FilioScotia

Filio and Editor, I just tried to rep each of you +1, but apparently I can only give so much love per day. Something about that seems wrong.

I'm puzzled by your posting. What do you mean?

It strikes me as a bit of a euphemism: "he 'passed' ". I'm still guessing it is maybe a southern thing. No disrespect to Mr Cronkite, but I have never thought that reading from a teleprompter required all that much talent.

Cronkite was not a newsreader, in the modern sense of that word. He wasn't one of those people who could be hired off the street to sit in front of a camera and read other peoples' words off a prompter.

Cronkite was a journalist, in every important sense of that word. Read his biography for goodness sake. He spent years working as a print reporter before he ever got into TV in 1950. As a war correspondent for UPI he covered WWII from start to finish, and later covered the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. He was at CBS for more than ten years before he became the anchor of the evening news.

He brought his famous perfectionist work ethic to that job and he demanded the same attitude from every person involved in putting the news on the air. As the anchor, he personally wrote every word he read on the air, and he worked with the Executive Producer to supervise the writing and production of the stories from the reporters and correspondents. People who didn't give 100 percent every day didn't last long when Cronkite was there.

It's why CBS News was known as the "Tiffany's" of network news. The standard by which all other networks were judged. It's an insult to Cronkite's memory to refer to him as a "newsreader", or imply that he did nothing more than read from a prompter.

Item the Second: Saying "he passed" isn't a "southern thing." It's actually a very old English term that comes from Latin. The Latin word "passus" means "suffer" or "suffered." "Passus" found its way into English by way of the Latin version of the Nicene Creed, which down in the body of the text states that Jesus "passus, sepultus est". When the Bible and the Creed were translated into English for the Anglican Church in the 1500s, that phrase became "he suffered death and was buried." By that time, many English speaking people were already saying "pass" and "pass away" when saying that someone had died, and many people still use it, even if they don't know where it comes from.

The phrase "give up the ghost" has a similar history, and it's a lot older than you think. It's a very interesting story.

Check out this link: http://www.keyway.ca/htm2006/20060517.htm

Isn't the Great Southwest Equestrian Center where Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi Swayze had their horses?

I could be wrong about this, but I think I remember reading that Swayze and his wife bought, or tried to buy, the Great Southwest Equestrian Center.

I'm sure someone out there can set us straight on that.

Does anyone have a street address or email for Douglas Weiskopf, the author of this book? I'd like to write to him.

Weiskopf is planning a book signing on July 31st at Katy Budget Books on Fry Road just north of the Katy Fwy. Here's the announcement on the store's website. Hope this helps.

Time: Friday, July 31, 2009 5:30 p.m.

Location: Katy Budget Books

Title of Event: Author Event: Doug Weiskopf

Doug Weiskopf will give a presentation on and sign Rails Around Houston. The presentation and Q&A period will begin at 6:00 p.m.

*Seating is limited. Please call 281-578-7770 or email read@katybooks.com to RSVP.

AUTHOR BIO:

Douglas L. Weiskopf, native Houstonian and lifelong railroad history buff, has authored several articles on Houston railroading. He is the chapter historian of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society and worked for over 20 years as senior library services specialist in the Houston Public Library’s Texas Room.

I remember reading an article in an older magazine somewhere many years ago that prominently featured a photograph of the McCarthy family sitting in front of their house. I believe the article was published around the time of the opening of the Shamrock Hotel. I wish I could remember the name of the magazine, I would love to see the photograph again.

I remember how upset some people were when the McCarthy mansion was torn down. Another loss for preservationists, at a time when preservation was struggling to be part of the local conversation. Come to think of it, it's still struggling.

I also recall hearing that a lot of the house's structural fixtures ended up at Bruce Bowen's Architectural Antiques shop on Fannin in midtown. Same story for the old Hobby family house on Main at N. Braeswood.

i was counting the million dollar movie voice too. i think charles harrison is the rebroadcast one.

You're right. The voice of the "rebroadcast" reminder was Charles Harrison.

The voice of the Eyewitness News intro was Bill Young, the former 1960s KILT DJ and Program Director, and now the owner/major talent of Bill Young Productions.

i was counting the million dollar movie voice too. i think charles harrison is the rebroadcast one.

Have no idea who the voice of the Late Movie ending is.

The voice of the "rebroadcast" reminder was Charles Harrison.

The voice of the Eyewitness News intro was Bill Young, the former 1960s KILT DJ and Program Director, and the current owner/major talent of Bill Young Productions.

I would guess reporters and producers would be concerned about retaliation for stories/reports they do as well.

You wouldn't believe how many threats Wayne Dolcefino gets. Investigative teams at other stations get their share as well, but Dolcefino is the local king. His attitude is that it shows he's doing his job.

The joke at KTRK is that if Dolcefino ever turns up murdered, police would have to use the Astrodome to hold all the people with a reason for wanting him dead.

At one time, a TV news department only generated threats of lawsuits. Now it's lawsuits, death threats and bomb threats. They also run any "unusual or odd looking mail" through special scanners before anything gets opened.

The late Ray Miller of KPRC TV told his reporters they weren't doing their job if they weren't threatened with a lawsuit at least once a week.

Might be their own security rules. More likely, they just don't want to deal with it.

TV stations are very justified in not giving public tours anymore. At one time they all gave pre-arranged tours to just about any group that wanted one, but not anymore. This IS based on security concerns but it goes deeper than worries about terrorists. People who don't work around TV stations would have no way of knowing this, but TV stations are threatened ALL THE TIME.

Your typical station in a large urban area like Houston gets bomb threats all the time. Viewers PO'd about something they saw on the air will call in bomb threats. The news department gets letters threatening to blow up the place or kill this or that reporter or personality. All the threats are turned over to the FBI.

Of course 99.999 percent of the threats are from harmless nut-cases, but there's always the possibility that one of them will turn out to be real. There's just no way of knowing which is which.

That's why most, but not all, TV stations don't allow tours anymore.

KUHT Channel 8 is one that does.

I think they showed that episode last night.

***the weird part was seeing the guy climb into the driver's seat of an otherwise normal looking SUV and drive off, followed by the crew in a second vehicle. I'm sure the car had some kind of special modifications on the inside for him to drive it, but it was certainly bizarre to watch from the outside.***

Longtime Houstonians know that former Houston City Councilman, and former Assistant D-A Joe Roach is a dwarf, as are his wife and their adopted children. He is one of the nicest and most personable people you'll ever meet, and a few years ago he was on the Oprah Winfrey show talking about what life is like for "Little People" in this country.

I'll never forget how hard he and Oprah laughed when he told her that he drives a Hummer, and how it always cracks people up when he and his family arrive at an event somewhere and they all come tumbling out of that giant vehicle.

Go ahead and laugh with them. It IS a funny image. He thinks so too.

And that, my friends, is how you segue from a topic about KHOU to a Katrina refugee rant.

Sorry you took it that way, because that really was not my intention. I was just using the example of the Katrina refugees to illustrate this Congresswoman's history of having her way with just about everything that comes along, including the switch to digital TV. She's the one who got the first delay several months back.

And yes I know this thread started out talking about KHOU, but Digital TV came up somewhere in there. Conversations do have a way of drifting off topic, don't they?

Please accept my apologies for contributing to the drift.

As if it was not bad enough that KHOU has always interrupted TV shows to warn us of a rain cloud 100 miles away, why is it they feel compelled to advise us of the approaching digital conversion every 30 minutes during prime time? Am I the only person annoyed by this? Not only do they have to continuously run their disclaimer very slowly across the screen, they have to repeat it as if all their viewers have the reading skills and attention span of a 5 year old. I have to believe if anyone out there still isn

Will be interesting to see how long this stays on the air:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/20...dy_brothers.php

Judging from the two clips on the Fox website I think this show has major possibilities. A very strong cast, with Daryl "Chill" Mitchell getting most of the good lines and providing most of the laughs. I'm really glad to see him still working. It's terrible what happened to him. That wheel chair is real.

Paralyzed from the waist down in a motorcycle accident in 2001. He's one of the most talented and genuinely funny people who ever stood in front of a camera, and it's great to see he's as funny as ever, sitting down.

The actress playing his mother is CCH Pounder, a highly respected dramatic actress of stage and screen, now trying her hand at comedy. She's a Brit you know. Even has an English accent off-camera. Her initials stand Carol Christine Hilaria.

Michael Strahan couldn't ask for better supporting players for his sitcom. This show has everything going for it. Now if the writing can hold up and if Fox will just give them a good time slot, it'll be a hit.

I am just saying that I find it annoying. I am sorry if that hurts your feelings. Just some simple honest feedback. Take it or leave it, but I see no reason for you to attack me. And by the way, I am not posting to a media website. That there are members of the media here, that is just a coincidence. And further, I fully support the media. I am not generally a complainer of the media, I am occasionally a complainer of the management of the media, but not the reporters and journalists themselves.

It doesn't hurt my feelings and I'm not attacking you. I'm reminding you that YOU are the one with the power in this equation. I'm saying there's a universe of news and information sources out there. A UNIVERSE...with today's Internet and cable access to hundreds of TV stations streaming their news, thousands of radio stations doing the same thing, and an uncountable number of online editions of newspapers around the world. Welcome to the brave new world of news and information.

If a local TV news anchor does something that annoys you, switch to another station. And let the manager of the annoying station know why you left. If enough people do that, he/she might actually do something about it, but don't hold your breath.

Now, having said that, I agree that local TV news is the pits. With only a few exceptions, watching local TV news is a terrible and painful way to waste thirty minutes. I've come to the conclusion that people who apply for jobs in TV news are given an IQ test, and the station hires from the bottom of the list.

I've covered countless local stories over four decades as a radio reporter, and I can't count the number of times I've been embarrassed at the outright brazen stupidity of the TV reporters. Long ago I reached the conclusion that as a species, TV reporters are the dumbest people on this planet. There are exceptions of course, but they stand out because they ARE the exceptions.

And I also agree that TV news has fallen into some extremely annoying habits in recent years, but calling that convention center the GRB isn't one of them.

For example, calling other anchors and reporters by nicknames instead of their real first names. KTRK's Cynthia Cisneros is a fine reporter, and one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. She's not one of the dummies. I love her dearly, but it annoys the hell out of me when an anchor calls her Cindy on the air. If that's what they want to call her, I think she should change her on-air name to Cindy. Same thing with that newby on KHOU, Allison Triarse. Attention anchors: PLEASE stop calling her "Allie".

There are numerous other examples of this trend on view any day or night up and down the TV dial, but it's a small thing compared to another TV news habit that's developed in recent years. The practice of referring to murder victims by their first name. That's not just annoying. It's a bad way to report news, because it implies there's some kind of personal relationship between the victim and the TV station. I think local TV reporters picked up this habit from the national TV networks' incessant non-stop NATIONAL coverage of every LOCAL kidnaping and murder case that comes along.

Well, almost every case. Have you noticed that the networks go into wall-to-wall coverage mode ONLY in cases in which the victim is a beautiful young WHITE woman? I'm waiting to see non-stop coverage of the kidnaping or murder of a beautiful young black woman, but I'm not holding my breath.

I could write a large book about what's wrong with TV news, but nobody inside and outside of TV news would pay any attention, so it would just be a waste of time and energy.

Being a member of your audience, we find it annoying.

Get over it. Or find a news source that meets with your approval.

Good luck with that. No one is going to change the way they do things just to suit you, or stop doing something just because you "find it annoying."

You may also be interested in knowing that most media members regard emails and communications like yours as one of the most annoying things about being in the news media.

I agree with you on that. Lately, channel eleven anchors have been calling each other by cutesy names: Calling Courtney - Court, etc. I find it quite annoying. I found it annoying when they started calling George R. Brown the GRB. I do find it to be unprofessional.

Ch 11 is hardly the only media outlet in town that refers to the George R. Brown as the GRB. Everybody in town does it and it's been going on ever since the place was built.

And being a member of the broadcast media, I can tell you we use it because it's handy shorthand for the full name, and it's shorter and easier than saying the full name every time you refer to it.

His name was Harold Gunn. He lived in Houston for quite a while, as he was an alumni of Lee High School.

Gunn is still around, and he's into all sorts of things. He has an outdoors program he syndicates on a bunch of radio stations around the state.

Check him out at http://www.texasoutdoornews.com

As I recall, he evicted them from a house he owned at the time."

Actually "as you recall" means you probably don't know.

No, I meant what I said. "Recall" means the same as "remember."

I remember him being in the news when it was learned that he had evicted his elderly parents from a house he owned.

There wasn't anything "illegal" about it, but it didn't make him look good. If he cared what the public thought he never said a word publicly.

I grant you it probably wouldn't have been "news" if it had been anybody but the high-profile real estate tycoon/antique car collector Jerry Moore.

I remember KPRC being in the Quonset hut on Post Oak just north of Richmond. When the West Loop was built later, you could see the building from the freeway. However, I don

maybe the collision with the metro train did something.

Not very likely. She wasn't injured and her car had only minor damage in that collision.

...Just what I look for in a woman. Just kidding, Mrs. P.

We are fans of Ch. 13, too. Also, Mrs. P.'s got a thing for Ted Oberg. I'm okay with it.

Mrs Ted Oberg might have something to say about that. Remember Krista Marino? Former medical reporter for KPRC?

She and Ted have been married for about ten years. They met when they worked at competing stations in the Norfolk Virginia market.

They got married after they both moved to competing stations here in Houston. After several years of reporting medical and other news at KPRC, Krista put TV aside to be a stay-at-home mom. They're now the proud parents of a daughter.

I'm one who thinks this young lady has has her priorities straight. She'll never regret this decision.

I remember seeing it when it came out (I was just a baby). I remember the highlight was when the local news reporter Chris Chandler was punched out. Everyone anticipated that part the most. I believe he was with channel 2 but I could be wrong. Now, after working with drilling companies, I can really appreciate the hard work and danger these men go through and the brainwork (Red Adair) put into figuring out how to successfully fight oilwell blowouts.

To know Chris Chandler was to love him, he said with thinly disguised sarcasm. Chandler was KPRC TV's weather guy in the mid sixties, until he talked the station manager into giving him a half-hour personality show that would lead up to NBC Nightly News at 5:30.

Chris Chandler's "personality" was, shall we say, prickly. He was opinionated, which isn't altogether bad, but he was always popping off about local people and issues, saying unkind and insulting things about people in the news. Although I don't remember him being political, he was an early version of present-day TV hosts like Glen Beck and Bill O'Reilly.

So, with that reputation in mind, here comes John Wayne's movie company to film The Hellfighters in the old oil fields in the Baytown area. Naturally, they hired some local actors and personalities for small roles and Chandler was hired to play an obnoxious local TV reporter. A VERY small role. But watching the way Chandler acted out on the locations you would have thought he was one of the stars.

He got one of those Hollywood style folding chairs with his name on the back and, even though he was only in a couple of scenes, he spent a lot of time lounging around near the center of the action where the cameras were rolling. I'm told he was always trying to ingratiate himself with the film's real stars, and generally annoying the hell out of the director and production crew.

When the movie was done, the premier was held in Houston. If you've seen the movie, you know there's a scene where Chandler as the TV reporter gets in Wayne's face at the scene of a well blow-out, and Wayne hauls off and decks him.

The Houston audience applauded and cheered.

A side-bar to Chandler's story. When he left the TV weather position to do the daily personality show, KPRC moved his backup weather guy into the full time gig. That was a young KPRC Radio DeeJay named Doug Johnson.

It is with great sadness that I pass along word of the death of Gary James Tidwell, the co-creator and longtime executive producer of the Eyes of Texas at KPRC TV. He went by the name Gary James over his 40 plus years in TV.

Gary was hired by the legendary Ray Miller to work at KPRC in 1961, and for many years he was part of the finest and most respected television news crew ever assembled in this part of the country. He was an award winning TV reporter for years, but he will always be remembered for helping Miller create and produce The Eyes of Texas -- KPRC's long-running award-winning magazine show about Texas and Texas history in the early 70s. He also co-authored the series of Eyes of Texas Travel Guides that are still available in bookstores.

His countless friends and former associates and colleagues mourn his passing.

Here's Gary's obit in the Houston Chronicle Online Edition.

http://www.legacy.com/houstonchronicle/Dea...sonId=126009564

I know Subdude.You wouldnt believe what goes on with the rich and elite in Houston.

Richard Minns was a real piece of work. Very rich, very good looking, athletic -- his biggest claim to athletic fame was water-skiing completely around the perimeter of Lake Tahoe three times in a row. He made his fortune by founding the Presidents-First Lady Health Spa chain and it was big. He had them just about everywhere.

I met him in 1973 at the grand opening of his club in Fort Worth, and I remember him as your typical good looking smiling smooth talker who could charm the cash out of your wallet and your lady-friend into his bedroom.

The feds thought they had him when he was arrested on passport violations while passing through Texas back in the 90s, but his lawyer cut a deal that allowed him to plead guilty, pay a fine, and go on his way. They had nothing else to hold him for. He immediately left the country for Ireland, where, I think, he still lives today.

Check this out. It's a bit long, but it tells most of the story of Minns and Barbara Piotrowski. http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/tv/69

I seem to remember Bunny Orsak and Kitty Borah were the two Kitiriks. There were also two Cadet Dons. I remember the first one, Don Davis. His real name was Don Eisenmann and his son, Ike, had a brief career as an actor. I don't remember the second Cadet Don, as he arrived during my high school years. Question: Did anyone else participate in the morning exercises during the first half of Cadet Don?

Kitty Borah was never Kitirik. There was one and only one Kitirik, and that was Bunny Orsak.

Kitty Borah was another KTRK personality who had a business oriented show called Kitty's Corner in the early sixties. Kitty did news features and interviews with people in Houston's business community. She got out of TV in the mid sixties and went to work doing PR for Shell Oil. I believe she retired from Shell back in the late 90s.

Cadet Don's real name was Al Eisenmann, and he did his the morning kids entire show and the exercise portion all by himself.

Al wrote a book several years ago. The Divine K-9, about a much loved family dog. You can get it on Amazon dot com.

Here's what his publisher said about him: From selling newspapers on the streets of Charleston, South Carolina during World War II, to hosting a children's TV show at a Houston TV station, to Hollywood...Al Eisenmann has worked in the entertainment industry as a performer, writer, producer for over fifty years and is now living in Waco, Texas with his wife Holly and their loving pet...Keeper.

Al's son Ike has had a long career in Hollywood, starting as a child actor in the 70s. He's 47 years old now, and he's still making his living in show business. In fact, he has a role in the current movie Race To Witch Mountain. He plays the sheriff.