I came to WHEN after graduation from Syracuse University in 1964 and actually had to wait a few weeks after graduation before an announcing position opened up. It was a great opportunity to learn a lot of new skills in announcing, news production, and broadcasting in general. Deane Parkhurst’s narrative brought back a lot of names and memories. In those days, all news video was produced on 16 mm film and that generally was shot and edited by Coz Santangelo. One day I asked if he would show me how to edit film. Some else in the newsroom asked why I would want to know that because if I did, they might ask me to do it sometime in the future. A few months later, Syracuse was hit by the infamous blizzard of ’66. I drove my car from home to the studios and wound up living there and at a hotel down the street between WHEN and Channel 3, our big competitor. (We cheerfully signed each other’s meal charges throughout our stay.) Only a few staff members were there and the weather got so bad, we essentially were it for a couple of days. I wound up helping edit film for the evening news and then going on air to deliver it. I knew there was a use for that editing skill!! After the storm, roads were blocked for several more days, particularly out in the countryside and I went out by helicopter to film snow plows clearing roads into isolated farmhouses. We carried a load of loaves of bread that we parceled out on our journey. Someplace a few years back WHEN had some of the film from that story posted on their website. Not sure if it is still around. There were lots of folks working at WHEN at that time who went on to greater fame and fortune. Ron Curtis, who started as the ARCO weatherman (delivered weather wearing an ARCO shirt and bow tie) moved on to become the station's news anchor, a post he helmed for the remainder of his long career. Arnold D’Angelo…Arnie….left before me to go to WTIC in Hartford, CT and later convinced me to come there too, where I worked from ’67 to ’71. Arnie remained there until just a couple of years ago as the top sportscaster in the market and he and I worked both UConn Basketball games (before they became the national powerhouse they are today) and the Hartford Knights semi-pro team. Quent Neufeld headed off to CBS and became a producer for their News division, traveling the world to cover big stories. Joanne Penizotto to NBC and a slot on the staff of the Today show. And I well remember going to the movies one night to see Woody Allen’s movie The Front and suddenly realizing that former WHEN director Jack Slater was playing the role of a TV director in the film. John Scott was at WHEN when I was there and he and I had a “small world” reconnection about 20 years later when I moved to Peterborough, NH to take up the post of PR director for the McGraw Hill computer magazine BYTE. I had just gotten into town and was having breakfast at a small diner when I looked up and spotted someone at the counter across the way. Something told me that I knew him, but I could not place him. I dismissed it, but a few minutes later, looked again, and again got this strong feeling that we had a connection, so I walked over, told him that I felt I knew him and he gave me his name. Scotty was then operating a radio station in Peterborough. Getting close to 50 years ago…..but it still brings back lots of memories.
Doug Webster
2012
2012
