TEXAS TV NEWS ANCHOR PERISHES Merrell Gregory, one of the first female TV news anchors in El Paso, TX dies of cancer at 66 in Asheville, NC on Friday, January 13, 2012. In the 1970s, as a native El Pasoan, Merrell anchors local news on KELP TV CH13 (now KVIA TV CH7). She also is a reporter at the El Paso Times and the El Paso Herald-Post, public relations director for Providence Memorial Hospital and the YWCA of El Paso. Her niece Merrell Foote, an Austin communications director, remembers: She's always been an inspiration for me and the entire family. I was named for her, and that's always been an honor. Merrell's last positions are as public relations director at Mission Hospital in Asheville, where she also is a reporter, columnist and city editor in the local newspaper. Gregory serves on the North Carolina Governor's Highway Safety Commission. According to her family, Gregory is an Army brat. Her dad is retired Colonel Alvin E. Fort of El Paso. In 1967, Merrell receives her bachelor's degree in English from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Merrell Gregory's survivors include her husband, Hugh Hamilton Gregory Jr.; daughters, Jess Gregory and June Gregory; son Jimmy Gregory; father; sister, Rolfe Godshalk and eight grandchildren. Her mother, June Fort, precedes her in death.

IF YOU THINK THIS ISSUE OF JRRR IS WORTH READING...Please forward this entire issue to five of your friends and associates! To subscribe to Jim Rose Remembers Radio send your full Name, City, State and Country of residence plus email address to Rosekkkj@earthlink.net.

TOP ALL-TIME TV ANCHOR TEAM FishbowlNY readers All-Time New York Anchor Team poll Top 5 countdown: #5 Rolland Smith and Jim Jensen (1975 to 1987) 4% of the vote; #4 Smith and Michele Marsh (1979 to 1987) 7%; #3 Jim Watkins and Kaity Tong (1998 to 2010) 9%; #2 Roger Grimsby and Bill Beutel (1970 to 1986) 26% and at #1 Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons (1980 to present) 33%. Scarborough tells FishbowlNY: It’s been an extraordinary privilege sharing an anchor desk with Sue Simmons for over three decades serving our viewers in the metropolitan area. Being chosen as their all-time favorite anchor team is both humbling and heartwarming. Chuck and Sue are on the air longer than any other anchor team in New York City history.

LETTERMAN CANS BRILL Political correctness seems to dominate our lives today. Eddie Brill who is a comedian talent booking agent for The Late Show with David Letterman loses his job after he makes comments in a New York Times profile that some consider sexist: ...there are a lot less female comics who are authentic. I see a lot of female comics who to please an audience will act like men. Those harmless words open up tsunami avalanche amongst soothsayers. In a 4 am post to new comedy publication Mirth's message board, Eddie tries to smooth out the criticisms of his comments. He says that his remarks are taken out of context when he describes established comedian Amy Schumer as a comedian's girlfriend because she previously dates fellow comedian Anthony Jeselnik. Jason Zinoman, the New York Times writer who profiles his post, says that the remarks are not taken out of context. Schmumer fires back: Eddie, is that my identity? 'That comedian’s girlfriend'? I would examine the possibility that you need more updating than you think. Brill explains: It is time for me to accept the consequences of my printed words...and to learn from this.

TRIVIA QUESTION: When does CBS TV News Correspondent Eric Sevareid retire? The answer appears below.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

•MARTHA STRWART at age 70 in tears after the Hall­mark Channel axes her The Martha Stewart Show due to high production costs and dismal rat­ings. The diva tells friends that she wants to win back young female viewers who turn off her show in droves by losing at least 25 pounds and shaving years off her looks even if it costs a mil­lion bucks to look like a million. •BETTY WHITE America's favorite Golden Girl TV hostess with the mostest turns 90 on Tuesday, January 17, 2012. •MUHAMMAD ALI (aka Cassius Clay) floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee as he rumbles in the jungle to 70 years old on Tuesday, January 17, 2012.

ENTERTAINMENT AND NEWS MILESTONES

•1958 KUED TV PBS CH 7 in Salt Lake City, UT begins broadcasting on January 20th. •1968 MERLE HAGGARD's single Sing Me Back Home lands at #1 in Billboard Country on January 20th. •1971 GILBERT M. [Broncho Billy] ANDERSON first Western movie star (The Great Train Robbery 1903) dies at 90 on January 20th. •1989 THE OAK RIDGE BOYS perform at the George W. Bush Presidential Inauguration on January 20th. •1996 BUSTER BENTON Chicago Blues singer/guitarist dies at 63 of diabetes on January 20th. •2001 SARA EVANS' single Born to Fly skyrockets to #1 in Billboard Country on January 20th.

EMAILS YES WE HAVE EMAIL

JIM TRAVIS [Jo] (Hot Springs, AR) Subject: Bill Bailey. Saddened to hear of the passing of Bill Bailey. I did not know him, but when I was at WINN radio in Louisville I met him once at an event. He was the Big Man in Town. I asked, "How long did it take for you to become the number one DJ in town?" He smiled and said. "About ten minutes." He was joking, but very probably right. He was a...good jock.

WHERE DO YOU READ JRRR? Tell us how far away from Houston, TX that you read JRRR. Got a news tip or a question? Send your full Name, City, State and Country of residence to Rosekkkj@earthlink.net.

JAY WEST (Houston, TX) Subject: Susan Anderson. Hello Jim, In your most recent newsletter you had published some info from Susan Anderson/KRLY-FM. Since I don't know how to reach her, I am hoping you can forward this to her. I was wondering if she remembered one of KRLY's early staff members by the name of Danny O'Brian ?? I think he was PD there for a while. I hired Danny when I was PD at a radio station in McAllen, Texas (Rio Grande Valley) KRIO...before he ended up here in Houston. Do you know that Danny is now the #2 man in the George Strait Management Organization. Danny is in charge of all of George's live concerts...and he answers only to George's personal manager Irv Woolsey. He and his wife are in charge of the huge George Strait Fan Club in Nashville, Tennessee also. If you don't know of Danny, then the above info is meaningless, I guess. I spent my final radio years as a DJ on KILT-am from Dec. '71-Sept. '76. If you were around then, you might recall a show I had called "Girls' Talk" daily from 10am-noon (weekdays). It followed Hudson & Harrigan daily.

JIM ROSE: From 1974-75 radio consultant Bill Young places me as host of Girl's Talk daily from 9am-noon M-F on Top 40 KFJZ-1270 in Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX.

JIM GOUGH [Mr. Texas-actor-voice actor] (Austin-Liberty Hill, TX) Subject: Jim Rose Remembers Radio (#1065) January 16, 2011 [Monday] I was glad to see Susan Anderson's email about KRLY in Houston. The little station was in the same building on Westheimer that my office was in for several years. It also housed TV channel 26, which was managed by Leroy Gloger at one time. Bob Anderson was a good friend and my small ad firm did many design projects for him as well as representing his station in the media. One of the staff members (and owners) of KRLY, Rob Waddell was a close friend of mine and we corresponded until his sudden death from a heart attack a few years ago. Rob and I signed on a small station in Corpus, KOUL, which has done very well over the years. Those were the days. Good to hear about you Susan. Jim Gough (http://jimgough.net/)

DR. BRUCE NELSON [GM/AM Drive DJ KFTX FM 97.5 Retired 12/31/2010] (Corpus Christi, TX) Subject: Jim Rose Remembers Radio (#1065) January 16, 2011 [Monday] I opened this and for a minute thought it was our Houston Bill Bailey...betcha I wasn't the only one...DrB (www.kftx.com)

TRIVIA ANSWER: Eric Sevareid is a journalist at the New York Herald Tribune's office in Paris, France when his writing catches the eye of news legend Edward R. Murrow. During the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, Murrow recruits Eric as a CBS News correspondent. Sevareid writes dozens of magazine articles, a syndicated newspaper column plus half a dozen books that include In One Ear (1952) and Small Sounds in the Night (1956). In 1977, at CBS' mandatory retirement age of 65, he retires after 46 years in broadcasting. In retirement, Sevareid writes, reads and fishes at his home in Washington and weekend cabin in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains. Eric Sevareid, one of America's most respected reporters and commentators, dies of stomach cancer at 79 on July 10, 1992.

BOB GRANT [Robert Hanger] (San Angelo, TX) Subject: Issue #1065, 1/16 JRRR. Jim: (FYI) Your closing quote by Ruth Brown does not show a death date. My files show R & B/Blues/Jazz singer, Ruth Brown, died of surgery complications @ 78, Nov. 17, 2006 in Henderson, NV. Known as "Miss Rhythm" & "The girl with a tear in her voice," was born Ruth Weston In Portsmouth, VA 1/12/28. She retained name of her first husband of 1945, Jimmie Brown, a trumpeter (Died 12/18/2006). She became a top-selling R & B artist for Atlantic Records in the 50's & also charted pop records, "Lucky Lips' and "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean," etc. She appeared in several movies, acted in TV roles, plus Broadway & L.A. musicals, including 1988's musical, "Black & Blue." She was inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 & the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. BOB.

GEORGE CARLIN (May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008) Who decides when the applause should die down? It seems like it's a group decision; everyone begins to say to themselves at the same time, "Well, okay, that's enough of that".

Jim Rose and Lacy
Houston, Texas - Laus Deo

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