Our first assignment for "5" was at Bridgeport Speedway, an oddity since neither of us knew a thing about stock car racing. But that didn't stop us.
Bob Shryock Channel 5, Woodbury's foray into cable television sports in the late 1970s, debuted a new executive producer, feisty Joe Durand, whose resume included producing the Johnny Carson show.
I drew the assignment of profiling Durand for the Courier-Post and wound up with an additional part-time job. Joe offered me a screen test, which I passed, and was on the ground floor of Channel 5's homespun approach to local news, especially sports.
I was paired with Mike Lindner for the next 20 years, a lucky break for me because Mike, who had been Clayton head football coach and later a staffer at Gloucester County College, was a TV natural with a great gift of gab. We teamed well with Mike's color commentary a nice compliment to my play-by-play. Mike knew his football. Actually, he knew virtually every sport, although he'd be the first to admit wrestling wasn't his forte (mine either, for that matter).
Our first assignment for "5" was at Bridgeport Speedway, an oddity since neither of us knew a thing about stock car racing. But that didn't stop us.
Mike, retired and living the good life in beautiful Strathmere, has a clear recollection of that infamous Saturday night, in a nice email sent by him:
"I remember the first opening where I famously went down to the track fence resulting in me getting hit by the mud thrown up by the cars as they came flying by during my opening standup. I guess we were like the young kids from those old movies who get together and say, 'Hey, let's put on a show.'"
Mike and I worked hundreds of games together over the years, mostly the four major sports, commanding the princely sum of $20 per gig until granted a small salary boost.
"What great times they were," Mike reflects. "I've often felt we were able to give many young people the thrill of hearing their names called, and, hopefully, many of them still have tapes of their games. I still believe our creed of trying to see only the positives in those games by reminding ourselves the games were going to be shown 20 to 30 years later to those players' kids and grandkids was the way to approach our coverage.
"We were fortunate to cover the 'greats' of that era and to have worked with some highly talented colleagues on the crew too numerous to mention but a few, like Stan Ritter, John Mondelli, Fred Boughter and Eileen Dennery who were almost always there.
"The other highlight each year was Channel 5's live election coverage. It was seat of the pants coverage at best. But you would think we had a production team of 50, at least, according to people I still meet who remind me of those days.
"Good thing we had our buddy Harris Cotton on the team who could tell us 'which way the wind was blowing.' Harris was so much fun."
Mike and I won't soon forget the election night Harris was nowhere to be found at Board of Elections headquarters when Stan Ritter called for a midnight wrap.
While Mike and I were busy trying to put together our own wrap, Harris was finally located.
Owner of Courthouse Cafe up the street on Delaware St., Harris was sitting at his bar, having a drink, and chuckling while watching us on monitor.
Mike added, "We tried our best and hopefully we gave a lot of people some thrills and, yes, now their kids and grandkids are watching those well-preserved tapes from years ago."