In 1973 the price of wheat flour went through the roof making the cost of bread almost unaffordable. What does this have to do with my time at WRCB-TV, Channel 3? A lot.
At the time wheat sky rocketed up I was responsible for the station’s “Action Line”, our consumer affairs program. When the cost of bread zipped upward to over a dollar a loaf, I offered to give away a recipe for making bread at home. It seemed an innocent enough consumer help. Immediately the calls started coming in from viewers.
In just a few short days our supply of recipes was gone. We reprinted more and more as calls continued to pour in. We were even featured in the Chattanooga Times.
Of course in the ‘70s there was no email or other electronic means to send the recipe. We had to constantly print, address and mail the recipes by the good old U.S. Postal Service.
The requests continued for weeks some from around the country. The recipe turned out to be a true public service for 1,000’s of the station’s viewers.
The bread recipe popularity helped balance the anger generated by “Action Line’s” report on a “lemon” car. A local resident had purchased an expensive high-powered sports car only to have the car in the shop over and over again finally hearing that it was basically unrepairable. When we prepared to film the story, photographer Jerry Wise suggested that we put a real lemon on the hood of the fancy vehicle. Of course we did. I got a visit from the sales department after the story was broadcast; it wasn’t a happy visit.
On a more serious note, at Channel 3 I was able to interview three U.S. presidents - Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter - during my TV days. It’s very sobering to be in the presence of the person with the nuclear codes nearby.
The first time I met Carter was at the 1973 National Governor’s Conference in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Tennessee Governor Winfield Dunn was going to fly there in a state aircraft and offered many news people a free ride. While at the conference I had the chance to interview Carter. Immensely impressed by him, I came home and told my wife, “ his man can be President.” I was just a few years early.
As the state airplane left Nevada it was fully loaded with cases of Coors beer. At that time Coors beer wasn’t available east of the Mississippi and was a valuable commodity on our side of the Mississippi.
One of the most interesting experiences during my tenure was flying to Washington to view one of the “moon rocks” brought back by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 for scientific research. WTVC-TV, Channel 9’s news director at the time, Gil Norwood (Lusk), and myself had quite the special moment viewing this 4.3 billion year old lunar “rock”. I can’t recall which elected representative set up the viewing, but it was a special time. See you next time.
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Fred Gault can be reached at avfred@gmail.com