My first THREE jobs in commercial TV...
FLOOR MANAGER
& DIRECTOR
1966 & '67 - '70 &'71 - Mid '73 to July 4th '76
At TV33 I started as a Stage (studio) Hand, then Floor Manager. Later as a Director, I did Farm & Kid shows, Newscasts, and ultimately: Live high school basketball and pro hockey games.
I actually worked at Channel-33 three times: As a teenager before the Army; after my days as a medic while I attended college at the IU-Purdue regional campus in 1970 and 1971; and finally, when I left grad school. That was from 1973 to 1976.
When the Operations Manager, Bill Nichols offered me a chance to return to the station a third time, I hesitated. I really wanted a job in news. But I returned as a Director when the GM said they had a "News Producer" job on the drawing board - and I would get first shot at it. Three years later my goal was still on the drawing board. But working for union scale wages, I delayed walking away from a comfortable income.
The station General Manager was Hilliard Gates. He was also the Sports Director and did a daily show during the 6PM NEWS. Perhaps you saw him in the movie HOOSIERS. Click the picture to the right of Hilliard to hear one of his lines from the Orion Pictures film.
If you never got a chance to sample Mr. Gates do play-by-play, you missed hearing something incredible. There was NONE better - before or after his time on the mike. He was THE master whether it was basketball, hockey, or Indy car racing. He started doing sports on radio, long before the pictures were added to the signals soaring through the air. His painting the picture of the scene with words made the video superfluous. If you closed your eyes, Hilliard's descriptions missed nothing - and put you in the front row beside him.
His presence in Fort Wayne drew all kinds of celebrities to the small northern Indiana city. Among them: Tony Hulman, who owned Channel-33 as well as the "Indy 500." I must of hooked microphones on hundreds of famous people over the years. I also got the chance to be a mid-wife for the live deliveries of three baby goats on the morning farm show. I also gave a shot of medicine to a turkey named Ralph, when he got a sore foot and the Vet diagnosed the problem by watching TV!
Then there were all those kid shows, which always had one or two get sick from all the excitement, or the hot bright lights. Guess who cleaned up the mess? I also cleaned up after John Siemers (the kid show host) once when he took a healthy swig from the Mountain Dew bottle, a bottle I had laced with tobasco sauce. He really put the proper emphasis on the "Ya-HOOOOOO!" that day after blowing the sponsors product all over the camera lens on live TV. That's two more things I never learned to do in college.
Meanwhile, the stuff I DID learn was not getting used. The most frustrating part of the job was directing weekend newscasts. I just shook my head as I turned page after page as it was read, knowing my writing was far superior to what I was putting on the air. It was so frustrating to work that close to the newsroom, and not be allowed to work there.
I really believe Hilliard sensed my growing angst level, and nudged me to make the move I was reluctant to initiate. One day, right in the middle of the 6PM NEWS, he drew me into an argument - a very heated argument during a commercial break. The argument was so intense that Hilliard's eyes seemed to bulge against his glasses, his teeth showed to the gum line, and his face was as red as the background on a stop sign. That's NO exaggeration.
I have no idea how my face appeared, but I'm willing to wager I was equally frightening. Out the corner of my eyes I saw the engineers trying to hide behind the width of the cameras they operated - to avoid having any role in the boss's memory of this episode.
The word war ended only when I threw my hand in the air and screamed, "Standby!" as the break ended. Had I not done so, the world (at least part of Indiana and Ohio) would have seen and heard a growling monster. But I could not let that happen. Not only would it represent a lack of professionalism, I would hurt a man - a man I knew was in the process of doing me an enormous favor in a bizarre kind of way.
Hilliard, the consumate on-air professional went through an INSTANT metamorphosis: His eyes went back into his head, the most pleasant of smiles formed with just a hint of his teeth showing, and his face returned to a normal flesh tone - all in less than a half second. He then did the show with his usual superb and relaxed delivery.
When Hilliard finished his show, the camera tally light popped from red to black, and I called out, "Clear!" A half second later, he returned exactly to that monstrous and scary pre-on-air appearance. Hilliard was sitting on the news set at least ten feet away. Even so, when he pointed his finger at me, it appeared just an inch away from my nose. Then came the predictable words in a most intense and controlled delivery: "Report to my office young man!"
When I arrived, Hilliard said we were both strong personalities and WKJG did not have room for two of us that strong. Since he didn't plan to retire for 20-years, he said I must go... within six months. SIX MONTHS!?!?!?! Who gets fired with a 6-month notice? Anyway, I finally had my long desired exit deadline firmly established... a deadline that could not change regardless of the security of great pay. I will forever owe a debt of gratitude to Hilliard for getting me off my complacent ass and into that "nutso" world I was long overdue to explore... the world of news!
A final note: Hilliard continued doing play-by-play until 1993, and died just over three short years later in 1996. He was 83. He left behind an indellible stamp on a lot more than just Fort Wayne television. He put the initially machinery in motion that has become the high energy way the world covers sports and athletics today. He also gave hundreds of broadcasters a start in the business, many of whom went on to become correspondents, producers, and directors at big market stations as well as the national networks. And he also knew when it was time to nudge us out of our first comfortable nest.
The NEXT day I got that news job at a radio station:
Click the LOGO to find out what happened there.
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