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I started in broadcasting when JFK was in the White House and AM radio was still king. For example, my first employer, an independent radio station in Washington, DC (WWDC), had a Capitol Hill news bureau and at least a dozen people working in the news department. It never occurred to me, weird but true, that radio would ever be replaced as the primary and premiere source of immediate news. FM had not moved to vehicles. Local TV newscasts were a bit amatuerish, even in the Nation's Capital.
But, some years later, my old pal Maury Povich (sports director at the radio station) convinced the powers that be at a local TV station (WTTG - now FOX) to hire me as a reporter. I went to work April Fool's day 1968. Rose to co-anchor and then, maybe half a dozen years after arriving, burned out and quit to set up an independent production company.
Some years later burned out. Sold same. Went to work for the CBS affiliate station, WTOP/WDVM/WUSA and some years, an airliner crash into the Potomac River and a Peabody Award later, burned out and quit. (Are we sensing a theme here?) Returned to that station to host a Sunday morning news magazine called "Capital Edition." Some years later, with a whole bunch of EMMY (and other) awards the staff won for me... you can guess the end of the sentence.
Hosted a series of documentaries with wife Jan, for the station we both quit, and then a series of nationally-syndicated specials under the banner "Picture THIS, America". By then, TV was becoming a whole dfferent animal so...hung it up for good, almost.
Somewhere along the way, Jan and John found time for two kids Holly is doing very well. Survived, God only knows how, her wayward ways during the teen years, to graduate with a 4.0 from Florida State, graduate (class standing not reported) from UVA Law, instantly leap into an associate position with a fancy Manhattan law firm. Son Ben shares his father's love for Colorado and has taken his time (5 years) working his way toward a two degrees at CU Boulder. He remains the great kid he's always been and one day he will find himself perhaps writing stories about the evils of law firms in NYC. That would be so cool.
At this writing (10/21/2020) Jan is residing in our home in Naples, FL while I am living in our mountain "cabin" outside the thriving metropolis of Bailey, CO. Marriage is strong. 2,000 miles of separation keeping it that way.
Jan is keeping our hand in the video game by operating a niche business. See videoofalifetime.com. I have a reasonably sophisticated editing system in the "cabin".
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