Let Ron Stone and Big 2 News take us back to 1978 when microwave signals and videotape were new to TV news, and the tape deck and camera were separate units.
Stone highlights the latest in electronic news gathering at the time and how Channel 2 got the news on air every evening.
The KPRC 2 Houston mini-doc from decades ago, just posted by the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI), features Cindy Martin, George Caldwell, Ray Miller, Larry Weidman, Doug Johnson, Phil Archer, Jack Cato, Jon Burkhart, and Steve Long.
In March, I wrote about an event that the non-profit Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) was having at the Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston: MATCH "Tonight at 7" Houston Television From The Archive.
Well, here is the video from that event. It was a very informative and entertaining video presentation!
This showcase of Space City television highlights from 1961 to 2004. This exclusive program presents content from TAMI's extensive KPRC 2 and KHOU 11 collections.
Witness the best news, weather, sports stories, award-winning specials, and behind-the-scenes features.
This program features footage contributed by KPRC, Austin History Center, Houston History Research Center at the Houston Public Library, Travis Boles, Steve Candelari, Paul and Elizabeth Nelson, Lois Perucca, Kenny Ryman, and Larry Weidman.
TAMI is digitizing tens of thousands of KPRC's films and videos. By the late 1960s, the station produced approximately 700 hours of content annually and maintained that rate for the next 40 years.
That equals roughly 28,000 hours of footage for our small team to inventory, digitize, and catalog.
TAMI estimates local Texas stations collectively produced at least 3,000 years of content in the pre-digital era.
An estimated 72,000 items in the KPRC Collection remain undigitized. This multi-million-dollar endeavor could take more than 40 years to complete.
Here are some in person, real-life events concerning Houston media!
Tonight at 7pm, the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is holding a special screening of "Tonight at 7" Houston Television From The Archive at the Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston: MATCH.
The non-profit TAMI created what it promises is a captivating and amusing showcase of Space City television highlights from 1961 to 2004. This exclusive program presents content from TAMI's extensive KPRC 2 and KHOU 11 collections.
This screening features footage contributed by KPRC-TV, Austin History Center, Houston History Research Center at the Houston Public Library, Travis Boles, Steve Candelari, Paul and Elizabeth Nelson, Lois Perucca, Kenny Ryman, and Larry Weidman.
"Runaway Radio" 101 KLOL documentary screenings start this Friday around the Houston-area
What kind of blogger would I be if I wasn't hyping my stuff? Yes, my new documentary, "Runaway Radio," the long-awaited 101 KLOL story, will start playing this Friday, March 29th, through April 3rd at select Star Cinema Grill locations.
We kick things off with a live Q&A Friday and Saturday night (see below).
I know where I will be on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, and if you are a reader of my blog, you will probably want to be there too.
Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is holding a special screening of "Tonight at 7" Houston Television From The Archive at the Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston: MATCH.
The non-profit TAMI created what it promises is a captivating and amusing showcase of Space City television highlights from 1961 to 2004. This exclusive program presents content from TAMI's extensive KPRC 2 and KHOU 11 collections.
This screening features footage contributed by KPRC-TV, Austin History Center, Houston History Research Center at the Houston Public Library, Travis Boles, Steve Candelari, Paul and Elizabeth Nelson, Lois Perucca, Kenny Ryman, and Larry Weidman.
TAMI is in the process of digitizing tens of thousands of KPRC-TV's films and videos. By the late 1960s, KPRC-TV produced approximately 700 hours of content a year. The station maintained that rate for the next 40 years. That equals roughly 28,000 hours of footage for our small team to inventory, digitize, and catalog. And those numbers only project output from KPRC-TV!
It's estimated local Texas television stations collectively produced at least 3,000 years of content in the pre-digital era.
An estimated 72,000 items in the KPRC-TV Collection remain undigitized. This multi-million-dollar endeavor could take more than 40 years to complete.
“Local television news collections are an invaluable record of the twentieth century that we will lose forever if we don't act now," said Katharine Austin, TAMI Curator.
The screening is presented by the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, Texas Film Commission, Houston Public Library's Houston History Research Center, and Houston Cinema Arts Society.
To help TAMI continue to discover and preserve DONATE HERE.
Houston TV viewers will recognize Armstrong from his work decades ago to today. He's been a KPRC 2 anchor, voiceover talent and now you hear him report for abc13 KTRK's SkyEye 13.
KCBI/Dallas-Ft. Worth Taps Sonny Delfyette For PM Drive.
CUMULUS MEDIA Signs New Deal With Mark “Hawkeye” Louis, Longtime DFW Morning Personality on New Country 96.3/KSCS-FM. - KSCS (New Country 96.3)/Dallas' Mark 'Hawkeye' Louis Will Host New Podcast, 'Hawkeye On Hawkey
Former TV anchor Brendan Higgins among 9 suing over alleged priest sex abuse.
DFW teacher moonlights as online journalist hoping to inspire his students.
Audacy Makes Alternative Lineup Changes In Dallas & Kansas City As Klein & Ally Go Back To Los Angeles Only.
Former DFW radio host indicted on sexual assault charge from New Year’s Eve party.
North Texas Radio Host Gets 3 Life Prison Terms for Targeting Listeners in Scheme.
D Magazine Booted off Grocery Store Magazine Rack.
Cox Media Group Houston Names Melissa Rivera Integrated Sales Manager.
Former abc13 KTRK reporter Foti Kallergis becomes Director of Public Relations and External Communications at Comcast from Director of Communications and Public Relations for Houston Airports, the City of Houston's Department of Aviation.
Tom Zizka enters into a new contract with FOX 26 KRIV.
Emily Baucum is officially the permanent Sunday evening newscast anchor for News 4 SA WOIA and FOX 29 KABB.
Morgan Burrell announces she is leaving News 4 San Antonio and KABB FOX 29 News San Antonio where she has worked as multimedia journalist for the last two years.
Leigh Munsil, an editor at CNN Politics, has been named the next editor-in-chief of the nonprofit San Antonio Report, succeeding founding Editor Robert Rivard.
Larry Weidman spent a huge chunk of his television news career at KPRC 2 starting in the 1960s working his way up from Reporter, Photographer, Radio News Anchor, Producer, Associate News Director to News Director.
He recalls his time working for channel 2, the legendary Ray Miller and the Hobby Family.
Plus, you will read how Weidman moved from KPRC to the network level working around the world!
Mike McGuff: You worked in Wichita Falls in the 1960s and then moved to Houston in the latter part of the decade, what was it like moving to a big market station like KPRC 2 at that time?
Larry Weidman: It took me a year to move to Houston for good. In the summer of ’65, I came to Houston on vacation from KAUZ-TV in Wichita Falls (where I grew up), to look up Jon Burkhart, who left Wichita Falls a year earlier to direct at KPRC. It happened that was the week of Gemini 4—the first spaceflight controlled by the new Manned Spacecraft Center. KPRC was handling the remote for NBC News, at Building 6 and the Crest Hotel across NASA Road 1 from the entrance to the MSC. One of their crew got sick, and Jon hired me to be the night floor manager in the “Bubble Studio” NBC had built on the roof of the Crest. It had floor-to-ceiling clear glass windows overlooking the MSC, with no curtains or filters. Launch day was to be in color for the first time, so NBC brought in a one-camera truck with an RCA TK-41 color camera, and it needed a lot of light.
David Brinkley walked into the studio, sat down at the anchor desk, and said (in Brinkley voice), “Who did the lighting? (Brinkley pause) Roto-broil?” He was right, the lighting was brutal to overcome the daylight streaming through the glass. That week was a great experience for me, I got to work with a lot of NBC folks, “Rocket” Roy Neal, Aline Saarinen, Ray Scherer, and got my first look at Ray Miller, who did some reporting for NBC. I even sat in the back of the room when Ron Stone interviewed Mike Wallace for KHOU. Ron had come to Houston from KSWO-TV, in the Wichita Falls/Lawton market a couple of years earlier, and we had friends in common.
I also talked to two other ex-KAUZ friends who worked across the street in Public Affairs at NASA. That led to my leaving KAUZ a month later and starting a job as a media producer in the Public Affairs Office at NASA. But a couple of weeks after I started, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara came back from Vietnam and announced the first of the big troop buildups for the war, and a consequent jump in the draft. So I wound up staying just two months at NASA and going back to Wichita Falls for classes at Midwestern University, and my student deferment. But I did get to work in the MOCR for Gemini 5, as the producer for the overnight voice of Mission Control, Terry White. That’s the same Mission Control used for the remainder of the Gemini program, and then Apollo, and which was recently restored.
Back in Wichita Falls, I worked weekends that school year at KWFT, an old-time, locally owned AM radio station doing some sports, some news and some board shifts as a DJ. In the summer of ’66, I went back to Houston for summer classes in Radio-TV at UH. By then, my friend Ted Shaw (another ex-KAUZ’er) was also working at KPRC, and he and Jon Burkhart convinced me to apply to Ray Miller for a job. The chief cameraman, Bob Harper, looked at a reel of film stories I’d shot at KAUZ, and then Ray offered me the best job I ever had in TV working ten hours a day Saturday and Sunday as a photog and reporter, for fifty bucks a week. I had a paid-off VW bug, shared a “Sin Alley” apartment with Ted on Mid Lane and went to summer school at UH during the week.
Unfortunately, that weekend gig only lasted a month before Ray offered me a fulltime job as the night police reporter/photographer/editor. My first day at work was August 1, 1966: the Charles Whitman-in-the-Texas-Tower day. Ray called me in early and sent me down to Needville where the family of Whitman’s wife lived. He had killed her, and his mother, the night before. I did some interviews with neighbors, and that night we did a half-hour special on the shooting, with me live in the studio. Welcome to Houston.
MM: Talk about working at KPRC under the Hobby family, Ray Miller and other amazing talents such as Ron Stone?
LW: KPRC was a big-time operation, even then. They had color news film with their own processor the year before, and about the time I started, the switch to color studio broadcasts. Larry Rasco was the prime anchor then, but Steve Smith came to work about the same time and began doing the 10:00. The reporter and photographer ranks were just as impressive. But it all revolved around one man, Ray Miller. It seemed as if he did everything. He was the news director, assignments editor, the executive producer; he did editorials, and a weekly interview program called “The Last Word.” He also co-anchored big events, like election night. There was a picture frame hanging on the wall in the newsroom at this point we were still in the 1952-era building on South Post Oak near where the Lakes of Post Oak are now and in this frame was a big paper mache needle, with the legend: “The Needler.” That was something I think the city council had given him when he became news director and quit covering City Hall. I expect there was relief down there when that happened.
But the point is, Ray was a newsman from the soles of his feet. He had been a submariner in the Navy in World War II and was recalled for the Korean War. He had nerves of steel, and absolutely did not suffer fools gladly or any other way. If he gave you an assignment, you would do just about anything other than fail to return with the goods. The people who survived working for him revered him, people like Frank Dobbs, Steve Smith, Cal Thomas, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Ron Stone, Sara Lowrey Mackie, Bob Brandon...the list goes on and on.
Here’s the other thing--the guy Ray worked for, Jack Harris, was just as tough. The Hobby family brought Harris to Houston from Nashville after the war just as they were buying Channel 2. And he ran it from 1949 until he retired in the mid-80’s. He had been General McArthur’s radio chief in the Pacific, and was there for the surrender of the Japanese, setting up the live radio coverage of the ceremony on the USS Missouri and the arrival of Americans to take over Radio Tokyo. He was a bird colonel when the war ended. Mrs. Hobby, Oveta Culp Hobby, was also a colonel, of course. She had been commander of the Women’s Army Corps during the war. In the Army, the date you get your promotion is a big thing, and her date-of-rank for colonel was earlier than Col. Harris’, so she outranked him, and never let him forget it.
MM: So when you left KPRC for NBC News in 1980, did that mean moving desks to the NBC bureau in the same building? What was that experience like?
LW: I started at the NBC News Bureau on March 31,1980. The bureau was actually located across the driveway from Channel 2’s “new (1972)” building on the Southwest Freeway. But I didn’t go to the office that day. My first assignment as a network field producer was a news conference at Texas Stadium in Irving, where Roger Staubach announced his retirement from the Dallas Cowboys. It was obviously a big deal in Texas, it even made NBC Nightly News.
As news director at KPRC, my time had been filled with management stuff and very little hands-on news work. That changed overnight, literally. At NBC, my days were all news: looking for stories, setting up logistics for travel, working with crews on shoots, helping correspondents with scripts and editors cutting the stories. The Houston Bureau’s principal area of responsibility, aside from Texas, included Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and some of New Mexico, but I traveled all over the country on stories, sometimes with correspondents from New York or Washington.
MM: Many local TV journalists dream about moving to the networks like you did. What was that move like?
LW: I was lucky because I had been able to watch an amazing team of network people up close for years, because as I said, the actual bureau was literally next door. The Bureau Chief for most of those years was Arthur Lord, a dynamic newsman. The correspondents were George Lewis and Sandy Gilmour; producers Don Critchfield and A’Lelia Bundles. And the true ringmaster was bureau coordinator Joyce Barnell, a legend in her own right. We saw them all the time and when I got the chance to move across the driveway to the Bureau, it seemed very comfortable.
MM: What was the difference between working in a familiar place to you like Houston or Dallas and then moving off to the Tel Aviv and Rome bureaus?
LW: When I got the call about Tel Aviv, the first thing I did was call Tom Cheatham in New York. He had been Bureau Chief in Tel Aviv, and his first piece of advice was to go over and meet the people in the Bureau. I did and loved it. My wife was born in Scotland and her family emigrated to Canada and then the US when she was a child. So, she kind of knew what to expect. Our daughter was eight and adapted quickly to the American International School. By the time we moved onto Rome three years and a half years later, we were all seasoned ex-pats:)
MM: You recently donated some of your tape archives to the Texas Archive of the Moving Image. Why do you think it is important for these stories to be archived?
LW: In my years at KPRC, we were covering a city expanding and changing every day. It was explosive growth. But we were able to draw a direct line to the start of TV coverage and use our film and video files to give some perspective to our daily coverage. So, I’ve always had an appreciation of trying to preserve our visual history. Once electronic news gathering came along, it was much easier to hold on to personal videotapes, and so I did through the years. And then, amazingly, Caroline Frick and her team at TAMI came along so there was a place pass on what I had saved. Thankfully, KPRC and KHOU felt the same way, and that’s where their archives are now.
MM: Anything else you want to add?
LW: I just would say that the Texas Archive of the Moving Image is doing something now, that generations to come will appreciate. TAMI is also trying to upgrade its technical operation with a state-of-the-art scanner for faster and better film preservation, along with other improvements. Contributions are welcome: https://texasarchive.org/support-us
Larry Weidman's resume
1963-1965 KAUZ-TV, Wichita Falls, Texas Photographer, Reporter, Anchor
1965 NASA/MANNED SPACECRAFT CENTER, Houston, Texas Media Producer
1965-1966 KWFT-AM, Wichita Falls, Texas News/Sports Anchor
1966-1980 KPRC-TV-AM, Houston, Texas Reporter, Photographer, Radio News Anchor, Producer, Associate News Director, News Director
1968-1970 U.S. ARMY, Würzburg/Nürnberg, West Germany Broadcast Specialist, Third Infantry Div.; Host, “Marne Monitor.”
1980-2004 NBC NEWS, New York, NY Bureau Chief: Houston, Tel Aviv, Rome Correspondent/ Producer: Dallas Retired September, 2004
2005-2010 AMERICAN RED CROSS, Washington, DC Public Affairs Media Training
1992 Outstanding Instant Coverage of a Single News Story NBC News Special: “City on Fire” (The Rodney King Riots in Los Angeles) Producer
2001 Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw: “Attack on America” (September 11, 2001) Producer
The legendary Houston reporter has covered it all, including being stabbed and knocked unconscious during the Moody Park Riots coverage (which is now the subject of a Vox Media podcast called the Chicano Squad.) More on this in a minute.
"Phil’s the guy you send when your own reputation is on the line," former NBC News Bureau Chief and KPRC reporter Larry Weidman told mikemcguff.com. "He always delivers and he has for nearly half a century. Plus, he’s also from Wichita Falls."
Phil Archer's early life
The Wichita Falls, TX native graduated from S.H. Rider High School in 1969 and headed to Houston to attend the University of Houston.
"I’ve been fortunate enough to make my career in Houston, which is one of the best news towns in the country," Archer said in his bio. "I’ve worked with some of the most talented journalists in the business; folks who pursued the craft with honesty, accuracy, and passion. It is more than a job – it’s a calling."
Archer got started in the Houston news business with the Houston News Service which was owned by Jack Cato and George Nelson.
That led to a job at Big 2 KPRC in 1976. Archer replaced Mike Capps on the Channel 2 night police beat.
"From the time he walked in, he became a sponge, using his biting wit, his raucous sense of humor, and good ole boy Wichita Falls, Texas charm, learning the rudiments of our craft as quickly as he could and as a result won over all of us in the newsroom," Capps, who later worked for WFAA, ABC and CNN, told mikemcguff.com.
Moody Park Riots and Phil Archer
In 1978, Archer and Cato, who was also working for KPRC, were covering the Moody Park Riots, sparked by the death of Joe Campos Torres by the actions of Houston police officers.
"There was a car on fire and ambulance supervisor's car on fire," Archer told KPRC in 2019. "And so we went past the police line to get video of that. When we we're doing that, we got jumped. And so that's that's how it ended for me. We were...Jack was stabbed. I was knocked unconscious and stabbed. We watched the rest of the rioting lasted another two days, three days from our hospital rooms."
"Their camera gear was cut up and news car destroyed along with several police and fire vehicles," retired KPRC 2 photographer John Treadgold told mikemcguff.com. "Both Phil and Jack went right back to covering the same stories afterwards, sometimes going in before police or firefighters. They were the best in the city in this regard."
In the KPRC history book, "The Fault Does Not Lie With Your Set - The First Forty Years of Houston Television," Archer described his face looking "like hamburger" with cuts, bruises and a particularly nasty gash on the top of his head. He recalled police officers believing he had been stabbed in the crotch. So they laid him on the hood of a patrol car. An officer, who has previously been a nurse, ripped open his pants to examine if he had been castrated.
KTRK photographer Dave Davis, who later became WABC New York's General Manager, caught the moment on camera.
Archer was stabbed in his rear end and bleeding profusely - turning his blue pants red.
Fortunately, some kids nearby dragged Archer out of harm's way.
"And and if those kids had not gotten me out when they did, I might very well bled to death because I lost...I was close at the time...I lost a lot of blood," Archer recalled in his 2019 interview with the station. "So a lot of things luckily happened in the right order for it...to prevent it...from being a really bad day for my mom."
"He obviously laid it on the line in Moody Park, and I think that reportage from Phil and Jack Cato that night pretty much summarizes who Phil Archer is as a news reporter," Capps added. "He offered an intrepid attitude, a no nonsense demeanor and thoroughness beyond reproach as his reportorial tools. Professionalism personified, an unbridled passion for his craft and the stories he reported, and a respect for those who watched his work, simply sets him apart from most and he did it for more than 40 years."
When Archer woke up in the hospital, he was concerned about the whereabouts of his expensive TV news camera, especially when his news director Ray Miller came to visit. He was also concerned about not wearing a tie while covering the riot, a must for Miller who had a rule all news photographers had to look professional.
For his coverage of the riot, Archer received the Perringer Award from the Texas Association of Broadcasters.
That would not be his only award on the shelf. According to his bio, Archer has received more than 50 awards from the likes of the Associated Press, Texas Association of Broadcasters, Houston Press Club and other organizations.
In 1983, Archer was selected as a William Benton Fellow at the University of Chicago which was a program designed to "advance the work of midcareer radio and television professionals, enabling them to bring greater depth and understanding to their work."
The Moody Park Riot story will always come up in Phil Archer retirement goodbye pieces. But Archer's journalistic career is so much more than that one moment.
What fellow journalists say about Archer
He has been that steady voice on KPRC for four decades, who can cover any story with grace and ease, no matter the difficult subject matter. Sources trust him, the Houston television news community respects him and as you will read below, his co-workers liked and looked up to him.
"The only thing I could add is that Phil was one of my ethical policemen in the newsroom," former KPRC news manager Rich McFarland told mikemcguff.com. "You always need watchdogs asking journalists in the room, 'Why are we doing this story?' As a manager it can be a pain in the ass but you appreciate the question. He was also a great coworker, mentor, and friend."
"Phil Archer was a veteran reporter when I was born, so this news is depressing," former abc13 KTRK investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino told mikemcguff.com. " His knowledge of Houston is irreplaceable. The consummate tv reporter. He has done this town proud."
For this blog post, I reached out to those reporters and anchors who worked with Archer throughout his career. They enthusiastically shared their respect and stories from their time with him.
“You could do an entire blog on 'Phil moments' at KPRC, but among my favorites are Phil riding the trail to Houston with the Rodeo cowboys," former KPRC anchor Linda Lorelle told mikemcguff.com. "On horseback. Every year and loving every moment. Whether covering the Rodeo or Hurricane Katrina, Phil is a consummate storyteller whose passion and perspective give Houston viewers a bird’s eye view unlike any other. It’s a privilege to have worked with him during my years on the anchor desk at KPRC. Happy Trails, my friend, as you enjoy your well deserved retirement!"
"Always loved talking about Texas history and folklore with Phil," former KPRC reporter Ron Stone, Jr. told me. "We’d talk about our love for J. Frank Dobie’s books or he would quote an obscure Western Swing song lyric and it was just a great way to stay sane in the midst of the chaos of a TV newsroom."
“It’s the end of an era," former KPRC reporter Mary Benton told mikemcguff.com. "Phil Archer is a consummate professional and a wonderful person. Full disclosure - it took time for me to warm up to him when we first met, because I assumed we would not have anything in common. Over my 20 year tenure at KPRC, we sat near each other in the newsroom, and I got to see Phil for who he is - decent, sensitive, hilarious and a great storyteller. He has earned his retirement and I wish him all the best!”
"Phil is a reporter's reporter. An absolute legend in Houston news," former KPRC morning anchor/reporter Rachel McNeill told mikemcguff.com. "I learned so much from watching him work. His tenacity, his dedication and his wicked sense of humor are unmatched. You could always count on his support from your very first day in the newsroom and he always kept us laughing with his classic Texas quips!"
Former KPRC reporter Suzanne Boase Honeycutt shared these great moments which I am including in full:
"Phil will hate me for saying this, but I watched him on TV as a kid when my family moved to Houston from Australia. He looked like a cowboy, seemed larger than life, and told amazing stories. He was just so good at what he did - a great writer and reporter. I desperately wanted to make it to the Houston market someday like Phil.
When I first started working at KPRC in the mid 90’s, I was excited and a little intimidated to get to work alongside him. Phil was the senior reporter – he’s always been the senior reporter! - and has a wicked wit. I quickly learned though that under the zingers is a very sweet man.
I shared a desk with him. I’ll never forget his kindness to me, offering suggestions and sharing potential sources for stories. His knowledge of Houston and its history is second to none. But he zinged me, too: I remember Phil noticing a zit on my face one day - that was carefully concealed, so I thought - and asking me about my third eye! Whenever I wanted to get him back, I reminded him that I was watching him on TV when I was in elementary school.
Phil is simply the best at what he does. He has covered every important story in SE Texas for the past 40 years. What strikes me is he has never lost his zeal to chase a story and tell it better than anyone else. Phil makes complex stories – like the collapse of Enron and the Arthur Andersen trial – understandable. But what I remember most is how Phil lights up every year at rodeo time. He is a real cowboy and loves every minute covering the rodeo and enjoying the festivities after.
Phil is the consummate journalist. I cannot even begin to imagine how many stories he has told! His very well-deserved retirement is a true loss for KPRC and for Houston."
Former KPRC 2 reporter Brendan Keefe shares his thoughts with me concerning Archer:
"Phil Archer is the dean of Houston TV news. Phil IS Texas. You know those people you see at rodeo who clearly just bought a brand new Stetson, as if it's about dress up? They're the opposite of Phil Archer. When we say Phil is hanging up his spurs, it's not a figurative description of his retirement. Phil literally hangs up his spurs because he has one of the best antique spur collections in all of Texas.
When I was a cub reporter at KPRC, I absolutely relied on Phil for both pronunciations of Houston streets and Texas towns, but also for his encyclopedic knowledge of history. Phil's institutional knowledge was absolutely indispensable.
Some reporters and anchors would get on a horse for a brief on-camera appearance during a trail ride -- Phil actually quietly and humbly participated in the trail ride every year. Real cowboys don't have to show off or brag. Phil is a real cowboy, though I can't believe he gave in and shaved the mustache.
Phil Archer is the real deal. He is also kind and generous. No one since the great Ron Stone, Sr. is worthy of the title The Eyes of Texas. Phil has earned that moniker one story at a time over decades."
Now Archer will spend more time with his wife Joy and look back at a fantastic career.
"I never wanted to do anything else," Archer wrote in his bio. "Working as a journeyman reporter has given me a front row seat to the major events and personalities of our time, and the chance to provide a vital public service."
Mike Capps is the play by play voice for the Round Rock Express, but you should hear about his reporter life before baseball working for KPRC 2, WFAA 8, ABC News and CNN
We are celebrating 15 year of the mikemcguff.com blog this week if you can believe that.
So to honor this anniversary, we talk to legendary journalist Mike Capps who worked his way up from KPRC 2 in the 70s, to WFAA 8 in Dallas - Fort Worth, ABC News and CNN.
All the Round Rock Express fans who now listen to Capps's play by play work, might not realize his deep history in broadcast journalism.
Mike McGuff: Take us back to the early days of your time at KPRC (please include dates when you were there). From your memory, how did the three stations rate back then?
Mike Capps: Hi Mike, thanks for the invitation and for spending time with me. I feel honored you thought of me. Ray Miller hired me out of the CBS affiliate in Beaumont, Texas to become the night police reporter in August of 1974. I spent the next six years at Channel 2, mostly under the tutelage of Miller, then Larry Weidman before a fellow named Mike Casserly took over and purged the place. I was asked to leave by Casserly almost 6 years to the day from when Miller hired me.
As much as I hated to leave, it turned out to be for the best career-wise, but the beautiful thing about all that is...we still have those friendships and camaraderie from those days at Channel 2. As a result, Lyn Salerno a former staffer, heads up Channel 2 Reunions in January of each year and we really, I am afraid to say, behave a lot like we did when we were kids. Joyous reunions they are. And so many great stories, most of which are true, always fly back and forth amongst us.
Look, Mike, in those days when you're 23 years old, and a young reporter in Texas, everyone like me already knew what a kick-ass legend Ray Miller was in that great town, at that great station...AND ANYBODY WITH ANY SPARK OR SALT WANTED TO WORK FOR HIM. When he hired me, the hiring ranks in the top three biggest thrills I had in my 22 year news career. I mean died and gone to heaven thrilled!
Legendary begins the tale of Miller. Consummate, demanding, relentless, tireless, hot tempered, fearless, but as competitive as they come, and always looking for ways to improve himself and all of us. In those days, we found ourselves in a nose to nose battle with KTRK, Channel 13 and Marvin Zindler. Back and forth and back and forth in the ratings, and talk about pressure. Wow! Every single time we beat them on a story meant bragging rights for us and vice versa. Big time rivals, BIG time! But so much fun.
Remember these years featured the Joe Campos Torres death at the hands of the police, riots at Moody Park where our Jack Cato and Phil Archer were stabbed covering violence during Cinco de Mayo, police officers and some police brass in trouble for various and sundry things. Police chases, mass murders, I ran at least two dozen drug raids with Houston Police and Harris County Sheriff's officers, discussions, sometimes heated with one of the best human beings I ever met, former Houston Police Chief Harry Caldwell, Skylab's return to earth, and a thousand other stories I was so fortunate to cover.
Great people to work around, besides Ray and Larry Weidman, like Archer, like Cato, Napoleon Johnson, Alan Parcell, Ted Shaw, Doug Johnson, Fred Edison, Paul Flannagan, the late Bob Brandon, Charley Scott, John Treadgold, Ron Stone, Larry Rasco, Bill Worrell...what a great group of top flight professionals for a young kid like me to work around. Hard to hang with the likes of those folks at first, but being with them made so much of a difference in the way my career played out, and the competition with KTRK was a huge part of the fun of being there in those days.
What was it like working for the Hobby family?
I had the good fortune to work for two of THE greatest families in the history of Texas television; the Hobby family at Channel 2, and the Dealey family that for years ran WFAA in Dallas. I thought Olveta Culp Hobby was such a dear, wonderful and supremely accomplished woman, who supremely valued journalism as witnessed by the Hobby ownership of both the Houston Post and KPRC.
There's a great story about one of my ALL TIME greatest screw ups and unfortunately...or fortunately it involves Mrs. Hobby. Early, early one summer morning a fire broke out in downtown Houston at a chemical warehouse, where Toyota Center now stands. Fire went to four alarms quickly, then got completely out of control. I was using a film camera in the days right before Channel 2 went all video cameras, and when help arrived, I raced down the Southwest Freeway to drop off film for processing for the morning newscasts. I pulled into the breezeway housing the huge trucks used for football games at the dome, parked my news car and ran inside. Was not in the station for more than ten minutes and as I came back out, someone in a big black Lincoln Continental (I believe) had hemmed me into the garage and I couldn't escape. I was probably 25 years old, with a spring loaded case of the red ass and a temper to match and at that point of the morning was adrenaline charged because of the fire, and needed to get back down to the action. I threw open the door of the station screaming something like, "Who is the______hell was so stupid they parked their_____, _____vehicle behind ME???" Mrs. Hobby stuck her head out from behind the door to the newsroom and said, "My, my Michael, are we a little upset this morning? "Well, excuse me, but it was me," she said, "and I will have the car removed so you can get on with your business." No sarcasm, not upset, not riled at me and my fit, and the next time we saw each other she laughed as she talked about it. But boy, I tell ya. When I left the place that morning and headed back to the fire, I just knew she'd get me fired..but no sir, she didn't. WHEW! No one like Mrs. Hobby. Ever.
When you worked at WFAA, it was one of the top stations in the country. Based on your website resume, it looked like you travelled to wherever the stories were (even if not in DFW that day). You also appeared to supervise a large staff. Talk about the legacy, resources and news ratings that station had.
Mike, WFAA went through years of news doldrums in the 60s and 70s because the CBS affiliate in Dallas at that time, KRLD-TV had a terrific staff led by a fellow named Eddie Barker who was a dear friend of my dad's, and along with Bill Mercer who was a reporter there, and later the original voice of the Texas Rangers and Dallas Cowboys...those two guys were great newsmen and great people and even greater friends with my dad. Their news shop was first rate, and they hired the first female anchor in Texas, I believe it was in 1967, a lady named Judy Jordan who is no longer with us, but a great reporter and news reader and a ratings hit.
BUT...WFAA's fate changed in 1973 when they hired a fellow from CBS in New York, a news manager and University of Missouri grad named Marty Haag. Haag went to work recruiting the best news people he could find, gave them beat reporting assignments just like newspapers in those days. He also, insisted to management that not only would his people cover Dallas - Ft. Worth news like a blanket, but because of WFAA's cable penetration all over Texas, into Oklahoma, Arkansas, parts of New Mexico and Louisiana, they'd compete all over the southwest and chase stories that involved people from the southwest all over the world. And that's what happened.
Haag first brought in a group of people from the CBS affiliate in Oklahoma City who had investigative reporting experience, and he hired anchors both male and female that were really first rate, and they all went to work building what turned out to be a juggernaut. George Foster Peabody and duPont-Columbia awards out the wazoo...and by the time I got there (my first day was the day Reagan was shot in DC), in early 1981, they were rolling. We'd send crews to stories all over the U.S. in Learjets, just like the networks and often beat the networks on stories we were covering alongside them.
As intense as Ray Miller was, Haag was just as intense if not more so. Reporters were required to generate their own stories from their beats. Haag created competitive tension in that shop and while some folks didn't like it, I thought it was a huge motivating tool and apparently it worked. Some pretty well known names from that shop, 22 of us in all, went to networks from WFAA. And gosh, the reputation just built from that.
After you were the first affiliate reporter to lead ABC World News Tonight on both coasts for your WFAA Hurricane Alicia coverage, how much did this play into your hiring at ABC as the Deputy Bureau Chief/Assignments Manager of its Midwest Bureau in the mid 80s?
After that Hurricane Alicia coverage, I received a phone call from Peter Jennings who was extremely laudatory about those pieces from Houston I did. And then two days after I got back, a dear fellow and then ABC VP for News, George Watson, flew to Dallas and took me to dinner. And we came close to a correspondent's deal, but for one reason or another, it never worked out.
That said, I think the real key to me going to CNN had to do with Marty Haag's relationship with a fellow named Ed Turner (no relation to Ted) who ran CNN's day to day operation at that time. Ed, had seen my work, the ABC piece on World News Tonight, and because WFAA was also carrying an affiliation with CNN then, saw me on some of the stuff I did at WFAA.
When I went to Atlanta to sign my deal with CNN, Ed mentioned the Hurricane Alicia story and wanted to tell me some details about it...but I have to be completely honest here: Had I not worked at KPRC, Channel 2 for those years as a cop beat reporter, and had I not known the streets of Houston and Galveston like the back of my hand, that report that played on ABC might never have happened. The ABC charge producer happened to see my piece being fed up to Dallas from Houston, took me aside, had me record a "Mike Capps, for ABC News, Houston," tag line and that was that. I don't think it was great reporting that sent that piece to air on ABC as much as it was the luck of having worked at Channel 2 and knowing my way around. Lucky more than good. Wow. That's the REAL story.
As far as the ratings went...television news in those days was so different from what we have now. Essentially in markets like Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, St. Louis, Minneapolis-St. Paul...you had three network affiliate news departments competing for ratings superiority. More importantly, our viewership wasn't watered down by 200 cable or internet channels running dozens and dozens of different types of programming 24 hours a day. Local news in those days carried a huge amount of import in cities across the country than it does now. People watched and talked about it...called in to complain. If people had a gripe about something, we heard about it, and sometimes while having dinner at local restaurants. I just have the feeling that local anchors especially were bigger celebrities in our day than now. Both local newspapers in Dallas-Ft. Worth had TV and radio critics and they covered all of us like a blanket and fired salvos at us whenever they disagreed with anything they saw on the air.
Here's the other thing...the ratings battle in Dallas- Fort Worth in those days was essentially WFAA leading, but early in my years there (I was in Dallas-Ft. Worth, at WFAA, off and on for 10 years), the race involved us and KDFW, formerly KRLD-TV, the CBS affiliate then (now it's FOX). They had Chip Moody as their main anchor, and folks remember him fondly from his days first at KXAS, the NBC affiliate at DFW...then with us and then to Houston. We had Tracy Rowlett, Iola Johnson and John Criswell as the main anchors...and the ratings were always close...the audience percentages were high....sometimes we'd have a 40 share and win it by two points....sometimes they'd win...and sorta like in the Houston days with channel 2 and 13...always extremely competitive. But the audience percentages were huge then given what they are now...toward the end of my run...right before I left for CNN...KXAS really became more competitive and that fact really tightened the race.
CNN was growing fast when you worked there. What was that explosive growth like as a reporter working there?
Mike, it was exciting. When CNN first got started a lot of folks in the industry used pejoratives, calling it "Chicken Noodle News," etc...but I will tell you this, I knew it was special when Ed Turner told me their mission statement on the day he hired me, and once we hit the road (first story was a tanker explosion off Galveston...another great, 'Capps lucks out deal,' because I knew all the folks in Galveston who could lead us to the right spots, to the right people, and the story became better because of it).
And then, that same year, going to Wichita, Kansas and Baton Rouge for the abortion-anti abortion battles on the capital steps in both cities...was a huge eye opener when dozens of people would come up to me the next day making comments (some printable, some not) about "CNN's coverage."
But one more exciting factor that told me CNN was there with the big boys, came on my first junket overseas covering the runup to the Gulf War. At the airport in London...CNN on all the terminal television sets. In Saudi Arabia--CNN.. Amsterdam, Paris...people coming up to me asking if I was going into or out of the war zone.
Hey, I never got in the news business for the self aggrandizement, but these people knew who I was...which told me two things. 1). They knew who I was because they were watching CNN ALL the time, and 2) That meant CNN was on people's minds all over the world.
CNN really became a big news player during the first Gulf War, talk about your experiences covering this.
Mike, I went to Saudi Arabia in November of 90 during the runup to the war called Desert Shield. We travelled all over Saudi doing stories on U.S., Saudi, and Egyptian military preparations for the war, spent nights in the desert with shave-talk Marines, some 19 years old, scared to death.
We had a run-in with the Saudi social police who tried to harass the female producer and the female photographer who was working with me. We somehow avoided an international incident after I had grabbed a social policeman, when he tried to push one of the females to the ground. He went to the ground. Flat....but I guess the Ministers of Information who accompanied us, decided we were not going to put up with such, and I never saw another one of those guys again. We covered stories about Saudi families preparing for war, small, quaint little towns getting ready, kids in schools.
Then I was mustered out in January, missed the 44 hours of the war itself, but was sent back less than two weeks after I came back to the states, to the mountains of northern Iraq, covering the plight of the Kurdish refugees who had been forced out of their homes by the Republican Guard, and onto those mountains. It was cold up there...a lot of older people and babies died...and we did stories on all of that with Medicines San Frontiers.
And then there were numerous pieces on the Kurdish Militia, the Peshmerga. These young Kurdish men, trained by the British Royal Marines, took on Republican Guard in firefights...wild and wooly. In conversations with these kids the Pesh, they'd tell us how much they valued helping freedom come back to their mountains, how they loved Americans and wanted to become Americans...some of them died, unfortunately, but all extremely brave. Then on the last day in theatre, several of us from different news organizations showed up at a northern Iraq town that supposedly had been liberated, but when we arrived on the outskirts of the town, we were stopped and turned around by Republican Guard.
Probably twenty of us...me and two others from CNN, NPR, BBC, Sky News, CBS, CBC and others...we all met up on the main road, and within minutes, two truck loads of Republican Guard, with bayoneted AKs, surrounded us, and I thought for all the world we'd be killed or taken captive. Over one of the hills came two WartHog, tank fighter jets, scared those guys away...we got in the car and hauled ass to Ankara and headed home. End of the story of the Gulf War for me....and lucky to still be alive.
Please talk about your broadcasting career for The Round Rock Express. What was it like moving from hard news to sports calling?
Mike, I suffered some extremely serious stress issues as a result of seeing people blown apart for years and it finally caught up to me.
I woke up in the middle of the night, with the bed post in my hand, and had busted my head wide open. I had suffered from stress, anger issues, etc., and needed help. If you think there's not a God in Heaven--the therapist who helped dig me out of the mental morass was a 4 tour-Vietnam side gunner on a helicopter, and licensed Presbyterian Lay Minister. We had to break it down to basics, mentally, and start all over.
In another life, I played baseball in junior college and the game never really left me. I worked as a part time scout for Red Murff, the man who discovered and signed Nolan. I helped him with tryout camps, and took assignments looking at players, when he needed me and I had time off from news. I repeatedly told him that one day I was going to shut it down in the news business and write a book with him.
After I got into therapy, I left CNN, wrote the book, The Scout: Searching for the Best in Baseball, with Red, and away we went. Promoting the book in Spring Training '96 in Arizona, we had Red on the air with Bob Starr, the late Angels broadcaster and Bob did a magnificent job working Red's interview in and out of the play by play and I swear I kept hearing a voice in my head..."you can do this, you can do this." In between innings I asked Mr. Starr, I said, "I love your work, I'm 45 years old, and I too old to get started?" His response, "you are a puppy at 45, no you are not too old."
Two phone calls later I got a job broadcasting Independent ball in Tyler, the next year I was in AAA in Nashville, the next year, 1998, I started doing fill in MLB work on ESPN and I worked in Sioux Falls, SD, '99 Independent ball again in Atlantic City, and started in Round Rock in 2000 and have been there since.
The work fits me perfectly. I dearly love the game, the players, coaches, managers and fans...and have developed tons of friends throughout the years...Have done fill in work for both the Rangers and Astros and still at my advanced age (70 on December 19, 2020) dream of that full time MLB chance.
But you know what...I still have the greatest baseball life ever. My wife Karen, 3 daughters, 1 step son, 7 grandchildren between the ages of 17-4 all love the game, love Cappy's role in the game, and along with spending time with them, taking care of two dogs, Archie and Molly and two cats, Penny and Lylah...and supporting Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Austin Sheltie Rescue, Austin Pets Alive, Austin Humane Society and RBI Austin, is what we do.
After announcing KHOU 11 departure in June, KHOU 11 news director Sally Ramirez to serve as CNBC's “The News With Shepard Smith” executive producer
KHOU 11 news director Sally Ramirez is heading to New York to be the Executive Producer of “The News With Shepard Smith” on CNBC which premieres Wednesday, September 30th at 6pm CT (official release here).
Earlier this summer, I broke the news that Ramirez and her husband/KHOU anchor, Russ Lewis, were leaving Houston and the TEGNA owned station after four and a half years.
"When I announced back in June that I was leaving KHOU and looking for my next challenge, I was flattered by all the opportunities that presented themselves," Ramirez told mikemcguff.com. "I chose this one because I couldn’t resist a chance to build something brand new at the network level."
This is the first time I can think of a Houston TV news manager at any local station leaving for a network job. If there is one I don't know about or am just not remembering, I know you will correct me! :)
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UPDATE
See, I told you someone would know. Larry Weidman, who succeeded Ray Miller as KPRC 2's news director, left for NBC News in 1980 spending 25 years there, as Bureau Chief in Houston, Tel Aviv and Rome and Producer/Correspondent in the Dallas Bureau.
He adds that KHOU 11 news director Alan Parcell left for CBS New York. Weidman adds that Parcell worked as a KPRC 2 reporter in the 1970s and was one of the first live shots with the fabled Big 2 Instant News Camera.
KTRK abc13 senior manager David Glodt left for ABC News New York.
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Before you start contacting me, Sure I realize that many on-air talent have left KHOU for the national level. Of course Dan Rather left for CBS in the 1960s.
In my interactions with her, Ramirez has said she will always be a newscast producer at heart - her first job in the broadcasting business. By joining CNBC and Smith, she will be able to still flex those muscles in the ultimate role for a television journalist.
"I’m honored to be a part of the CNBC team that will launch the first general news program in the network’s history – especially with a well-respected veteran journalist like Shepard Smith leading the way," Ramirez told me. "This is the perfect job for me. It combines my passion for producing, my creativity and my decades of experience covering big stories."
What you might not realize is that Ramirez and Lewis actually met each other at their first TV job. Ramirez left Chicago to start her television news career as a producer at KTSM El Paso. Lewis was already there as a reporter. Somehow since then, they actually managed to work together, find jobs in the same market for the most part and actually remain married! Trust me, TV news romance stories are rare and mostly ephemeral.
The TV couple raised two daughters who are now attending college in Oregon.
And speaking of Oregon, that is where Lewis announced he is going after he leaves Houston. Lewis says he will be working in his family's businesses which is developing properties.
This will enable him to split his time between Oregon and New York City with Ramirez.
Ramirez's last day at KHOU will be August 28th. Turns out that Lewis's last day of his contract ends the same day.
In the memo that Ramirez sent to the KHOU newsroom announcing her new CNBC position, which was obtained by mikemcguff.com, Ramirez told her loyal staff that she was comfortable leaving KHOU right now because the newsroom was the strongest it had been in years. She urged her staff to take their competitive advantage and keep the ratings success momentum and keep it going.
Here is the full memo:
I want to share some news about my next move!
I have accepted a job at CNBC, as the Executive Producer of “The News with Shepard Smith”.
I am VERY excited to help launch this new, primetime network newscast.
The show debuts at the end of September, which means I need to get to New York ASAP.
My last day at KHOU will be this Friday, August 28th.
When NBC called me recently about this opportunity, I quickly learned a lot of people know KHOU’s story.
They know the great, award-winning work we produce.
They know we are a resilient newsroom.
They know no one covers breaking news better than we do.
I am counting on you guys to continue to build on our legacy.
I want each of you to know how much my 4 ½ years here at KHOU have meant to me – professionally and personally.
You were my family before my family arrived in Houston.
Together we rebuilt KHOU- literally and figuratively.
We’ve worked side-by-side covering some of the biggest stories of our careers and we did it under less than ideal conditions.
I will NEVER forget those challenging times.
As difficult as they were, we not only survived, we thrived. We came out stronger!
When COVID hit, we were already battle tested, and it shows.
I am comfortable leaving KHOU right now, because the newsroom is the strongest it’s been in years!
We are competitive again. We have momentum. We are seeing ratings success.
DO NOT LET COVID OR ANYTHING ELSE KEEP YOU FROM BUILDING ON THAT MOMENTUM!
We’ve worked too hard to get here.
THANK YOU for allowing to be your team leader.
It’s been an honor, a privilege and I’ve had a BLAST!
