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Submitted By Peter Q. George (Feb 3, 2004) Message: Hi Jim: If you have a chance to visit Radio-Info.com, please check out the New England television board. I posted a "heads up" about the WTEV website. A lot of people read it and took the time to visit the WTEV site. I realize that your website is mainly dedicated to past employees of WTEV. But, have you thought of expanding that idea to include some thoughts from the viewer's point of view? For example, would you consider something like a guest book for visitors to jot down their thoughts about WTEV/Channel 6 and what they may remember about the people and programming that made Channel 6 "The Place to be....". I was hoping somebody would document the trials and tribulations of the days of WTEV/Channel 6 in New Bedford. I love the history and the wit and wisdom of the late Bob Bassett. He must have been a fun guy to work with! I grew up in Randolph, MA and totally enjoyed WTEV. Even with a less-than-perfect signal, Channel 6 was one of the those out-of-town signals that you really wanted to get. Today's Channel 6 (WLNE-TV) is nothing much to write home about. When WTEV was around, you had a sense of watching your "peers" on the screen. These were people who lived in and around the Greater New Bedford area. Nowadays, you'd be lucky in remembering ONE of the current WLNE anchors. I sure, as hell, can't. So, I salute the great alumni of WTEV! There will never be another station like it. And God bless Bob Bassett. I used to watch "Community", just before I had to go to school at Stetson School in Randolph, MA. That guy was cool. I can still see him in his chair, smoking a cigarette and interviewing his guests. This guy was cool and even when I was a kid I saw that he was quite the professional. It was like our own local version of Edward R. Murrow. Even though I was never involved with WTEV or WLNE, I have always kept an eye on Channel 6, even when I was a kid in school. To the average kid, Channel 6 always had "the good stuff" on. I personally used to love it when WTEV would repeat the memorable ABC Friday night lineup on Sunday afternoons (The Brady Bunch, Nanny and the Professor and The Partridge Family). One thing I remember and thought was really cool was when Truman Taylor used to say his signature after the 11:00 news ("Have a good night tonight and a better day tomorrow") and with the magic of chromakey, the camera would do a zoom to the left of Truman and then they would seamlessly blend into "ABC's Wide World of Entertainment" without a batting an eye. It was not easy because at that time, when you switched to the network (at any station) you had a quick "blip" as the TBC had to adjust to a slightly different scan rate from the network. How WTEV did it without that "blip" was amazing. I am somewhat of a broadcast historian myself, and if you need help writing articles or whatever, I would be glad to assist you. As a past viewer of Channel 6 since 1965 and and a great admirer of the late Bob Bassett, Truman Taylor and the great crew at WTEV, I would like to help. Please let me know what you think. This just may bring some of the old crew at WTEV to come out of the woodwork and once again, contribute their recollections for your website as well. Take care. Peter Q. George (K1XRB) Whitman, Massachusetts From Jim Donnelly, Webmaster We welcome any material regarding WTEV, whether it's from former employees, associates or viewers! |
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