The parent station of a combine that included several other radio and t.v. stations in other markets was KFYR.
I had worked my way up in the news department to where in 1967, I was an anchorman, the news director, a reporter, photographer and film editor.
News departments in the Dakotas were a lot smaller in those days.
At some point we decided to incorporate a nightly poll in our news coverage.
It became known as TVQ, Tonight's Viewer Question.
As I recall, we announced the question on the 6 p.m. news and the results of the call-in poll on the 10 p.m. news.
It wasn't real scientific but the above results proved that North Dakota voters apparently knew what they were talking about.
It was posed sometime in 1967.
In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson was nearly defeated in the New Hampshire primary by Senator Eugene McCarthy.
A few days later Senator Robert Kennedy entered the race.
There was also the segregationist governor of Alabama, George Wallace, in the mix.
Faced with massive voter discontent over the Vietnam War, Johnson saw no way that he could win.
Coupled with his concerns about his failing health, he shocked the nation when announced at the end of a televised speech on March 31st of 1968 that "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president."
After the assassination of Kennedy, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey won the nomination and was defeated by Richard Nixon in the general election.
Whenever I look back at some of those days I realize that I have lived through some historic times.
Yes you have.
ReplyDeleteSteve
You know old buddy, we not only lived through, but had a front line or front row seat during times of epic upheaval, change and other stuff that was news. Now history.
ReplyDeleteProving that unscientific polls can still be prescient. We've all started out in one-man band news departments. You have the pictures to prove it.
ReplyDeleteJust did this, alas it was erased. Trying again.
ReplyDeleteYes, you and your colleague's like Tom have been a witness to our last century, at least the last half. You saw things from a viewpoint that none of us had, for the most part. Your pictures are fascinating and interesting to me, not seen before.
We out there, the soldiers in the bush in Vietnam, the soldiers in the marches in Chicago, Kent State and Jackson State have their witnesses too.
How can we combine these? We have a narrative, a actual record, of what we did and what we said. You the press, and those you were observing.
In a recent post, Geo "Trainride Of the Enigmas", asked "what is history?"
You, Bruce and Tom, and others are a partial answer. Without you guys continuing to provide your insight, is some form, here or on the forgotten written way, it's lost.
And you and I ain't gettin' younger, friend.
Did you have to wash the bottles also?
ReplyDeleteI liked Humphrey, I may have voted for him, don't remember. Probably not...should have.
Nice post.
And you still are living through them!
ReplyDeleteThat's cool. From what I've read, that 12 months was one of the most eventful in American history. Nobody could have known at that point in 1967, though.
ReplyDeleteAnd historic times continue. I think many people were shocked LBJ, whose stock is rising these days, decided not to seek another term.
ReplyDelete