Legendary Houston reporter Doug Miller leaving KHOU 11 after more than two decades at the station
Doug Miller
Whenever I tweet a story from KHOU 11's website, it always seems the byline belongs to reporter Doug Miller. That's no accident considering Doug Miller has been one of Houston's finest reporters for 23 years at the CBS affiliate.
After two decades, Miller is leaving.
"Now I know how Biggio felt during his last game," Miller told mikemcguff.com. "That television station on Allen Parkway has been very, very good to me. I was lucky enough to help build one of the nation's most respected local television newsrooms and that'll be in my DNA until the day I die."
While he says he is not retiring, he is taking that TEGNA buyout offer I blogged about several months ago (I hear several of the station's photographers will most likely follow him out the door).
The former Jeopardy! contestant has worked as a police reporter all the way to a newspaper editor during his decades in the Houston news trenches.
At age 16, Miller hosted a "Watergate-era" telephone talk show in El Paso. That led him to the University of Houston, where Miller lived in the dorm down the hall from CBS Sports broadcaster Jim Nantz and prof golfer Fred Couples.
His journalism career continued and led him to the newsrooms of 740 KTRH, United Press International's Houston bureau and the Houston Business Journal. After he rose to the role of managing editor of the HBJ, Miller started filing daily business reports for channel 11's morning newscast. Those appearances led Miller to become a full-time reporter with the station in 1993.
During his KHOU time, Miller has worked as the station's Washington bureau chief where he covered the White House, Capitol Hill and various presidential campaigns. In 2007, Miller traded the streets for a desk in the KHOU newsroom when he was promoted to executive editor. But the call of the streets were too strong. About four years later, Miller returned to reporting.
"One of the moments I'll never forget was waking up in the middle of the night during Tropical Storm Allison and turning in the TV to see our newsroom was flooding," Miller recalled to me. "I knew my car would never make it through the streets. so I started walking to the station. As luck would have it, Jeff McShan happened to drive by in a live truck and picked me up."
I'm sure there are a lot of employers in the Bayou City who will jump at a chance to snatch up Miller, but in the meantime, I bet he will enjoy a lot of time at Minute Maid Park watching his Houston Astros.
"I've got a closet full of rain gear decorated with old KHOU logos," Miller added. "If they need me in a pinch, God help me, I'd probably still meet the live truck halfway."
There will be a retirement party for Miller next week. He says he will be reporting for the station a couple of more weeks.
* This post has been updated with Doug Miller's response about leaving KHOU 11
KHOU 11's Doug Miller is a big name in Houston. He's been with the station since 1993 after all. Now Miller is back on air at KHOU as a reporter.
Now you are saying to yourself, he's been gone?
Yes, what you might not have realized is Miller has been basically off air for almost five years (although I remember seeing him back for political coverage over the last years). In July of 2007 Miller received a promotion which gave him the Executive Editor title and removed him from reporting on the mean streets of Houston.
"I'm happy to say I'm back on the streets chasing news," Miller told mikemcguff.com. "I couldn't stand sitting in the newsroom all day. I gave up the fancy executive title and started reporting again about a month ago."
There is no bio or photo of Miller up on the KHOU website yet to tip me off about his triumphant TV return, but I started seeing a lot of his bylines on the site all of a sudden so I started asking questions.
According to an old bio that I had to dive into the depths of the Internet to find, Miller has worked as everything from a police reporter to a newspaper editor during his decades of news service in Houston. Breaking into the broadcast biz at age 16, Miller hosted a "Watergate-era" telephone talk show in El Paso. Next it was off to the University of Houston where he reported for several Houston news organizations including 740 KTRH, United Press International's Houston bureau and the Houston Business Journal.
It was as the managing editor of the Houston Business Journal that Miller hit the airwaves of channel 11 doing daily business reports during KHOU's morning newscasts. Guess the bosses were impressed because Miller joined KHOU as a full-time reporter in 1993. He even worked at KHOU's Washington bureau chief where he covered the White House, Capitol Hill and various presidential campaigns.
Just to show that Miller has brains behind those TV ready looks, in 1985 he became the first contestant selected from Houston to appear on the syndicated version of Jeopardy! During four days on the quiz show, he won $16,000. Think about it, that could still be a full year's salary for a small market TV reporter.
This is just the latest change I have been chronicling at KHOU 11...when they will stop...nobody knows.
Former KHOU 11 reporter Doug Miller returns to his old TV gig to help out during Hurricane Harvey coverage
Houston is filled with talented former TV news staffers who have left the news business, but feel compelled to help out once a major hurricane threatens our area.
Case in point, former chief meteorologist Dr. Neil Frank usually returns to KHOU 11 when the Gulf threatens.
And speaking of channel 11, you might have noticed another familiar face returning to the TEGNA station.
"It would have been weird, sitting at home watching after chasing hurricanes all of these years," Miller told mikemcguff.com. "I feel like a retired firefighter watching a building burn...hand me a hose."
No doubt Miller has years of experience and know how on how to cover a Houston-area storm.
Last year, when he took a buyout from the station, Miller told me he was willing to return if/when needed.
"I've got a closet full of rain gear decorated with old KHOU logos," Miller told me in 2016. "If they need me in a pinch, God help me, I'd probably still meet the live truck halfway."
In fact, Miller's outstanding weather reporting lasted all the way till his final days with the station.
If you know Miller personally, then you will know the depths he is willing to go to get the story.
"One of the moments I'll never forget was waking up in the middle of the night during Tropical Storm Allison and turning in the TV to see our newsroom was flooding," Miller recalled to me. "I knew my car would never make it through the streets. so I started walking to the station. As luck would have it, Jeff McShan happened to drive by in a live truck and picked me up."
So what has Miller been up to in his post TV life?
He is now a member of the Houston Chronicle editorial board.
UPDATE
Former KPRC 2 reporter Brendan Keefe, who is now the Chief Investigative Reporter at WXIA Atlanta, tells me he is returning to Houston to help out TEGNA sister station KHOU.
Doug Miller, a member of the Houston Chronicle editorial board and a longtime reporter and manager for KHOU-TV, has been appointed director of news and media relations in Rice University’s Office of Public Affairs, effective Aug. 8.
He succeeds B.J. Almond, who retired Aug. 3.
"Doug Miller's writing and editing skills and decades of experience in print and broadcast journalism will be valuable assets to our news and media relations team," said Vice President for Public Affairs Linda Thrane. "Doug knows Houston and his journalism experience and expertise will help us strengthen our efforts to share news about Rice University with the world."
Miller will oversee the team that issues news releases, expert alerts and media advisories, responds to media queries and produces Rice News, Dateline Rice and @Rice. He will also serve as a member of the Crisis Management Team and assist with emergency notifications to students, staff and faculty.
"Rice University is one of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the nation, so I'm honored just walking onto the campus knowing I now belong here," Miller said. "After more than 30 years in the news business, I feel like I just grabbed a brass ring."
Miller joined the Chronicle's editorial board in 2016 and has served as a public policy adviser and writer covering positions and candidates endorsed by the newspaper. He has written editorials on local, state and national issues.
Prior to the Chronicle, he spent nearly 25 years at CBS affiliate KHOU, where he won four Emmys and two Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in broadcast journalism. He served as a senior reporter, executive editor and chief of the Washington bureau between 1993 and 2016. He led a staff of 20 broadcast reporters and he specialized in politics and government reporting,
At KHOU, in addition to supervising political polling and election coverage, he organized partnerships with academic institutions and worked on political surveys with Rice political scientist Bob Stein. He also collaborated with Rice sociologist Stephen Klineberg to produce television reports based on the Kinder Houston Area Survey. Miller served as a panelist and organizer of live televised debates between candidates for U.S. president, Congress, Texas governor and Houston mayor. He covered the White House, Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court during his tenure as Washington bureau chief.
Miller's journalism experience also includes serving as managing editor of the Houston Business Journal from 1985 to 1993 and as a news reporter, news anchor and talk show host for KTRH-AM from 1980 to 1985. He has been a traffic reporter for Houston Traffic Central, a news anchor for KULF-AM in Houston and for KROD-AM in El Paso, Texas, and a talk show host for KISO-FM, also in El Paso.
Miller is a founding member of the Texas chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences..
A native of Fredericktown, Mo., Miller has a B.A. in history from the University of Houston. His interests include bird-watching, photography, bicycling and marathon running. He was the first Houstonian to appear on the syndicated version of "Jeopardy!" and won $16,000 during his three-day appearance on the game show in 1985.
(This post taken from a release sent to me by Rice University)
Hey look! It's former KHOU 11 reporter and Executive Editor Doug Miller on abc13 KTRK talking about his Jeopardy! appearance! Checkout the EMMY bling behind him!
Fox 26 KRIV family and others show up to say goodbye to Charlotte bound Ned Hibberd
It was announced that Fox 26 KRIV repoter Ned Hibberd is leaving Houston for WJZY-WMYT Fox Charlotte.
Friday night, the Houston media and others showed up for his goodbye party, thrown by Bob Martin aka "The Accountant to the Stars," at Arturo’s Uptown Italiano in Houston and mikemcguff.com was there to cover it.
KHOU 11's Doug Miller, who as you first read here is soon retiring, reported from Greenspoint area apartments where the water was at the one of the highest levels in the city.
Miller, along with photographer Sergio Soto, traversed tough conditions to be one of the first TV crews on the scene at the badly flooded apartments. I understand they were the only ones reporting in the area for hours from the bridge next to the complex.
"When we started reporting that story, there were so few people out there we ended up helping pull people out of boats onto the bridge," Miller told mikemcguff.com. "We even had kids floating out in refrigerators and laundry baskets."
"As the day progressed, people who saw our coverage started showing up with more boats and skiffs and canoes," Miller told me. "By the time the mayor got there, there must have been more than a hundred people there helping out."
Miller's work did not go unnoticed by those who were watching the TEGNA station.
"It was a picture of people helping people," KHOU 11 viewer Wanda Stewart wrote to mikemcguff.com. "And a concerned reporter stepping in [to] give some direction to people needing help."
After 14 hours on the bridge, Miller and Soto were relieved by another KHOU crew. Such is the life of members of the media during a tragedy like this one. But always remember, the TV crews get to go home eventually, and sometimes the victims they cover never get that chance.
Houston Community College director of public relations for the Southwest College, Todd Duplantis (former FOX 26 KRIV reporter and Channel 5 video host) interviews former KHOU 11/740 KTRH reporter Doug Miller (now Director of News and Media Relations at Rice University) about his time in TV news, how it has changed and some of his biggest stories!
KHOU 11 weekend meteorologist Mario Gomez and other station staffers apparently taking TEGNA buyout
Mario Gomez
KHOU 11 anchor Shern-Min Chow broke the news about more station staffers apparently taking the TEGNA buyout. By now you know about reporter Doug Miller, but now we learn weekend meteorologist Mario Gomez and others are on the list too.
Farewell salute to 7 KHOU staffers, (l to r) Mario Gomez KHOU, Sports photographer George Jensen (Alice C Jensen), Master control operator Gary Makowsky, (not retiring! MC Greg Hurst KHOU) Chief photographer Tony Delgado, Assignment Editor Bill Langlois, (not retiring! GM Susan McEldoon) political reporter Doug Miller, and Photographer Gustavo Pereyra. They leave with 240 years combined experience. You are looking at News History.
Main anchor Greg Hurst is in the below photo, but Chow points out he was just hosting this send off event. KHOU 11 General Manager Susan McEldoon is also not retiring, but pictured according to Chow.
I've always enjoyed watching Gomez deliver the weather.
He has a nice and calming presence that is becoming a rare commodity in a business that seems to more and more embrace dramatic deliveries. That's a plus in a place like Houston where the weather can turn against us in a moment's notice (Remember earlier this week?). Gomez could always deftly navigate us through the bad stuff without freaking television viewers out.
According to his bio, the San Antonio native has lived in Houston since 1984. Other than that, we only get a glimpse of his past. His bio for many years has read:
Gomez graduated with a degree in meteorology from the University of Colorado. He served as an air weather officer in the United States Air Force and worked for the National Weather Service in Denver, Colorado. Gomez is a member of the American Meteorological Association and the National Weather Association. He maintains Television Seals of Approval in both organizations.
He is the father of three and participates in many of Houston's charitable events. Gomez served as host of the first annual Houston SPCA telethon in 1995 which raised more than $100,000.
I've never personally met Gomez, but I imagine this is a low key bio for a low key guy. We'll miss you Mario.
I reached out to Gomez earlier. If/when he gets back to me, I'll post his responses here.
Sources tell me that longtime KHOU employees are being offered voluntary buyouts by parent company TEGNA.
That means we might see large groups of folks leaving the Houston CBS affiliate including familiar on air faces.
From what I hear, offers have gone out based on age (55) and years worked at the station (15 years). Those who take the offer could get a certain payment for each year of service.
As you might imagine some employees are excited about the offer, others concerned.
We'll see who starts leaving within the next month or so.
Other Houston stations have had the same type of offers for employees in the past.
Wednesday night at the famed Houston Media Round table meeting in Midtown, former 740 KTRH news anchors Lana Hughes and J.P. Pritchard reunited once again. This time, it was to be honored by former KTRH colleagues and others, "for a salute to their distinguished and sleep-deprived careers."
The Round table folks note that after 27 years together, when Lana and JP started together on the air, Ronald Reagan was president, Kathy Whitmire was mayor, Houston was still covered by two daily newspapers and we actually had professional baseball team (insert rim shot).
Some of those who turned out to honor the broadcasting legends were Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Houston Mayor Annise Parker, Paul Bettencourt, Bill King, Lanny Griffith, Sue Davis, Doug Miller, Tracee Evans, Tim Fleck and Janice Evans.
This after the two were replaced on 740 KTRH by new host Matt Patrick in late June. The station has since dropped the News Radio moniker and is known as a News/Talk station.
If and when Lana and J.P. resurface on Houston radio, I will let you know where.
Sue Davis, Janice Evans, Tracee Evans, Tim Fleck, Lana Hughes, Doug Miller, Lanny Griffith and J.P. Pritchard. (Photos courtesy of Round table regular Bob Martin aka "The Accountant to the Stars")
When former KHOU 11/KPRC 2 anchor Steve Smith was honored at the 12th annual Lone Star Emmy Awards with the Silver Circle Award this year, it was hard to see his tribute video at the beginning of the webcast.
Fortunately I have obtained the video which was produced/edited by KHOU staffers Nathan Kvinge and Doug Miller (video above).
In the video, there are appearances by KTRK abc13's Dave Ward, KPRC 2's Bill Balleza, KHOU 11's Neil Frank and former KHOU sportscaster and Lt. Governor-Elect Dan Patrick.
"2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the two smartest decisions I ever made - marrying my wife, Vicki, and accepting the late, great Ray Miller’s offer of a job at Channel 2," Smith told mikemcguff.com. "Bob Schieffer had turned him down for the same job a week or two earlier. This award is sort of like the icing and the candle on the cake. Houston was better to us than we ever deserved over the years, and the Lone Star Emmy Organization’s award continues and reinforces that trend."
Smith retired from KHOU and the TV news world in May 1999. These days you might spot him in TV commercials and hear his voice at places like Moody Gardens.
"These days, I still work a little, volunteer my voice and presence when asked, fish when I can, devour books on my Kindle, travel a bit, and, with the help of the good doctors in our great medical center, try to fight off the encroachment of age," Smith said.
John "Rucks" Russell, former KHOU 11 reporter, has died at the age of 55.
Former KHOU 11 reporter Doug Miller received the news from Russell's wife this afternoon.
On his personal Facebook profile, Miller posted a nice tribute for Russell and gave me permission to re-post it here on my blog:
"Heartbreaking news about a fine former Houston television reporter. Rucks Russell has died. His wife says he died of COVID, which he contracted while caring for his brother who had also contracted the virus.
Here's the kind of man Rucks was: His real name was John, but he decided to adopt his mother's maiden name as his air name. So every time his mother saw that handsome face on television, she heard her son honoring her by saying her name.
He was a conspicuously decent man and a exemplar of rectitude, and he has left this world much too soon."
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.
Top row: Jay Jones, Gary Stone, Mat “The Mighty Quinn” and Lance Zierlein. Middle row: Paul Gleiser and John Granato. Front row: Jud Ashmore, Val Wilson, Mary Lanoue, Melanie Miller, Terri Thomas, and “Big Frank” Franklin (Photo credit: Bachman-Hand)
The Texas Radio Hall of Fame (TRHOF) inducted its new batch of members at the Texas Broadcast Museum in Kilgore the first weekend of November 2024.
The Friday night before the big induction ceremony, the radio greats were treated to a special screening of my 101 KLOL documentary "Runaway Radio!" On stage for a terrific doc Q&A were 2024 inductee Jay Jones (former KLOL owner), members Dayna Steele and Doug Harris, and me, your favorite media blogger/director.
Fun fact, some "Runaway Radio" scenes were shot at the Texas Broadcast Museum so it was super cool to actually show the film there! If you love broadcasting, the museum is worth the drive!
On Saturday, Hall of Famer Scott Arthur kicked off the ceremony with the induction of San Antonio's Jud Ashmore, who had just celebrated his 100th birthday.
Hall of Famer Steele returned to the stage to welcome Mary McCoy, holder of the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest career as a female radio personality (72 years!), and nine-year-old Mary Ella Woodstock, host of KIDZ STAR Radio on DFW's KNON-NOW.
Texas Association of Broadcasters president Oscar Rodriguez provided a legislative update, and THROF Executive Director Josh Holstead touted the organization's scholarship program.
TRHOF Executive Director Doug Harris noted that the Induction ceremony was sold out for the third consecutive year. As a result, the event will again be held in Kilgore on November 7-8, 2025.
A complete list of the TRHOF's Class of 2024:
Jud Ashmore - WOAI, KENS, KBUC San Antonio
Jay Britt - KBZB Odessa and KILT FM100 Houston
Raoul Cortez - Founded KCOR San Antonio, the first full-time Spanish-language radio station in the contiguous United States
“Big Frank” Franklin - K-99 Corpus Christi and 98-1 KVET Austin
Paul Gleiser - owner of 600 KTBB-AM and 97.5 KTBB-FM and "92.1 The Team" KRWR Tyler-Longview
Charlie Parker - WOAI San Antonio morning host and KCCW, KLLS, KKYX, KRIO, KTSA
John Roberts - Classic Rock 96.1 KKTX Kilgore
Clifton “King Bee” Smith - KCOH Houston.
Gary B. Stone - President Chief Operating Officer with 40 years of Broadcast experience. 30 years of Spanish media experience, 25 years with Univision Radio.
Terri Thomas - Former Director of Operations/Programming for 97.9 THE BOX KBXX, MAJIC 102.1 KMJQ
Harvey “Harvey T” Thompson - 95.7 KIKK Houston
Jerry Trupiano - Houston sports play-by-play announcer
Val Wilson - Radio One "Sunday Morning Live," KTSU2 and Texas Southern University - School of Communication Adjunct Professor - Radio, Television, Film Department
Following Saturday's induction ceremony, a reception for inductees and their families was held at the restored Post Office, operated by the Kilgore Historical and Preservation Society.
Former KHOU 11 anchor Steve Smith's guest mikemcguff.com post
1968 election night at KPRC with the late Ray Miller (News Director), the late Larry Rasco (Anchor), Steve Smith and Scene at 5 producer Bill Springer (courtesy Steve Smith).
Former KHOU 11 anchor Steve Smith wrote mikemcguff.com a guest post about the KPRC 2 newscast "The Scene at 5." This after I linked to a video clip of the show's re-birth on 4/4/1988 with Ron Stone and Doug Johnson. Hey look, that was 25 years ago today.
Steve Smith - 20 years ago
Smith is here to tell us about the original "Scene at 5" on channel 2 he created and anchored back in the late 1960s. I am honored to bring you Steve Smith to this blog:
"The Scene at 5 on Channel 2 started in either 1968 or 1969 (the memory goes first) when local TV talk personality Chris Chandler left KPRC to do other things.
Longtime Channel 2 News Director and Southwest TV News legend Ray Miller and Channel 2 GM Jack Harris gave that 5 PM half hour to yours truly, and told me to do something with it. I was already anchoring the 10 PM news at that point. The concept was ours...that is, mine, along with ace producers Bill Springer and Elsa Ransom, and later, director Bruce Bryant.
Steve Smith - current
We wanted to keep it light, with little hard news, and always wanted to include a little weather (and other business) chat with weatherman Doug Johnson at the end. I did the show for approximately five years before following the money and moving to an anchor job at KDKA TV in Pittsburgh in December, 1973."
Thanks Steve! Anchor Ron Stone took over the show at that point.
Houston TV news watchers will know Smith returned to Houston in 1976. He served as the main anchor of KHOU 11 for 23 years and retired 14 years ago this coming May. That's when current anchor, Greg Hurst, took over.
Smith still does voice work and writing through his company Anchor Communications, with some fishing and travelling mixed in. A Smith voice over that made news recently was his work in Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom.
Longtime abc13 KTRK reporter Kevin Quinn signs off, announces new roles as full-time spokesperson with the Constable for Precinct 1 in Harris County, Alan Rosen and media liaison for Houston Crime Stoppers
Jennifer Rosen, Harris County Pct. 1 Constable Alan Rosen, Kevin and Elizabeth Quinn
Back in March when he announced his resignation, lots of my readers were shocked reporter Kevin Quinn was leaving the abc13 KTRK airwaves after covering the news at the Disney–ABC Television Group owned stations since 2003.
Last Friday was his official last day.
And the mikemcguff.com roving camera sneaked into his Quinn's goodbye party Saturday night which was thrown by colleague Miya Shay at Union Kitchen on Washington Avenue.
"I have accepted a full-time position as a spokesperson with the Constable for Precinct 1 in Harris County, Alan Rosen," Kevin announced. "I’ll also be working some as a media liaison for Houston Crime Stoppers. I’m excited about these new challenges and I look forward to what’s to come."
As you will see in the photos, Constable Rosen was at the party and spoke very highly of Quinn.
Clearly Quinn will be missed in the TV newsrooms. Lots of people from all sides of the camera and from various stations showed up to say goodbye.
But don't worry, he'll still be dealing with the media, just in a new role!
Kevin and Elizabeth Quinn
Kevin Quinn and Mary Benton
Blanca Beltran, Casey Curry, Miya Shay
Casey Curry, Elizabeth Quinn, Carl Hahn
Kevin Quinn and Elissa Rivas
Mike and Trace Menchaca with Jennifer and Wayne Dolcefino
Denise Davis and Doug Miller
Jonathan Chastain, Jerry Nunez, Chris Stipes
Mike Glenn and Mike McGuff (Photo credit: Natasha Barrett)
(Texas radio stations and cities represent a partial list of where each worked)
Scott Arthur KEYH/KQUE/KIKK Houston
Bill Bailey KIKK/KTEM/KELP Houston
Randy Brown (Christopher Haze) KNUS/KFJZ/KRLD Dallas-Fort Worth
"The Dudley and Bob Show" Dale Dudley/Bob Fonseca KLBJ-FM Austin
Cathy Forsythe (Deceased) KTRH/KACC/KILT-FM Houston
Harold Gunn KILT/KNUZ/KPRC Houston
Lana Hughes and J.P. Pritchard KTRH-AM Morning News Team Houston
Larry Kane KXYZ/KLBS/KNUZ (Deceased) Houston
TM Productions Tom Merriman Dallas-Fort Worth
Dr. Bruce Nelson KNUZ/KFTX/KENR Houston/Corpus Christi
Paul Ray KUT-FM Austin Colonel St. James KILT/KLOL/KKRW Houston
Chuck Scott KIKK/KRBE/KNUZ Houston
Thompson Creative - Susan Price Thompson and Larry Thompson Dallas-Fort Worth
More from a KTRH news release on Lana Hughes and J.P. Pritchard KTRH-AM Morning News Team:
KTRH’s Lana Hughes and JP Pritchard have been inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. They are among the stars of the 2009 class, and they join the ranks of The Big Bopper, Dan Rather, Wolfman Jack, Bob Schieffer, and Walter Cronkite. The Texas Radio Hall of Fame recognizes and honors excellence in radio broadcasting.
Having just celebrated 25 years as the morning news duo in May, this is a big honor for the pair. They are believed to be the longest-serving radio news team in America.
KTRH is the heritage news radio station in Texas, having been a part-time home to Walter Cronkite, as well as the starting point for Dan Rather, Wayne Dolcefino, Doug Miller, Stephen Dean, Robert Arnold, Jim Nantz, Ed Brandon, and many more.
Through it all, “Lana and JP” have been the staple of the morning radio landscape in Houston. They are currently enjoying very high ratings, as good as ever. “Lana and JP are as good as they’ve ever been, and they get better every day,” said Houston market manager Eddie Martiny. “They’re just now starting to hit their stride. We think they have at least 25 more great years to inform and entertain Houstonians.”
The part that can be compared to a social club is the part where, after the information has been passed on to the masses, everyone gathers over drinks or food or poker chips to compare stories and curse the collective tyranny of big city media management.“(My boss said I could cover the Super Bowl, but I’d have to buy my own ticket!”“Well I worked on a story all day and it got killed for a police chase.)”
I bring this up because for the past few weeks, as I neared the date of my departure, I spent lots to time talking about the great people I’ve worked with for over 30 years at KTRK-TV.I’m asked “what’s Dave Ward really like?” or “Does Tom Koch ever sleep?”But, no-one asks about folks I’ve known and respected on other channels.
Consider for a moment:If you watch a live report from the newsroom of any local station, all of the television sets in the background will show programs from that station or its affiliated networks.It’s a rule you do not break.If Andy Cerota(13) were to appear at a desk in the newsroom with Dominique Sachse (2) on a screen behind him, someone would get yelled at.But, the truth is every station watches every other station every day all day long.Just because none of those screens behind Bill BallezashowsIsaih Carey, don’t assume that Channel 2 is not watching Channel 26. And 11 is watching 2. 13 is watching 26. 26 is watching 39, etc.Over the years, at home and at work, I’ve seen some great people on the screens of other stations.
Some of them are people I worked with at 13 who, for various reasons, went “across the street”.That’s broadcast jargon for “went to work for a competitor.”Alan Hembergerand Frank Billingsley are two prime examples.When I am with either of them we pick up where we left off on a conversation that started years ago when we worked together.Shern-Min Chow, Jeff McShan, Deborah Duncan, Vicente Arenas and others who helped make Channel 13 a powerhouse went across the street to Channel 11.There are others.People I’ve never worked with but I consider “colleagues.”
I’ve watched Phil Archer, Doug Miller, Randy Wallace, Mary Bentonand dozens of others so many times that, even though I rarely see them in person, they still seem like close friends.That sensation is even greater when it involves weather people from other stations.I can swap stories with Dr. Frank, Cecilia Sinclair and Mario Gomezabout negative feedback after a blown weekend forecast.Mike Iscovitz and David Paul and I share the experience of being asked about the weather wherever we go.It’s something weather people can relate to.
The fraternity extends well beyond Houston.While at 13 I met Geraldo Rivera, Jerry Springer and Hillary Duff.(Actually, they still seem like strangers). Charlie Gibson was pretty down to earth. Like anyone who was fortunate enough to meet Peter Jennings, I will never forget him.
Maybe if I’d stayed longer, I’d have met Bruce Tonioli.Or, my favorite network reporter, Miguel Marquez, who covered fires and trials from LA for CNN and is now at ABC.Maybe.Someday.
