We Interrupt this Broadcast

What I remember most about Walter Cronkite is getting shushed by Dad as soon as the Evening News came on when I was a child.

"Hush up, the news is on!" he would shout. My little sister could care less and flew to the bedroom. I, instead, put a sock in it and stayed and watched. We got our news from a snowy black and white RCA with long rabbit ears and a noisy dial. But rapt attention was given to it as soon as Walter appeared.

It was 1977 and at 7 yrs old, not only did I recognize Walters voice better than my own teachers but Dad, knowingly or not, instilled in me an admiration for quality broadcasting, maybe even precipitating a future career in that direction.

I wasn't alive during most of the iconic reporting Walter did; shocking events like President John F. Kennedy's assassination or the Vietnam documentary or play-by-play of the Apollo 11 mission. It wouldn't be until much later that I'd learn that I was watching Walter broker a peace agreement between Sadat and Begin or mourn the passing of Elvis or report on the eradication of the smallpox virus.

When I now watch YouTube reruns of CBS Evening News in the seventies I have to laugh at halo chroma keys, cartoonish weather maps and stick mics without ID flags. The production levels may have been poor but the writing standards were never higher and... that's the way it was.