January 2002
The consummate news anchor, but first, your friend:
CHIP MOODY, 1947-2001
When Chip Moody died the day after Christmas, rapid came the remembrances from the news professionals who shared his days. Tracy Rowlett. Clarice Tinsley. Troy Dungan. Jack Brown on a harrowing flight in a small plane with an unflappable Mr. Moody at the controls. Roy Eaton was there, too, in those heady times at Channel 5 on broadcast hill in east Fort Worth, working alongside the man he calls the area's original news personality.
"Chip Moody was the first 'TV star' we hired at Channel 5, and it forever changed the face of television news in Fort Worth-Dallas," Eaton said. "Prior to his arrival, most of us who did the news on television were reporters who were just assigned to anchor the news as part of our jobs. But Chip and later Ward Andrews were different. They had a great love for television and realized perhaps more than we did the influence that an 'anchor' can have in a community."
Mr. Moody had a love for life and for the news, and that, Eaton said, "made him very special." The two delighted in antique autos and tractors and spent many late nights in the Channel 5 newsroom talking Buicks, Model A Fords, Jaguars and, always, John Deere tractors.
Mr. Moody remains the only anchor to have worked at three area stations -- first KXAS Channel 5, then KDFW Channel 4 and finally WFAA Channel 8 -- while being the ratings leader. He died after a 15-year fight with Hodgkin's disease and related complications.
Mr. Moody boasted of living life "with a fighter-pilot mentality" and anticipated a return to Channel 8. Just three months ago, he was in the studio going through the mail in his untouched office. He left the air in April 1999, but he lingered in the hearts of viewers. John McCaa, current Channel 8 anchor, said Mr. Moody, and they, made a unique connection. "They saw him as a friend. Someone they really knew. ... No matter how bad the story or how dangerous the situation, he brought people a sense of comfort."
On the wfaa.com Web site, Mr. Moody details his love of flight and vintage cars: "I enjoy flying (got my license in 1974, and have flown biplanes, jets, and quite a few models in between), old cars (just got a 1927 model T), and have started doing some wood-working as a hobby in my all-too-few spare moments." The brief section concludes:
"Hope you can join us for the news tonight!"
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MEETINGS
Next at IABC ...
Fun Times with a Fun Guy (Who'll Make You Think)
Quadruple threat Joel Zeff fully intends to inspire and inform at the IABC luncheon in January, and with his track record, expect just that. An award-winning comedian, creativity speaker, actor and writer, Zeff has entertained professionally for more than 10 years. A former journalist and PR executive, he started his own consulting business in 1994 and now specializes in creative thinking and team building sessions with a focus on having fun and teaching how to work together -- re-energizing the creative spirit.
Zeff has studied at the Second City Conservatory in Chicago and performs with the improvisational troupe Ad-Libs. He also has appeared in commercials for Time Warner Cable, Pizza Hut and McDonald's and as cohost of "The Movie Zone" on UPN 21.
* Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8
* Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
* Cost: $17 members, $22 nonmembers, $12 students
* RSVP by noon Jan. 4: Dan Frost at (817) 735-6157 or frostdg@c-b.com
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Next at PRSA ...
Ins and Outs of Working with an Agency
Thinking about hiring an agency? Need help but not sure where to turn? A panel of top-flight practitioners -- Kim Speairs, APR, Stuart Bacon; Scott Kirk and Heather Senter, Witherspoon; Ellen Ray, Lena Pope Home; and Henry Stewart, APR, Henry Stewart Public Relations/Marketing -- will explore how to maximize the agency/client relationship at PRSA's January luncheon.
They'll present their perspective on what makes a good agency/company relationship, how to measure effectiveness, what an agency expects from a client and what you should expect from your agency -- the keys to effective interaction.
* Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 9
* Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
* Cost: $20 members, $23 nonmembers, $18 students; garage parking (7th & Commerce) $2.50 with validation
* RSVP by noon Jan. 8: Lisa Albert at lisa@stuartbacon.com
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Next at SPJ ...
War All Around: a Report from Afghanistan
Habib Iqbal fixes things. You know, things. Engaged in a cultural misunderstanding with a tribal leader? Iqbal can fix it. Looking for a fresh interview subject, someone who hasn't been overanalyzed by the Geraldos of this ungainly war? Iqbal can deliver. Need to get medicine to Kabul for a British charity, or arrange a convoy for a warlord's security chief, or procure bootleg Indian whiskey, or obtain border-crossing clearance? Iqbal is your man. "Super Habib," his Afghan friends call him. Heavily bearded, troll-like and fast-talking, he makes a great story. And he's just one in Afghanistan, just one.
Star-Telegram writer Barry Shlachter has many more from his recent days there. He'll tell the best at the SPJ January meeting.
* Date: Monday, Jan. 21
* Time: mingling 5:30 p.m., dinner 6:15, program at 7
* Place: Water Street Seafood, 1540 S. University Drive
* Cost: $13 members, $17 nonmembers, $5 students
* Menu: choice of seafood enchilada, Southern fried catfish, mesquite-grilled chicken or shrimp harpoon, all served with a salad, vegetables and seasoned rice, fresh-baked bread and tea, soft drink or coffee; cash bar
* RSVP: Kay Pirtle at mkpirtle@yahoo.com
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Greater Fort Worth PRSA will present "Coaching Leaders," a teleconference with James E. Lukaszewski, APR, Fellow PRSA, and Chester Burger, APR, Fellow PRSA, on Wednesday, Jan. 16, from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at a location to be announced. Organizer Heather Senter: "Bring a brown-bag lunch and learn how to transform yourself into someone who can coach, teach, help and contribute to the leaders around you." Topics will include how leaders think and navigate; the difference in leadership and managing; the key skills all leaders possess; how to assess leadership potential; the loneliness of leadership; and five trends that will make leadership more difficult in the coming decade. The teleconference is free to PRSA members and $5 for nonmembers. More information at krm.com/prsa. RSVP to Lisa Albert at lisa@stuartbacon.com. ... Billed as a professional development seminar that is well worth the time and the "ridiculously low" registration fee, the fifth annual Corporate Communication Workshop will be Feb. 7-8 at the TCU Kelly Alumni Center. Sponsored by the Center for Professional Communication in TCU's Neeley School of Business, the workshop boasts innovative speakers and interactive sessions designed to help recession-proof a career. Info at www.cpc.tcu.edu/ccw/ccwhome.htm. ...
The D/FW National Association of Hispanic Communicators' next meeting is at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 5, at the Associated Press in Dallas, 4851 LBJ Freeway, Suite 300. And for NAHC good-cause revelers, the Super Bowl Fiesta Pep Rally is back, after a year off, raising scholarship funds from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31, at Sambuca Jazz Cafe in Addison, 15207 Addison Road. This year's top raffle item is two round-trip tickets on Southwest Airlines, but prizes are still needed. Contact Gary Pina at gpina@star-telegram.com. Shifting gears but still shaping lives, the revamped NAHC students-and-pros program needs mentors. Participants must be NAHC members (but being Hispanic is not required to join the NAHC). Info at dfwhispanic.org or from Eva-Marie Ayala at eayala@star-telegram.com. ...
Tom Urquhart and Chris Bellomy, cohosts of KTCU-FM's eclectic "The Good Show," have taken the act to itsthezoo.com, a Web-based reincarnation of legendary Dallas album-rock station KZEW-FM. They continue to broadcast live Saturday mornings on KTCU-FM 88.7. Following an October 2000 debut, "The Good Show" has won regional kudos, including Fort Worth Weekly Best of the West-O-Plex awards, notably as reader's choice for Best Radio Show. The show has been nominated for a Dallas Observer Music Award, despite being tragically faint in most of Dallas County due to FCC limits on KTCU's transmitter. No awards yet from Houston, Peoria, Pantego or Vatican City, though Urquhart and Bellomy aren't giving up hope. ... The 2001-02 Fort Worth Media Directory, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce must-have list of dailies, weeklies, special interest and ethnic publications, shopping guides, surrounding area newspapers, TV and radio stations, network news bureaus and wire services, is going for $30 for chamber members, $40 nonmembers, with discounts for five or more copies. Call (817) 336-2491, ext. 222, to receive a copy by mail. ... Nothing they'd like more at The Women's Museum in Dallas than to put you on an update e-list. If that's a notice you can't live without, contact marketing director Jacqueline M. Bell at (214) 915-0866 or jacqueline.bell@thewomensmuseum.org.
SPJ national update: 1 win, 1 win for now, 1 continuing loss. A federal judge in California upheld Yahoo in a case that could have limited the openness of the Internet worldwide. A French court had ruled that the Internet company must limit the display and sale of Nazi memorabilia and images on Yahoo-hosted sites in the United States. While the displays are illegal in France, the First Amendment protects such expression in America. The federal court agreed with Yahoo that the judgment issued against it in France, based on French law, could not be enforced in the United States. ... SPJ is cheering the Senate Judiciary Committee's approval of a bipartisan bill authorizing federal judges to allow cameras and other electronic recording devices in their courtrooms. All 50 states allow at least some state or local court proceedings to be recorded; however, cameras remain prohibited at all levels of the federal court system by order of the Supreme Court. "It's high time for the federal courts to be as accessible as the state courts are," said SPJ president Al Cross, a political writer and columnist for The Courier-Journal in Louisville. "There's no reason why the federal courts should behave any differently in this regard." Ian Marquand, SPJ FOI Committee cochairman and special projects coordinator for the Montana Television Network, said challenges should be expected on the Senate floor, in the House and "perhaps, ultimately, at the president's desk." ... A congresswoman again demanded that federal prosecutors free jailed writer Vanessa Leggett. "Ms. Leggett presents no risk of flight, nor does she pose any threat to society or herself. Her only 'crime' was to protect her confidential sources in keeping with the traditional constitutional notions of a free press," Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, wrote in a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. "If ever there was a case in which the crime simply didn't fit the punishment, this most surely is the case." Leggett has been incarcerated since July 20 for refusing to comply with a subpoena from federal prosecutors seeking four years of research for a book she plans to write about the 1997 murder-for-hire of Houston socialite Doris Angleton.
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PEOPLE & PLACES
Baby daze! Madeline Clara Pederson was born at 5:22 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12, at Harris Methodist Hospital. She weighed 7 pounds 9.5 ounces and has lots of dark, curly hair and faint eyebrows. Mom Sarah and dad Greg are page designers at the Star-Telegram. ... Creative director Patti Smith and operations director Marilyn Power have been promoted to vice presidents at Stuart Bacon Advertising-Public Relations. Smith came to Stuart Bacon in 1998 as associate creative director; a graduate of Texas Tech University, she has more than 25 years' ad experience in a range of industries. Power has served as operations director since July 2000, after joining Stuart Bacon in 1998 as a receptionist/administrative assistant. She attended TCU and Tarrant County College, and is a member of the American Business Women's Association. Meanwhile, Stuart Bacon senior vice president Kim Speairs, APR, has been named secretary of the six-state Southwest District of the Public Relations Society of America. She served on the district board in 1999 as president of the Greater Fort Worth Chapter of PRSA and will be an assembly delegate in 2002. A TCU graduate, she serves on the board of directors for the community services branch of the YMCA of Fort Worth and chairs the communications committee for Lena Pope Home. ... TCU Student Publications adviser Robert Bohler has been named chairman of College Media Advisers' newspaper critiques committee.
Kudos & Contracts ... Texas Wesleyan University has chosen Stuart Bacon to create an enrollment campaign targeting high school graduates and junior college transfers. Stuart Bacon also will craft communications materials to attract students and financial supporters for the Austin-based Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest. Founded in 1975, the LSPS trains pastors to minister to the cultures of the southwestern United States.
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GET A JOB
NBC5/KXAS-TV has internships for Hispanic students for the spring, summer and fall terms. A recipient must be a college junior or senior and receive college credit for the work. Fax a resume with a cover letter stating area of interest to (817) 654-6442 or e-mail Martha Stallard at martha.stallard@nbc.com. ... A program administered by the Emma L. Bowen Foundation for Minority Interests in Media (emmabowenfoundation.com) benefits students after they have completed their high school junior year in exchange for a five- to six-year commitment to work with NBC. The students get paid, and a matching amount goes into a college fund. Contact Norma Provencio-Pichardo, (323) 671-4711, 4151 Prospect Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027. ... National SPJ's redesigned Web site features a media industry job bank, viewable only by SPJ members. To post a listing, log on to spj.org/careers_jobpost.asp and complete the form. After verification, listings will stay online 30 days.
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NEW MEMBERS, WELCOME
PRSA ... Ashley Wesson and Nicole Recker, Harris H-E-B Hospital ... Gigi Westerman and Sue Lyons-Boggs, independent practitioners ... Bill Slay, director of corporate communications at LSG Sky Chefs ... Dannette Woodard, communications director at the American Heart Association ... Carol Noel, promoter of the new and improved Amon Carter Museum ... Dot Kent with the city of Fort Worth Department of Environmental Management ... W-spooners Scott Kirk, Michelle Clark and Chris Payne ... Krista Brown and Elizabeth Browne with Maverick Advertising and PR ... Dr. Julie O'Neil, who teaches journalism at TCU
SPJ ... Paula LaRocque, recently retired as writing coach at The Dallas Morning News but still doing seminars from time to time and writing for the paper ... Jason Trahan, Arlington Morning News reporter
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KRISTIE'S CORNER
Kristie Aylett, APR; GFW PRSA
PRSA has made tremendous progress the past few years. We have established a strategic plan, developed an annual budget process, invested our resources wisely and turned chapter management into an art form. Last year, under the able leadership of Mary Dulle and her team, our chapter gave its first official scholarship, upgraded the Web site, developed an online membership directory, launched a special interest group for independent practitioners and offered another 12 months of excellent programming. The membership campaign was a huge hit.
Now here it is, 2002. I'd like for PRSA to build on these successes by emphasizing two goals: more professional development and networking opportunities, and more member involvement.
We're off to a strong start. VP/programs Hope Caldwell is lining up some fabulous monthly programs that are sure to bring good advice and good times. We're trying a new location, the Petroleum Club, to see if its buffet service and downtown location increase attendance at our meetings. We plan a year full of activities to sharpen your skills, broaden your horizons and expand your network of colleagues.
Our first big event of 2002 is the Southwest District Conference on Feb. 21-22 in Arlington. Once again, our chapter and the North Texas chapter are cohosting the annual get-together for PRSA members in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Louisiana. It'll be a day and a half of professional development sessions guaranteed to get your creative juices flowing. If you can't attend the entire conference, at least allot time for Friday's luncheon with keynote speaker Kathy Lewton, the national PRSA chairman and CEO. The luncheon will also serve as our February chapter meeting.
Our challenge is to keep moving forward. If you have ideas about PRSA, let me know. If you'd like to do more than attend meetings, let me know that, too -- we will find a way to get you more involved. Want to chat? My e-mail is aylettk@yahoo.com, my office number (817) 735-2553. We have dedicated board members who give their time and energy, and we have a growing chapter full of promise. What we need now is YOU.
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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
Cecilia Jacobs, IABC/Fort Worth
What is it about Dec. 31 that spurs fantasies of self-reform? Is it too much food and drink? Seasonal exuberance? Lunacy induced by crowded malls?
The New Year is a time when many of us make resolutions: to lose weight, or change jobs, or pursue a new hobby. The resolutions differ, but they usually center around the same goal -- higher quality of life. And what professional communicator doesn't desire a higher quality of life? I do. That's one reason I'm a member of the International Association of Business Communicators. The benefits are endless.
* Networking. Hobnob with professionals in every area of communications, from local freelancers to corporate communications directors. Exchange ideas and learn what's new in the industry. Establish relationships that will last a lifetime. If there aren't enough communicators in Fort Worth to suit your needs, access the Member Centre, a section of national IABC's award-winning Web site where you can link up with more than 13,000 communicators worldwide.
* Career Resources. Post a job opening, find a job and qualify for discounts on IABC's extensive library of resources, including findings from IABC Research Foundation studies of issues that affect how you'll do your job in the future.
* Professional Development. Improve your skills, grow your expertise and expand your knowledge with monthly luncheon speakers. Also, receive advance info and substantial discounts on IABC seminars and conferences.
Chances are, most of us will break our New Year's resolutions before month's end. But making Fort Worth IABC monthly luncheons a priority is one resolution you'll find easy to keep. Just ask those who've been coming awhile.
Happy New Year to you and yours.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Thank Fort Worth SPJ honorary member for life Sam Chambers for the party photos in this issue. Sam, who recently wed Amy Turlington of the JPS Partners Together for Health staff, didn't know he had the assignment until he walked in the door. ... Thank Bob Ray Sanders for a delightful turn as auction emcee. He had the room rocking. He even stuck around afterward and helped straighten up the tables. ... And thank each other for the Holiday Party haul: 175 books and $730 to buy more books for the JPS Health Network children's library. ...
Makes me proud: Cathy O'Neal will be teaching a PR class at UTA this spring after learning of the opening in the eChaser. Never know when you'll find something here you can actually use. ... Good job, Star-T staffers, headed by Jeff Guinn and Bob Ray Sanders (he's everywhere), who raised $969.50 for the Hubbard Heights Elementary School library. The money will buy 70 or 80 items. "I cannot tell you the joy I see in students' faces when they find exactly what they are looking for or when new materials have arrived and they are the first to check out a brand-new book!" librarian Jennifer Harrington wrote in a thank-you. "Visiting our school library may be the only opportunity they have to select books to enhance reading skills and for their own reading enjoyment." Bob Ray presented the money during an assembly the week before Christmas. The kids all yelled thank you in English and Spanish. ...
Makes me proud, II: Hooray for radio ranger Tom Urquhart, whose wit and born-for-broadcast voice keep finding bigger markets. At the UTA Shorthorn he supplemented his production work with a cartoon panel of minimalist pinch-featured creatures adrift in the cosmic conundrum. "Academia Waltz" made me chuckle, and most of the time I understood it, which still concerns me. ... That's another Shorthorn ex, Cheryl Phillips, ensnared in the "big blue ball" controversy at USA Today. Cheryl and Gannett colleagues Denise Tom and Karen Allen, all simultaneously stricken, it would seem, with profound brain delay, playfully traced "Kilroy was here" in what looked like blue dust on the $100,000 Lita Albuquerque spheric sculpture commissioned for Gannett's new $300 million Washington, D.C., digs. Turns out the dust was pigment awaiting a sealant. Emboldened with security-camera proof, management fired all three. Suddenly, supporters were everywhere. A legal defense fund was set up for database editor Phillips, a two-year employee and last year one of USA Today's "Enterprise All-Stars"; sportswriter Allen, an original USA Today staffer with 25 years at Gannett; and special projects editor Tom, a 26-year Gannett employee and the single mom of a 14-year-old boy. Cheryl is the youngest at 39, so is an out-of-court age-discrimination settlement too far-fetched? And the suits at Gannett only thought they appreciated art before. Wonder how they would've reacted if the finger-paint miscreants had had C4 in their shoes?