PDX Media Good Old Days features interviews with local icons of the industry
Carl Click visited our living rooms for more than 30 years as part of Portland-Vancouver television, a reporter for Channel 8 and then Channel 2.
But he has been a consumer of the local market for even longer, growing up in Clark County.
So he watched all the reporters from the 1970s through today, and he listened to the radio voices from that era through today.
First, they were his heroes. Then many of them became his colleagues.
Now retired and living in Sisters, Ore., Click had the vision to reach out to some of those legends, record the conversations, and post them on his new podcast: PDX Media Good Old Days.
“There are so many people who have been on the air and who shaped Portland television and radio that I’m interested in going back and visiting with, and so would anyone else who grew up watching television or listening to radio in Portland,” Click said. “I can do this.”
His first interviews, with Kathy Smith and Craig Walker, posted recently at: www.anchor.fm/carl-click
The plan is to post others once a week or so.
Smith was a pioneer for women in the market. She talked about the battle for equality in a male-dominated world as well as the day Mickey Mantle showed his ugly side. She also talked about many of the wonderful moments she had as a professional and as a friend with so many people she has known in the business.
Did you know she once lit co-anchor Bill Lagattuta’s script on fire … while they were live on the air?
A lot of fun stories just like that can be found throughout the podcast.
Walker and Click also have a long history together. Click was there when Walker told his audience almost 30 years ago that he needed a liver transplant.
“He’s basically a medical miracle,” Click said.
And in a wild coincidence, Click, while in high school, was on a field trip to KGW studios back in the late 1970s. His class watched Walker do his radio show in the morning, and later the class was in studio when Smith anchored the noon news.
Four or five years later, Click began his internship at KGW and was working alongside those two. The relationships have been building for decades. That made for an easy choice as to the first two guests on the podcast.
A strong podcast has more than one or two episodes, though.
Over the weekend, Click posted his talk with former KOIN-TV anchor Mike Donahue. Later, it will be Lew Frederick, who is now an Oregon state senator. And maybe we’ll hear Lagattuta getting back at Smith for some of the pranks.
“I started writing down names of people I wanted to talk to. I came up with two dozen in a matter of five minutes,” Click said.
“Facebook is a great tool,” Click said, in tracking down his old friends or colleagues. “So far when I’ve contacted these people, they say, ‘Sounds fun. Let’s do it.’ Especially these days, it’s not hard to find the time.”
Besides the audio podcast, Click recorded the interviews on video, too. PDX Media Good Ole Days can be found at YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCoUVzN4X0rm0sezS1bXbSw
