I’ve procrastinated too long on writing “my book” about life in the fast lane as a TV news reporter for more than 40 years. I may have found a reprieve thanks to an old friend who has given birth to a podcast. It allows us to share stories, very similar stories, about our lives in network and local TV news. It’s brought back a rush of memories. Good and bad stuff but mostly, very funny stuff.
Tom Curley, old friend and certified genius, is the creator and brains behind our podcast. Tom and I found our calling more than half a century ago in college radio. Home was WVHC-FM, the voice of Hofstra College now Hofstra University. We were among the many wannabes who learned the basics via trial and many errors at a tiny station (10 mighty watts!) that’s now nationally recognized for its communications program and accomplished alumni.
There was no social media in the days when Dwight Eisenhower turned over the White House keys to young John Kennedy. The good news was that staffers at a small college radio station had almost instant access to major celebrities like Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra, Merv Griffin, Arthur Godfrey and Howard Cosell just to name a few who dropped their stardust on the radio kids.
Many of us went through the so-called “radio Hofstra pipeline,” from college to network radio and television. Doors were flying open for fresh young minds to rejuvenate networks. Diversity also began to open doors. It was the perfect time for two brash young men like Tom Curley and Garry Armstrong.
Breaking into “the business” was heady stuff. We were in the middle of everything happening as America and the world went through a makeover that still hasn’t settled decades and a new century later.
Our “War Stories” podcast gives us a chance to look at those tumultuous events and larger-than-life people. We were in the middle of the madness as the social, political and cultural earthquakes shook up our world — and is still shaking up our world.
So much of what happened is a blur. We lived “in the moment,” not fully grasping the long range significance of JFK’s short-lived “Camelot,” Richard Nixon and Watergate, Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam and its legacy, Neil Armstrong’s moon landing, Elvis, Mohammed Ali, Malcolm X, Woodstock and the Amazin’ Mets. They fly off our tongues quickly and are stock-piled in our sense memories.
Sharing our memories is also reliving how we endured under migraine numbing deadlines, cuckoo’s nest crazy suits and work-play schedules that tested our bodies and minds to the limit.
Our “War Stories” podcasts give us a chance to savor the high moments, rue and laugh at our screwups on the big media stage. We can enjoy all of those off camera and off mic times spent with the legends of entertainment, politics and society. Tom and I still just shake our heads as we swap stories about hanging with the icons — stories that still have a bizarre tinge.
The “War Stories” podcast let’s us forget, at least momentarily, our not always golden retirement and remember how we got here. Still crazy after all these years.
The book? It still has a chance but I think maybe this podcast IS our book.
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Categories: #News, Anecdote, Media, podcast, Remembering - Memories, Television, Video, War Stories
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
This sounds exciting. Not just a chance to revisit history, but to get an insider’s perspective.
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It is interesting and even though I have heard ALL of these stories before from both Tom and Garry and usually from two directions, I still find them interesting even after all these years — and remember, I’ve known Garry since I was 16 and Tom since I was 19, it has been a LOT of years.
They are being surprisingly honest in these podcasts, much more than they are when they are just fooling around. When they are just chatting, they are also trying to tell a good story. Here, they are telling what really happened. It’s interesting listening even for me, who does a lot of listening because you know, they were both stars and all I did was write manuals for software.
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They definitely had the more interesting, conversation-starter jobs, Marilyn! Yours was much harder than most people realize. I had to write a manual for a new computer program designed for the Bible college I worked for – to make it easier for the staff to understand. I got hung up when the official manual used the abbreviation CR about every other word. I finally called the company and found out the CR meant “carriage return” or what should have been “enter.” The manual-writer should have looked at the keyboard once or twice before he wrote the manual. So, all that to say, I applaud you in your career. It is hard to write directions!
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It’s easy to write bad directions, just hard to write ones that regular users can follow without shaking their fists at the sky or grinding their teeth. I was good at it. I even taught it for a few years. Technical writing is a lost writing form. All the stuff they publish now is generated so there lots of words, but they don’t MEAN anything. They don’t bother to tell you what a function does, only that it should be ON or OFF. Without context, what does that mean?
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Marsha, Marilyn really is a “star” in her own right. She saved my bacon when a complex new computer system was introduced in our newsroom. I was completely LOST and my job was at stake. Marilyn tutored me across ONE weekend and I was able to use the system. Whew! I am forever grateful!
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She’s a modest dream of a person. I can see that!
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Marsha, thanks. This is our aim. To give an insider’s perspective – beyond the glitz. Hope you enjoy.
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I’m looking forward to your podcasts. 🙂
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I think you’re right the podcast is your book, and what a good one
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Garry does love being recorded. He’s kind of shy socially, but boy, point a video camera in his direction and you can’t shut him up. Apparently that’s true for both of them.
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Beth, we are having fun, recalling those days.
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I’m sure it’s a ball!
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I watched it yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s nice to be able to hear your voice Garry. I’ve watched Tom’s channel for a while already and I think he is very funny. It looks like you had a great time working on this together and I’m looking forward to the next one.
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Tom and Garry also worked together — not in the same place, but on the same network — for a bunch of years. By that time, Tom was himself a director and you’d hear him on the phone. “Hey Garry, Tom here …” and off they’d go doing recording stuff for the network (by then it was CBS).
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Tas, I’m so glad you’re watching our podcast. Your input is appreciated. Tom is the little boy genius man who’s rejuvenated my interest in telling our war stories in this new venue. His laughter is infectious. Tom actually was the catalyst for some of my network appearances. Sometimes it is hard to believe we survived all those adventures. We did!
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such an interesting listen…. congrats to the two veterans! many thanks.
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And they recorded a new one today! Coming soon to a computer near you 😀
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Kiki, thanks for listening/watching. Two veterans appreciate their new audience.
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The 60’s !!! My Goodness. I watched it on our b&w TV like some mystical hurricane. A true time of revolution when so many things exploded in our faces. Who in that hurricane could figure what was going on? So many tales from those blurry times still untold. BUT thanks to modern media we don’t have to wait for some mysterious stranger to stand up save the day. Do it yourself … and good on you. Otherwise it will be like so much of those time – lost and forgotten. Which should not happen.
Carry on Garry!
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It turns out reminiscing has some social value. Who’d have guessed it? But the seeds of now were planted 50 or more years ago. It took a long time for the fruit to ripen, but now it’s overripe.
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Marilyn, overripe is a great description. Tom and I are falling over each other as we recall all those bizarro times that are now part of history. It’s really strange. Two feisty kids now media veterans dispensing slices of history. It would be great if Mel Brooks could tune in. Walk this way, please!
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Thank you, kind sir. So much transpired over those decades, more than half a century later the dust still hasn’t settled. We’ll do our best even though we are still crazy after all these years.
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This is a wonderful idea and a great way to share these stories. Don’t you love modern technology?
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I love it when it works, but Microsoft has hidden a lot of the functionality of Windows 11 and there are things that were easy to manage but are now totally hidden. I’m sure under piles of new software. — Microsoft never eliminates old software and just pile the new stuff on top of it — I spent a very frustrating day trying to get it to do something that would have taken a couple of minutes previously.
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You are right. It is all there somewhere. Windows 10 went well. Windows 11 is a case of hide and go seek.
I wanted to use the old video editor for the Ohm and Nanon highlights but was forced to use something new instead, Clipchamp. I had a lot better stuff on my last computer until the Colombian crashed it. That’s another story.
Vimeo is good but I do not want to pay for the upgrade, which means I can only do 30 second videos now.
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THAT is why I’m posting them in YouTube. I’m surprised, though because I can run as much Vimeo as I want and have not had to pay for any upgrade.
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I wanted to do my OhmNanon video on Vimeo and was surprised that my account only let me do 30 seconds. Clipchamp is OK. Mine video runs over 8 minutes and includes a number of edits and still pictures.
I think putting Tom and Garry on YouTube is a good move because I think people who do not have a Vimeo account would not look for videos there. It is easy to share from Vimeo over to YouTube anyway. Why not use both?
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And that is exactly what we will be doing. Vimeo is too obscure and for many people, too complicated. At least most people (even Garry!) know how to use YouTube.
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Rich, my mind boggles over the tech stuff. Tom and Marilyn do all the heavy lifting on that end. I just sit down, put on headset, Mr. microphone and jabber on cue. Just like the olden days. It’s still magic time for me.
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Rich, it’s so much fun. And, you’re right about modern technology. Despite the tech brigands, we are offered this chance to share our insider views of a world that was and is — all shook up.
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Looking forward to listening to this Garry!
Its a fun idea!
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Well, they are recording today! We hope for the best.
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Thanks, Carol anne. All credit to Tom Curley. He somehow has maintained a high level of energy and crackerjack humor that’s invigorated an ol’ fart like me. I hope we can successfully share how things were – beyond the headlines and censored history texts. So much of today’s bluster and verbal saber rattling is based on history viewed through foggy and tilted lenses.
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