The 1960's WOC News Team: Jack Thomsen, Jerry Jorgensen, Don Rhyne, Justus Smith, Chuck Leonard, Don McGonegle, Dick Scott, Phil Fleming, Max Lindberg

If you think we looked like we were G-Men, its because that is who we thought we were. - Don Rhyne, Veteran WOC TV 6 Davenport, Iowa Newscaster

Well, Don Rhyne was right, we were after news, the hard stuff, and we got it. There's so much to talk about I wouldn't know where to begin. I'll try to put some things in order so you'll have a better idea of our newsroom and the people who dug it up and reported it. I was just one of several, we all had different assignments.

I went to work early in 1958, thanks to Ed Zack and his brother Steve. Steve and I were working together at WGIL radio in Galesburg, IL, my hometown. Steve did standup comedy for several years on the Playboy circuit, and we had a lot of fun. Anyway, Bob Frank was looking for a newsman, I wanted to get out of Galesburg and Steve alerted Ed, Ed told Bob, I interviewed and got the job.

Interestingly, Bob was a bit reluctant to hire me, not because any lack of experience or on-air quality, but that I looked too young and he was afraid people may not take me seriously on TV. Look at my pictures, I was in my late 20's and early 30's when they were taken.

I have to say, working at WOC for 6 years was the greatest experience and the most fun I had in broadcasting. It was a great place to work, fun, intelligent and devoted people to work with, and great leadership. WOC was indeed a class act.

Max Lindberg was not only a WOC news reporter with Bill Gress at WOC, he was also his friend. Max remembers this hilarious story which involved Bill.

Bill Gress was unflappable, with great poise and professionalism. Each day just a few minutes before his 5:30 pm newscast, Bill would place his copy on the table, leave the studio for a bathroom break or cigarette, then come back at the last minute, take his place and begin reading.

One of the floor crew, while he was gone, stapled his news copy to the desk. Bill sat down, did his usual greeting, and began reading the news without even a flicker of amusement. He just quietly tore each sheet from it's mooring and continued on like nothing had happened.

Max Lindberg remembers two of WOC's unsung heros - Justice Smith and Bruce Lease.

For several years I held down a jazz-jock position at a couple of Las Vegas radio stations. While the leader got the honors, I focused on the sidemen, something Ernie would understand. They read and played the music, they MADE the music and deserved to be recognized.

I feel the same respect for WOC and it's "behind the scenes" people who got the film and the stories for the on-air people to present. But, don't misread what I'm saying, our on-air people were out there too, getting and writing the news, so we all shared that responsibility. There are, however, two unsung "heroes" or "sidemen" if you will, who come to mind immediately, photographer Justice Smith, and a very nice man named Bruce Lease, who processed the film. They made certain WOC's news film was the very best to be seen.

The following situation prevailed until after we moved into the new building and got the 16mm film processing unit shown on the web page. I got to run that monster, by the way, and it frankly wasn't as flexible as our earlier methods of developing film, as you'll see.

Justice was always out there, he had a nose for news and was always ready to get there first, get the film and whatever story he could. It was at that time one of the networks was running the comedy series, "Car 54, Where are You?" Well, Justice possessed a great sense of humor, and was sometimes a bit hard to find, so we all kinda related to him as Fred Gwynne's character, officer Muldoon. Justice had police radio receivers and a two-way radio in his (the stations) car, so when we called him it was generally something like, "Car 54...", and of course he'd answer and cover his assignment. He was as amused at his call sign as were the rest of us.

We all used Bell & Howell 16mm movie cameras very much like the 70DR with three lenses on the turret, a one inch, three inch and a wide angle. Rarely did we have the luxury of a light bar, and subsequently had to shoot in existing light, in many cases a "crap-shoot" at best. So, when Justice or the rest of us took film, it often had to be processed very carefully and with some "fudge-factor" for light conditions. For the most part we used Kodak's Reversible Tri-X film because it was fast and could be used in darkened conditions. We also used the Plus-X, but it was much slower and was generally shot in sunny, daytime or highly controlled situations.

Now enters Bruce Lease. He was a magician with film. A corner of his basement contained a dark room fashioned out of home-made trays that held the chemicals needed to process the film, and a home-made reel on which to wind the film for developing. He took 3/4 inch strips of wood about 18 inches long, pounded small finishing nails into the wood, just far enough apart to hold the film, and mounted them onto an open reel large enough to handle a roll of film, about 50 feet as I recall. There were about a dozen such strips of wood on the reel, all with nails in just the right places.

Now the trick was to turn out all the lights, and working in pitch black, wind the film, exposed side facing out, onto the reel so that you'd start at one side and fit the film between the nails without laying some film on top of itself, ending with the last bit of film on the other side of the reel. I find it hard to explain that part of the process, but I think you get the idea. Once wound, he would place the film-loaded reel onto a pair of vertical boards just high enough to let the film enter the developing solution. Then, it would be a process of turning the reel and running the film through the developer at a fairly steady pace so as not to cause a mismatch in the developing process. The trays held only about three inches of solution so it was necessary to turn the reel at a steady rate.

If Bruce were told the film was shot in low light, he'd turn on his green-filtered 10 watt bulb, which was covered with tape except for 1/2 inch square hole where the light would shine on the film. It was here that he would watch the image and either develop it longer for low light conditions, or less when the film was overexposed. This was a tricky process because it only takes an instant or so to over-or-under develop the film, and Bruce was a master at split second timing. Once the negative image was developed and fixed, the film went through a second development stage, turning it into a positive image. The second process could be done in subdued green light so he could better monitor the continuing development process. When finished, we'd get a call and someone would drive to Bruce's and pick up the film.

Referring back to the 16mm processor, while there was some processing variance allowed, the machine could not turn out the same kind of product as Bruce Lease. Hence, for the photographers, it was very important to more closely watch our f-stops when it came to shooting film. That's when I first learned to use a light meter.

One day, Bruce decided to take a vacation, something he and his wife hadn't done in years, and they chose me to learn the process and fill in for him. Boy, what an adventure. He patiently guided me through the process until I caught on, so after that, anytime Bruce needed to be somewhere else, I was in his basement darkroom. That's when I came to really appreciate Bruce for his talent and devotion to WOC.

A note on the movie cameras. If you've ever heard a Bell and Howell 16mm movie camera of that vintage, you'd know it was very noisy, making a kind of grinding sound. That became very evident one night when I was covering a speech by Bell & Howell Chief Executive, Charles Percy, who was running for some political office, I think for Illinois Governor. It was a large auditorium, full of people, and as I knelt down about two-thirds of the way back from the stage and started filming, he suddenly stopped, pointed toward me and said something like, "now there's a man who knows a good news camera when he sees one". He didn't win the election, but certainly knew his cameras.

So Justice Smith and mild-mannered Bruce Lease were the backbone of WOC's sterling television news team. Without them, viewers would only see still shots from a polaroid, pictures taken from the UPI photofax machine in the newsroom, or the handsome news presenter. They deserve an honored place in station history.

Max Lindberg on the WOC news beat -

During those frantic "beat the cops" newsdays, I had a 1959 Edsel (best car I ever owned), and it was loaded with police radio monitors. The Illinois side of the river was my newsbeat, so I had a lot of territory to cover. Early on, I'd show up at a fatal accident, murder scene, whatever, and state police asked if I could take pictures. That lead to a small business Bob Brown and I put together for a few extra bucks (not many, believe me), but a way to get the jump on the competition.

If there was a bad accident, fatality, murder, questionable incident and Illinois State Police wanted pictures, they'd call us and we'd run out with our 4x5 Graflex (sp) cameras, the news camera and take pictures. The movie stuff went to the station, of course, while the stills were given to state police who in turn referred lawyers to us when pictures were needed for court cases, etc. We charged the lawyers.

Needless to say, we did very well in getting coverage on that side of the river. The sheriff's department and state's attorneys office used us a lot too, much to the chagrin of WHBF and the Argus. Our darkroom was in my basement in Davenport, so Bob and I were kept very busy.

So you were right about beating the cops (and competition) to the scene, on both sides of the river. Fun, exhilarating days.

JFK

It was a quiet noontime, I was alone in the newsroom, TV was in local programming as was radio, and I was nibbling on a sandwich, when the news machines started sounding off with several bursts of a clanging type signal hard to describe, but used in emergencies.. I walked into the room housing the machines and saw the beginning of a headline, dated Dallas Tx, and the words "President John F........" and then the machine stopped. My heart started pounding, and again the warning sounds came and a couple more words appeared, "President John F Kennedy has.....", and again the printing stopped.

Finally the words came across that the president had been shot and was taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas. The NBC news alert panel in the newsroom was moot...dead air...no bulletin, nothing. I alerted TV, and they were off the network until one o'clock, and here it was 12:30pm, and I was told they had no way to join NBC until 1 o'clock. Radio wasn't getting anything either, and by that time another bulletin came across that the president was dead, shot by a sniper while in a motorcade.

I ran into TV, did an announcement from the booth, then ran upstairs and, voice choked with emotion and tears running down my cheeks, told our audience their president had been assassinated. That was the hardest thing I've ever done.

As new updates came in I went to radio and TV until the networks came online with the story. In the meantime, I was calling everyone I could think of to let them know what had happened, and that we had a long day ahead of us.

Suddenly, the newsroom was full of staff, Jack was handing out assignments. Some of us took to the streets with cameras and tape recorders, working through our own grief and disbelief, getting reaction from people on the street. People in the newsroom were staying on top of the story, making calls, and planning for the first local TV presentation.

It was a long, heartbreaking, pulse-pounding, adrenaline soaked day, ending late at night with everyone sharing a feeling of difficult assignments well done, presented with dignity and respect.

An example of Max's hard hitting news reporting -

Back in '63 or '64, while doing my regular news beat, I was approached by a bar owner. He claimed several police officers were moonlighting, cleaning drink dispensers in local bars, and leaning on him because he wouldn't use their services. I don't recall the name of his establishment, but he was always in some kind of trouble with police, as were a few other bars in town, all of which, according to him, refused to use the services provided by the cops.

WOC News Anchor Jack Thomsen filed a complaint with that city's Police and Fire Commission, and it was held under wraps for quite a while. I called the commission and they confirmed the complaint was "under review", but had not set a date for public release. Jack and I mulled that over for quite a while and decided to sit on the story for a bit.

It was during this time that the chief of detectives called me into his office one day, and I swear this came right out of the movies. He said that I had a nice family, a good job and was well liked in the community, and it would probably serve me and my family well if I'd kinda back off for a while. Blew my mind! I asked if it were a threat and he said, no, just that I was getting into something that was a bit over my head and it might be wise to let up.

Jack was livid, so was I, and at that point Jack decided to wait until one of the police officials lied to us, as the chief of police did regularly. One day, I questioned the chief about an incident or situation I knew to be a fact (which I've long forgotten) and wanted his verification. He flatly denied any knowledge and, lied through his teeth.

I told Jack, and he went on the air at noon that day, blowing the lid off the investigation into the police officers. Well, needless to say, we caught a ton of heat, not only from police, but another local station as well as one of the newspapers. I wasn't too welcome around city hall, especially the police department, except for the city manager, who'd enlisted me to "spy" on the police department for him. He knew things were going on, and whether it was a good idea or not, I played along, with Jack's approval.

I left for Wyoming not to long afterwards, and heard in later years that several cops had been fired, the police chief resigned, and the mayor got into some kind of trouble about the same time and lost his reelection bid.

Take a look at Max's web page, The Fuels Report.

I became interested in this frantic pace to find alternatives to fossil fuels, and realized the entire world is alive with research and development. So, I chose the Drudge report format and offer up links to stories from around the world about different aspects of the race. I keep it updated daily, when there's something new and interesting.