When I was a young kid of
Submitted by TALPDX on Sat, 04/26/2008 - 1:16am.

When I was a young kid of around 10 or so, I can remember pretending to be Roger Mudd doing the news from the living room of my family home. With my tape recorder, microphone and script, I’d do my nightly news broadcast.

The biggest day of my lackluster college career was meeting CNN Headline News anchor Chuck Roberts. I was at the CNN Center in Atlanta with a friend when I saw all 5’ 6” of him come out of the CNN studios. I walked up to him and told him I wanted his job. He laughed and offered to give my friend and me a tour of the CNN studio the following Monday. So my friend David and I returned that Monday and for about an hour, Chuck Roberts showed us around the CNN studios. It was wonderful. While I was there, I saw former KGW anchor Ralph Wange. It was quite an experience. For the record, I should note that Chuck Roberts has one of the foulest mouths I’ve ever heard. LOL.

I’ve had the opportunity to visit all but two of the TV stations in Portland, those being KPTV and KPDX. What struck me is lack of size of the news sets. Television makes everything seem so large. I visited KOIN a few times and had the opportunity to meet one of Portland’s premier anchors Mike Donahue. I was taken by his absolute modesty.

My KATU visit was made possible because a friend from high school was interning their while a student in college. We watched the 5pm news with Jeff Gianola and Julie Emry from the control room. What I most remember is my friend telling me of a party she attended hosted by Jeff Gianola at his home that summer. Lots of people, lots to drink.

My trip to KGW was made possible because I was a contestant on “On the Spot” with Larry Blackmar, Tracy Barry’s husband. I saw Pete Schulberg for about 2 seconds following the conclusion of the 5pm news. Plus I saw the KGW News 8 set. It was tiny. Oh, I came in third place. But I won some very nice consolation prizes, even had to pay federal income taxes on them.

Given that I grew up in the area, I should have landed at KPTV at least once. In my house, Ramblin’ Rod was required viewing before we left for school. I knew several people who appeared on his morning show, none though smile winners.

Anyway, happy birthday to your daughter and may she secure gainful employment at KPTV.

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