Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Implosion Week: The Crew

To mark tomorrow's 20th anniversary of "The Great Implosion" on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton, I've been digging out some old photographs from April of 1992.

I've always believed I'm luckier than I really deserved to be, and here are some of the reasons.

The top photo was taken in the TV station's lobby at 415 Lackawanna Avenue around the time of the implosion.  It's hard to believe, but that's me in the middle.  Photographer Dave Jones is on the left.  I've known Davey since 1979.  We went to college together, we worked in Scranton together, and now, we work at WNEP together.  I just can't get rid of the guy!

On the right is chief photographer Jim Keenan.  Jimmy retired several years ago.

Both Davey and Jimmy taught me tons about TV and news, and I will be forever grateful.  In fact, Jim shot an audition piece for me back in the 80's.  A producer at the TV station liked and wanted to air it.  The people I was working for at the time wouldn't have appreciated it, so it never happened.  Jim took a lot of time, and put so much effort into the audition piece.  He didn't have to do that, but he's a great person, so he did.

The lower photo was taken in the old newsroom the day after the implosion.  I'm on the left.  The guy on the right is the legendary Kevin Jordan.  He will get angry I said it, but Kevin was a huge influence.  I listened to him on WILK and WARM.  I watched him on WBRE and WYOU.  I loved his style-- spartan writing, hard hitting when he had to be, a touch of humor when necessary.  Kevin left TV news several years ago, and news hasn't been as good.

If you notice, I try to get to a sound bite very early in to my stories.  I picked that up from Kevin and there are many days WWKD guides my thinking:  "What Would Kevin Do?"