Sometimes you’re thumbing through our newspaper or browsing the site online and you’ll see one quote from a source. It brings up the melodramatic image of the newsroom with phones ringing off the hook, and a reporter with a cigar in his mouth and a fedora calling people and giving them 10 seconds to respond.
I’m glad to say it’s not really that way. That one quote is often the result of asking the expected question, then asking more questions based on the one or two words you didn’t expect to hear.
That’s why I love doing our “In Tribute” series. The obituary for longtime Clovis resident Sue Crow read that she ran Vogue Cleaners after her husband died and that she loved art. It’s the extra question or two with family members that let me tell readers in Friday’s story that Crow loved to can tomatoes, painted a mural in the living room and never accepted Hawaii as a state.
Sometimes tidbits like these don’t get in the paper. It’s not because they’re bad — it’s more likely they didn’t fit with the story.
Case in point, Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting at KICA. Bill Kurtis, best known for his work on A&E’s “Cold Case Files” show, is one of the partners in Tallgrass Broadcasting, which purchased the station and plans to make Clovis its central office.
There were two quotes I used from a 10-minute interview I had with Kurtis:
• “It’s booming economically,” he said about Clovis. “We see a population that is growing and an opportunity for these stations to serve it.”
• “The Internet is a major, tectonic change in media businesses,” he said later, addressing the shift in media and profitability. “By losing newspapers on a national level, losing cable, advertisers are losing platforms for reaching people. They are turning more to local newspaper and radio stations. There is always hope for community connections.”
There was a lot more I discussed with Bill Kurtis, but I left it out of the story for two reasons:
1. It didn’t have much to do with Clovis.
2. It didn’t have much to do with the acquisition of the stations.
I’m somewhat shortchanging my readers if I bog them down with details irrelevant to the real story — why did they buy this station, and how does that affect the place I live?
Conversely, I feel I’m shortchanging readers if I don’t share some of these gems. Here are some of the highlights from Tuesday that didn’t show up in Wednesday’s edition:
• Kurtis felt documentaries were one of the best ways to give people news, because the long story just gave more details and allowed more education on topics people just didn’t discuss every day.
“We covered global warming 15 years ago,” Kurtis said, “and nobody believed it.”
• To see a documentary about global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” take Oscar honors, shows what a shift the medium has taken.
We discussed the documentary “Supersize Me.” Kurtis recalled the fierce opposition McDonald’s had to the documentary where Morgan Spurlock nearly killed himself by eating only McDonald’s food for one month.
A good concept, well done in documentary form, won’t go ignored for long, Kurtis believed.
“The documentary form is now (going) to major motion pictures,” he said. “That’s where the major issues are going … they’ve become documentaries.”
• Kurtis has his sights on another project. He wants to be the next Paul Harvey, as he hopes to start a national newscast. His one concern with news radio is it’s become too opinionated, whether it’s Rush Limbaugh on the right or Al Franken on the left.
“There seems to be a need for somebody to go down the middle,” Kurtis said. “I’m an old-fashioned newsman who doesn’t know much other than to tell both sides of the story.”
• Kurtis’ voice gives everything an important tone. I was talking with KICA disc jockey Kevin Gardels, and he said he thought he got a great interview with Kurtis. I joked that Kurtis could talk about Jell-O recipes and make it sound dignified with his voice.
“I remember my wife and I had gone to the supermarket one Sunday eve. Cherry was the flavor we had picked. My wife opted for whipped topping. I felt the choice to be somewhat pretentious, especially since it was a non-dairy topping she selected. We took our items through the express line. We had more than 10 items, but Susan the clerk flashed us a smile that said, ‘Eleven is just fine, sir.’ The dessert and the trip made for an experience I’ll never forget.”
Maybe when he has that news program, he can sell Jell-O like Paul Harvey sells Craftmatic beds.
I love Bill Kurtis. I’ve spent many a night watching reruns of American Justice in an insomniac state. I look forward to the day I solve the mystery before he does. Did you know he did an episode of the Sopranos?