Darrell Patterson's Memories

I was working at WDOD radio in 1974, when Tommy Reynolds, the WTVC program director, called and asked if I would be interested in doing the 11 o'clock sports on Channel 9. Bill Mcafee , the sports director at the time, wanted to do just the 6 o'clock show, so I took over the 11 o'clock slot. Bill went on to serve in the Tennessee State legislature.

Gene Randall, who later worked for CNN... Jackie Schulten, who's now a judge... and Gary Wardlaw, who's now the News Director at a TV station in Baltimore, Maryland, were some of the 6 or 8 people who worked in the news department at that time.

We shot our stories on 16 millimeter film back then. That film had to be processed, then broken apart and edited. Now with video tape, it's immediately ready to be edited or even go directly to air. Someday soon, our TV pictures will be shot, edited, and viewed via computer disks.

I did the 11 o'clock sports for several months, before my job as the UTC basketball play-by-play announcer took me away.

Then, in May of 1975, WTVC called again. The had a new General Manager, Jane Dowden, and were planning some major changes... changes they hoped would improve their 3rd-place ratings.

They offered me the Sports Director's job, and I went to work full time on June 5, 1975. The news department began growing... Bob Johnson was hired to anchor the news, Don Welch came on board to do weather, and as they say, the rest is history.

One year from the time Bob, Don and I went on the air as a team, the 11 o'clock newscast had moved from 3rd to 1st place, and by 1977, the 6 o'clock show had moved to the top.

Things have changed dramatically in my nearly quarter-of-a-century at WTVC. Of course, those were the days before computers... all we had were typewriters and an Associated Press wire machine that clicked and clacked like train headed down the tracks. We now have 60 people in news... we didn't have a total of 60 people in the whole station in 1975.

Good old days? NOT!

But in many other ways, things haven't changed a bit. It's still my job to keep up with what's going on in sports, and relay that information to viewers in the most factual and entertaining way I can.

And I plan on doing that for several more years, looking forward to the changes yet to come.