sunburst

No mention of Jack Cato, are you kidding me. He had ALL the clout with HPD, so he could get the real story. He was A++ !

I am also partial to Alvin Van Black.

A+

Dan O

I'm only through the first third of the video but am amazed at how high-brow it started off as! They even used the phrase "trial balloons," which I haven't heard on television in ages. Lots of details, good research and coverage, etc.

The graphics look crummy, but for that time, I'm sure that they were respectable. I frankly prefer the simple clean look to the flashyness of today.

And when they were talking about celebs in the "Personal" segment, they started off talking about Henry Kissinger and Lloyd Benson, then gave Farrah last billing! Since when does the well-endowed blonde get put at the tail end of a newscast!?

right where she belonged, I 'd say

Yes, the good old days ended at Channel 2 by about 1990, when political correctness really took hold and good, hard working journalists no longer were permitted to set the tone of a newscast. Then things went way downhill in 1994 when the Hobby family sold out to Post Newsweek, and the corporate suits took over w/out a clue. No shock that Ron Stone, Doug Johnson etc chose to leave during this period when they had 5-6 years still left in the tank.

Actually the twilight of the KPRC glory days is occuring right now, at Channel 11 , the station which in recent years has taken journalism most seriously. In leaving the station (why I havent heard), it must be said that Nancy Holland showed great skill and endurance in her career. She also showed that a woman of average appearance could succeed, and the shame of it is that another woman of average appearance--with the potential to become the next Nancy?-will not even get her resume seen.

It shouldn't come as a big surprise that what Nancy Holland has in common with Houston's other great TV news reporters of the last 25 years is that they have all seemed to put great emphasis on "the story" and not on themselves. Dan Lauck is terrific, a journalist who writes in a minimal, poetic way that supplies just enough words to empower the pictures we see. It will be a shame if poor health causes him to quit. Channel 11 is number one because it has recognized the caliber of these people and a few others and let them tell the best stories of the day in their own interesting, informative style.

Like Holland and Lauck at KHOU, KPRC once had a corps of really excellent people. Charles Hadlock in his quiet self-assured tone, with a painstaking attention to detail, putting the story ahead of any personal need to be noticed. Ron Regan and Bebe Burns, very good and dedicated reporters. And of course Dan O'Rourke who won AP best reporter in Texas like 4 or 5 times then stopped entering. A tremendous writer who excelled in telling every kind of story, hard news to feature. People like O'Rourke, Hadlock, Holland, Lauck, aren't attracted to local news anymore because Houston stations no longer value their skills or want to pay for them. Our loss.

Roberta DeFranceso would be the woman from the Fiesta commercials, though I wasn't aware she was an anchor in the past.

I haven't spoken to Terry in years, though she was among the nicest people I've met in television. Even provided me a copy of her demo tape during her time at KPRC to look over for ideas on how to compile mine whenever the time came. Last I'd heard she was in West Palm Beach at the CBS station there, but she's disappeared from there over the last year it seems. Might have to call around to find out where she ended up.

When KPRC was doing news updates in the middle of the night in the early 90s, I was always curious in what capacity the "anchors" worked in other than that. Two names that come to mind are Alice Wolf and Ginger Morgan. Were they producers, freelancers, etc?

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Yes, Ginger Morgan and Alice Wolke were producers who worked the night shift and anchored short updates until the morning anchors came in. It worked fine until another producer in that role, Alvin Wright, the single nicest man ever, became frustrated in tripping over a sentence and lived to regret the next few seconds of his life. He said he was just not cut out to be on-air, and the news director agreed . But Alvin would become an HPD spokesman who often appeared on Houston newscasts--including Channel 2 in the middle of the night.

Channel 2 had an executive producer in the early 80's named Lee Meredith who was vocal about wanting to hire Bill Balleza as the number two anchor behind Ron Stone. A couple of other people got consideration. Ron Tank had arrived from Indianapolis with anchor experience. Dan O'Rourke also came from Indianapolis, was already anchoring weekends at Channel 2 and was very good but also pretty young, early 20's.

Before that Channel 2 had a couple of woman anchors in the 70s including Anita Martini who anchored sports, and the lady who later appeared on all the Fiesta commercials, and I'll remember her name just as soon as I post this! Paula Zahn arrived in 1981 and was replaced after one contract by Jan Carson, who had moved to San Francisco and had left the business for a while. Terry Anzur and Anna Bond were also in the early-to-mid 80's anchor mix for KPRC.

Sorry that I repeated your original post above with my own name as author, I just hit a wrong button and cant erase it.

I was born in 1979 and the earliest I can remember of Houston TV news is 2News with Ron Stone and Jan Carson, Newscenter 11 with Steve Smith and Amanda Arnold and 13 Eyewitness News with Dave Ward and Shara Fryer. Dates may vary due to hazy memories.

The post in the Historic Houston section that mentioned that Jan Carson first teamed up with Dave Ward during the ammonia truck crash in 1976 got me wondering. When did the practice of co-anchors of different sexes(or co-anchors period) first start?

I presume Jan Carson was Channel 13's first female weekday evening anchor. Does anybody remember who Channel 2's first one was, and when? Was it Paula Zahn, and was it during the Big 2 News days? And was Amanda Arnold the first at Channel 11? I think she started in 1978.

Thank you for your assistance.

Bonus old-school local TV question: My mother once told me that Bill Balleza started at Channel 11, but was fired for exposing their practice of "live" reporting (they really weren't). True, false, or partly true?