I thought Id take a few minutes to write about HOW I got to Bakersfield & KERO-TV23. It was late 1977, I was just finishing up my degree at SDSU and my academic counselor Dr. Jim Buckalew asked me to see him in his office. He told me, I know you want to work in radio, but a television news director in Bakersfield just called to say he was searching for a rookie to join his staff as a reporter. Would you consider talking to him and setting up a visit? I said, Sure, why not? So, I arranged to travel by air from SD through LA and on to Bakersfield on the morning of Tuesday December 20, 1977. Well, as it turned out, the Great Bakersfield Dust Storm kicked up the night before. By the time my United Airlines commuter plane made it north of the Grapevine, the pilot told us it would be impossible to land at Meadows Field. So, we eventually made it to Fresno. I called the station to tell ND Steve Talbot I wasnt going to make it as scheduled. He said I could wait until Wednesday. So they bused us on down to Bakersfield. I finally got there mid-afternoon only to find the city pretty much paralyzed. Eventually, I found a hotel with an available room, walked down to the old Sinaloa Mexican Restaurant for some food and settled in for the night. In the morning, Wednesday December 21, I called Steve and he said that it was so hectic there that he didnt have time to interview me, BUT that if I wanted to come in and help out, I could. So I did. He put me to work as a reporter, something Id never done before, and we managed to shoot and edit a report that ended up being the lead story on the 6 PM news that evening. Not surprisingly, he offered me a full time position before I left town. I accepted. I thought I had struck it rich! $12,000 a year!
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 14:45:13 +0000
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