A new meme?
Mike over at Franklin Avenue noted that it’s been 10 years since he moved to Los Angeles. And at the end of his post, he writes:
My first day in Los Angeles, after finally finding my hotel, I popped on the TV and watched the news. The lead story? The suicide death of former “Family Feud” host Ray Combs.
If life were a cliche, I would have taken some big lesson out of my first moments in Los Angeles: I’m moving to a town that turns even mild-mannered game show hosts to suicide.
But life isn’t always a cliche, although my first impressions were just as valuable: I’m moving to a town that leads its local newscasts with news of a mostly unknown ex-game show host offing himself.
Reading this, I immediately thought that this might make an interesting blog meme. What was in the news when you moved to Los Angeles? Seems like everyone here is from somewhere else, so it could make for some interesting stories. Post it here or in your blog and leave a pointer to it here. I’d like to see it.
In my case, it was July, 1982. I was just out of college and the first week I was here the big news was the “Twilight Zone” helicopter crash. I’d never really thought before about where movies came from, and that there were actual people whose job was to make movies, and that sometimes things can go wrong. I found that collision of reality and illusion kind of jarring and also strangely fascinating.
So, for everyone who moved to L.A., what was in the news when you got here?
May 25th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
When I moved to L.A., it was 1977 and I had just left high school. I moved into a building with about 55 guys, 5 women, and no TV. There must have been newspapers, but I didn’t look much. I don’t think I knew what was in the news until Christmas.
There was something about high gas prices around then, but I also didn’t have a car.
May 25th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
Yeah, well that was just because you were at Caltech. It’s easy to lose track of the outside world when you’re there… 😉
May 28th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Well, I can’t take part in the meme, because I’ve never moved to LA and have no intention of doing so now.
But your mention of Ray Combe caught my eye. I can’t remember if this was during his tenure on Family Feud or not, but he made a personal appearance on the morning drive time show on St. Louis station KSHE-FM. During his appearance he went on in nauseating detail about how faithful he was to his wife, and how he’d never, EVER cheat on her.
While this was going on on-the-air, the woman that Combs had picked up the night before and taken back to his hotel room for an evening of hot sex called the radio station, and the show’s producer interviewed her in great detail about the previous evening’s entertainment. The producer managed to get each of the show’s two hosts off mike and away from Combs long enough to agree to the woman’s suggested plan….
After a commercial break, the hosts suggested Combs take calls from the listening audience. First caller was, of course, his concubine from the previous night, who embarassed him greatly live and on the air.
I always thought it was one of the great moments in St. Louis Radio History…..