Kyle Kellams: We are going to tell you who that voice was to start this week's Pryor Center profiles. That was a 1978 promo for Channel 7 — Bob Steel's voice. And if you're not old enough or don't remember, networks and channels had this family sort of approach to their promos. That clip showed you everybody. It showed you what television shows were going to be on that season
Randy Dixon: And you had a spiffy little jingle. It was a takeoff of a song by Orleans. Orleans' No. 1 song — "Still the One." And instead of saying "we're still having fun and you're still the one," it was "you're still having fun and we're still the one."
Kellams: So it was a season-long campaign. We play that because we had a big event last week at the Pryor Center.
Dixon: We sure did. It was a blast. It was a panel of folks who were at Channel 7 in the mid-'70s to mid-'80s. I was very young at the time. I started there when I was 19. And the three panelists we had were more established. They weren't a whole lot older than me, but sure seemed like it when I started there.
Kellams: Well, the difference between 19 and 26 in the workplace is huge.
Dixon: That's true. And they had been there for that much longer than me. So I guess Tuesday night I sort of felt like I was getting to sit at the adult table.
Kellams: It was Steve Barnes, Amy Oliver Barnes and Bob Steel.
Dixon: And me and you. You kept it all together and kept it moving because we certainly went off on some tangents and down some rabbit holes. I think if we had gone twice as long, almost everybody would have stayed and had a good time.
Dixon: We had a good crowd. Near capacity.
Kellams: Speaking of Bob Steel, who wore many, many hats — and some great big glasses — during his television career. Let's play something here.
Dixon: All right. This is election night 1980. I was there with him. I was on camera, he was the reporter, and we had been sent to Frank White's headquarters. White was the Republican running against Bill Clinton, who was the incumbent. He wasn't expected to win. As a matter of fact, earlier in the evening, ABC News had projected Bill Clinton as the winner, called the race and kind of forgotten about it on the national news. KATV would go, as we called it, wall to wall on election night — no network programming, all local. We were at Frank White's headquarters, and there were some surprises that night.
[Archival clip — Bob Steel at Frank White headquarters, election night 1980]
"We're going to look now at some new figures in the governor's race. 65% of the precincts in Arkansas have reported, and there's about a 16,000-vote lead right now for Republican Frank White, but it's 51-49. That's been the story for much of this evening. Only a very foresightful few, I guess, if that's proper, would have predicted that it would have been this tight at this point in the evening."
"We're hanging in there. And like I said, we think we're going to win. And we think margins are holding up across the state of Arkansas right now."
"Did you see Mr. Clinton's speech at his headquarters, and if you did, your reaction to it?"
"No, I didn't see what Mr. Clinton said, but I didn't see much of him tonight on television."
"What do you think that indicates? Why do you think he has not been too visible?"
"I haven't been around too many TV sets. But I think what we're seeing right now is going to be a classic test of what the people of Arkansas want. And I think they want mature business leadership to run this state."
"Why are you running as well as you are?"
"Because those people out there want me to be governor."
"Steve, I haven't been around this kind of noise since the time that Arkansas beat Texas A&M. I don't know any other way to describe it. There is electricity here, and we will be here until we know the outcome of this race."
[End clip]
Kellams: And one of the great things about this is we didn't just see clips. We talked to the people who were there.
Dixon: We had the big screen, showed a clip, and then were able to get comments. Bob responded to that clip with some interesting insight about not only how KATV covered news, but things he saw in Frank White that maybe other people didn't.
“In those days, Jim Pitcock would tell you, OK, you're going to cover Frank White. And we would have a meeting once a week with a microphone in our hands and do stand-ups as if we were covering the campaign headquarters, and every newspaper article we put in a book on our candidate, and we learned all we could about them. And then Pitcock had us go out and cover them. And I knew something was happening before the rest of the world did. We would go to these plants, and I was amazed at the reception that he was getting from all of the workers at these plants at 8 o'clock in the morning, and everyone wanted to shake his hand. And I thought, this might be interesting. And it was. He was a great guy, and he was fun to cover.”
Kellams: There was another clip that we showed Tuesday night that had three candidates for governor and their spouses all together during a severe thunderstorm.
Dixon: Yeah. This was the '82 gubernatorial Democratic primary, and the front-runners were Bill Clinton, Jim Guy Tucker and Joe Purcell. There was a rally in Benton at the Saline County Courthouse at the square, and Steve Barnes went up there to go live and corralled this group together.
[Archival clip — Steve Barnes at Saline County Courthouse, 1982]
"They're spending some of that time tonight at Benton at a political rally. Saline County, by the way, is now under a severe thunderstorm warning."
"I'm standing in the rain with the three leading candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. And what by now is a tribute both to the democratic process and to journalism. We don't know where we're going. Well, we do know that the rally here on the steps, the lawn of the Saline County Courthouse has been cancelled. However, we're told that it has been moved to the Finkbeiner Multi-Purpose Center just a short distance from here. And we'll be back in just a moment to talk with these three candidates before moving downtown."
[End clip]
Kellams: It's just mesmerizing to see everyone there under umbrellas.
Dixon: And there was more. You notice he pitched to a break and then we came back and they talked some. But there's only so much you can do when you've got Steve Barnes in the middle and six other people jammed under a gazebo in the pouring rain. But this was Steve's response after the clip.
“That was more stunt than substance. It was raining cats and dogs — just horrid weather. But he said it made a good picture.”
“Well, everyone’s smiling. All three candidates and their spouses.”
“That was temporary. It was a very spirited campaign. Clinton was trying to get the nomination back, Tucker was trying to block it, and there was Joe Purcell.
Dixon: It was kind of for show, but it's TV. And it was historic. It really was. And there is a beautiful black-and-white photograph — you can even see some water on the lens of the still camera — that one of the newspaper guys shot. It's a historic photo.
Kellams: Amy Oliver Barnes was there as well, and there's a delightful montage of something she was doing on election night.
Dixon: This was again '82, but it was the general election. Everyone got their assignments, you would study, and then election night we're going wall to wall. You only have so many live shots you can go to. We went to a big extent and had maybe 10 to 15 different locations that were live. It was a technological wonder to be able to do that kind of stuff in 1982. But there's a bit of a problem with that too when you kind of have to go back to the well from time to time. Amy was assigned to the Clinton home — not the governor's mansion, because Clinton had been defeated and for two years did not live there. He was a private citizen. Amy was going to be with him the whole night, so she was going to be at the house until they went to headquarters. But in the meantime, she patiently sat on a porch swing out in front of the Clintons' house. What you're about to hear is a montage over the course of about four hours. There wasn't a whole lot going on, but she filled the time.
[Archival clip — Amy Oliver Barnes at the Clinton residence, election night 1982]
"Now, who is standing by enjoying a nice soft summer evening swing at the Clinton residence? Thank you, Steve. We just noticed a 10,000-vote spread there. As far as what's going on here right now, we're waiting for the Clintons to come out. They will be leaving when a trend is established. And we'll be back with you then."
"Steve, about all that we have new to report now are occasional cheers and whoops that we hear from the inside. The Clintons are still preparing for their evening, which right now is going fairly well for them."
"Aside from Mr. and Mrs. Clinton and daughter, is there a crowd at the Clinton residence?"
"Well, we've had a few curious neighbors who've passed by every once in a while, but no, it's fairly quiet right now, except for occasional licks from the Clintons' dog, Zeke. That's about all the excitement we've had here so far."
"Steve, we're still hearing cheers from the inside. Quite naturally, they're pleased with the results that they've been hearing. A couple of campaign workers stopped by a few seconds ago, but no crowds here. They're all waiting for him down at headquarters."
"Finally. Thank you very much, Steve. The daughter is very excited about the results right now."
"Is that a trend? Are you ready to take it?"
"Well, I'm ready to take it, but I'm not ready to declare it. I hope it's a trend that will continue throughout the evening, but we still have a lot of votes to count. I'm perfectly at peace with myself tonight, and I have been throughout this campaign. And maybe that's one reason we've done pretty well with some of the toughest opposition anybody could ever hope to face."
“How long were those clips elapsed over?”
“I started in the five, and he didn't go till like nine or nine-thirty. But what you don't know is we had gotten married the Saturday before. When we planned it, neither one of us thought, oh wait, there's probably going to be a runoff, and we need to be here for that Tuesday. So we delayed the honeymoon — we were going to Key West on Wednesday. And I made the mistake on Monday night of eating some sweet and sour pork from a Chinese restaurant and got a horrible case of food poisoning. So in between each shot, I was either laying down in the back of the van waiting for the photographer to tell me they want to use you again, or I was in the Clinton bushes getting sick. And then there was Zeke, their cocker spaniel — that dog sat there and humped my leg while I was doing that live shot.”
Dixon: The good thing is, we're talking about maybe going to Little Rock and taking it on the road. Wouldn't it be fun? I think it'd be great. We're going to talk to some folks about a venue. It'd just be awesome to get that lineup again, and we could even pull some different stories or maybe even do a little more if people are willing to stay for a couple of hours.
Kellams: Let me also give a big shout-out to Charlie Parsley, who was in the control room Tuesday night. It ain't easy when the five of us are up there talking and you've got to hit the video clip when we say go to it.
Dixon: And Sarah Moore was also there juggling audio. She did a great job. I thought it was flawless. It was a really good time. And of course John Davis, our boss, had us all in and kept it all together. All hands on deck. Maybe not as chaotic as election night, but a lot of fun.
Kellams: All right, Randy. See you next week.
Dixon: See you next week.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
