Bob Johnson's Memories

Editor's Note: Bob Johnson retired from NewsChannel 9 in 2007. Go HERE to see a Photo Gallery of Bob over the years. Below are his memories of his many days with WTVC.

When I came to WTVC in July 1975, I seem to remember that the news "staff" was six or seven of us, in a rather small room - the news "department" (more like a COMpartment!), and we were struggling to make our product known to a reticent audience as the very best news program in town. That was when we had two newscasts a day - six PM and eleven PM. That was the norm for all stations. Things have changed!

The only anchor team we had, was myself, Darrell Patterson and Don Welch, along with News Director, Gil Norwood, a small staff of reporters-photographers and a film processor. Through the creative juices of the few, at that time, and with the help of some knowledgeable experts in the news field, we grew and we changed the concept of what was "news", and what was really relevant to our audience.

Then we shot our stories on film. And it was cumbersome and slow. A fast-breaking" story might take an hour or two to get on the air. A live broadcast of any kind required a telephone line hookup. Then, news videotape, microwave transmissions, much less satellite transmissions, were things of the future for us.

In the first few years, our progress in getting the news to homes quickly, was dependent on advances in technology. We acquired the tools we needed to do the job better. We hired experienced, or potentially talented people, to use those tools and learn our philosophy of news. And, in a few years, the efforts bore fruit. We became "Number One". In 1975, the entire station staff was about 65 people. Now we have almost that number in the news department alone. We have grown large, but our philosophy has remained constant: Produce our many daily newscasts, bearing in mind the relevancy of the stories we do to the lives of the people we serve, and do it with style and standards of quality.