at parties and during down time. It should come as no surprise that Jim won 4th prize in Creem Magazine’s national songwriter’s contest. That was in 1978, and it resulted in the release of a single the following year, on Hayek’s own Black & White label. As a guy who designed graphics for The Ten O’Clock News, it was sort of an inside joke that Hayek would come up with the band name The News (years before Huey Lewis’ gang). WSHE-FM liked the single, but declined to play it, being on a local label and all. (Boo!) Hayek is still active in music, and plays with a band called On Eleven in Denver.

The Final Say was the name of a project that included WCIX videographer Rafael “Ralph” Murciano. Ralph played drums and piano on the group’s only release, which came out in 1984 on the band’s own TFS label. Who can forget Ralph’s music video, “Morning After Blues”, with Dr. Steve Greenberg? It’s too bad that tune never came out on vinyl!

The Rubber Thongs first appeared on WCIX, when a song they performed at the 1980 John Lennon Tribute in Downtown Miami made it on to one of our newscasts. Years later group leader John Paris would work the assignment desk at our Doral newsroom. John was a great guy who unfortunately became a scapegoat, at a time when management felt they needed one. Like so many that were fired from WCIX/WFOR, Paris landed on his feet, getting a much better job at CNN in Atlanta.

Robert Lyon joined the station a little later, becoming a news videotape editor after the switch to WFOR. But to me, he was Robert Lyon, guitarist of the pop-punk band Caught Inside. WFOR’s Shane McLafferty also joined the band on drums. Caught Inside is still well-remembered in South Florida for their fun, lighthearted songs that capture the late 90s so well.

My good friend Laura Regalado made many friends during her brief time at WCIX/WFOR. She’s still in the business, but living in Maryland now… and playing bass in the band e.joseph & the phantom heart. You might remember Laura (also known as Mia) as part of the band Bionix, during her Channel 6 days. One very talented and beautiful person.

WCIX also had some talented interns, with at least three of them having brief recording careers. In the 60s, Mark Ostrovsky was the lead singer of the Missing Lynx, whose single on the nationally-distributed DynoVoice label is now very collectable. Intern Matt Cooper was part of the trio Dream Time, whose 12” single received quite a bit of airplay on college station WVUM in the early 90s. Matt never made good on his promise to get me a copy of the record, so I don’t have a scan to show you! Hey Matt (or Omar), if you see this, help me fill a hole in my collection!

Another late 80s intern, Jimmy Deal, was a member of local hardcore band FWA, whose self-titled album included the underground hits “Warehouse Party” and “Vanna White”. Well, maybe hits is too strong a word, but those are fun songs that still sound good to my ears.

I’m sure there were other WCIX recording artists, but I can’t think of them at the moment. Any additions, corrections, and vinyl goodies will be gratefully welcomed, as always.

Versatile, A Plus

2010-05-03T11:39:00.005-04:00

Tony LaRussa would have been proud. The St. Louis Cardinals manager, with a fetish for versatile athletes who can play multiple positions, surely would have loved the way WCIX stretched, pulled, and jostled its employees. Like LaRussa having his second baseman play the outfield, or a pitcher running out to left field, the old Channel 6 would sometimes let employees try unfamiliar jobs, either enriching or embarrassing themselves in the process.

Where else in the Miami market would a reporter (Jerry Fisher, Rod Meloni) have spent months at a time doubling as a line producer? Where else would a Chyron operator (me) have been allowed to write the Wall Street business reports, paving the way for a future career as a producer? As one who had to prepare the credit rolls that followed the newscasts on Fridays, I had to keep a score card (well, actually a score sheet) to keep track of who did what that given week. Switchers ran audio; audio operators ran tape; tape editors ran the Chyron. “Versatile, a plus” was more than an ad in an adult magazine back in those days. Put me in coach, I’m ready to play!

Keeping track of who did what for the weekly credit roll. Click image to enlarge.

Our versatility didn’t end with the newscasts. We had actors, disc jockeys, musicians, comedians, and comic book artists among our ranks. (Oh yeah, authors, too.) We were one talented bunch, if I do say so myself. Memories of that talent live on in our minds, but some of the old 6’ers left behind tangible souvenirs of their endeavors, in the form of records and, later, CDs. In the next entry, I will look at some of the WCIX alumni that were also recording artists. There will be names you’ll recognize, and others that you won’t, but I think you’ll find that our musical notes were as powerful as our reporter’s notebooks. I bet Tony LaRussa would agree.

The White Baron

2010-04-19T00:01:00.005-04:00

“Look out, it’s the White Baron,
Dressed in white from glove to boots.
Zoom in, it’s the White Baron,
He can ride and fight, and fight and shoot,
But he never gets a spot
On his pretty white suit.”*

Just exactly who was this lean, clean, but never-mean White Baron, and why are people still talking about him more than 40 years after his departure from the South Florida airwaves?

First, a little background. When WCIX signed on the air in September 1967, the station pretty much started from scratch. Mixed in with endless reruns (anyone for Make Room For Daddy?) came the brainchild of Channel 6 Assistant Operations Manager George DeVries: a children’s show with an on-the-go lead character who made Mr. Clean look like Pigpen from the Peanuts cartoons.

“I designed him after the Red Baron, and the Tony Curtis character in the film The Great Race,” DeVries told David Rutman in the late 80s. “He dressed all in white, and his teeth sparkled!”

DeVries didn’t have to audition anyone to play the title role. He himself became The White Baron, shooting interviews with kids at various sites around South Florida… sometimes arriving in a snow white 1930s Biplane! The interviews, mixed with cartoons and sketches with typically ridiculous plot lines, somehow resonated with kids, giving the show a healthy three year run before the Baron took his final ride in his flying machine.

“There were some children who got lost in a cave,
Couldn’t find their way out, it was practically grave.
The White Baron was out riding on a milk white horse,
It stumbled and threw him with tremendous force.
Sailing through the air, he slid down the shaft
In that very same cave, oh how he.laughed.
The sparkle of his teeth, oh for over a mile.
They found their way out, just by the light of his smile.”

Today, there are few souvenirs to remind us of this part of Florida’s television history. The White Baron theme song exists on a hard-to-find 45 on the one-off Dazey label, sung and performed by the Funky Five, who I’m told were actually members of Wayne Cochran’s C.C. Riders. (There are those to this day who insist the real White Baron was Cochran himself. A fun theory, but merely apocryphal.)

George DeVries stayed at WCIX for about five years after the end of the White Baron’s run. “People still recognized me. I had good teeth,” he told Rutman. Unfortunately there are no known surviving copies of any White Baron shows. As one who was ordered to throw away our old news film, I can attest that the station was just not interested in preserving its past. Sad but true. Yet questions about the show and its host are among the most-asked about the station and its history. I see it all the time, in the search words that bring people to this site.

To many, The White Baron is a hazy, foggy memory from somewhere in the mirror of their mind. But it IS a memory, of a time when a man in a spotless white suit fought for children, and always won. A time when kids’ imaginations ran wild, and when an upstart independent station with a bad signal dared to try something different.

And he never got a spot on his pretty white suit.

Thanks to David Rutman and the Facebook group “M.T. Graves & Other 1960s Miami Kid Shows”.
* The White Baron theme song by Jerry Mann & Marcie Knight.

The Grandfather Clause

2010-03-01T00:01:00.002-05:00

“I don’t remember growing older.
When did they?”

Sheldon Harnick‘s words from “Sunrise Sunset” came to mind when I heard that two of my former WCIX colleagues became grandpas in the past couple of months. It’s such great news, and definitely something to celebrate. But at the same time, it made me realize just how frozen in time people and places can become in our minds, when we have not seen them in a long time.

I don’t remember when Rick Lasch left Channel 6, but I think we might have still been in the round building on Brickell. I still see Rick as a 20-something guy, wearing blue tennis shoes, ready to party at a moment’s notice. That could have described any number of us, I guess. Time marches on and people grow up. More than 25 years later, Rick now lives in Virginia, operates his own video production company, and is celebrating a new milestone – the birth of his first grandson, Bryce Kaiden Busic, who came into this world on New Years Day 2010.

Rick Lasch, 2010, with Baby Bryce

Another happy grandpappy is former Channel 6 graphics guru Ron Laffin. If you still think of his daughter Meredith as a little girl, you’re in for quite a surprise. Meredith, her fiancée Nick, and of course Ron and Nancy welcomed 7-pound, 13-ounce Lacie Marie into their lives in the early morning hours of January 28th. The Laffins are loving the grandparent stuff, and hey, why not? As Ron likes to say… “she IS cute!”

Meredith and Nick, with Lacie

When I think of my grandparents, I think of elderly, frail people who came from the Old Country, with old ways, old thoughts, and old bodies. Appropriately enough, that’s old thinking that needs to be tossed out in the trash. Or in Lake Willard, for you Brickell folks. “It’s a new day,” as James Brown once sang, and Brother James was always right.

“I don’t remember growing older.
When did they?”

All too often, our reminders that we’re not kids anymore hit us like a ton of bricks. When life wants to get our attention, it will, and it doesn’t care that we’re just not ready for its setbacks, its slowdowns, and its roadblocks. But other times, we’re reminded that things don’t always get worse as we grow older. Other times, we’re reminded that in many ways, our lives are just beginning.

Thanks, Rick and Ron, for that reminder. And thanks for allowing me to share your joy.

Cooking Without Looking

2010-02-22T00:02:00.002-05:00

This blog has featured several stories about former WCIX anchors and reporters, and the great success they’ve found since leaving the station. They are people with names you may recognize, and might even see on the tube while surfing around. You probably won’t recognize the name of the subject of today’s post, but she’s another Channel 6 success story. This long-time behind-the-scenes employee moves into the big time today, with the national debut of a show she’s poured her heart and soul into.

Her name is Ren’ee Rentmeester, but in her time at Channel 6, she was known as Ren’ee Hagen and Ren’ee Morales. Most former 6’ers will remember her time in the promotions department, but I really came to know Ren’ee during her stint as a news writer and associate producer. There are good people to work with… and there are REALLY good people to work with. Ren’ee was one of my favorites, thanks to her infectious smile and easy-going manner. Our running gag had to do with the obligatory “did anyone win the lotto” copy stories that aired every Sunday evening. Either Renee or Traci Cloyd would always get stuck writing those 16-second lotto block enders, and it became a contest of sorts to see how many ways we could say the same thing, week after week, without totally repeating ourselves. To this day, I still ask Ren’ee how the lotto story is coming, even though I’m 10 years removed from TV news, and she is now the creator, executive producer, and driving force behind a program that’s moving from local TV, to a national stage, starting this morning (February 22, 2010) at 6AM on the Fine Living Network.

The show is called Cooking Without Looking, a sort of Galloping Gourmet for the blind and visually impaired. The show, which teaches cooking skills and kitchen safety, is taped in Boynton Beach, and up until now has only been seen in South Florida. I asked Ren’ee about the show, and how she came to create it… and of course I could not help but ask about her time at a certain TV station.

SAY SIX: How did a sighted person happen to come up with the idea of doing a show for the visually impaired?

RR: After working in Community Relations with some of the largest non-profits in the country, I wanted to create something myself. I wanted it to be something that could affect anyone, no matter what race, gender, or financial status. I thought about doing something about blind babies/children, but fortunately, less than three percent of the babies in this country are born without eye sight.

Then, someone told me about descriptive television. It was new, and it was an accessibility solution for blind people in the same way that closed captioning helps hearing impaired people.

Well, now you had my two loves together: television and helping people, and it was hard to say 'no' to that. So, I found e-mail groups of blind/visually impaired people known as listservs, and I signed up for as many as I could handle. Since I didn't know any blind people, this would help me research the issues near and dear to many blind people.

In a way, when I first started to do the research, I felt like blind people had a secret underground, and unless you were blind, you didn't know about all the solutions available. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. I couldn't imagine going blind, and then having to find out how to help yourself.

Since TV is such a pervasive medium in this society, the show could work in several ways:
-help newly blind people find answers;
-show people who have been blind a new way to do some of the basic tasks in the kitchen;
-educate sighted people to the world of the blind person, so they didn't feel awkward, and so if something happened to them in the future, they would immediately know where to go.

I find that as I produce more and more of these shows, I'm really a translator between the different blind and sighted groups of people. There are so many stereotypes associated with being blind that we have to overcome. My point in doing all of this is that we all need to focus on the ability of each other, and not the disability.

So someone doesn't have sight or hearing...there's so much more to that person.

SAY SIX: Television is such a visual medium, yet the show is geared toward people who can’t see. How big a challenge does that present?

RR: Actually, it presents a very small challenge. We can't use teleprompters. Scripts are written in 36 point type for the people with macular degeneration. Everyone describes exactly what they are doing when they are doing it. What we have to remember is that because these people are blind/visually impaired, most have residual eyesight even if it is shadows.

Our real challenge comes in the form of changing people's minds about people with disabilities. One lady I helped as the result of this show was blind. She kept saying how stupid she felt, even though she was a MENSA person. Intelligence has nothing to do with blindness...our creativity to overcome the challenge is much more important, and our mindset on a daily basis. A sense of humor is almost crucial.

SAY SIX: If there’s one thing about the show you want viewers to come away with, what would that be?

RR: I want people to know that there's actually something good about being blind. It's that when you're blind, you have to trust others with all of your heart. You enjoy meeting people because of what's inside of them. It doesn't matter what the car is that they drive, or the clothes they buy at the exclusive stores. You just enjoy the person who you're speaking with for who they are. Nothing more.

And, no matter what the challenge we all face, we have to keep our head up and keep on making our life something we can be proud of. And, oh yeah, have FUN!

SAY SIX: Since this is a WCIX blog, I want to ask you your favorite memories of Channel 6. You can give me one serious one, if you’d like, and some “fun” or not-so-serious ones.

RR: Well, there were a lot more "not-so-serious" ones than there are serious ones.

Funny:

All of us in the Promotion Department dressed up like Promotion Director Brian Blum
for Halloween...beige sweater, dark pants, mustache and all!

I remember Nelson Milton, his hearty laugh and his breakfast of sardines. I remember someone working late night, and recording an adult movie....which, oops, went over the air.

I also worked in the old building which was a lot like a layer cake. Someone from the traffic department would yell out, and slide the logs down the inside of the glass window to the various floors that needed them.

The serious, and a sincerely heart-warming memory was when Hurricane Andrew blew through South Florida and the President of CBS and many of the higher echelon people came to town and spent time talking to each of us, and finding out what we needed. They also helped chop down some of the trees that had fallen at the station, and I believe they also brought supplies, and helped people with their homes.

Oh, yes, and my own personal fun was to be called into the General Manager's office right after the weekend when an employee or two did something that we shall call, "newsworthy", and we strategized about how we would present it to the media.

Explaining the channel change to the viewers was also a hoot. A couple of viewer calls/conversations on how the whole switch was going to happen, and my head was like chopped lettuce in a salad spinner.

SAY SIX: How many years were you at WCIX? And how much of that was spent in the news department, and the same for promotions?

RR: I was at WCIX/WFOR for just about 13 years. I started in Promotion writing the VOC copy for the end of the shows, as well as press releases. They had to make budget cuts but wanted to find something else for me to do, noticed that I have a journalism degree, and put me in news on the weekend assignment desk, as well as associate producer. I was also on the Broward assignment desk for about a year.

Then, they created a PR position for me, Media and Community Relations Manager, where I wrote the station newsletter, was the station spokesperson when the media called, and produced the PSAs.

Thanks Ren’ee. I have to tell you, your life is about to change. Prepare to be overwhelmed, as your brainchild starts to touch lives all across the country. The Fine Living Network has not made a long-term commitment to the show, so it’s important for those who enjoy the program to let them know. To become a sponsor of Cooking Without Looking, or for more information about the show, contact Ren’ee Rentmeester at 305-200-9104.

Oh, and Ren’ee, please tell Glo we need the “Jumpin’ Jackpot” graphic for that Lotto story!

Chopper Stopper: The End Of An Era

2009-12-26T00:01:00.008-05:00

I have come to bury Chopper 4, not to praise it.

With apologies to William Shakespeare, that isn’t completely accurate. In my own way, I have come to praise it.

Chopper 4 – the real Chopper 4 – will shoot its final shooting, and chase its final chase, before the first of the year. In its place, will be… Chopper 4, though in name only. In reality, the new Chopper 4 will be a shared venture with WPLG Channel 10. Think of what it would be like if Fox’s Bill O’Reilly and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann shared a studio, and their pictures turned up on their rival’s network. It would be a tough pill to swallow, especially for the hard-working news gatherers behind the scenes. They’ll say the right things when asked about it, but for my old friends at CBS4, it’s going to be uncomfortable. Count on it.

For those that don’t know, the current CBS4 in Miami – WFOR – was our beloved WCIX Channel 6, until September 10, 1995. It was on that date that WCIX and WTVJ swapped signals (and places on the dial), and WCIX officially ceased to exist. In our hearts, many of us were still CIX’ers, but in time we grew used to being WFOR… and Channel 4. And with the signal swap came a sh!t-load of new promotion, new branding, and a new attitude. Our newscast was now known as News 4 South Florida, and we made sure our viewers knew it. But it wasn’t just the anchors and specialty reporters that were being promoted.

Chopper 4 was the station’s pride and joy. It was promo’d on-air even more than anchors Anne Roberts and Khambrel Marshall. Our news team could compete like never before, not having to worry about the travel time from Doral to, say, Wilton Manors, whenever news would break. We had the best pictures many nights, and the promos that would follow would be the proof of performance. As a producer, I loved it.

But there was a flipside to all of this. Having the technology meant going live for live’s sake, more times than not. I remember having an argument with my news director on a stormy Monday afternoon in 1995. Our chopper crew was insisting that the weather made it too risky to continue flying, but my boss insisted that they stay in the air… just a few minutes more… to provide live pictures for a tease leading up to our 5PM newscast. Chopper 4 was over the scene of a warehouse fire – an ABANDONED warehouse fire. In other words, it was a “who cares” story that affected absolutely no one. Oh, but there were flames! So I had the chopper crew insisting that they couldn’t stay up one minute longer, and my boss in my other ear ordering me to order them to remain in the air. My boss got his way. Fortunately the crew landed safely after going live that day, but that was a hell of a lot of risk for a lousy warehouse fire.

And then there was the ValuJet crash on May 11, 1996. News crews were kept far away from the scene, but Chopper 4’s lens had the power to let us see what rescue crews were doing, in the remotest area of the Everglades. We were the only ones to show body parts being fished out of the muck. Exclusive!!! Only on News 4!!! Afterwards, the brain trust was ecstatic about our coverage, and the pictures that no one else had. Every live shot pertaining to the ValuJet crash had to reference our chopper and its “awesome gyrocam”. I had one viewer scold me for making the chopper the subject of our stories, not the dazed and shell-shocked loved ones of 110 crash victims. She may have been exaggerating, but she also had a point. Chopper 4 helped us tell the story of doomed Flight 592, but it also showed what can happen when promotion is carried too far. The on-air atta-boys were just too much. Sorry, but the public isn’t that stupid.

By now I’m probably sounding like a bitter old ex-newsman, and I don’t mean to. As I said, I have come to praise Chopper 4. When I left my job at WFOR, I had a final request: a ride in Chopper 4. Tom Zack arranged it, and I have to say I had a wonderful time seeing Miami from the sky. It truly was an amazing flying machine, and I hate to use the word was. It’s a cliché, but it’s the truth: All good things must come to an end.

Come the new year, you will continue to hear references to Chopper 4, but the fact remains it’s really Sky 10, repainted sans logo. Staffers have been told to view WPLG as a partner, not a competitor, when it comes to sharing aerials. Yeah, right. I can just see it now.

CBS4’s David Sutta put it best in a recent blog post. Sutta wrote “I’m not fond of the idea that our ‘competitors’ are no longer competitors when we dispatch them to our stories. I feel like I just ‘friended’ the competition on Facebook! We are now ensuring two stations will be covering the same story every day.”

And yet, it could be worse. Poor WTVJ Channel 6 doesn’t even have a chopper at their disposal! It’s like trying to conduct a symphony without a string section. You can still make music, but the sounds aren’t pretty enough to keep most people listening again and again. I go back to the days when we didn’t have choppers or computers, and very few fancy bells and whistles, yet we still managed to put on a newscast. It can be done. But this isn’t 1980 anymore. People have choices. The old ideas just won’t fly anymore, and unfortunately, neither will the real Chopper 4.

J.D.'s Power

2009-11-23T00:01:00.005-05:00

He looks so confident, sitting behind the CNN anchor desk, with the world watching and listening to his every word. But that’s not the John Roberts that I knew. In fact, the guy I used to work with at WCIX wasn’t “John Roberts” at all. He was J.D. Roberts, formerly of Canada’s version of MTV. When CBS brought him in to anchor the news in Miami in April 1989, he was in a position of having to prove himself. Of having to show that the once long-haired Rick Springfield look-a-like could write, deliver, and understand hard news. It would not be easy.

(J.D. Roberts, rock 'n roller, in a video from 1987)

Critics liked to point out his youthful appearance. One even stated that Barbara Sloan looked more like his mother than his co-anchor, a statement that was both cruel and unfair. CBS had high hopes for the new hire, who was promoted incessantly on-air in a way that his predecessor, Jim Dyer, never was. It was clear this was a new age, and behind the scenes there was some kind of master plan for the young, upstart anchor. He just needed to get some experience, and learn what it takes to convince the public that behind the looks was someone who could be trusted to deliver important information. To deliver the truth. And to deliver good Arbitron numbers, of course.

Roberts had two huge things going for him: he both looked and sounded good. There were times he’d slip into Canada-speak, a la Peter Jennings. (It was Roberts’ misfortune that a turret explosion onboard the Navy battleship U.S.S. Iowa happened right after his arrival. His pronunciation – “Iowaww” – would have surely gained the approval of SCTV’s fictitious Canadian Corner hosts Bob and Doug McKenzie.) But if Jennings could say “shed-jule” instead of “schedule” and the public didn’t care, why should we humble 6’ers mind? Take off, eh.

We found out immediately that Roberts was smart, and not afraid to work. He was also a very fast learner. Hey, maybe this is going to pay off, after all! Unfortunately, he and his wife fell into a trap that awaits many newbies in Miami. The couple bought a house in Southwest Miami-Dade County, either in or very close to Richmond Heights. It was an area that looked real good, especially for the money, from the route that the realtor chose to take. What the couple didn’t see were the pockets of poverty very close to that enticing neighborhood. They did not see the blight and the street crime that most would feel was way too close for comfort. After falling victim to Miami’s mean streets, Roberts’ wife quickly soured on South Florida, putting a strain on the couple’s marriage. By the end of 1989, Roberts was seeing another woman – a Channel 6 employee – and the pair emerged from the shadows for that year’s Emmy Awards ceremony. To say it was a tough time in the young anchorman’s life would be putting it mildly.

I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but I have a vague recollection of Roberts having to visit the emergency room of a local hospital, while we were working on the news series Heart Disease: Beating The Odds (which also featured reports by Healthwatch reporter Dr. Steve Greenberg). At one point I had the choice of postponing some interviews for the series, or going out and doing them myself – which is what I wound up doing (considering our time constraints). Roberts felt bad that his involvement in the series was less than what he had hoped. After the final installment of the series aired on Channel 6 Action News, Roberts read his on-camera tag, without thanking his hard-working producer (me), which was standard operating procedure at the conclusion of a news series. He later realized the oversight, and wrote me a note, which I’m about to share. It was a classy gesture. I let him know that I wasn’t angry. I got all the thanks I needed when the series won a Suncoast Regional Emmy Award, one year later, in December 1990.

A personal note from John "J.D." Roberts. Click image to view it full size.

Emmy award for the news series "Heart Disease: Beating The Odds". Roberts was not there to collect his award, having left the station a few months earlier. Click image to view it full size.

J.D. announces that he's leaving. Click image to view it full size.

Having reconciled with his wife, and understanding her concerns, J.D. Roberts put in his notice in July 1990. By September he was back in Toronto, and it seemed the network’s master plan had been foiled – or had it? After anchoring CTV’s morning newscast for a couple of years, it was off to CBS’ crown jewel – WCBS – and then on to the network’s evening newscast, serving as a medical reporter, chief White House correspondent, and—it was believed—the heir apparent to Dan Rather. OK, so that never happened, but Roberts was the back-up anchor of choice for several years, heading up the network’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina, the death of Pope John Paul II, and many other historic moments. Interviews with three presidents and live reports from all over the globe highlighted his time with the network. He’d come a long way from our little series about heart attacks that had caused so much trepidation nearly two decades earlier.

Roberts exited CBS, and joined CNN in February 2006, but you already knew that. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of network news knows the name John Roberts. But for those of us who lived and worked in Miami, there will always be a soft spot for the guy we came to know as J.D. I’ll always remember his reports from Hurricane Hugo, especially the “here I am blowing in the wind” shot that must have aired 100 or more times. Roberts is a bona fide Channel 6 success story, and I’d like to think that the experience and knowledge he gained while working in Miami has played a role in that success. If I helped him get there, even a little, then the hard work was definitely worth it.

November 1989: Roberts introduces a segment from our town hall meeting, “Abortion: The Bitter Controversy”, live from the auditorium at FIU. Click the button to play.

Update: As I'm sure everyone knows by now, Roberts departed CNN in January 2011, and joined the Fox News team. He's now the network's senior national correspondent, based out of Atlanta.

Lucky 7

2009-09-24T00:02:00.005-04:00

Life is a progress, and not a station.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you want to make enemies, try to change something.

– Woodrow Wilson

Things were so simple before the big Miami TV switcheroo of January 1989. We (WCIX Channel 6) were an independent station, with a low-rated 10PM newscast. Channel 4 (WTVJ) had been a CBS affiliate for four decades. Channel 10 (WPLG) was ABC’s South Florida home, and ditto for Channel 7 (WSVN) and NBC.

But then NBC rocked the boat by buying WTVJ Channel 4, the long-time CBS affiliate. Everyone just assumed CBS would turn around and buy Channel 7, since it was losing its NBC programming. But NO! WSVN owner Ed Ansin played hardball with the big boys, potentially leaving CBS without a home in South Florida… unless it bit the bullet and bought our low-rated, signal-challenged station. (See more on that HERE.) With the sale becoming official, WSVN looked like it was the big loser, destined to scramble for cheap, crappy programming, and destined to sink into the depths of South Florida ratings hell. At least that’s what conventional wisdom would have had us believe.

No one ever told Ed Ansin, GM Bob Leider, and news director Joel Cheatwood about conventional wisdom! While the rest of us thought Channel 7 was about to bury itself, the boys in North Bay Village were dreaming and scheming, thinking so outside-the-box that the box practically burst. If WSVN had to become an independent station… well, why can’t it be the number one indie station in the country? So promised GM Leider, as you’ll see in the following video clips from 1988. Damn if he wasn’t right.

This was before Penny Daniels and Sally Fitz had become hyperbolic; before Rick Sanchez became a lead anchor; when folks such as Bud Fraga and Marianne Murciano still did news the old-fashioned way. This was before Channel 7’s Inside Story further blurred the lines between journalism, infotainment, and tabloid trash. You will hear Carmel Cafiero say “I will miss NBC”, but that sentiment would not be echoed by the station’s brain trust. Their creative, inventive, provocative, compelling, sleazy, salacious approach to news not only changed WSVN forever, but this market as well. This ain’t the 80s anymore. Roll over Wayne Fariss, and tell Richard Whitcomb the news!

(Also see our previous entry about WSVN here.)

You Better Not Shout...

2009-09-15T00:02:00.004-04:00

“YOU LIE!”

Congressman Joe Wilson’s shout heard round the world has made him either a hero or a villain, depending on your view of President Obama and his health care reform bill. To me, there was something unsettling about those words. About an hour after his outburst, I found myself repeating those two words, but changing the inflection, making them sound angrier… scarier… OMINOUS (to use a Neil Goldstein term). I had no clue why I did that… at the time. But now I know. It turns out Wilson was not the only person to shout those words (or words that are very similar) at someone who had the floor during an official proceeding.

It happened in Miami… in a courtroom… in 1985. An angry man listened as his young bride accused him of sexually molesting a 5-year-old boy. With rage building and his patience dwindling, the man stood up and screamed “Liar! YOU ARE A LIAR!” In the words of the Gainesville Sun, his wife “shrieked and shirked back into her chair, her mouth twisted in pain, as if she had been shot”. She then told the prosecutor, “get me out of here”, as a stunned jury watched. That man’s name is Francisco “Frank” Fuster Escalona, operator of the infamous Country Walk Babysitting Service, and the center of Florida’s most famous child abuse case. That outburst painted Fuster as some kind of a monster in the eyes of the jury, and most assuredly played a role in his ultimate conviction.

I’ve written before about how former WCIX news director Larry Lyle squelched our initial investigation into Fuster and the Country Walk case, barring it from the air until Channel 10 finally broke “our” story. That’s not the only reason I still have such an interest in the Fuster case. I met the man. It capped one of the most bizarre days in my career at Channel 6.

I was working on an investigation into yet another child abuse case, with anchor/reporter Giselle Fernandez. Our investigation, titled “Devil In Our Church?”, would lead us to several unsavory places, and include interviews with some rather unsavory people. On February 1, 1990, it led us to Florida State Prison in the town of Starke, which had been Frank Fuster’s home since his conviction.

Giselle, Rafael “Ralph” Murciano, and I boarded a plane for Gainesville that morning. We didn’t know it at the time, but rock ‘n roll legend Bo Diddley was also on board that plane. As we headed for the gate, Murciano noticed Diddley, and called out his name. In the chaos, I bumped into the singer-guitarist. Literally! Diddley noticed the TV camera, and pulled out an 8 X 10 photo, which he promptly autographed (with Murciano capturing the moment). He also wrote his phone number on the back, in the hope that we’d be interested in an interview. Well, of course!

(Autographed by Bo Diddley at the Gainesville Airport. Click the image to view it full size.)

We had a little time before our appointment at the prison, so we had breakfast in Waldo, Florida, and checked out a thrift store or two. We noticed a yard sale going on near the prison, so we stopped there too -- just long enough for Giselle to buy a pulp paperback for 10 cents. Its name? Ravaged. Giselle thought it would be fun to read us some of the steamier passages from the book, using her best breathy, orgasmic voice. This went on while driving, while waiting at the prison, and even on the plane ride home. She had us in stitches!

To me, Giselle Fernandez was a blast to work with. Some people at the station disliked her, because she could get bossy, downright ornery, and could be a real prima donna. Those are just three reasons why I thought she was great! Do you think it was easy being a strong female journalist, two decades ago? Giselle knew what she wanted, and was always determined to get it. The two of us made an amazing team.

Finally, it was show time at Starke. Giselle put Ravaged away, and we were led to a special area. There we met the “monster". He did not have horns or a long tail. He was just a man. Model prisoner Fuster was now using the surname Escalona, further distancing himself from his infamy. For hours, he professed his innocence, outlining every hole in the case that it was humanly possible to find. He was SO convincing that Giselle promised to research his claims, and possibly help him, should she find that his story checked out. I do not know if Fuster did the things that Janet Reno’s office, his own son, and several kids in his care accused him of doing. I do know from personal experience how convincing child molesters can be. I was a victim of sexual abuse when I was a young teen, and no one believed me at the time. After all, the hospital worker that attacked me was “such a sweet man who would never do anything like that”. I’m still surprised I was able to carry on a rational conversation with Fuster, and even shake his hand. Guess it was just the journalist in me, trying to do my objective best.

With Janet Reno constantly in the news throughout the 90s, it was only natural for the media to investigate one of her Miami office’s biggest victories. Even Frontline joined the “was Fuster railroaded” fray. Giselle Fernandez made some calls, and corresponded a few times with Fuster, but decided not to pursue his claims. His interview was not used in “Devil In Our Church?”, but instead aired separately, as an Action News update. Several hours of interviews were condensed into a two-minute piece that concentrated on the parts that made Fuster look scary and threatening. Yes, it was Fuster’s fault for uttering scary and threatening remarks, when he knew the cameras were rolling. It would have been irresponsible for us NOT to include that part of the interview, but it may have also been irresponsible for us to make that the focus of the piece. It made for compelling TV, which in that consultant-driven environment, really was the name of the game.

I was rarely paired with Giselle Fernandez during her final year at the station. We were just too strong together. I often was paired with unmotivated anchors or reporters, who needed a push to get the maximum out of our assigned news series. The Jeff and Giselle team did not like to take no for an answer, and could sometimes get insubordinate. Managers don’t like that. We would put a story together, and then tell our bosses that we did so. It would have driven me up a wall, too, had I been a manager. But the thing is – our stories kicked butt. The topics were compelling, and Giselle’s on-camera style always made for great TV. I never enjoyed working with anybody as much as I liked working with Giselle. I even watched her on “Dancing with the Stars”, even though I despise that boring waste-of-time TV show.

(Click the image to view it full size)

When Giselle left Channel 6 in September 1991, I gave her a special present: a book. A dog-eared pulp paperback. It was Ravaged. I’d kept it.

As for Frank Fuster… well, he still maintains his innocence. You can’t help but wonder if his case might have turned out differently had he not shouted those words in court. The jury saw a scary, imposing figure, when he raised his voice and shouted “YOU ARE A LIAR!" Congressman Joe Wilson will have his jury, too: the voters of South Carolina. His judgment day will arrive soon enough.

CBS To The Rescue

2009-08-18T09:23:00.008-04:00

We were incredulous. Sure, we’d heard the rumors that big bad CBS was going to buy our low-rated, signal-challenged independent TV station, but get real! They’d backed a winner in WTVJ Channel 4 for the past four decades, but now NBC was buying Channel 4, changing everything. We’d all speculated on what could happen if we were actually taken over by the Columbia Broadcasting System, but few of us really believed it would happen. But it did! The announcement came down on 8-8-88. It may have appeared 8’s were wild that day, but for us, everything was coming up 6’s. The takeover would become official come the new year. The ant that thought he could move a rubber tree plant finally had more than just high hopes, as the new owners planned to spend money, make improvements, and do anything they could to justify their investment. Bring it on, we said. Make us a contender!

Who at Channel 6 wasn’t affected by the change? For some, it was time to move up. For others it meant moving out, as the network boys brought in lots of new blood. For me it meant a move to the new special projects unit, and a chance to produce specials, series, and what have you. Anything besides the newscast grind (although I still had to produce the Saturday and Sunday newscasts.) I had the “pleasure” of producing the first Saturday 6PM show in Channel 6’s history. Unfortunately it followed basketball, and the game ran long, which meant… Channel 6’s first accordion show! That’s when the show has to be sliced, diced, then sliced-and-diced some more (depending on how little time was left between the end of the game and the start of network news at 6:30 sharp). Just one of the fun new things we had to get used to. The change meant more newscasts, expanded coverage, and much higher expectations – all good things, especially when you consider what a busy first month it was: Overtown civil disturbances. Miami’s first Super Bowl in ten years. Ted Bundy’s execution. An influx of Nicaraguan refugees, enough to fill Bobby Maduro Stadium to capacity. The first George Bush’s inauguration. Whew, we were busy. But help was on the way. We had already stolen Al Sunshine away from WTVJ, and soon some shiny new anchors would join the team. By April, J.D. Roberts (now CNN’s John Roberts) was brought in from Canada to anchor the news with Barbara Sloan (sending Jim Dyer to the weekends). Giselle Fernandez joined the team the following month, followed a little while later by John Hambrick, who had been WTVJ’s star anchorman. The new anchors raised the bar even higher, and so did the new management team.

CBS brought in Jay Newman, who presented a blueprint that would be hard to follow – but we sure tried. Newman mandated that anchor tags follow every reporter package. Producers were not allowed to change anchors between stories, without an on-camera tag as a transition. Every block of news had to have a light “ender”, to set the mood before the tease that followed. And all teases had to have at least two pieces of video in them. Lofty goals. By March the station had hired Ron Tindiglia as our consultant, to further refine our newscasts and make more mandates. Some of us called Tindiglia “The Guru”, because of the way he would hold middle management spellbound through the years. Tindiglia’s word was like the word of God around that newsroom. Thou shalt write to video at all times!

That first year under CBS brought rapid changes to our humble newsroom. I spent part of January training our two newest producers, Brian Jones and Zahir Sachedina. I was supposed to be part of the special projects unit, but didn’t get a sniff of a news series until April. Sachedina’s ulcer, and Jones being thrown into an in-depth series about the Overtown disturbances (“A Search For Answers”) kept me tied to the producer’s desk for several extra weeks. During this time I became close friends with one of our new associate producers, Marty Hames. It was then that I learned that when it came to our new owners, there was way more than meets the eye.

Hames, it turns out, wasn’t just an A.P., and she wasn’t hired by our Miami management team like the rest of us writer/producer types. She was personally placed at our station by CBS honcho Eric Ober. By the time she was introduced to us, her ticket to stardom had already been punched. Unbeknownst to us, she was here to learn the ropes of writing, and the ins and outs of news, before being placed in an anchor’s position somewhere in the CBS empire. (There was even talk about renaming her Rosario Velasco, to capitalize on her mother’s Latin heritage.) It turns out there were other secret apprentices. Our new anchor hires were all seen as future stars, and Miami was pretty much just a stop along the way. Hey South Florida, don’t get too used to these folks! The anchor-as-celebrity was already germinating on our airwaves, and the old guard – the Jim Dyers – was being pushed aside. That’s show biz, as they say. And show biz, it was. J.D. Roberts and Giselle Fernandez were terrific anchors and personalities, but I doubt if WCIX ranks high on their resumes. But they would give us the visibility we needed to make the transition from afterthought in the Miami market, to a future player.

Just the way the network planned it.

Credit Where It's Due

2009-08-05T00:02:00.000-04:00

(Click image to view full size)

Once a week the folks behind The Ten O’Clock News would receive on-air recognition for their roles in making the newscast happen. As the Chyron operator (or “Super” Man), I often had to leap tall buildings in order to find out exactly who did what in a given week. Typing, and “rolling” the weekly credit roll was part of my responsibilities. I had to get it right (including spelling), or feel the wrath of whoever might have been left out.

The sheet above is one of the templates that I worked with. If you look carefully, you’ll notice that “film processing” was originally part of our credits. After we finally switched to tape in 1982, that antiquated credit finally went away. It was long overdue!

It’s fun to see all these names again. We really did have quite a team.

Up next: Mighty CBS purchases WCIX Channel 6.

They did what??

A WCIX Reunion?

2009-07-21T00:02:00.004-04:00

So who’s up for a Channel 6 reunion? Seriously! The old WTVJ Channel 4 gang held a reunion recently. So did folks from WFUN, WWOK, and other local radio stations, with a giant 70s & 80s South Florida radio reunion planned for October 24. So why not us?

Yeah, I know, it’s a logistical nightmare, but it doesn’t have to be. The WFUN reunion was pretty informal, renting out an area at Tony Roma’s and taking it over for an evening. Of course we’d need a nice video set-up to show old skit reels and a photo presentation. Too bad we don’t have any video professionals to facilitate that. Just kidding, guys. Of course it can be done. If we could air instant specials on a wing and a prayer, and a newscast night after night with skeleton staffs, we can pull off a reunion of the hardest-working team in showbiz. Or was it the lowest-paid team in South Florida television? Yeah, that’s it. Five percent, pass it on!

How would this work? Would the 60s & 70s team feel comfortable with the 80s & 90s guys? I think so. Would the stories about Brickell bore the Doralites, or is it all meat on the same bone? What would be the cut-off? Would we exclude WFOR newbies, or throw it open to everyone? I don’t have the answers, but these are some of the questions. What else would need to be worked out in order to make this a reality?

Should this happen, I would be glad to help publicize the event and pass along information, but since I no longer live in South Florida, I do not see myself being part of the organizing committee. Others would need to take the ball and run with it. I can tell you that behind the scenes of this blog, the number one question I’m asked is “any chance of a reunion?” People want this! The question is, do you want it badly enough to help out and make it a reality? I know of folks who are willing to travel from all over the country to attend such a reunion, but where do we go from here?

Please leave comments and let me know what you think. Do it here, on this post. If you contact me via e-mail or Facebook, there’s a chance your message could be lost somewhere down the line. Send this link to your Channel 6 pals, and let them chime in as well. In the immortal words of former executive producer Jeanne Antol-Krull: “GET GOING!”

Behind The Scenes at The Ten O’Clock News

2009-07-09T12:36:00.002-04:00

Here's a rare look inside the old Channel 6 newsroom, in that funny old round building on Brickell Avenue. The on-camera dude is sports anchor Andy Leopold, who conducted these impromptu interviews for our annual Christmas skit reel, back in December 1983. Appearing on-camera are anchor Barbara Sloan (who didn't feel like talking to Andy), videotape editor Gary Slawitschka, director Curtis Bivins, assignment editor (and future author) Jan Hollingsworth, and reporter Amanda Moss. Look carefully and you can spot producer Mike Villafana at the typewriter, and there are even brief shots of yours truly walking in and out of the newsroom while Andy is speaking with Amanda.

A few more points about this video:

1. Notice that custodian Guy Thompson is holding the album cover for The Brickell Hillbillies. We had just finished shooting the portion of that skit reel segment where the album cover is thrown in the trash.
2. Barbara Sloan had an office in those days. When Larry Lyle hired Lemar Wooley as his assistant news director, he took it away from Sloan and gave it to Wooley.
3. Hollingsworth, Slawitschka, and Villafana all left the station the following year. Moss and Bivins weren’t too far behind. Andy Leopold’s contract was not renewed in 1985, right around the time of our move to what is now Doral.
4. We sure had a lot of fun then!

The Lyle File, Part 3

2009-07-01T08:32:00.003-04:00

Note: This is the final part of a trilogy about my experiences with former WCIX news director Larry Lyle. It might be a good idea to read the previous two entries before diving into this one.

I guess it wasn’t completely accurate to say I worked 70 straight nights, since it was actually 69 out of 70 (counting my “sick day”). But finally… finally… Rob Puglisi was brought in as the main news producer. Finally, I could concentrate on producing weekend shows only, along with the public affairs program Newsday and Gail Anderson’s Troubleshooter segment. Puglisi was the perfect choice for a Lyle-run newsroom – a “don’t worry be happy” sort of guy, who always claimed he was having a good day, and who has always “never been better”. Puglisi would allow himself to be a punching bag for grouchy reporters, moody anchors, and of course, Larry Lyle. Rob, was I ever happy to see YOU!

My tolerance for Lyle’s mood swings continued to grow shorter. At the same time, he gave us few resources for the weekend show. There was me (producer); Gail Anderson (anchor); Amanda Moss (reporter); Tim Woodberry (photographer); and Woody Woodriffe (tape editor & Chyron operator). That was it for the Saturday and Sunday news staff. Lyle further tied our hands when he decided that Amanda Moss – our sole reporter – would no longer be permitted to do stand-ups in her reporter packages! And then he decided that she would do two packages a day, both without stand-ups!

With no one on the assignment desk, we missed all the spot news that occurred after Moss and Woodberry hit the streets, and before I arrived for the day. Even with the police scanner turned way up high, I still missed a lot, with all the other stuff I had to do. It got so bad that Gail Anderson hired local tipsters Bob & Carolyn Sherman, and paid for their services herself! Imagine that – an anchor having to hire tipsters, just so we wouldn’t look foolish by missing so many stories!

One way Lyle kept control was by secretly pitting employees against one another. He told me to keep an eye on Gail Anderson, and to make sure she didn’t overstep her boundaries. It turns out he also told Anderson to watch me, and gave her authority to overrule decisions I had made. So that begs the question of who can overrule whom? Fortunately Gail and I were usually on the same page, and were constantly amazed at our news director’s shenanigans.

In time, Lyle brought in Eric Seidel, and later Lynn Kubik, to watch the assignment desk. But the deeper problems weren’t resolved. Not by a long shot.

We became the laughing stock of this news market when Lyle decided we would no longer cover spot news. Instead, we would make our name with special assignment reports and enterprise stories. If there was a major fire, he didn’t care about the nuts and bolts of the story. Our focus had to be how the firefighters felt, when they entered the burning building. How did the police feel when they investigated the murder? It was touchy-feely news, without any meat at all! (I agree that special assignment reports and enterprise stories are extremely important. They help make a newscast distinctive, and done right, can help a station stand shoulders above the competition. But their purpose is to compliment the news of the day, not to replace it. That was a huge miscalculation on Lyle’s part).

Larry Lyle was the news director when WCIX made its move from Brickell Avenue to Doral, in September 1985. Just weeks after the move, we were soundly beaten by the competition on election night. Lyle flew into a rage, and slammed the door against the wall of our brand new newsroom, putting a big gash in it. He seemed to go through the motions in the two months that followed, until finally, on December 4, 1985, Larry Lyle was ousted. Assistant news director Lemar Wooley would replace him, temporarily, until Larry #3 – former assignment editor Larry Wallenstein – took over, restoring some of the morale that was lost, and guiding us through the end of our time as an independent station.

(Click image to view it full size)

We knew Lyle was a secretive man, and that the turmoil we saw at work was a reflection of a tortured soul who could never really accept himself. Yet it’s never easy being on the receiving end of that misplaced anger. I could cite many more examples of what life was like during his reign, but you get the picture. Those were some difficult years.

Lyle’s turmoil ended in December 1992, when he died in Indiana of AIDS-related complications. He was only 41.

I bear no grudges against Larry Lyle, though I did at one time. I used to blame him for turning me against newscast producing. It was during my marathon producing session that I became dependent on sleeping pills, so I blamed him for that, too. But that’s not fair. I take full responsibility for my addiction. (I’ve been drug-free for more than four years now, after a 21-year-long sleeping pill dependency. It feels great to say that.)

Under Larry Lyle’s watch, Channel 6 switched from a single-anchor to a dual-anchor, began to produce live specials, put a new emphasis on investigative reports, and went back to doing local news seven days a week. We also lost some amazingly-talented people, through his inconsistent policies, his mood swings, and occasional divisiveness. The newsroom went through radical changes during his time. By the time Larry Wallenstein returned in January 1986, it was a completely different place. And a completely different Larry. Once again, it was time to move forward.

Weak-A-Go-Go: The Lyle File, Part 2

2009-06-24T11:44:00.009-04:00

“The emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.”

Outgoing producer Mike Villafana spoke those words one night, after yet another rough installment of The Ten O’Clock News. The emperor was our supervisor, our boss, our intrepid news director, Larry Lyle. Villafana, as the man in the hot seat most nights, knew something I was about to discover: there was unresolved trauma, unresolved anger, and unresolved rage behind the boss man’s smile.

As a yet-untested punk kid producer, I was anxious to sit in that hot seat and show Larry Lyle, my colleagues, and all of South Florida what I could do! When Villafana split in March 1984, I got my chance. I was one happy camper. At that point, I was the only news producer on staff, and would remain so until Lyle hired Villafana’s replacement. The problem is, Lyle took his time. Two-and-a-half months! And that meant being asked to work 70 straight days! Yes, you read that right: 70 straight days!

Soon, the honeymoon was over. Solon Gray came aboard as co-anchor in April, joining Barbara Sloan behind the anchor desk. Give credit to Lyle for recognizing that co-anchors were the wave of the present and future, and it was about time we joined the club. But for me, a still-inexperienced producer, it created a new set of challenges. Lyle offered no insight into how to stack a show for two anchors. He would approve the nightly rundown before leaving for the day, only to criticize that same rundown the following morning (after having the luxury of having watched the finished product). Now THAT’S fair!

I’m not saying I can’t take criticism, especially the constructive kind. The problem was how it was dished out: hit and run style. Lyle loved to write critiques. Instead of calling someone in to his office, and offering something constructive, he would post his daily diatribe on the bulletin board, for everybody to see. He’d tell me certain ideas were, quote, “weak-a-go-go” after the fact, when he was the one who signed off on them just hours before news time. We literally couldn’t win.

One day he would insist that we stop using file film/video in stories. A week later he would ask why we didn't use file! The contradictions were staggering!

May 18, 1984: Lyle writes “Why use the B&W photo of Dorr? Freeze the court video”.
Just three days later, he wrote “DON’T FREEZE VIDEO!”
Make up your mind, sir!

But that’s just the beginning.

To freeze or not to freeze? It all depended on Lyle's mood. Click images to view them full size.

File video is bad... on that particular day. I can't seem to locate the critique in which he asked why we DIDN'T use file, but it exists.

Around this time, assignment editor Jan Hollingworth and anchor Barbara Sloan were investigating allegations of child abuse in our community: one at a Miami Beach temple, and the other at a day care center in Country Walk. Hollingsworth, in particular, worked long, hard hours on her investigation, only to have Lyle put the kibosh on it. A few weeks later we heard a tease on one of the other channels, about a child abuse case involving a man named Francisco Fuster Escalona. He and his teenage bride were operating a day care center in the Country Walk subdivision, and one by one, kids were coming forth were allegations of abuse. It was Hollingworth and Sloan’s investigation, which Lyle refused to air, now being “broken” by one of our rivals! If you were around at the time, you know what happened. The Fuster case became the biggest story of the summer. Soon, Larry Lyle started demanding that we do more with this story – the same man who refused to air it in the first place! Hollingsworth left the station shortly after, and went on to write a very successful book about the Fuster case. That book, Unspeakable Acts, was even turned into a movie. It was not one of WCIX’s prouder moments.

Larry’s wishy-washy policies and passive-aggressive critiques were really starting to get to me. Remember that 70-day producing marathon? Well, this punk kid producer who couldn’t wait to sit on the hot seat was starting to suffer from exhaustion – both physical and mental. I needed a day off, and needed it badly! One day in May, after two months without a day off, we aired a special assignment report on the Broward school system. There was something in the report that angered several high-level county politicians, who called that night, demanding a retraction. It was my job to talk to each and every one of them, all the while trying to defend our report, all the while knowing that these savvy campaigners could eat me up when it came to their level of anger and passion about setting things straight. After more than an hour on the phone, following a tough night, which followed another tough night, which followed TWO MONTHS of tough nights… something had to give. I wasn’t sleeping, and instead of reaching for sleeping pills on occasion, I found myself needing them every night. I told Lyle that I desperately needed a day off. The problem is, Lyle had yet to replace Mike Villafana, and there was nobody else to do it. Sorry kid, tough break.

In a rare show of balls by yours truly, I called in sick the next day. I knew that put Lyle in a bind, but how much blood can one person give without being bled dry? Lyle, who was not a hands-on news director, had no choice but to produce the show himself.

How did it go? It couldn’t have been a smoother or easier show. Of course! Everyone was on their best behavior, and everybody made sure they gave 110 percent with the boss in charge. The next day Lyle said to me, “see, it’s not so hard, so quit your complaining”. From that point on, I held just about everything inside – not a healthy thing to do, but Lyle didn’t want to hear it. Just smile and take it. Hey, guess what? I don’t love producing, after all. I HATE IT! That’s what Larry Lyle did at Channel 6: he took love, and turned it into hate. He took peace, and turned it into war. He took his own festering self-hatred and projected it onto his staff. (I’m not going to get into any details about Lyle’s personal life, but things were not the way they appeared. Let’s just leave it at that.)

I’ll wrap up my look at this complicated, confused, and quite confounding man the next time.

The Lyle File, Part 1

2009-06-19T13:15:00.005-04:00

They say it’s not nice to say bad things about the dead. Yet I can’t talk about Larry #2 without presenting both sides of his highly-complex personality.

What a nice guy, with a big, big smile.

What a two-faced, divisive #@&*!

This is not going to be an easy post to write.

It will probably be best to break this down into more than one part. In this installment, I want to concentrate on Larry Lyle’s good points. I want to tell you how he was the first manager at the station to see my potential. How he moved the station forward. How he cared about both our content and presentation. How he made some really good hires.

But I warn you: the other side has to come out, too. Not because bashing the man gives me any pleasure, but because of things that happened under his watch, things that played a big role in WCIX’s history.

First, a little background. Long-time Channel 6 news director Dick Descutner was fired on July 22, 1983. News directors generally get shown the door when new owners come in, and in this case it was Taft Broadcasting that decided to inject some new blood into the operation.

Station management had been planning the move for a while. Lyle, who was the assistant news director at WTSP in Tampa, had made a couple of trips to Miami to meet with general manager Harvey Cohen. Six candidates vied for the job, but Lyle had the inside track. He’d already served as assistant news director at the Taft station in Birmingham, so he was a known quantity. Lyle also spent time at the pre-WSVN Channel 7 in Miami, so he knew this unique market. Sort of. South Florida had changed radically in the nine years since Lyle’s Miami days, something it took him a long, long time to realize. Lyle accepted the WCIX news director job on July 21, 1983, and began his 2 ½ year reign on August 10. He started off with a bang.

“Taft is committed to do news, and wants to improve the quality substantially,” Lyle told the Miami Herald. “They’re prepared to spend the money. A lot of changes are going to happen.”

One of those changes involved my role at the station. It took Lyle just one week to see what Descutner missed in more than three years: that I had potential beyond just being a Chyron operator and film archivist. Just one week into Lyle’s regime, he gave me a new title: associate producer. Well, it sounded good, but I still had to run the Chyron every night. Two weeks later (September 5) I started writing news cut-ins, and by October I was also producing the Community Close-Up news segments. In November the challenge was to produce a live debate between Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre and challenger Xavier Suarez. (Mayor Ferre lost his Rolex watch that night, and we turned the station upside down, trying to find it!) In December I worked with Mayco Villafana in putting some news shows together, and when Villafana went on vacation on January 2, 1984 (the night the University Of Miami won the national championship, at the Orange Bowl), I made my solo producing debut. Air Florida’s troubles dominated the news that week, which gave me several easy-to-decide leads. That first week went well, and in short time, I had made the leap to “producer”. There to offer support and congratulations was Larry Lyle. I thought he was a great guy. I thought I was going to love producing the news. Yeah, right.

(Click image to view full screen)

I don’t know a lot of what went on behind the scenes. I don’t know what pressures Lyle faced or why he went on do some of the things he later did. I do know the way I viewed producing the news was being shaped by his words, his memos, his critiques, and his actions. I watched him slowly torpedo the improved morale around the newsroom, for reasons that I’ll probably never understand. The man with the big smile who seemed to really care about The Ten O’Clock News was living a secret life, and bringing those demons to the office with him. I would truly love to tell his story without recalling any of those demons, but I can’t honestly tell his story… or mine… without presenting some of the rough stuff. So bear with me. There is more to come.

Trading Barbs

2009-06-12T13:31:00.008-04:00

If there’s anybody who ought to master the art of plain talk, and expressing oneself clearly without bias or double speak, it should be a television broadcaster. If anyone should be able to deliver facts without prejudice, code, or sleight of hand, it should be the folks whose job it is to serve the public good, especially the higher-ups that determine who will gather and deliver the news that affects each and every one of us.

Ha ha ha! I make myself laugh!

I had one general manager who said he’d rather see us report a malfunctioning traffic light in Opa-Locka than ANYTHING pertaining to Africa. Yes, a total ban on Africa, a place that he claimed “nobody cared about”. Idi Amin’s reign of terror? Nelson Mandela’s fight against apartheid? Not for us! Libya’s leader is threatening to kill Americans, a promise he would keep? Sorry, but hey, I hear there’s an abandoned warehouse on fire somewhere in Hialeah!

(The running joke was “how many starving children have to die in Ethiopia before it makes the news?” Our guess was at least two million.)

One news director loved to point out that “only Cubans” cared about many of the stories we suggested. She would refer to Spanish-speaking as “locka locka locka”, and didn’t seem to grasp why big local sports stories sometimes became the top story of the day. All I can say to that is “locka locka locka, locka locka locka, locka locka locka…”

Double speak sometimes reigned behind the scenes, in the comings-and-goings of the station. Case in point: the departure of Barbara Sloan, one of the classiest people in the business. The 13-year veteran of WCIX and WFOR left for vacation, a few weeks before Christmas 1995. While away, she suddenly decided to pursue other opportunities – or at least that’s what everyone was told. Pay close attention to the date on this memo from general manager Allen Shaklan.

Click images to view them full screen

So in the days leading up to December 13, 1995, this “tireless worker who truly cared for the people in her stories” supposedly decided to move on. That means she would have informed the station of her intentions, and they would then have to search for a replacement anchor, negotiate with that replacement, draft a contract, and officially bring her aboard. Could Shaklan have been overly optimistic when he wrote “a replacement will be named shortly”?

Now fast forward 24 hours. Just one day later – ONE DAY! – came this memo from news director Neil Goldstein.

That was fast! A replacement anchor was found and contacted. Terms were negotiated, and agreed to. She accepted the job, and told her station in Denver she was leaving. What a difference a day makes!

Clearly, the official version of events, and the reality of the situation were two different things. Everybody knew it – especially after a Miami Herald columnist spoke to several of Sloan’s “colleagues” (no, I wasn’t one of them). The station wanted a faster-paced, “sexier” newscast, so her contract wasn’t renewed. It’s a tough business for women in their 40s. A good investigative reporter can stick around for a long time, but a lead anchor has to fit some preconceived, superficial mold. Things have only gotten worse in the 13-plus years since Sloan “left to pursue other opportunities”.

This is not a knock in any way on Anne Roberts. She did a fine job as Sloan’s replacement, and I enjoyed working with her. It’s also not meant as a knock on Allen Shaklan, who held that ship together through some very difficult times. The knock is on the game that managers play. It’s an insult to any intelligent person, yet I understand that’s the way it goes in business. And yes, news is a business. It’s not about reality. It’s all about illusions.

Congratulations to Barbara Sloan and Don Cox for raising two children, both now college-age. Kudos to Sloan for continuing to do production work, while also teaching high school English. For much more on Barbara Sloan’s thirteen years behind the anchor desk, please check out this link.

The Mail Bag

2009-06-03T00:02:00.006-04:00

All bloggers say the same thing: we write for ourselves, and any response we get from the public is simply icing on the cake. And yes, that’s basically true, but not 100 percent honest. If we were simply writerbating, we’d put our words in a journal, not up on the internet, where there are robots and spiders and crawly things finding our links, devouring our words like some crazed Pac-Mac, and indexing our thoughts for the world to discover. The truth is bloggers love attention, even those who believe that they couldn’t care less. And they love comments! Even someone’s gibberish feels better than staring at the dreaded “0 Comments” link, which translated means, “this post is about as popular as a Sunday morning public affairs show”.

87.3 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot, including the next one. So take it with a grain of salt when I tell you for every person who leaves a comment, there are more than 200 visitors who don’t. I’m not going to count the visits to get an exact figure, but trust me, the number is high. (Did you know 100 percent of the comments that are left on blogs are made up on the spot? I didn’t make THAT one up!)

I figured it would be fun to share some of the e-mail that’s come my way in the months since this blog began. I’ve taken out any personal-type stuff that shouldn’t be shared in a place where creepy-crawly spiders dwell. If you see a part of your e-mail here, and would like for me to take it down, just ask. And if you’d like to be part of the 0.5% that actually leaves a comment on a blog, please do. Not that I’m actively soliciting a response – nah, would I do that??

“Jeff, Mac MacDonald sent your blog to me and I could not believe it. Having been Ted Adams' assistant and then Program Director at WCIX brought back a lot of memories. In fact, I worked at WDZL and Big Wilson worked for me over there.

I am now retired and living in the Sebastian, FL area and all I do now is travel a lot and enjoy myself.

Ted Adams (General Manager) passed away several years ago but I still keep in contact with Al Tanger who was the VP at General Cinema and whom we reported to. Dick Descutner is living in Stuart and running a little antique shop.

It was fun reading your blog and if you get a chance, let me know what is going on with some of the other former WCIXers.”

Barbara Smith

“Hi Jeff--

I stumbled upon your WCIX blog and had a fabulous trip down memory lane reading it. Thanks for taking the time to do a superb job of chronicling those magic days.

I'm retired now, enjoying a slower, yet more in-depth pace of life back in Mississippi, my home state. I sure miss the old gang and all the times we had. I'll never forget that chapter of our lives.

Hope you're well, and that our paths cross again someday.”

Cheers,
Larry Klaas

“I have become the most faithful reader of your WCIX blog. I wasn't, of course, around for the round building days; but it all makes for fascinating reading. And you sir--well, you're the Library of Congress of TV clip archivists! I salute you!”
Paul Stueber

“You had to go posting videos up, didn't you?!?! Don't you know we old folks just can't NOT watch the old videos, it's impossible. So of course, I had to watch, taking up all that valuable time I should be devoting to work. But NOOOOOO, Jeff has to take me down memory lane!! Laughing all the way!!!

God we were good! That old building was magic. Keep 'em coming.”
Glo MacDonald

I will. I like how this site has helped bring so many old friends together. Who knows – perhaps we might actually have a for-real reunion one of these days. Now wouldn’t THAT be something?

Too True To Be Good

2009-05-27T10:45:00.006-04:00

This cartoon is from the 90s, but I think it's just as relevant today as it was back then. Click on the image to view it full size.

Say Seven?

2009-05-21T00:02:00.000-04:00

Talk about going from one extreme to another! Before becoming the vanguard in slash-and-trash, if-it-bleeds-it-leads TV (ahem) “journalism”, WSVN (Channel 7 in Miami) was the tortoise/caboose/horse and buggy of local TV news. It was the old-fashioned, slower-paced, no-need-to-shout voice in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market. It was, to today’s “standards”, boring at times, but refreshing in several more important ways.

The Great Channel Swap of January 1, 1989 changed all that. With the station losing its NBC affiliation to WTVJ Channel 4 (which lost its CBS affiliation to our beloved WCIX Channel 6), long-time owner Ed Ansin had a choice: show old movies and tons of reruns, and go further back into the past… or reinvent the station as a sleazy mini-CNN, pushing the envelope at every opportunity to do so. We all know which path he chose.

Ansin had already hired general manager Joel Cheatwood a year or so earlier, so he had the right man to lead the charge. Cheatwood and news director Mark Toney turned Sally Fitz and Penny Daniels from even-keeled anchors into hyperbolic Chicken Littles; they turned the news area into the larger-than-life Newsplex; they turned every mundane police perimeter into some scary, better-lock-your-doors clarion call of doom (with Rick Sanchez proving the perfect person to spread hype and hysteria, through his amazing Crime Check segments). It was a freak show that every other news operation in town looked upon with equal amounts of scorn and envy. Scorn, because it violated every journalistic instinct. Envy, because all TV news people want to report stories that are larger-than-life… and every story that came out of the Newsplex was made to seem that way. And damn if the viewing audience didn’t eat it up. Oh my God, there’s a robber on the loose! And he’s heading this way!

(Breathless Sally and Frenetic Rick)

The videos that follow are from that moment in time before WSVN’s transition. They had started to loosen up a bit, but the Freak Show had not yet begun. Several past and future WCIX employees can be seen in this blooper reel, including Bob Soper, Jill Beach, Susan Candiotti (who didn’t even work for Channel 7!), and Mike Mason. There’s even a spoof of former Channel 6 Night Owl Movies host Big Wilson… plus then-Governor Bob Graham’s comedy debut. Don’t quit your day job, Senator! This is a rare glimpse into a time when the Three Stooges weren’t named Rick, Sally, and Penny. I hope this brings a big smile to your face.

(Look for Steve Rondinaro, Sally Fitz, Mark Wolin, Dave Willingham, Bob Soper, Bob Gilmartin, Stephanie Stahl, Steve Dawson, Denise White, Jill Beach, Wayne Fariss, Rick Sanchez, Susan Candiotti, Tom Brokaw, George Waldroup, Mike Mason, and others.)

Devastation... And Celebration

2009-05-11T00:01:00.002-04:00

(Click images to view them full screen)

My life changed on May 11, 1996.

One day I will talk at length about the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Florida Everglades. I will tell you about the way WFOR handled this horrible tragedy, and my role in that coverage. I will tell you what went through my mind, our reporters’ minds, and our bosses' minds. I will tell you why I was compelled to visit the ValuJet memorial in the Everglades, on the tenth anniversary of the tragedy. One day I will, but right now I’m not ready. This one still hurts, in more ways than one.

I do want to mention the remarkable dichotomy that was South Florida thirteen years ago today. On one side of town – the Everglades – family members gathered to ask how an airplane can simply disappear.
Disintegrate… into nothing. They asked police, reporters, cameramen, ANYONE, for information that just wasn’t there. And all around was this feeling of HELPLESSNESS. Nothing we could say, or do, could ease anyone’s minds. Nothing could change a thing. Flight 592 was lost, and out in the swamps that day, so was everybody. It was horrible, to say the least.

Twenty miles away, at what was then known as Joe Robbie Stadium, lefty Al Leiter was making history. After seven innings… make that eight innings… he was pitching a no hitter. One of our sports anchors (either Jim Berry or Joe Zagacki) made us aware of that fact, and as cool as the team’s first no hitter would be, we were secretly hoping he’d blow it. After all, how would we report it, without seeming insensitive to 110 lost souls? One out in the ninth! The crowd is on its feet, cheering. Two outs! While in the Everglades, pitch darkness. No news. No hope. Three outs! He did it! Al Leiter has pitched a no hitter for the Florida Marlins! Celebrate good times, come on! Ya-hoo!

In Joe Robbie Stadium, EUPHORIA! Out in the Everglades… desolation. Devastation.

(Click images to view them full screen)

If Al Leiter showed us anything that night, it’s that life goes on. It always does. But what a contrast.

There were hundreds of compelling stories in South Florida that day, that week. One of them was playing out, behind the scenes, at WFOR. On this, the anniversary of the ValuJet crash, I’m not going to dwell on the newsroom melodrama, or the many mistakes we made. I’ll get to that some day. Today I want to remember the 110 people who never made it to Atlanta that day. I want to remember the good folks that worked for ValuJet, oblivious to the practices of the airline (and its maintenance contractor) that resulted in combustible oxygen generators being placed in the cargo hold that day. I want to remember the face of one boy who lost his mother, and wondered aloud, ten years later, how different his life could have been. I want to recall the rescuer who broke down in tears, still traumatized by the helplessness he felt. And I want to invite you to join the Facebook group “Remembering ValuJet Flight 592” that I started a few months ago, not just for the loved ones of the victims, but for my own healing as well.

If you get a chance, visit the Flight 592 Memorial, off the Tamiami Trail. Be sure to bring some tissues.

Dave's Not Here!

2009-05-06T00:02:00.000-04:00

Dave Levine was a presence in the WCIX newsroom.

The words “Levine wrap” would bring trepidation to videotape editors. Chyron operators shuddered, when Dave would mention that he needed “pre-pro”. Apparently Dave didn’t get the memo that this was Channel 6, a place where reporters sometimes mailed it in. “Levine wraps” were production numbers, the way good reporter packages ought to be. Yeah, they were a pain in the ass to produce, but they were thorough. It was never spoken or officially pointed out, but everyone knew Dave Levine was our number one reporter. It was a distinction that he earned.

Few people remember this, but for two weeks in 1984, Levine was part of our first-ever co-anchor team. Barbara Sloan was on vacation, and Solon Gray had yet to be hired. With everyone else in town having gone to co-anchor teams, then-news director Larry Lyle decided to experiment, pairing Levine with Amanda Moss. The experiment went well, and a few months later, Gray was hired to share the anchor desk with Barbara Sloan. But it was the Levine-Moss team, together for just ten nights, which set the groundwork.

Dave Levine (right), with future wife Kathy Sciere (center), and former WNWS reporter Cori Zywotow (left). Click photo to enlarge it.

When Dave bolted for New York in 1985, it was big news at the station, and in the entire South Florida news market. Several members of the news department volunteered their time to produce the following farewell video, shown just once at Levine’s going-away party. While some of these outtakes had been seen in earlier news blooper reels, many others were created just for the occasion. Mixed in with the Channel 6 employees are a few friends (and well-chosen strangers) from the, ahem, competition. The video is more than twelve minutes long, which is why it’s in two parts. I feel it is well worth watching for all the old faces you’ll see, along with South Florida landmarks from 25 years ago.

Watch for Gail Anderson, Mike Medrano, Joyce Evans, John Turchin, Rod Meloni, Bill Retherford, Jay Burton, Jill Lovell, Solon Gray, George Buigas, Jay Held, Ralph Renick, Mark Jones (WTVJ), Barbara Sloan, Ed O’Dell (WTVJ), Marianne Murciano, Mike Mason, Jim Hutton (Miami-Dade police spokesman), Glo MacDonald, Ron Laffin, Renee Hagen, Dave Game, Andy Leopold, Fess Major, Dan Slade, Tim Woodberry, Mike Bradley, Nelson Milton, Gilberto Sarmiento, Carlos Lima, Elliott Troshinsky, Tere Halls, Maria Hernandez, Liz Moore, and lots more old faces. I’m on there too, spoofing Levine’s “Viva Cuba Libre” routine from an earlier skit reel. Fun times.

WARNING: There are sexual situations, brief nudity, and many four-letter words on here. If you’re easily offended, keep on reading, but don’t click the magic arrows.

Essential Credentials

2009-04-29T11:29:00.013-04:00

Like J. Alfred Prufrock, measuring out his life with coffee spoons, TV journalists measure out their lives in press credentials, resume tapes, and war stories. I’ve already shared some tapes and war stories, so I guess it’s time to break out the you-know-what’s. As the mythical Prufrock once said, “let us go and make our visit”.

I have to admit these are fun to peruse—especially the ones with embarrassing or corny pictures on them. Here are a few that reflect some big events, not only in WCIX’s history, but also South Florida’s.

(Click images to view them full screen)

My first WCIX press credential, shortly after I made the move from electronic graphics to producing. Between a marathon stretch of shows, and producing Troubleshooter for Gail (Gayle) Anderson, I didn’t get to use this one very much.

The Pope’s visit to South Florida was a total clusterf@ck, and I’m not just talking about the media circus. Traffic in the Westchester and Doral areas was rerouted, and it took me more than an hour to drive the 4.6 miles to the station. We sure could have used a chopper in those days.

This pass got me into the parking lot and the stands for the 1990 FedEx Orange Bowl. After getting all the soundbites and B-roll that we needed, sports reporter John Deutzman managed to score a few cheap tickets from a desperate scalper. So we very quietly, and without anyone knowing (shhh!) sat down and watched part of the big game, which turned out to be a real snoozer. Come on, guys, let’s see some offense! Soon it was time to head back to the truck for our 11PM live shot. No one was the wiser.

I didn’t get to witness Nelson Mandela’s visit to South Florida. Instead, I stayed behind to produce a 15 minute instant special. I sure produced a lot of instant specials in those days! In typical Miami fashion, the headline was Mayor Xavier Suarez’s snub of the South African leader, who had refused to condemn Cuba’s human rights record. Several other Cuban-American mayors, and some local business leaders, also joined in the snub, which ultimately wound up costing the city a lot of $$ in lost convention business.

Thirty four world leaders gathered in Miami for the first Summit of the Americas, but once again, the headline became who WASN’T there: Cuban leader Fidel Castro. To this day, practically no one in Miami can tell you a thing about the summit or what it accomplished. All they remember is Fidel being told he wasn’t welcome!

This next credential has nothing to do with the old Channel 6, but it’s one of my favorites. It’s certainly the most colorful.

Whoa, baby! No one messes with The Blue Lakes Bugle -- my first reporter gig, with my elementary school newspaper. Even then I wanted to write about rock ‘n roll, but the teachers and advisers were gonna raise a fuss and gonna raise a holler. So I stuck to writing about the PTA, science projects, and not-so-burning issues. Jimmy Olsen had nothing on me!

Or as T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock pondered, “Would it have been worth it, after all?”

Gone But Not Forgotten

2009-04-22T00:05:00.009-04:00

The very shocking (and very sudden) death of Ernest Lester last week brought up lots of emotions in me. The long-time WFOR live truck operator was killed in a motorcycle accident on Saturday, April 11. Immediately I thought of the people I worked with at the old Channel 6 (WCIX) who are no longer with us. I realized there is no place on the web to remember their lives, and what they meant to us. That’s not right. Consider this a space to reflect, to remember, and to pay your respects to these old friends and co-workers.

TED ADAMS
General Manager
January 6, 2000

PEDRO FERNANDEZ
Videotape Editor
December 2001

JERRY FISHER
Reporter/Producer
April 9, 1996

(Jerry Fisher in September 1982. Click to view larger images)

GAIL GORDON
Desk Assistant
September 6, 1983

BOB HAMMERLY
Videotape Editor

RHONDA HASDAY
Special Projects Manager
August 3, 2010

RICK JOHNSON (aka BWANA JOHNNY)
Creature Feature Movie Host
October 28, 2005

(Rick Johnson as Bwana Johnny)

CHARLES KAPPES
News Producer
August 10, 1982

(Charles Kappes)

FRANK LASKO
Assignment Editor/Weatherman
August 1999

(Frank Lasko, circa 1980. Thanks to Mike Mason "The Chief")

ALLEN LEVY
News Producer
June 9, 2011

LARRY LYLE
News Director
December 1992

(Larry Lyle)

KEN MATZ
News Anchor
January 23, 2010

(Ken Matz)

NELSON MILTON
Mail and Shipping Room
February 1, 1998

(Nelson Milton)

SKIPP MOSS
General Manager

JAMES MULLINS
News Associate Producer
January 1993

(James Mullins, second from the left, in February 1992)

KEVIN RAPHAEL
Videotape Editor
August 1990

ED REHM
Engineering

RALPH RENICK
Commentator/Anchor
July 11, 1991

(Ralph Renick, just prior to his move to WCIX)

PRESCOTT ROBINSON
News Anchor
May 19, 1999

Prescott Robinson, with then-WNWS producer (and future Mrs. Dave Levine) Kathy Sciere.

CY RUSSELL
Sales
October 28, 2003

(Cy Russell during his time as general manager of WWOK. Thanks to Pat Appleson Productions)

BIG WILSON
Night Owl Movies Host
October 5, 1989

(Malcolm John "Big" Wilson)

BERNIE WIMMERS
Chief Engineer
May 9, 2010

CHUCK ZINK
Movie Host
January 2006

(Chuck Zink in his Skipper Chuck days)

I know I’m missing dozens of people, particularly those who worked at the station in the 60s and 70s (before my time). If you’d like to pay tribute to someone that I left out, please click on the comments link, and let your voice be heard.

A Little Jive In '85

2009-04-15T12:21:00.004-04:00

1967 (Channel 6 signs on).
1988 (CBS agrees to purchase WCIX).
1995 (WCIX switches to WFOR and Channel 4).

Those might be the three most important years in the history of WCIX, but right behind them would be 1985, the year of our move from Brickell Avenue to what is now Doral. It was a year of hopeful new beginnings, but for many, there was also sadness at leaving that silly round building behind. That feeling was reflected in our 1985 skit reel, which included the following news blooper piece that I co-produced with R.J. Heim (with assistance from Bill Retherford).

The hopefulness of a new beginning shines though on this piece, despite the sometimes stupid and sometimes strange moments that we captured for posterity. I always enjoy watching this one. Look for the following blasts from the past (in order of appearance): Barbara Sloan, Solon Gray, Rod Meloni, John Turchin, Joyce Evans, Andy “Hey Andy” Leopold, R.J. Heim, Mike Bradley, Glenn (what city is this?) Hutton, Gail “Gayle” Anderson, Steve Zager, Bill Retherford, and the late Nelson Milton. If you enjoyed this, hated this, or whatever, be sure to leave a comment and let me know.

Note: All news blooper reels contain profanity. If the boss or kids are watching, you might want to bookmark this page and watch the video later.

Ham-I-Am (Sorry Scripts, Part 2)

2009-04-08T10:11:00.009-04:00

95 percent of the folks that write for newscasts get writer’s block from time-to-time. As for the other 5 percent… well, they’re lying.

I remember being a novice producer during the ’84 political season. There I was, trying in vain to write about one of the democratic debates, without resorting to stupid clichés. Then Walter Mondale just had to do it! He had to go and parrot the catch phrase from a famous Wendy’s commercial, meaning I pretty much HAD to waste precious time on the democratic frontrunner exclaiming “Where’s the beef” . As if it wasn’t already difficult enough summing up everything in 90 seconds! So I’m sitting there trying to write the lead, trying to grab our viewers, trying not to trivialize the event while not hyping it as well. And all that could come out of me was trivia… hype… clichés. That was one of the few times I ever let anyone else write the lead to the top story. To me, that is the producer’s job. The pre-show tease, the opening headlines, and grabber lead make up the most crucial minute of the entire show, and as the captain of the ship it was my duty to keep us on a bold course. Or so I always thought.

Then came… John Hambrick.

(Click images to view them full screen)

“Hambone” was already a star in this market, thanks to his years at WTVJ. I was a fan. Hambrick was an actor before he was a journalist, and it showed. The man could really play the camera.

John could be a joy to work with, but he could also be a royal pain in the ass. One day John let me know that when it came to him, the rules were different. “They’re paying me a lot of money,” he told me. “Not just to sit at the anchor’s desk, but to put my brand on what I do.” It made sense to me. If things went wrong, it was John that the viewers saw, not some guy (me) behind a keyboard. So John got to put his stamp on the stories that he read, and that included writing the lead to the top story in the newscast.

Most of the time, it was not a problem. John understood the importance of writing in the active tense. He understood that a lead was meant to grab and entice. He understood the importance of making our viewers care, and selling that big, big story of the day.

But sometimes, like the rest of us, John would get writer’s block. Sometimes I would have to remind him that it was 10 minutes to show time, and the lead to the top story was not yet in. Sometimes John would then sit at his typewriter, and type WHATEVER. Oh it would be active, enticing, and big, but would it be coherent? Often there was no time to proofread his leads. The bosses would say that as producer, it was my responsibility to approve every script before it aired, but we’re not talking about any old script. This is Hambone we’re talking about. So occasionally, the news open would roll, the anchors would say hello, and John would read something like this:

(Click images to view them full screen)

Oh… my… God. A 35-second lead! “The whooshing spew of water under pressure”! The word “ostensibly”, used twice (great word, but hardly conversational). In the quest to turn an early-morning fire into poetry, we completely buried the nighttime lead: that a suspect, taken into custody, had died. If this had been a newspaper story, it would have been different. The headline would reflect the breaking development, and the talk of “flames, smoke, sirens, determined shouts above the din of engines, generators, and whooshing spew of water” would paint a vivid picture of the scene, sans pictures, which of course is the world of newspapers. But for the lead to a developing story on a major market 11PM newscast? Ostensibly, it missed the mark.

Let’s be honest. TV news has really been dumbed down in the past decade and a half. I would love to see a more intelligent, respectful-to-the-audience’s-intelligence approach. We should not be afraid to use the occasional 40-point-in-Scrabble word, but only if it’s the best available word (and never, never, at the expense of remaining conversational). It’s all about connecting. While that connection can be broken through too much dumbing down, it can also be broken by giving the impression that the words are being spoken by the great and powerful Oz. There’s a balance in there somewhere. I hope to see that day when that balance, “ostensibly”, is rediscovered.

Sorry Scripts (Part 1)

2009-04-01T10:34:00.009-04:00

“You’ve got to walk it like you talk it”: That was one of the first rules I would teach young writers that would come into the WCIX newsroom. News writing has to be conversational. Period. No exceptions.

When I first started my transition from electronic graphics to news writing, reporter Dave Levine taught me an important lesson. I had written a 20-second story about a child who was electrocuted in a pool. My information came from the Associated Press, which sent across information that the electrical current had somehow “coursed the pool”. I included those words in my story, prompting Dave to pull me aside. “What does that mean – coursing the pool,” he asked. I tried to explain the meaning of the words, but that’s not what he was asking. He was trying to point out that nobody speaks that way. If you, the viewer, has to stop and think about the words that were just spoken, you’re not going to be able to pay attention to the next line. Or, the next story.

Our job is to explain what we mean in an easy-to-understand manner, while making it clear to the viewer why he or she should care. If we’re writing the lead to a reporter’s package, then it’s our job to set it up – not give the story away – while giving the viewer a reason to keep watching. In other words, don’t follow the examples I’m about to show you. Don’t try this at home, boys and girls, and above all, don’t try these at work!

(Click images to view them full screen)

This 1985 lead to a Daisy Olivera package breaks several news writing rules. First and foremost, it gives the whole story away! There’s no reason for anyone to keep watching! Secondly, it’s written in a passive voice, not an active voice. If you’re going to start a script with the words “this Saturday”, it better be the Saturday coming up, not the Saturday that just passed! And then there’s the little matter of this lead being basically one long, long, long, 41-word sentence. Needless to say, I had to toss this aside and start from scratch. Next!

Well, at least this one is short, but that’s where the compliments end. “Another weekend and with it a fine array of fun things to do and see” – who ever says “a fine array of fun things”? Have you ever used the word array in a sentence? “Here’s what our entertainment editor Don Stotter suggests for the tourists and residents”. Exactly to whom is he speaking? Could this possibly have been worded in a clumsier way?

I remember this one well. I think Joyce Evans meant to say “scrambling”, not “scrabbling”. Then-producer Mayco Villafana looked at the line about the shortage of cars causing confusion, and then told Joyce, “your lead is causing ME confusion”. (To be fair, Joyce was a good writer who was just having a bad day. I think that’s probably the case with most of these examples.)

Former reporter Mark Tudino really topped himself with this stinker of a lead. “A rash of rock-throwing incidents has cops on the Florida Highway Patrol...and surrounding agencies are now going to help in trying to find out who’s doing the throwing.” Not only does the first part of that sentence make no sense, but nobody I know would ever say “a rash of rock-throwing incidents”. If Villafana was still at the station, he would have told Mark “you’re giving ME a rash!”

And then there’s this lead to a movie tie-in that was left for me by a special projects producer. Not only is it painfully long (two pages!) but it’s totally convoluted and boring. It also includes the line “The answer is… maybe yes”. Which is it, maybe or yes? Did I rewrite this bad boy? The answer is DEFINITELY yes, not maybe yes!

To those whose examples I’ve cited: remember this is all in fun. Your scripts are the reasons why there are producers and editors. Thanks for keeping me employed all those years.

Next week: more “sorry scripts"... and the one and only John “Hambone” Hambrick.

The Bigger The Gaffe...

2009-03-25T10:02:00.002-04:00

One of a news producer’s most tedious duties is the writing of the nightly discrepancy report. If the show was clean, the producer could get home at a reasonable hour. If it was a “TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes” kind of newscast, it could mean an extra hour or more in front of the keyboard, reliving every botched super, clipped piece of audio, or story that failed to make its slot.

I’ve been on the producing end of some newscasts that were so brutal, the discrepancy report was pages long! Everyone hates those kinds of shows, except around Christmas time. Every December, it’s time to gather that year’s news bloopers, and put something together for the annual skit reel. That’s the time when those mispronunciations and technical theatrics stop being sore spots, and become, well, funny. It’s the time when the laugh’s on us, and the bigger the gaffe… the bigger the laugh!

I’ll be posting a few different news blooper reels in the months to come, starting with this offering from 1983. This one concentrates more on behind-the-scenes flubs and mishaps, and as you’d expect… the language is graphic. You might want to wait until the kids, or the boss, aren’t around to watch the following video. (You can’t survive in a newsroom if F-bombs bother you. News professionals curse more than Dick Cheney at an environmentalist’s convention.)

Look for Dave Levine, John Turchin, Joyce Evans, Amanda Moss, Barbara Sloan, Mike Medrano, Jay Held, Don Franklin, and even Channel 7’s Bob Gilmartin in this video.

I-Missed-It News

2009-03-17T09:17:00.008-04:00

Even the most experienced producers, assignment editors, and reporters blow it occasionally. Anyone who lived through CBS’ woeful coverage of Princess Diana’s death knows that even the big boys choke on a big one from time to time. No one’s immune. Certainly not me!

I always felt I had good news judgment, something you either have or you don’t. It cannot be taught. Yet in May of 1987, I made one of my biggest blunders. It was a Saturday morning, and the Miami Herald had just published their expose about presidential candidate Gary Hart, and his no-longer-secret tryst with celebrity wannabe Donna Rice. It was a salacious story. I hate salacious stories! The Ten O’Clock News was not a tabloid, and I was adamant about it. Still, the assignment desk sent our only weekend reporter out to pursue this ode of infidelity, and the manager on duty agreed it was the story of the day. Everyone agreed, except me. I’m glad I was overruled. Boy, did I blow it! I hated the freaking story, but the public gobbled it up, and soon Gary Hart was out of the race, throwing the democratic challenge for the nomination into turmoil… and ultimately handing the White House to the first George Bush. Yeah, I’d say it turned out to be an important turn of events. I’d say that was probably my biggest brain fart in my nineteen years in the newsroom.

(Gary Hart & Donna Rice:
Too Much "Monkey Business")

But I wasn’t alone! I’m about to name names, which doesn’t mean these producers weren’t good at what they did. It just means they, too, blew it on occasion. First, Rob Puglisi… and what came to be known (thanks to Dangerous Dan Slade) as “The Killer Cheese Incident”. It was June 14, 1985, the day a TWA plane carrying 80 Americans was hijacked by Lebanese extremists. A U.S. Navy diver was murdered; dozens of Americans were taken hostage, and held captive for weeks. The story was quickly unfolding, and was turning into a huge international crisis. How much time did it receive on The Ten O’Clock News that night? Thirteen seconds. Thirteen seconds!! The ultimate afterthought, after five minutes devoted to a Jalisco cheese recall that didn’t even reach into South Florida. After the newscast, a frowning Solon Gray spoke up and said, “Rob, I’m not pleased with our coverage of the hijacking”. It was the talk of the intern party that night at Monty Trainer’s, and of course the hijacking/hostage crisis would go on to dominate, and lead, the news for weeks. Hindsight is 20/20, they say. Rob made a lot of good decisions, but that sure wasn’t one of them!

(Click image to view full screen)

Now turn the page to June 13, 1994. Evy Woods rushes out of the feed room, to inform us that a body has been found at O.J. Simpson’s home. Howard Bernstein, who was producing the 5PM show, turned to Evy and told her, “Okay, I heard you, keep me informed.” A little while later, he added the story to the show… in the 6th block! With all the other celebrity news! Evy came out and argued her case, telling Howard that she thought the story deserved to be higher in the show. Evy would have made a good attorney, because she convinced Howard to move the story up, and to book a satellite window to carry a live report. Good move. (Of course, the Associated Press going ga-ga over the story might have helped convince him as well.)

It all reminds me of a line from Steve Boyer, the one-time WCIX intern who worked his way up to become assignment manager in 1988. After we got completely killed by the other stations on what turned out to be an important story, Boyer turned to news director Larry Wallenstein and said, very calmly, “We out-thunk ourselves”. That line has stayed with me all these years.

The truth is, all news people occasionally outthink themselves. It’s how we recover, and how much we learn, that determines our worth to a news operation. It’s how we grow, evolve, and how flexible we allow ourselves to be.

I still hate that sleazy Donna Rice story.

It's All In The Game

2009-03-12T13:34:00.005-04:00

They paid us… to hang around a TV station, to watch Tom & Jerry cartoons, to appear on Duck Duck Goose, while eating a piece of birthday cake that seemed to be around on any given day. They paid us… to be an eyewitness to turbulent events in America’s most turbulent city, during its most turbulent decade. We met exciting people, shared exciting times, and grew up a little with each passing year, and yes, they paid us for it. That’s one way to look at it.

If I put away the Kool-Aid and the rose colored glasses, I can see the not-so-fabulous flip side: the long hours, the six-and-seven-day weeks, being just a name on a schedule, having to sweat out the latest round of cutbacks, the egos of our bosses, understaffed newscasts, and endless critiques of every minor “discrepancy” we were a part of. Let’s face it, it was hard. We worked our butts off. We earned our fun!

I’ve talked about some of the ways in which we blew off steam, but really, the possibilities were endless. Personally speaking, I loved getting together with the guys for softball, and occasionally basketball (though I could never really keep up with Fess, Lucious, or Cisco). As a little guy with no power, I was the perennial bit player at our early 80s softball games, but I really enjoyed getting out there and doing my best. And yes, I really did play catcher.

(Click images to view them full screen)

The film that follows was shot in 1979, before my time at the station. I managed to save this from the trash heap during the great film purge of 1985. Notice how everyone in this footage is having a blast, even reporter Harlan Levy. And no, I’m not sure who the chicken dancer is, but I’m hoping somebody will recognize her.

(Channel 6 vs. Channel 2, August 25, 1979. By the way, Channel 2 beat us.)

And yes, I still have my rather faded WCIX softball shirt. It still fits.

WHATZIS?

2009-03-04T10:43:00.005-05:00

The most asked question about this blog is one that is short and sweet:

No, not why are you blogging, but why are you blogging about a TV station that almost always finished last in the ratings, doesn’t even exist anymore, and is barely a blip in the radar of many of the subjects of these musings. I admit that in some ways, it makes me look rather pathetic. Believe it or not, I do live in the here and now, and don’t dwell on the past. (Yeah, right….) Well it’s true. It’s just that I’ve swept that past under the rug for a decade or so, and have finally come around to embracing it once again. Doing so is both therapeutic and… dare I say it…. fun. The bad feelings I had when I jettisoned my TV news career have vanished into the ether, replaced by a warm and gentle spirit of healthy nostalgia and gratitude. It may sound wimpy when I say it, but it feels great to look back on these two decades of my life with a smile, instead of a growl. And yet a lot of my posts will be growly, because that’s the way things were a lot of the time. The negativity that pops up just reinforces that this is, by and large, a positive blog about an imperfect place with imperfect people. And Lord knows this writer is pretty damn imperfect himself!

This is also a one-stop spot for information about former WCIX employees, and (whenever possible) ways to get back in touch with them. To me, the “Life After Channel 6” links are just as crucial to this site as the blog posts. I’ve tried to include up-to-date links on as many former WCIX’ers as possible. If your name (or that of one of your friends) is not included, it means one of six things:

1. I could not find a link to your present whereabouts through an internet search. If you contact me through the comments section, or an e-mail, I’ll be glad to add your name, and link, to the list.
2. You’re still at WFOR (to the best of my knowledge). There is really no need to put links for present Channel 4 employees, since we know where to find you!
3. You worked at the station before my time, and I’m not aware of you.
4. Your last name has changed. This is especially true of some of the young ladies I worked with nearly three decades ago, who have long ceased to be single.
5. Your name just slipped my mind (which is not hard to do, after so many years). Again, contact me through the comments section or e-mail, and I will see to it that your link is added to the list.
6. You share your name with another person with a web presence, and I’m not sure which one you are. (How many different, successful women named Caryn Brooks are there, anyway?)

I feel that this site belongs to all the folks who traveled in and out that door (good line, bad song). I’m particularly gratified by the comments of one of my former colleagues, who said “thank you for bringing WCIX to life once again”. What he said really got to me, because technically, WCIX is dead, and HAS been for more than thirteen years. Some of you might say that only the name has changed, but come on now. Most viewers have already forgotten about the Great Channel Swap of 1995, and seriously believe the current WFOR is the same Channel 4 that Ralph Renick helped bring to life sixty years ago. WCIX may be “so last century”, but it cannot be forgotten. It WILL not be forgotten. That’s why this blog exists.

If you enjoy these pages, or even if you think they’re a waste of time, feel free to leave a comment after any of the posts. Also check out former WCIX news director Paul Stueber’s blog, Tying My Shoes, for some very entertaining stories about Channel 6 and his other ports of call. Those of you on Facebook are encouraged to join the Fans & Former Employees of WCIX group on there, for a chance to reconnect with old friends and share some photos and videos. (That group is 85 members strong, and growing by the day.) I really do welcome your comments, so by all means, speak up. We had a good thing going then, and with your participation, we can have a real good thing going now.

Sloan Alone

2009-02-25T11:16:00.012-05:00

She didn’t even apply for the job! A few on-air lines on someone else’s audition tape were all the brain trust at Channel 6 news needed to see. When Dick Descutner phoned WFBC news anchor Barbara Sloan and asked her if she’d be interested in a job--solo anchor on the station’s prime time newscast—it was quite a surprise! But not so fast. If she were to say yes, certain assurances on the station’s part would need to be met. If she were to say yes, it would also mean anchor Larry Klaas would be told his services were no longer needed.

Location was a big plus. Sloan had already served time at WPTV in West Palm Beach, so she had some understanding of the area. The chance to move from Greenville, South Carolina to a top 15 market was certainly another plus. With the station agreeing to a 3-year contract (a rarity at WCIX) and agreeing to let Sloan pursue human interest stories, it became official. Klaas was dismissed; Sloan was in.

After three weeks of working the streets, and familiarizing herself with the station and its philosophies, Barbara Sloan made her solo anchor debut on the night of October 18, 1982. In a Miami Herald review, critic Sandra Earley wrote “Sloan delivered the news straight and clearly, and with a measure of authority. Sloan can go the distance.” It was a very good start.

(Click images to view them full screen)

Sloan and I immediately became good friends, and even dated a few times. She accompanied me to the station Christmas party that year, where it was clear that many at the station—particularly those who worked in other departments—still did not know what to make of the new anchorwoman. A silly mock news promo that I produced for the occasion helped show those in attendance that the new hire, so serious on the air, had a very good sense of humor. (Sloan at first was apprehensive about us showing this piece, at one point asking, mockingly, “Why is that woman shouting?”) But it worked.

Sometime during the party, Lee Bookman pulled me aside, concerned about the news blooper (and commentary) piece he had produced. It was set to the tune of Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry”, and Bookman had used video of Sloan for the line about the “bubble-headed bleach-blonde”. He was concerned that she’d get angry, or feel disrespected. Sloan just laughed along with the joke. After just two months at the station, people were now getting a sense that the new hire wasn’t just a quality anchor, but a quality person as well, with a warm and funny side.

Sloan would be tested time after time. She was thrown into the center of our Overtown riot coverage, in just her third month at the station. She had to give up a share of the anchor’s desk when Solon Gray came aboard in 1984. Gray would come and go, as would his replacement, and his replacement, and his replacement. And his replacement.* Through several ownership changes, a switch from independent to CBS ownership, and challenges galore, one thing remained constant at Channel 6 news. The woman who insisted on a 3-year-contract because she wanted job security, wound up spending more than thirteen years at the WCIX anchor desk. Such longevity should have made her a Miami legend, spoken of in the revered tones of an Ann Bishop or a Tony Segreto. But this is WCIX we’re talking about! With our tower located way down in the Redlands, away from heavily-populated areas, our ratings were always poor. If the people can’t watch, then the people can’t care!

Still, you would think with so much going for her that Sloan would have felt secure… or at least a little serene. But like everyone, she had her moments. Like everyone, she had her demons. Viewers didn’t know that this pretty young woman had her face reconstructed, after a terrible car crash during her college years. Sloan’s car hit a tree, while driving to Memphis on a rain-slicked road, and in her words, her “face caved in”. Months of pain and surgery followed. Sloan also suffered from anxiety, and at times could be a little tough to deal with. One time I went out to get interviews for a series we were working on and she scolded me afterwards because my “hairy arms” could be seen holding the microphone. Times like that are what help a young producer grow, and learn. Our first series together (the clumsily-titled “Speeding to Danger”) resulted in a Suncoast Regional Emmy award, but that wasn’t the real prize for me. My series-producing skills improved by leaps and bounds, thanks in part to Sloan’s high expectations, and yes, even her occasional insecurities.

For a time, Sloan lost her spot on the A-team. CBS brought in some of its own hires, including upcoming stars Giselle Fernandez, J.D. Roberts (now CNN’s John Roberts), and former WTVJ superstar anchor John Hambrick. When we produced a town hall meeting on the issue of abortion, Sloan was left off the main anchoring team, instead being relegated to off-site, peripheral reporting. But to be fair, she was a damn good reporter, and it could be argued those decisions were based on strengths, not weaknesses. Whatever.

Barbara Sloan’s time at the station finally came to an end, when her contract wasn't renewed just before Christmas 1995. Up until then she’d survived challenges from younger, more glamorous reporters, but… I hate to say this… most TV news honchos think a female anchor is over the hill, as she approaches her mid-40s. Ann Bishop was clearly an exception, but this market has certainly changed a lot since her heyday. No one ever came close to anchoring the news on WCIX/WFOR for as long a period of time as Barbara Sloan Cox. I’d be willing to bet nobody ever will.

* For those keeping score: Jim Dyer, J.D. Roberts, Ken Matz, Stan Miller.

On The Basis Of Race…

2009-02-17T10:16:00.011-05:00

Eliot Kleinberg and I were friends at Miami’s WNWS Radio. He was a news editor; I was the chief board operator, assigned to the morning shift (which meant making sure everything ran smoothly for AM news anchors Prescott Robinson, Steve Daily, Dave Steele, Jack McCoy, Frank Lasko, and Shirley Peters). Kleinberg and I have not seen each other in 29 years, yet we have much in common. You might say that our paths have since crossed, even though it’s been nearly three decades since they actually have.

Kleinberg was one of the funniest guys at WNWS, but his greatest lines came while playing the straight man to our morning field reporters. One time Joe LaPorte filed a report about average folks’ New Years resolutions, one of which involved a guy who vowed to “stop buggering sheep”. It was Kleinberg who had to interrupt LaPorte, and ask him if he knew what buggering sheep meant. Thanks to Kleinberg, that off-color remark never made it to air. But for all of his off-air saves, Kleinberg managed to pile up a few adversaries at the station. One of them would later become a major figure at WCIX Channel 6.

(Joe LaPorte on the left; Eliot Kleinberg on the right. This photo was taken at the 1979 WNWS Christmas party, ironically at General Manager Dick Casper's home)

WNWS was a lot of things, but “diverse” wasn’t one of them. By the tail end of 1979, there were but two Latins working at the station: reporter Marianne Murciano, and Omnis Acebo, who I think worked in the traffic department (it’s been a long time). Murciano left to go to Channel 6, and after a while, Acebo left as well. You just don’t operate a radio station, or any business in Miami, without Latino employees. It made general manager Dick Casper nervous, and rightfully so.

Instead of addressing the problem through smart hiring and inclusive policies, Casper’s knee-jerk reaction came in the form of a mandate to Charles Kappes, our beleaguered news director: fire two Anglos, and replace them with Latinos. Plain and simple.

Now this isn’t mere hearsay. Kappes, a former WCIX news producer with scruples and integrity, was not happy about the mandate, especially when it was decided that the guys on the chopping block were me and Eliot Kleinberg. Kappes, who had always praised my work and had recently expanded my role, threatened to quit over it. No, DID quit over it, until Casper talked him out of it. I have the proof, thanks to an inside source who got their hands on a copy of Kappes’ resignation letter. I have never gone public with this until now.

(Click image to view full screen)

“Either I fire Jeff Lemlich on the basis of race, or I resign. Neither is a tolerable choice. Nevertheless it is one which must be made,” wrote Kappes. He went on to tell Casper, quote, “you suggested I find another ‘Anglo’ we could dismiss. That, of course, is precisely why I am so disturbed. The basic idea of either hiring or firing based on Race or Condition is an abomination to me.” The letter was dated March 17, 1980, the same day in which Kappes called me in, and fired me. And did the same to Eliot Kleinberg.

Now I could have sued – and won. This was a clear case of discrimination. But instead, I opted to move forward. Several WNWS co-workers put in a word for me around town, and in the next few days, I had job interviews at radio stations WKAT and WGBS, and television station WCIX. The latter was looking for a Chyron operator, and at the time I had no idea what a Chyron was. But I passed the typing test, and that--along with the recommendations of both Prescott Robinson and Larry Wallenstein--was good enough for Dick Descutner (WCIX news director), who told me I could start the following Monday. I did.

(Sadly, Charles Kappes died just two years later, at the age of 40. As a wheelchair-bound man who’d been in poor health for some time, he understood, and naturally loathed discrimination. I would encounter Dick Casper again, nearly a decade later, when he visited Channel 6 as Ralph Renick’s agent. He came up to me, and simply said, “It looks like you did well for yourself”. I did not thank him.)

(Click image to view full screen)

Eliot Kleinberg got an on-air reporter’s job in South Carolina, and in 1982 applied for a job at WCIX. Now remember, he had his detractors from his time at WNWS. One of them allegedly intercepted the tape, and in an effort to make sure Kleinberg was not hired, told news director Descutner to look, instead, at the anchorwoman on the tape--the person who introduced Kleinberg’s report. With his attention diverted, Descutner focused on the brief snippet of this pretty young anchor, and decided then and there that she, not Kleinberg, would be offered a job. That anchor’s name? Barbara Sloan.

But don’t weep for Eliot Kleinberg. He and I both have something else in common: we’re both authors. With nine books to his credit, a track record at the Palm Beach Post, and success on the lecture circuit, there’s no turning back for him. Sometimes getting knocked down just makes us stronger. Sometimes things, for whatever reason, just seem to work out.

Let's Have Fun

2009-02-11T14:18:00.004-05:00

Are you enjoying the excerpts from our old skit reels? I know I am! There’s plenty of time for the serious stuff, and I plan to tackle more of the tough times soon. But for right now, let’s have fun!

This next clip pokes fun at four former WCIX employees, who were a big part of the station in the late 70s and early 80s. The late Ted Adams was our general manager; Barbara Smith, his assistant, turned program director; Jack Cowart was our engineering guru, and as for Juan DeLaTorre… well, let’s just say if he was a song from the ‘70s, it might have been “Take The Money and Run”. Or so the always-reliable “sources” say!

Time now to turn the floor over to the one and only Desi Doodrop, who sets the scene for this week’s video clip: “Starting in 1978 Dan Brown and Jim Hayek were occasionally (or perhaps irregularly) performing as Danny and Desi Doodrop on Duck Duck Goose, singing the blues for kids. For the Channel 6 Christmas party in 1978, they decided to sing some tunes about the people at the station. At the party the usual amazingly funny skit reel played, followed by a live Doodrop Brothers show. It was a huge crowd pleaser. Tears, laughter, standing ovations, ladies underwear, the whole bit ensued. The next day Mike Cooper asked for a repeat performance in the studio to capture it all on tape. This video lacks the amazing crowd participation, but still has a nostalgic and goofy vibe that makes it worth a view.”

Moving (And Grooving)

2009-02-04T09:09:00.007-05:00

This is a follow-up… about a follow-up. A sequel about a sequel. In other words, the type of thing we news types love so much.

If you haven’t already read the preceding blog entry, The Boys From Brickell, please do so at this time. Also take the 1:55 it takes to watch the embedded video. Then please return to this post, which will make a lot more sense at that time.

Oh yeah, The Boys From Brickell. It was a chance to show my creative side, and to poke some well-intentioned fun at some of my bosses. It also got a good response, so for the following year’s Christmas reel (1983), a sequel was in order. Presenting The Brickell Hillbillies: K-Tel meets Weird Al meets the Clampetts at a funny-looking cement pond, in an even funnier-looking round building!

The hardest thing about producing these musical parodies was finding willing vocalists. Some guys like Jim Hayek and Tom Kounelis had played in bands, and were comfortable lending their musical talents, but for the most part I had to beg, and beg some more, to get folks to agree to sing my stupid little parodies. So for the 1983 follow-up, I decided to produce fewer actual songs, and instead enlist the help of some of our on-air “franchise” talents – guys like Big Wilson, movie reviewer Don Stotter, and Miami Dolphins kicker turned football prognosticator Garo Yepremian. All of them were kind enough to help out, as was former Channel 6 reporter Marianne Murciano. Still, it’s the musical parodies that would make or break the piece, and once again I had a chance to “sing”. Like the year before, my target was the crappy food in our lunchroom sandwich machine, lampooned this time to the tune of the Police’s recent “Every Breath You Take”. Tape editor Jorge Hernandez had the privilege of tasting one of our hideous sandwiches, and the expression you see on his face wasn’t a put on! As graphic artist Ron Laffin expressed so brilliantly in an earlier skit reel: “These sandwiches are delicious!”

This piece (and the entire 1983 Christmas reel) came at a pivotal time for WCIX. The station needed to move, and the West Kendall Homeowners’ Association was waging a battle against us. They claimed radiation from our tower would endanger people’s lives, and that we would pose a hazard to planes flying in and out of Tamiami Airport. Eventually, Channel 6 would change its plans, and choose a site a little further north, in what is now Doral. But at the time there was lots of uncertainty, and we lost a lot of really good people while our fate was in limbo. So as you watch this piece, try to put yourself in our shoes, not knowing what the future would hold. It was both an exciting and scary time. Poking fun at it relieved some of the tension, which is what our Christmas skit reels were all about.

The Brickell Hillbillies: Written and produced by Jeff Lemlich, and edited by Gary Slawitschka.

The Boys From Brickell

2009-01-28T09:00:00.007-05:00

Nowhere was the talent of our employees more apparent than in our often vulgar, yet often poignant Christmas skit reels, which the public at large never had the privilege of seeing. If it was WCIX Channel 6's most creative product, it was also, for obvious reasons, its best-kept secret.

I was blown away by the first skit reel I saw, at our 1980 Christmas party. Whoomp, there it was: our serious and self-absorbed bosses making fun of themselves, and allowing us to make fun of THEM. Behind-the-scenes folks stepping in front of the camera, mixing comedy, music, and sardonic satire. And people who may have been underestimated, throughout the course of the year, stretching out and showing just what they’re capable of doing, given half a chance.

Caution: baseball metaphor ahead!

Let’s say you’re a catcher, and you’re trying to get your coach to give you a chance to get on the mound and pitch. But several others want to pitch as well, and nobody else wants to wear a mask and squat for nine innings. So no matter how hard you try, and no matter how well you play, your team needs you to don the “tools of ignorance”, and get out behind the plate. It’s not just your job, it’s your identity. It’s what you do, and because you’re a team player, you do it, even though you know you have a killer fastball and can do a lot, lot more to help your team win.

I was that catcher, but in my case, I was a potential producer stuck behind Chyron IV. Since I could type (call the pitches) and spell (block the plate), there were those who would have loved for me to be a lifer on that super-generating contraption. After two-and-a-half years of electronic graphics, I finally had a chance to produce something: two segments for the 1982 Christmas skit reel. It was also a chance for my videotape editor, Gary Slawitschka, to show that he had skills that had not yet been displayed. People were surprised. By the following Christmas, I was a news producer. A good thing, because the chest protector and shin guards were getting awfully heavy!

The video that follows is “The Boys From Brickell”. Some of the lines may seem outdated now, and some of the inside jokes probably won’t resonate with many. (“Tanger’d Up In Blue”, for example, spoofed General Cinema Vice President Al Tanger. Trust me, it was funny at the time.) Still, I hope you get a kick out of seeing this. I even had a chance to sing one of the songs (“Tainted Lunch”). You’ll hear Jim Hayek and Mike Medrano among the vocalists, along with the inimitable Keith Moore performing “The Theme From Taft”. Makes me want to send $11.11 to 1111 Brickell Avenue. Void where prohibited!

A Really "Big" Show

2009-01-22T10:45:00.006-05:00

It was almost like seeing Santa Claus. To see Big Wilson, all 320 pounds of him, laughing merrily in his red jacket could make anyone a believer. The WIOD disc jockey and WCIX late-night movie host did his one-man show from behind his keyboard, night after night, from our humble Channel 6 studio. It was camp. It was corny. It was addictive.

I was one of two people whose first day at WCIX was March 24, 1980. The other was Carlos Lima, who became Big’s camera operator. My shift lasted until 2AM, so if I wrapped up my work a little early, I would sometimes go into that 4th floor studio where Big and Carlos did their thing night after night. On nights when Big was showing “Ride The Wild Surf” or one of our many rock ‘n roll themed films, I would sometimes help him come up with trivia questions. But mostly, I just enjoyed sitting and talking to the veteran broadcaster, whose radio career had brought him from upstate New York, to Philadelphia, Cleveland, to New York City, and finally to Miami. (Click here to listen to a short excerpt of the Big Wilson Show on WNBC in New York, from March 1974.)

Big moved on to WIOD in Miami, and a few years later was hired to host Night Owl Movies on WCIX. The tinkling piano, the stuffed owls, and the hokey commercials for Franco’s Pizza, The Pink Pussycat, and Malibu Grand Prix all became synonymous with Channel 6 overnights. It was only natural that those of us who produced segments for the annual Christmas skit reels would enlist the help of this gentle giant. Big taped a segment for my 1983 K-Tel album spoof, The Brickell Hillbillies. He and his Night Owl Movies cohorts, Sonny Fox and Chuck Zink, lampooned themselves in several other memorable Christmas reel skits, including “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, which was produced by Robin Plitt in 1983.

(For additional Christmas reel spoofs featuring Big Wilson and his Channel 6 colleagues, check out the SAY SIX! group on Facebook.)

Celebrities would sometimes pop in to visit Big. Grammy winner Henry Mancini (“The Pink Panther”, “Moon River”, “Peter Gunn”, “Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet”) stopped by one night, for a chat about some of his classic movie themes. Another time comedian Gallagher made himself at home, smashing watermelons and making an incredible mess in the studio. Big apparently didn’t know what he was in for that night, and was not very amused by the celebrity’s shenanigans!

In 1984, Big moved on to WDZL Channel 39, where he hosted the slightly retooled “Big Big Movie”. (Big exchanged his owls for teddy bears, more proof WDZL was just a cheap imitation of Channel 6!) You’ll see a lot of former WCIX staffers in this cheesy but fun video for “Club 39”, which aired during the Big Big Movie.

Big lost both his radio and TV jobs in 1987. He moved on to Channel 33, but the station ran out of money, and Big was out of a job once again. On August 15, 1989, he and his wife Jody sold their home in Miami, and left for a trip across the United States. Two weeks later, his health began to fail, and the couple briefly leased a home in North Carolina. The Wilsons wanted to return to Miami, but never made it. While staying overnight at a hotel in Salem, North Carolina, Big Wilson suffered a heart attack and passed away. He was 65.

Younger viewers don’t remember Malcolm John Wilson Jr. But those who loved B-movies, or who craved a Franco’s Pizza at 4 in the morning, will never forget the big man and his piano. Neither will I.

Big Wilson hosting Night Owl Movies:

A Far, Far Better Thing

2009-01-14T10:54:00.008-05:00

I thought writing this blog would be therapeutic. I thought it would help to exorcise some ghosts that needed to “get going” (as Jeanne Antol-Krull would say). I thought it would help demystify the Charles Dickens “best of times, worst of times” paradox that had been my life for so long. I thought… well, I think too much.

Seriously, though, I’m overwhelmed by the response I’ve received. Yeah, I know, there are very few comments to my posts, and not a soul has signed up to “follow” this blog. But that’s the public stuff. Behind the scenes, I have heard from a lot of old friends, and I’ve watched the Sitemeter numbers grow by the day. People are watching, and that’s good. Because I know a lot of you, too, need to sort out your own Charles Darnay/Sydney Carton paradoxes. I know a lot of you, too, feel the WCIX years were the best of your life. And yet, like me, you couldn’t wait to move on, and so move on you did. Which is good. Real good. You know the story of Medusa and what happened to those who looked back, and you tell yourself you’re not going to risk turning to stone, but heck, Medusa was only a myth. And besides, you’ll never know where you’re going, if you don’t remember where you’ve been.

When I left WFOR (the former WCIX) on May 31, 1996, I thought it was for good. Just six weeks later, a hurricane named Bertha threatened, and the assistant news director gave me a call. They needed bodies in the newsroom, and since I needed no training, I was asked if I’d like to freelance for a few days. At first I said no. After all, my last day at the station was just six weeks earlier! I wasn’t ready to give back my going-away drinks at Tobacco Road, my adios ride in Chopper 4, or the very nice VO at the end of the show that Anne Roberts and Khambrel Marshall read. So Amy Feller sweetened the pot, offering me much more money than I’d ever seen as a full-timer. I’ll take the deal, Howie! So for a few days in the summer of 1996… I was back.

As more help was needed at the station, I got called in again. And again. For the next three years, it was almost as if I had not left… minus the benefits and paid vacation time. I loved seeing my great friends, but didn’t like having to write bogus stories about O.J. Simpson, Heidi Fleiss, and all the other bollocks. I continued to fight against airing 9-1-1 tapes (which exploit people in their most vulnerable moments). And I took a stand in favor of an anchor/reporter who I thought was being mistreated. I stepped on some toes, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. On May 28, 1999, I left the Channel 4 newsroom after a freelance shift. I would never see the inside of that building again.

In the nearly ten years that followed, I did everything possible to get TV news out of my system. I stopped watching. I cut off contact with just about everybody that I worked with. I immersed myself in projects ranging from EyeQRadio (now defunct) to The South Florida Baseball Museum (also now defunct). With each passing day, and year, the neurons that tied me to my former life as a TV producer turned into the ghosts of newsrooms past. Consciously, at least. Subconsciously, it was a different story.

The dreams began: one newsroom nightmare after another. You know the one about going to class, and not having done your homework? I had several newsroom variations, but instead of homework, I would be staring at a rundown, not having a bloody clue what any of the stories were about. I probably had 200 newsroom dreams over the past 9-and-a-half years. I hated them! I wanted them to stop! Until recently, that is.

Now that I’m out of Miami, and there’s no chance of my ever getting back to where I once belonged, the dreams don’t bother me. In fact, I kind of enjoy seeing the people who turn up in those nocturnal novelas. And for the first time since 1999, I wanted to reconnect with my old TV friends. I miss you guys, more than I could have ever imagined. As the late Miami clothier Austin Burke used to say, “I love you all!”

(Austin Burke, "Little Old Burkie")

And so I started this blog, hoping I would hear from some of my old pals. And just last week I started a Say Six! group on Facebook. In just one week, 37 people have joined that group, and the number keeps growing. I’m having a blast sharing photographs, videos, and memories with you guys. I’m glad you’re back in my life, and hope you stay there for a long time.

If you enjoy this blog, or just want to reconnect with old friends, please stop by the Say Six! Facebook group, and join in. I promise not to bore the Dickens* out of you.

(*Counting the title, that’s five Dickens references in one post. My old English teacher, Mrs. Sirgany, would have been proud. So would her niece, future WFOR reporter Aleen Sirgany.

One additional note: Every time I post a new entry, an old entry disappears from this page. You can still access the older posts by clicking on the tab that reads… Older Posts. Is this a great country, or what?)

Toole Time (Film At Ten)

2009-01-07T10:45:00.009-05:00

So the Hollywood Police Department says compulsive liar Ottis Toole did, in fact, kill 5-year-old Adam Walsh back in 1981. Even though Toole recanted his confession, is known to tell tall tales about his killing sprees, and even though the best evidence in the case has… ahem… disappeared, the book is closed on the case. Next!

That announcement last month reminded me of WCIX’s first live remote, and the days when the station not only had no live capabilities, but was all-film. There was no such thing as rushing a tape back to the station, cueing it, and getting it right on the air. Film had to be developed! Every other station in town had made the conversion to tape, but not Channel 6 – not until February 12, 1982, that is, when we finally left the ‘70s behind. (Channel 10, I believe, was the first to make the all-tape move. Who could forget the infamous “you don’t have to take the film and develop it” promos, back in the Ron Hunter years?)

So while everyone was putting crisp, clear pictures on the air, we had… film flutter! The young’uns in the news biz have never heard of film flutter… or super slides… or 35-millimeter key shots! And you know what? They’re lucky! We may not have been technologically advanced in those days, but we all worked very hard to try to put a decent hour-long newscast on the air. Very hard! And we had to be super-diligent. Just look at what the associate director, and the audio operator, had to deal with.

(Click images to view them full size)

The notations on the left side were the A-roll. On the other side was the B-roll. Somehow we had to hit the B-roll at just the right point. At 27 seconds in, the audio operator had to turn the pot up, for the sound on film (SOF), then turn the pot down, then up again. There was so much going on in this 1979 Harlan Levy reporter “wrap” (we didn’t call them “packages” back in those days. They weren’t really “packaged”, like they later were on videotape.) The associate director (usually Rod Kerrison or Bob Rossicone) really had to be on his toes.

The individual photographer/editor filled out the film cards, and their writing wasn’t always very legible. CT-SIL stood for cart (which contains the reporter track) over silent film. The audio operator had to alternate between sound on film, and the reporter’s track (on cart), which meant it was crucial to get the outcues just right. Missing it could mean a meltdown for the rest of the story, and likely an angry reporter.

This card was a little more straightforward, and easier to follow. This was a Jill Beach wrap, shot and edited by Ira Lazernik. Since Jill’s track was over silent file footage, there was no half track, and only a sound bite to worry about. There was also no reporter stand-up, leading me to believe this must have been a wire story, turned into a local wrap with nothing but a little file film and one sound bite. Instant news, quick and dirty.

Communication would have been very important with this reporter wrap. The associate director had to communicate that the audio was hot, and that there was no pad at the end of the piece. That means the director had to “punch out” of the film, the very second Harlan Levy did his sig-out. If not, the screen would go to black, and the producer (probably Don Adams) would get louder than a Potamkin car commercial. In the years to come, we would crack down on pieces that had no pad, even going as far as freezing the last shot. Going to black is a cardinal sin in TV news. You just don’t do it!

As I mentioned, we finally went all-tape in 1982, and it would be another year-and-a-half before we had live capabilities. Mayco “Mike” Villafana (the future FPL/Miami-Dade Schools/Convention & Visitor’s Bureau spokesman) was the producer, and John Turchin had the honors of doing the first WCIX remote. The occasion? A news conference by the Hollywood Police Department. The story? A suspect was being named in the Adam Walsh kidnapping and murder. His name?

Ottis Toole.

25 years later, that classic line by the Talking Heads inevitably comes to mind.

“Same as it ever was.”

So This Is New Years...

2008-12-30T10:06:00.010-05:00

(Push the button on the lower left to play the video)

There were dozens of people who made The Ten O’Clock News happen, but on most nights, only the producer and director received on-air credit. Once a week, we would remedy that situation with a credit roll, listing each and every person who worked on the newscast that week (plus the “regulars” who were on vacation).

What you see here is an interesting variation on the credit roll. On December 31, 1981, we sent cameraman George Buigas around the building to shoot film of all the behind-the-scenes folks who were stuck working on New Year’s Eve. We then edited the film, did some preproduction (supers, but not music) and bumped it to tape. The audio track ran live (off of a "cart") and unfortunately sounds sour, but that’s the way it aired, so that’s the way it’s being preserved.

A few interesting points about this credit roll:

1. Note the blackboard behind producer Arlene Ross. In those days the producer put the rundown of the show on a board, and it was everybody’s job to copy down the information.
2. Even Guy Thompson, the custodian, received credit that night. I’m sure it was the only time he was publicly acknowledged.
3. Several of the people in this credit roll are no longer with us, including Bob Hammerly, Ed Rehm, and Jerry Fisher. (Fisher was not acknowledged by name, since she was working as a reporter that night, and had an on-screen presence during the newscast. She can be sitting at her desk, behind Guy Thompson.)
4. The on-air team that night was Larry Klaas, John Loesing (sports), and Dave Corey (weather, substituting for Don Franklin). Corey was normally a booth announcer at the station.
5. It’s good to see Larry Wallenstein (Larry #3) in his role as assignment editor. He would exit in January 1984, only to return a few years later as news director.
6. Was that a space ship, or a news set? Beam me up!
7. I sure needed a haircut.

I hope you enjoyed viewing this rare artifact. Leave me some positive comments and bribes, and perhaps I can be persuaded to post some more clips from my Channel 6 archives. Send the bribes care of J. DeLaTorre (bad inside joke). Have a happy and safe 2009!

But The Levy Was Dry

2008-12-16T13:05:00.009-05:00

I briefly mentioned Harlan Levy, our unforgettable assistant news director (who doubled as an on-air reporter). The tension between Levy and anchor Larry Klaas was a constant presence in the WCIX newsroom back in 1980. Levy wasn’t the sharpest pencil in the box, and never was that more apparent than during the Liberty City riots of May 1980. A jury had found a group of white police officers not guilty of killing Arthur McDuffie, an unarmed black businessman. For days, racial tensions boiled over, with fires, gunshots, and looting. Through it all, Channel 6 reporters were out in the field, phoning in their eyewitness accounts of what they saw. By May 20, things were still tense, but starting to calm down. It was on that night that Harlan Levy delivered our nightly news update.

Before filing his report, Levy asked reporter Marianne Murciano what she was seeing. He also asked the same of Jill Beach, who had stepped out of the curfew area to grab a bite to eat. This would become important.

From Levy’s script, and subsequent broadcast:

(Click images to view them full-screen)

“Marianne Murciano is out in the field at this hour. A few minutes ago she reported in from 62nd Street and NW 7th Avenue, where National Guard officials say 2 vehicles were just burned off the expressway, and that a group of 25 black males have gathered near that locale.”

Oh My God! 25 black males have gathered! Everyone run for your lives!

“There are reports that at 175th Street and NW 32nd Avenue, a U-Totem was blown up.”

Huh? Ever hear of checking your sources? A U-Totem was WHAT??

Oh, but there’s more.

“Two units are responding to NW 27th Avenue, where Big Mack’s is located.”

Ha ha ha! One of our photographers mentioned “Big Mack’s”, which is what he called McDonald’s. Harlan never asked for any clarification, and went ahead and put the phrase “Big Mack’s” on the air!

And the pièce de résistance:

“Jill Beach was at Coral Way and 27th Avenue moments ago. She reports no activity there.”

Of course not! Coral Way and 27th Avenue was nowhere near the curfew area. It was east of Coral Gables! As previously mentioned, Jill was at that location… eating dinner!

That, in a nutshell, was our assistant news director. It’s no surprise why Larry Klaas so often would go around saying “I’ve had it with Levy”. It’s no surprise that in a few months, Larry would have his job (in addition to anchoring the news). It’s no surprise that The Ten O’Clock News would have to fight even harder for viewers, for credibility, for respectability.

Chain Chain Chain

2008-12-03T15:53:00.013-05:00

Just ten days after being named “news managing editor”, Larry Klaas decided to show us all who’s boss. Presenting: the infamous “chain of command” memo.

I know what Larry was trying to do. He was sending a message to the producer, assignment editor, and director that what he said GOES. He urged all members of the news staff to keep a copy of this chain of command on file for reference. Disagree with Larry? Unless you happened to be the news director, you didn’t stand a prayer. It’s right there, on an 8 ½” by 11” piece of paper.

The producers hated this! Not because of having to answer to Larry, but because in the Klaas command chain, they had no more authority than the assignment editor, and the nebulous “other”. The directors hated this, because under Larry’s law, they were equal to the assistant directors… the assistant producers… and, ahem… INTERNS!

None of that mattered to Larry. The moral of the story was “I am above all of you, and you will listen to me!” But in a newsroom where the producer had to have SOME authority over the assignment desk, and the directors had to call the technical shots during the show, this demonstrated a lack of understanding on several levels. After just ten days, hard feelings were already starting to form. It didn’t mean people didn’t like or respect Larry. They just wanted a little respect in return. By stating they wielded the same power as interns, the implication was the assistant producers, assistant directors, and even the directors were just bit players in the news operation. Of course Larry didn’t really feel that way, but this sure made it look that way, and did nothing for unity, morale, or inspiration in a news operation that needed it badly.

Where There's Smoke...

2008-11-26T14:31:00.009-05:00

Life in a newsroom has changed in so many ways, and I'm not just talking about news content. In those days, people smoked pot out in the open, even in front of “adults”. Those that didn’t partake, usually looked the other way. Such was the way it was in the late 70s and early 80s.

I was ushered into the WCIX world of weed on my very first day at the station. Before I’d even known my way around that crazy round building, I was shown the ledge on the fourth floor, behind some of the big equipment in the engineering department. People visited that ledge at all hours of the day and night. I tended to wait until after the newscast to partake, but many people did it from the moment they arrived for their shifts. It truly was a different world then!

(Look carefully at the fourth floor. You never know who you’ll see!)

Another favorite spot was out on the dirt road along Biscayne Bay. Cars would park there every night after the newscast was through. It was a favorite way to unwind in those days, but there was always the fear of getting caught by the police. For a long time they turned a blind eye to our activities, but after the Luis Alvarez police shooting gave the department a black eye (and we reported it aggressively), they weren’t quite as accommodating, and we had to be a lot more careful.

Then there was the art room, on the second floor. One night in 1980, a bunch of us went there after the newscast, thinking our illustrious assistant news director had left for the night. You can imagine our trepidation when he walked into the art room, at the same time many of us were passing the pipe around. We thought we were all in big, big trouble! The boss man walked over to us, and without missing a beat, asked (to our surprise), “hey, would any of you like to buy some sinsimilla?” Whew! The “Newser” was a User! I guess that would describe so many people that I worked with. Not Bob Rossicone, though.

Rossicone, the tough associate director with a pronounced New York accent, walked in on security guard Lazaro C. and me one time after hours. Lazaro was paid to watch the building, but spent lots of his time socializing and getting high. With the smell of pot permeating the room, Lazaro was afraid Rossicone would blow the whistle and cost him his job. When asked if he was bothered by what we were doing, we were greeted by one of the funniest lines I’d ever heard. Rossicone just looked at us and said, quote…

“I don’t care if you burn the f*cking place down!”

And so it went in those days. Times changed, the station grew more competitive, and soon drug testing was the norm. Eventually I stopped smoking, and I’m sure so did most of the other Boys From Brickell. But for quite a number of years, lighting up was a big part of my Channel 6 experience. It helped me cope with the pressure and frustrations, and being a shy person by nature, helped greatly in social situations.

And no, we never burned the place down.

ANCHOR’S AWAY: THE PARTY (9/27/82)

2008-11-19T09:38:00.013-05:00

Here’s a side of Larry Klaas we rarely got to see around the station. With his contract not renewed, and his career (at the time) hanging in the balance, he found himself able to just let go and enjoy himself at his going-away party, planned and hosted by his close friend, producer Arlene Ross. Here we see Larry and his wife, sharing a quiet moment. It’s the only time I’d ever seen him with his hair messed up.

Larry, opening one of his presents, with producer Jerry Fisher looking on. Jerry was a wonderful person, who a decade later would put up a valiant, but ultimately losing battle against cancer.

Dig the caricature of Larry on the piano, next to then-lovebirds Gary Slawitschka and Wendy Weisbrod. I don’t recall if it was Ron Laffin or Jim Hayek who created the portrait, but it’s a real beauty. To my eyes, it looks like Ron’s handiwork. Gary was a fellow Chryon operator at the time, before venturing into videotape editing. He was my best friend at the station, and is somebody that I think about from time to time. Gary, if you see this, please get in touch!

That’s Arlene Ross with her arm around Larry. These two had a lot of history, and were always very close. The big guy to the left and rear of Arlene is Tom Sedley, our ace (and under-appreciated) sports producer. Richard Chee-A-Tow from the engineering department is to the right rear of Larry.

John Loesing and his wife enjoy a piece of cake, while watching the frivolity unfold around them. John was very nice, but at times he might have been a little too low-key on the air.

I put down the camera for this group shot. That’s me on the far left, next to Arlene Ross, Gary Slawitschka, and Henry Rosenberg (videotape editor). Arlene’s future husband, director Dan Roujansky, is in the front. Can you guess which people in this picture are stoned?

Yeah, stoned. In those days, nearly everybody smoked pot, and the ones that didn’t, tolerated it. It was a generational thing that could never happen in this day and age. It was amazingly open, not just at parties such as this one, but all around the station as well. I think that’s going to be the subject of my next post.

Klaas Dismissed

2008-11-10T15:59:00.013-05:00

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Was it Larry Klaas’ ego that got him fired? Was it an alleged demand for more money? Or was it that Dick Descutner (our news director) simply wanted to make a change, and Barbara Sloan gave him just that opportunity? It all depends on whom you ask.

There were mixed feelings around the station when we learned Klaas was being ousted. He had his supporters, led by producer Arlene Ross. There were also people who felt a sense of liberation when word filtered down. Klaas was stunned by the dismissal, and told The Miami News’ Tom Jicha he was considering retiring from broadcasting. Obviously he reconsidered, and made a new start (albeit a little rocky) at KGUN in Tucson

Everyone in the newsroom had a Larry Klaas story to tell. If he was having a bad day, you knew it. In 1981, when my father was dying, I told producer Jerry Fisher that I might need to take a few days off. Klaas sat me down the next day, and in a stern voice, asked me why I told Jerry and not him. (This was before I became a producer. I was still a lowly Chyron operator/film archivist). Well, Larry, it was late and Jerry was still at the station, working on her nightly discrepancy report. You were gone for the night. Sorry I stepped on your toes, big guy. Show a little compassion for a guy whose dad is dying, will ya?

Yet I liked Larry. He was quick to criticize, but unlike a lot of managers, he would also tell you when you did a good job. I wished him well, and I meant it.

You’ll notice in Tom Jicha’s article that Descutner “found” Larry’s replacement, Barbara Sloan, through a five-second lead-in on another reporter’s audition tape. That was sort of how it went down, but it wasn’t Descutner who found her. The reporter on that tape was a former colleague of mine at WNWS, prior to my coming to Channel 6. He and I had something in common: both of our lives changed on March 17, 1980. Someday soon I’ll tell you that story.

A Producer's Nightmare: The Critique!

2008-11-01T09:58:00.011-04:00

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One week after taking on the responsibility of Managing Editor, Larry Klaas started a new Channel 6 tradition: critiquing (or was it nitpicking?) the previous night’s newscast. Klaas (who was Larry #1 in a succession of three Larry’s that would be in charge of the news in the ‘80s) usually made an effort to be fair, but everyone who’s ever been around a live program knows that things can, and do, go wrong. All the Monday Morning Quarterbacking in the world won’t change that fact. I would take Larry #1’s critiques over Larry #2’s any day. (Larry #2 was a real piece of work, and even though he’s no longer alive to defend himself, I’m going to have to tell his story eventually.)

It’s nice to see the names of my old friends Nick Bogert (Mr. Cubs fan), Natalie Segal, Marianne Murciano, Dave Levine (who taught me a lot about conversational writing), Frank Lasko, Bill Lobean, and others. I was fortunate to run into both Bogert and Segal in the past few years.

While The Ten O’Clock News may have been a joke on some fronts, we had some talented folks who gave their all day in and day out. That’s why critiques can be so demoralizing. It’s great to get feedback, but you’ll notice there’s no criticism of the anchorman in here. I do agree with a lot that Larry #1 said (and not just his praise of my crafty Chyron work). We did need to pay more attention to things such as half track and match cuts. The best critiques are the ones that offer solutions and not just criticism. Little did we know it at the time, but things would get a whole lot worse, before they’d get any better.

Larry #1

2008-10-22T15:11:00.002-04:00

This memo signaled a much-needed change in philosophy, when it came to management of The Ten O’Clock News. With our only newscast being at night, and with News Director Dick Descutner working only daylight hours, something had to be done to strengthen our nighttime management situation. Harlan Levy (the assistant news director) was simply too ineffectual to get the job done, and after yet another Larry Klaas memo complaining about him, Descutner decided to make Klaas the managing editor, and “reassign” Levy.

This, as you’d expect, presented problems. Klaas was both the anchor and the managing editor. When news would break, or when the producer would make any kind of in-show call, it was Klaas who had veto power over those decisions… while the show was on the air! Klaas was smart and quite competent, but he also had a gigantic ego, and many times there was just no reasoning with him. Still, it was a big step-up, news-wise, from what Harlan Levy offered in the evenings.

A year and a half later, Klaas was let go, replaced on the air by Barbara Sloan. Descutner would soon be out the door as well, but that’s a different story for a different day.

The 1980 Anchor Team

2008-10-01T18:44:00.005-04:00

This was the main on-air team when I first started working at WCIX, on March 24, 1980. Larry Klaas took the anchor's chair once occupied by Prescott Robinson (whom I had previously worked with at WNWS Radio). John Loesing moved from weekends to weekdays, replacing Bob Sheridan (I believe). Don Franklin was a veteran announcer and a super nice guy. Klaas had come over from WCKT-Channel 7, and had quite a bit of Ted Baxter in him. He was basically a good guy, but what an ego! Loesing was low key and soft spoken, and I remember his wife was a fan of the group The Buckinghams. The things a record collector remembers!