Originally, T V8 was on
the air 28 hours a week.
That schedule has now more than
quadrupled to 133 hours per wee.
What about some of the early shows that
fill that time before tape and before
there was even a Coast to Coast network?
As Jack Gross pointed out,
one of the earliest problems was
selling TV sets.
Remember Hoffman?
Easy Vision LA sponsored a contt
called Hoffman High Time which
helped keep the station on the r
and helped sell more receivers.
Then there was a program called Quiz of
Two Cities using a studio audience in San
Diego and another group in Los Angeles.
The San Diego's kept winning the quiz
and the LA station eventually canceled.
It's half of the show.
Smokey Rogers presided over a te
hour long country Western teletn
every weekday for several years.
Smokey and his band,
the Myers
Sisters, Carol Salentine,
and numerous recording stars were staples
of San Diego television for a long time.
In addition, Smokey did a radiow
every morning from his own homed
emcee to Western movie on TV8. Another
country star who had a large following
on TV8 was the late Monty Hall.
Quite a variety of persons paid visits
to his tiny town ranch in the 5.
Programs have come and
gone during various years.
TV8 has had cooking shows, a magic show,
live highlight games from Tijua,
bingo and roller Derby.
And there even was a one shot
attempt at putting 2 movies on
the screen at the same time.
The experiment never was repeat.
During all the experimentation,
the trial and the error,
there has been one thing T V8
started in 1949 that's been on
the air ever since the news.
One of the charter members of
the T V8 Club is Harold Keen,
who's still doing his thing 20 years later.
His thing is interviews,
and Harold estimates he's done about 15,000
of them during his television career.
Harold's face is undoubtedly one of the
most familiar ones on San Diego television
Mr. Keen, Keen, Keen, Keen, Kee.
Keen like a knife.
The kind of incisive reporting
that's become this man's tradem.
But in addition to all the
hard news he's covered,
Harold Keen recalls some of the
lighter moments in his career.
Early days of TV before the
widespread use of film or video.
Things that seem to be a lot moe
spontaneous than they are today.
If a guest didn't show up, you ,
we did most of our stuff live in those days.
And if a guest didn't show up,
we probably would either not have a show or.
Have to depend on one of our own staff to
come on as a substitute and tell about
his own thrilling experiences of the past.
It really has been a fascinating 20 years.
Some 15,000 persons have been interviewed
on people on the news during this time,
including some of the world's
most famous people.
But my favorites really are the local people,
the ordinary socalled ordinary Sandy Egans,
who've suddenly been thrust into
the spotlight because of some
dramatic occurrence in their li.
And we hope to continue meeting such people.
From day-to-day,
with more people in the news,
perhaps another 20 years.
Harold Keen started interviewing
people in the news in 1949.
Two years later,
TV8 added the San Diego newsreed
hired Paul White as news direct.
Paul White, one of The Pioneers
of electronic journalism,
is regarded as the father of radio news.
One of those who remembers
Paul White best is T V8
News Director Ray Wilson.
We started
our full-fledged news operation
in 1951 with six people.
Paul White, Harold Keen,
Stewart BAT, our news editor.
I was there and we had two cameramen.
This was a pretty ambitious project really,
because we had to put out 30
minutes of news every night.
We had one of the most extensive
news operations on the entire
West Coast at that time.
And it was quite a struggle fing
30 minutes of news every evenin.
Believe me now, of course,
we put out 90 minutes at six o'clock 5:30,
and we have another 30 minutes
at 11:00 o'clock.
And we have now grown to about 8
persons in the news department.
Paul White was head of CBS
News during World War 2,
the overseas work of Edward R Murrow,
William L Shar and many
others of similar prominence.
His basic principles were accur,
objectivity, impartiality.
All of these principles we have tried to
follow since he began the news department.
We still have many of the
scripts that he wrote,
and occasionally we refer to thm
as editorials in his commentari.
He left CBS News after World
War Two because of his health.
When he came here,
he was in frail health,
but still he had a drive and
a he was a fierce competitor.
And he refused to accept excuses when
you came back with a story that wasn't
as good as that of the oppositi.
And that's one of the things I
remember best about him is inaby
to accept second best reporting
and the one fellow who I though.