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| Bill Spencer with anchor Dominique Sachse |
In the past I declared FOX 26 KRIV's Isiah Carey The Factor to be the new Marvin Zindler or at least as close as we can get to the original that is.
I still stand by that, but there is room for another.
Lately a Houston TV candidate has really attempted to pick up the Zindler torch.
In fact, this one was inspired by seeing him on TV long ago.
Bill Spencer, who has been reporting at KPRC 2 since 2013, was previously a big time consumer reporter at WXYZ in Detroit.
By the way, that power house Motown station has some of the coolest call letters ever!
If you have ever watched his brand of news reporting, then you know Spencer has a certain kind of flair.
"Every anchor job, every reporter job, I want to be completely different than everyone else," Spencer told mikemcguff.com. "I am going to try to be a showman, I want to present the facts accuratley, and make it as interesting as possible."
Like Zindler, Spencer is now back to his favorite style of reporting with "Spencer Solves It."
"I help needy people in all kinds of situations they could not handle on their own," Spencer told mikemcguff.com
When consumer/investigative reporter Amy Davis moved to mornings, Spencer's bosses handed over the station's "Restaurant Report Card" segment his way.
Spencer said he wanted to make the segment his own. Especially in the city that helped put television news restaurant reports on the map.
"I'm going to pump this segment up as much as I can with fast editing and pack it with personalisty, use my voice as wild as I can," Spencer told mikemcguff.com.
A cub reporter in the 1980s, Spencer first saw the Marvin Zindler experience while working for Big 2 KMID Midland, Texas.
"I instantly loved him, it blew me away, he was so fascinating to watch, such a show man," Spencer told mikemcguff.com. "His thick white hair, sunglasses and super tan. To me, he was Elvis Presley on television news and I loved him."
Spencer's loved for the outlandish continued while working with legendary anchor Bill Bonds at WXYZ. He adds Bonds was a similar iconic character in the Motor City as Zinder was to Space City.
When it came time to reconfigure the restaurant report, Spencer wanted to go as crazy as channel 2 management would let him.
And like "Slime in the Ice Machine" and "good golf, good tennis or whatever makes you happy," Spencer wanted a signature tag out for the story.
He thought of fist bumps, karate moves, pretending to tear of his shirt like a tennis champion and then it just happened.
"Booyah!"
Spencer just yelled the phrase out at the end of his report one night. He doesn't even know how he came up with it.
Over the next 24 hours, he received around 60 viewer emails saying how much they liked it. His bosses loved it too.
So it stuck.
Beyond theatrics, in the last two years of producing the restaurant segment, Spencer has brought viewers video inside featured restaurants showing the inspection team in action.
He also wanted to bring more information to the audience by working with the city health department to explain what the violations mean and what kind inspectors find most often.
Do yourself a favor and watch his recent report on slice in the ice machine. Over the years you might have forgotten just how icky this stuff really is.
And like Zindler's Action 13 Blue Ribbon Award, Spencer is handing out his A-Plus Award for, "a perfect, spotless restaurant inspection report."
Overall, Spencer realizes the actual content of a Houston restaurant report is kind of depressing for the audience.
Who wants to see their favorite eatery on a violation list?
But with the helpful information and awareness these segments provide, Spencer realizes you have to mix the medicine with a little sugar.
"It's something that should be entertaining," Spencer says.
A guy who knew Zindler well is KPRC 2 news director Dave Strickland. He was Zindler's boss for many years at abc13 KTRK.
"It’s my way of paying homage to Marvin," Strickland told mikemcguff.com. "We aren’t trying to copy him but I know he would be smiling with approval."
Now at least someone has tried to continue the good work Zindler started all those decades ago.
You can catch Spencer's Restaurant Report Thursdays at 6pm on KPRC 2.
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