TV News....Surely Half Vast

This is a picture of me back in the days in the late 60's and early 70's when I was a reporter at KOAT TV, Channel 7. I anchored the weekend news along with my good friend Rodger Beimer and we both filled in during the week whenever there was a need. I also functioned as assignment editor. In that position I could call upon many of our 'stringers' around the state. We would supply them with Bell and Howell 16mm cameras and they would cover stories we assigned to them or they could cover breaking news on their own. They would then put their film on a Greyhound bus for delivery at the bus station. We had runners that would run the film to the lab and we could be editing the film within an hour. It was nerve wracking and fun at the same time.

The point is that we would cover the state news by having these stringers around when we needed them. That is a thing of the past now. KOB TV announced today they are closing their news operations in Farmington and Roswell. That is sad for a few reasons. Among them, lots of folks lose their jobs and the local residents can be pretty much assured that their local news will no longer be covered by Albuquerque TV. They will now be treated to the crime of the day or the sex oriented story of the day in Albuquerque, rather than their own crime and sex stories.

As some one said, "Television used to be a vast wasteland, now it is only half vast."