OH 004_Robert Merritt

Partial Transcript: JK: We’re here at the Laguna Woods History Center with Rob Merritt on October 29th, 2016. My first question for you was, “The first time you heard about Laguna Woods, or Village at the time, what did you hear?”
RM: I was at Cal State Fullerton majoring in Communications and one of the requirements to get a degree there, at least at that time, was an internship program. So, one of the internships that was available was down here in Laguna Woods. And so that was actually the first from my advisor at Cal State Fullerton. And they said, “You know, you need to do an internship, a little TV station down there in Leisure World. You want to check that out. That might work for you.
JK: And what was the community…Go ahead.
RM: I knew about Leisure World in that it was being built down here. And it was kinda all over the place. In fact, one year I was taking a…I want to say Geology class. And we actually took a field trip down here among other places. And the professor was talking about how the hills were being mowed down so to speak to make it from ranch land which this used to be to homes for people 55 and over. Of course at that time in, you know, the mid 60s, 55 seemed really, really a long way from me. Now it’s, you know, in my…in my past, but at that time it seemed like far away. So, that was my first exposure physically to be down here was through that class field trip.
JK: And what did they show you? Were they…the homes or just the land?
RM: It was just being…No, they were just grading at that time.
JK: Grading. Okay.
RM: Yeah. I think they maybe had this…this part, the earlier part was maybe already built.
JK: Okay.
RM: They were grading the hills for what became Third Mutual.
JK: Excellent. And upon coming here with your internship, what was the community like at that time?
RM: Well, it was small. They only had two clubhouses. In fact, Clubhouse 2, which was going through a rehab right now, was the brand new clubhouse. So, Clubhouse 1 was the only other clubhouse that they had. And they only had basically phases one and parts of phase two which is again the co-op area down here around Gates 1-6. So, that was all that was here. I think the community was maybe tighter knit at that time because there were fewer people so it was easier for people to get to know each other.
JK: And what other amenities did they have at that point?
RM: They had the pools. They had, I think, some of the golf courses were here. The stables, that seemed to be a big deal. In fact, they had a stable and I know Mr. Cortese made a big deal out about that. He thought that was unique and would be a draw for some people. So, they had the two clubhouses, a couple of pools, and the stables, the golf course.
JK: And you arrive at the station which is incidentally your pool one you shared.
RM: Right. Right.
JK: So, would you share about your first day as much as you can of just arriving as an intern and what maybe the station was like just early on?

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords: amenities; Cal State Fullerton; Clubhouse 1; Clubhouse 2; clubhouses; co-op; community; internship; internship program; Laguna Woods; Laguna Woods History Center; Laguna Woods Village; Mr. Cortese; Third Mutual; TV station

Subjects:

Partial Transcript: RM: Sure. There was a gentleman who was at that point the acting station manager. I found out later he was the assistant station manager. The station manager was away on a medical leave. And there was like two younger fellas, maybe a little bit older than me, in production. That was pretty much it and at that point everything was live. So, there were resident-run shows, primarily. And it was literally live TV like it was back in the early days of, you know, the so-called Golden Age of Television. A resident would come in, they’d set them down, put a mic on them, there would be a slide on the air - coming up next is so and so, go to that person live and hopefully their mic worked and hopefully the camera was in focus and they did their thing.
JK: And this was 1969. So…
RM: 1960…Yeah, 1969. January or February of ’69 was when I started.
JK: Okay. Great. You had mentioned the shows were black and white.
RM: Yes.
JK: Would you share a bit more about maybe the mechanics of the show and the technology that you were working with?
RM: Sure. It was…it was basic TV. They had actually a third camera, they had rented a smaller camera with a zoom lens from some place. So, there were…all the equipment was industrial. So, the picture quality was whatever. The other two main cameras were, what they call, tura lenses which is something you probably never saw in school. And you actually…manually actually had to flip to go from say a 25 millimeter to a 50 millimeter to a 75 millimeter lense. So, you actually physically turned a tura. So you obviously couldn’t do that live on the air, so they had to go to the other camera so you could change your shot if you needed to get a closer or wider shot. Then you had to focus in. Yeah, it was pretty interesting to try and cope with that. Video switching was pretty much basic, you know, black camera 1, camera 2, and I think a slide projector. Most of the shows were live. I don’t think anything was being recorded at that time.
JK: And you mentioned it was an outside production company at this point.
RM: Right. It was a company that the community had hired to run the studio, the TV station. My understanding was the station had…the fellows that started had sort of made their own jobs. In that they came down here and talked to the Rossmoor people, Rossmoor Corporation people. And they said, “We’re new college graduates, you know, just out of Long Beach State and we’re interested in getting into broadcasting. Is there some way we could do a radio program for seniors?” And they said, “Well, actually we have an empty channel on our cable system. Would you want to do a TV station?” Well, we don’t have any equipment. Well, we know some equipment. The cameras they got were used. They were actually ones that NASA used to use back in the 50s. So, they were more of an industrial type camera rather than a professional broadcast camera. But, they got two cameras and the basic equipment to get them on the air. So, that was how it got started and they were, you know, primarily working for the residents under contract which they held through the end of ’69.
JK: And the…it actually…I looked it up, it started in ’67. So, your internship was just a few years into the starting.
RM: Right.
JK: So, you were really in the early years of this whole phenomenon of media for the community. So…
RM: Well, true. With the studio at that time was in what is now that three-story apartment building. Original studio was in Clubhouse 1 and I remember some years later going over there for some other reason and still seeing some of the wiring up in the attic, for…at Clubhouse 1 that used to be the original studio. Original studio was in Clubhouse 1. I understand the gentleman that was the first on air talent was a name that people who were familiar with music in the ’40s will remember, Harry Babbitt was the guy. He was a big band singer. He’d been the big band singer with Kay Kyser at his college of musical knowledge which was a very popular radio show. And he had done that for years. And he then was working for Mr. Cortese in public relations. So, he was the first host, if you will, on Channel 6 and interviewed residents and members of staff and all that over at Clubhouse 1.
JK: Would you share a bit more about your programming? So, you had residents, you have community events you’re featuring. So, maybe a bit more…earlier?
RM: Yeah, pretty much all the shows were resident run or staff run. We had a program that was the gentleman who was the administrator at that time, prior to getting general managers they used the term administrator. And the gentleman who was there when I was there was Robert Price, who was actually the last person to hold the title of administrator. So, his show was on every Thursday. It was called Administrative Chat and he made jokes about Mayor La Guardia who used to read the newspaper to people during the 30s who couldn’t afford the newspaper. He would do his radio show and read the funnies to the kids and all that. So, he compared himself to Mayor La Guardia, but he basically talked about things that were in the newspaper that week, The Leisure World News as it was called then, and also then answered questions. And he had a couple of his office staff by the phones to answer the phones. Oh, one interesting fact, because there was no offices, there was an office, but the guys we worked for kept it locked up because they kept their stuff in there. So, we didn’t have offices so we used for desks out in the studio and our phones had a kill switch on the ringer. So, you couldn’t…so they would blink so if you were to get a phone call…
JK: Wow (laughter).
RM: So, these people would sit there and answer the questions and write them down. They would hand them to Mr. Price and he would say, “Oh, here’s somebody over near Gate 2 and they want to know about, you know, whatever.”
JK: Neat.
RM: Yeah. Yeah.
JK: You would really get the heartbeat of the community by having those questions getting answered. It’s wonderful.
RM: Yeah. And the old saying is I guess for...some factor of every person that calls or writes in, there’s a[n] X number of times so many people have that same question. So, his feeling was well, if I’m getting this question a lot, there must be an interest in that particular area.
JK: Neat. So, as an early grad, I read this article from the OC Register that mentioned your retirement. So that we’ll mention later, but they pose a question why this village and just kind of your interest and [choices] as your destination for your whole profession.
RM: Right.
JK: So, I’m curious…
RM: Yeah.
JK: …if you kind of re-state here…
RM: Sure. Well, you know, at the time…at the time I was…as an intern, we lived in La Habra so it was quite a drive, but I figured, you know, this might be a good place to…as, you know, Ted Baxter used to say, start the, you know, 500 watt FM station in Fresno, or whatever. So, I figured, well, let me apply here because it was a known quantity. I knew the people who worked here and all that. I knew they were going through…something going on intercompany so we speak. They were going through some issues. So, I put an application in. It was just sort of always easy to stay here. We moved to Irvine, so it was a nice, easy commute. I was driving south while everybody else was driving north on the 5 Freeway, so that was very convenient. We like Irvine. Irvine has good schools so our kids went to the schools in Irvine. My wife worked for the Irvine School District so that worked out well. So, I just never really had, other than maybe one or two other opportunities to explore anything else. We did a series when the new Home Savings was built down here. And we had some of the…Harry von Zell was their spokesman at that time. And some of his friends from Razor Radio were down here. One gentleman who had done radio work was doing voiceover work, was an announcer, you know, behind the scenes. He’s the person you hear during the commercial break at…this happened to be Channel 5. So, I went down there one night as his guest to see the place and they let me sit in the newsroom, in the control…the news program. And people were swearing and throwing papers and going crazy. I’m going like, “This is…this is like ulcer city down here.” So, that…he said, you know, you want to come back and apply. I said, “Well, let me think about it.” I went home and talked to my wife and I said, you know, [it] seemed like too much of a hassle. This was a known quantity, you know, it wasn’t the big broadcast. But it was…it was what I was in…what I was doing and it seemed to click, so.
00:10:39 JK: And you said you worked with a fellow Titan at…here. You had a colleague from your program.
RM: Right. George Phelps, a co-worker. They hired him a little bit after they hired me. They hired me in June of ’69.
JK: Okay.
RM: I think they hired George in maybe August of ’69. He had done his internship somewhere else and had heard about the station and came down and applied. So, they hired him as well. So, he and I worked together until he retired in about 2002.
JK: Wow. And coming in, how did you use all your training and just insight in…with radio tv film?
RM: Right.
JK: Did you have a strong vision of how you wanted the whole channel to go?
RM: The…part of the deal was that at that time at Cal State Fullerton we didn’t really have a lot of hands-on technical stuff. We didn’t do, we didn’t run the machines for our radio stuff. We went to Cal State Los Angeles to shoot our one TV news show because there weren’t really any on-campus cameras available. The only cameras on campus were the Drama Department who kept them pretty much locked up. So, to do our final radio TV film, radio TV news public affairs news program we had to go to Cal State Los Angeles. So, it didn’t get a lot hands-on I guess, to answer your question. So, a lot of that was learned on the job and a couple of other part-time places I worked…physically hands-on camera operation, learned that part of it. Switching and directing was kind of like you learned as you go, unfortunately. So, I think kids are better prepared now as they do their internship to maybe have a little better technical background. Plus, the equipment changes all the time.
JK: Right.
RM: Everything now is digital. It’s on servers. Very little…sometimes people don’t even use tape anymore. So, a lot…it changed a lot.
JK: Well, you were here and you mentioned some of the early founders…
RM: Right.
JK: …as being…having shaped the community and getting to be a part of your show. Would you share what you knew about Ross coming into the community and the corporation?
RM: Ross Cortese. As I said, I never interviewed myself, but a couple of residents were able…we had several resident-run shows at the early years. And they were able to get him down here. It was a situation where you had…apparently the rules were you could build a community, you could sell a community with the same company, but you couldn’t manage that community. So, the community was being sold, built and sold by Rossmoor and their sales division Oaklawn Homes, but the community’s being managed by professional community management. So, there were some, I guess some tensions or issues, so they weren’t so much for having them on. We were working for, by that time, working for the cable operator. So, we were sort of trying to be sensitive to management and what their needs were. But, two residents did have him on, you know, they asked the questions they wanted to ask him about, things I don’t recall. All that much about the interview other than I thought it was neat to have him down here.
JK: For sure.
RM: But, and of course they were still building at that time.
JK: You mentioned about the antennae and the planned community. Would you share that…just anecdote?
RM: Right. When the community first started, they had what was called an MA TV system, master antennae system. And there was a large antennae at Clubhouse 1. That’s the same area now where the Amateur Radio Club is, I believe. And that antenna was physically wired to the first few hundred homes here. That worked for a while, but eventually they found out that the signal was getting pretty thin. So, they had to really put in a real cable system. And what is now, well they call Fourth Mutual up on the hill, that area is where the satellite dishes ended up and all the antennas. At first, it was just antennas picking up the Los Angeles stations, then a couple from San Diego. And then eventually they went to satellite dishes and added, you know, all the channels that they have now. That evolved over, you know, twenty-five years.
JK: Would you share about Rossmoor Electric Company?
00:14:34 RM: Sure. Rossmoor Electric, the community started, as I said, they found that the cable system needed to get built. They needed to build a real cable system here. So, Rossmoor Electric was the company that actually finished the construction on that. And then because of the warranty situation with the Rossmoor Corporation, they ran the warranty for the first year of new homes in the community. In ’69, at the end of ’69, when the previous production company got into negotiations with the community, they weren’t renewed. And the community said, “But we want to keep the station.” So, they went to the gentleman that ran the Rossmoor Electric, Ivan Foley, and said, “We’d like you to take over Channel 6.” And he said, “Well, I’m not really interested in that. I don’t know much about television. I don’t really have any people that could run that. And they said, “Well, hire some of those kids that are over there now, which was myself and George and the gentleman who at that point was then…had been promoted from assistant station manager to station manager. So, the three of us ran Channel 6 in 1970. Christmas vacation of ’69 was not spent with our families. It was spent down here. And we rewired the whole studio. Two of the technicians from Rossmoor Electric were there and kind of guided us through that process. So, we rewired everything, still in black and white, but brought in…make it as good as we could for black and white for that first few years.
JK: It’s quite an effort, an undertaking.
RM: Yeah, and somebody who had never done a lot of electronics or stuff it was sort of new, you know, pulling wires and all that kind of stuff.
JK: Imagine.
RM: Yeah, it was interesting.
JK: You had mentioned that the PR team saved the station in ’70 and ’71.
RM: Yeah.
JK: So, how…what did they do exactly with marketing to really…? Did the community embrace it?
RM: Sure. There was, um, some of the board members at that point felt that Channel 6 was an unnecessary expenditure. And there were actually board members who were trying to make the station be closed, to get rid of Channel 6. So, Rossmoor Electric hired a lady from Laguna Beach who came down looking for a job, quite frankly, Carolyn Wood was her name. And they said, you know, your job is to kind of help save the station. So, we started having open houses, which was one thing that was popular. People always liked to see something that they can’t really see on normally. So, you know, albeit…it was a really simple facility. People liked to come down and see the control room, meet the staff and all that. So, we started doing that, doing more speaking engagements with clubs and organizations, doing slideshows. My co-worker George, a very good photographer, so we did a lot…used a lot of his photography work to [do] slide presentations on the station and showing our different programs and all of that. We got also a volunteer program started, which worked out very well. We had a lady, her name was Eleanor Marquis, and she referred to herself as our den mother. And she would come down just as a volunteer because she said there was nobody answering the phones. I told you about the hokey phone situation, so we finally got our front office, but we were running back and forth, you know, trying to do production, do our shows, and then answering the phones. So, she said, “Well, let me come down a few hours and answer the phones. So, we got a pretty active, at that point, a volunteer program, which lasted ’til about I think 2007 or eight that lasted. So, that worked out well and we had residents doing all kinds of things. But, that was a big deal was to get resident involvement. And then speaking to clubs and organizations was a big deal. And also having on the board members which were the people that had the final say so on, you know, yes or no on the station. So, obviously we made the cut because we were still there, but survived that. They also hired another person in public relations another Rob, Rob Cromwell, who was a PR major from Cal State Fullerton. We did things like, um, we even ended up getting a printing press, printing documents for people just as a kind of community service thing to, you know, ingratiate ourselves if you will, to some extent, but really work with the community. We started having more of the clubs and organizations on different groups and all, we learned about bocce from the bocce people. We had the…the gentleman from the gun club on talking about what their fishing experiences were. We had the golf pro on, which people liked to play golf. So, we had that show so we did a lot of…trying to get as much community involvement as possible. We covered the 25th, 20th and the 25th annual parades which were right down the street coming right by where this building is now by the library. So, of course our studio was here. We got long camera cables and went out by the street and actually covered the parade live, so.
JK: Wow.
RM: That was kind of interesting and fun.
JK: I’m sure the community enjoyed getting to see the residents featured in that way.
RM: Yeah.
JK: It’s such a neat rapport. So, it’s wonderful.
RM: Yeah. It was a challenge, but we as we say, we worked hard to make it, you know, make it work, so.
JK: Eventually, in ’72, you mentioned the long-term contract change and to switch to color. Is that correct?

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords: 1969; 1970; 2007; Administrative Chat; administrator; Amateur Radio Club; assistant station manager; board members; cable system; Cal State Fullerton; Cal State Los Angeles; Carolyn Wood; Channel 5; Channel 6; Clubhouse 1; clubs; co-worker; community; Eleanor Marquis; Fourth Mutual; general managers; George Phelps; Harry Babbitt; Harry von Zell; Home Savings; intern; Irvine; Irvine School District; Ivan Foley; Kay Kyser; Long Beach State; Los Angeles; master antennae system; Mayor La Guardia; Mr. Cortese; news program; newsroom; Oaklawn Homes; OC Register; parades; PR team; production; production company; radio TV film; Razor Radio; resident-run shows; Rob Cromwell; Robert Price; Ross Cortese; Rossmoor Corporation; Rossmoor Electric Company; San Diego; satellite dishes; station manager; studio; technology; The Leisure World New; volunteer program

Subjects:

Partial Transcript: RM: Sure. Rossmoor Electric, the community started, as I said, they found that the cable system needed to get built. They needed to build a real cable system here. So, Rossmoor Electric was the company that actually finished the construction on that. And then because of the warranty situation with the Rossmoor Corporation, they ran the warranty for the first year of new homes in the community. In ’69, at the end of ’69, when the previous production company got into negotiations with the community, they weren’t renewed. And the community said, “But we want to keep the station.” So, they went to the gentleman that ran the Rossmoor Electric, Ivan Foley, and said, “We’d like you to take over Channel 6.” And he said, “Well, I’m not really interested in that. I don’t know much about television. I don’t really have any people that could run that. And they said, “Well, hire some of those kids that are over there now, which was myself and George and the gentleman who at that point was then…had been promoted from assistant station manager to station manager. So, the three of us ran Channel 6 in 1970. Christmas vacation of ’69 was not spent with our families. It was spent down here. And we rewired the whole studio. Two of the technicians from Rossmoor Electric were there and kind of guided us through that process. So, we rewired everything, still in black and white, but brought in…make it as good as we could for black and white for that first few years.
JK: It’s quite an effort, an undertaking.
RM: Yeah, and somebody who had never done a lot of electronics or stuff it was sort of new, you know, pulling wires and all that kind of stuff.
JK: Imagine.
RM: Yeah, it was interesting.
JK: You had mentioned that the PR team saved the station in ’70 and ’71.
RM: Yeah.
JK: So, how…what did they do exactly with marketing to really…? Did the community embrace it?
RM: Sure. There was, um, some of the board members at that point felt that Channel 6 was an unnecessary expenditure. And there were actually board members who were trying to make the station be closed, to get rid of Channel 6. So, Rossmoor Electric hired a lady from Laguna Beach who came down looking for a job, quite frankly, Carolyn Wood was her name. And they said, you know, your job is to kind of help save the station. So, we started having open houses, which was one thing that was popular. People always liked to see something that they can’t really see on normally. So, you know, albeit…it was a really simple facility. People liked to come down and see the control room, meet the staff and all that. So, we started doing that, doing more speaking engagements with clubs and organizations, doing slideshows. My co-worker George, a very good photographer, so we did a lot…used a lot of his photography work to [do] slide presentations on the station and showing our different programs and all of that. We got also a volunteer program started, which worked out very well. We had a lady, her name was Eleanor Marquis, and she referred to herself as our den mother. And she would come down just as a volunteer because she said there was nobody answering the phones. I told you about the hokey phone situation, so we finally got our front office, but we were running back and forth, you know, trying to do production, do our shows, and then answering the phones. So, she said, “Well, let me come down a few hours and answer the phones. So, we got a pretty active, at that point, a volunteer program, which lasted ’til about I think 2007 or eight that lasted. So, that worked out well and we had residents doing all kinds of things. But, that was a big deal was to get resident involvement. And then speaking to clubs and organizations was a big deal. And also having on the board members which were the people that had the final say so on, you know, yes or no on the station. So, obviously we made the cut because we were still there, but survived that. They also hired another person in public relations another Rob, Rob Cromwell, who was a PR major from Cal State Fullerton. We did things like, um, we even ended up getting a printing press, printing documents for people just as a kind of community service thing to, you know, ingratiate ourselves if you will, to some extent, but really work with the community. We started having more of the clubs and organizations on different groups and all, we learned about bocce from the bocce people. We had the…the gentleman from the gun club on talking about what their fishing experiences were. We had the golf pro on, which people liked to play golf. So, we had that show so we did a lot of…trying to get as much community involvement as possible. We covered the 25th, 20th and the 25th annual parades which were right down the street coming right by where this building is now by the library. So, of course our studio was here. We got long camera cables and went out by the street and actually covered the parade live, so.
JK: Wow.
RM: That was kind of interesting and fun.
JK: I’m sure the community enjoyed getting to see the residents featured in that way.
RM: Yeah.
JK: It’s such a neat rapport. So, it’s wonderful.
RM: Yeah. It was a challenge, but we as we say, we worked hard to make it, you know, make it work, so.
JK: Eventually, in ’72, you mentioned the long-term contract change and to switch to color. Is that correct?

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords: 1969; 1970; 1971; 1972; 2007; 2008; 20th annual parade; 25th annual parade; assistant station manager; board members; cable system; Cal State Fullerton; Carolyn Wood; Channel 6; clubs; co-worker; community; construction; control room; Eleanor Marquis; George; homes; Ivan Foley; Laguna Beach; organizations; phones; PR team; printing press; production; public relations; residents; Rob Cromwell; Rossmoor Electric; shows; station; station manager; technicians; television; volunteer; volunteer program; warranty

Subjects:

Partial Transcript: RM: Right. There was a…we felt that that would make the station even better to have color cameras, but to justify because the company that did the production, Rossmoor Electric, owned all the equipment at that point. So, to justify the expenditure to get new equipment, they wanted a long-term contract. So, Mr. Foley sat down with the community people and negotiated a longer-term contract which then justified the expenditure to get the cameras. So, went color…we had a gentleman that was a…worked at actually NBC Channel 4, but was very knowledgeable about RCA equipment so we got some small RCA cameras. At that particular time, the FCC was encouraging all cable systems to do what they call local origination programming done by the cable operator. Not such a big deal now, but it was a big deal back then. So, they built…RCA built a small camera for what they called cable casting use. And we got a couple of those. We’re on our way with color.
JK: And what did the community say about the change?
RM: Just…it was positive, they said. We did a one day test, we borrowed some equipment to do a one day test in color. We got positive feedback and so that was what led to the negotiations for the long-term contract, which then justified getting the equipment. So, yeah, we got good response. We also got a color film chain so we were able to show films in color. And we were actually, believe it or not, it was film film. So, you learned to thread film really fast in a projector. You learned to deal with splices and breaks in the film and it was fun. We showed a lot of, you know, we showed a lot industrial type movies, you know. For example, a movie on fishing that every time they would show the back of the boat, it would be an Evinrude outboard motor as an example or, you know, they would show something about an oil…how oil is made into gasoline. But, it was always the same logo for the same companies, so they were industrial. Industrial films that had information and then we also got a show once a week from the L.A. Rams. I drove up to Long Beach to their practice facility and exchanged the film every week. So, it was a game highlight film done by NFL films, which is still a very well-respected in the production field. So, we were showing those. Of course, that was the old Los Angeles Rams not the new Los Angeles Rams.
JK: Right. They’re back.
RM: They are back.
JK: You mentioned just a bit ago about Bob Price and the Clubhouse 1 Q & A session. So, would you share a little bit more about the formatting, about how Bob interacted on the air?

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords: Bob Price; cable casting; cable systems; cameras; Clubhouse 1; color cameras; community; company; contract; equipment; FCC; film; L.A. Rams; local origination programming; Long Beach; Mr. Foley; NBC Channel 4; NFL; production; Rossmoor Electric; station

Subjects:

Partial Transcript: RM: Sure. As I said, the program was called Administrative Chat and I think he had started at Clubhouse 1 with Mr. Babbitt, but then over in the studio. So, he was his own…he was his own host and it was very much, you know, sits down, puts his mic on and says, “Well, welcome to Administrative Chat,” and if there were no questions at that point, carry over questions or new questions, he would just start thumbing through the Leisure World News and say, “Oh, here on page three, there’s an article about the new pool or the new club or something that’s going on, a church is being built in the community. He would just kind of talk about that, relay sort of ’til he got…’til he got questions. And then he would deal with the questions and let on like that for half an hour. And eventually we actually started recording that and showing it back during the week as well, so.
JK: And someone else took another part in this.
RM: One of his assistants, a gentleman who they felt they were getting a lot of questions back then because there was a lot of new construction, a lot of things going on. So, they started Chat Part II. So, we had Chat…Chat on Thursday and Chat Part II on Tuesday which sometimes was a follow-up to the previous weeks, questions that didn’t get answered.
JK: And you also did board meetings at this point? Is that correct? Or is this later?
RM: We didn’t start doing board meetings until I think about ’83.
JK: ’83, okay.
RM: As I recall, it was Third Mutual who came to us and said, “We’re getting some controversial issues and some questions.” They had changed a lot. When I first started working here, residents were not allowed to go to the board meetings. And the state law changed, they had to open those board meetings up.
JK: Wow.
RM: We used to go and sometimes sit in on those and take notes and do interviews, but the residents couldn’t attend, but then they started letting the residents attend I want to say the early 80s, might have been sooner. So, by ’83, there was an interest in that so they said, “Is there any way you guys could televise the meetings which meant for us taking our cameras down going over to the board room, hooking them back up, re-timing everything and going live at 9:30, so. For those couple of years we actually would pre-tape the news that day which is 8:30 to 9:30, show that on tape so we had that hour to set up over in the board room. And then when we’re done, took cameras back out, take them back in the studio, put them back out, re-time everything. So, that was fun, that was, you know, we did that for several years. Actually, ’til they moved to the new building and we did it there for several years as well. By the new building, I mean the current Administrative Building. And then eventually they got robotics in there. That’s a lot easier now.
JK: Would you share a bit about the new technology with robotics and more modern…?
RM: Sure. Again, that was a matter of at that point, we were working for PCM so that was in the 2000 years. And again, we made the case that, you know, it would be…would be easier, it would be better we could do it…we could do a live news show on those days. It would also give us flexibility, but also allow us if there was something important that came up for example some emergency or something. They could go live from the board room and broadcast from there. There had been a lot of work because of some of the earthquake interests around the community. They started the disaster group, preparedness group and we said, you know, that would be a good way. If there was ever a[n] emergency, we could go live from the board room and/or live from the studio and keep the residents informed. That way, if there was a[n] emergency situation. So, all that combined with it made it easier for everybody involved and they put in the robotics. And I believe it’s still four cameras, I haven’t been there for a few years, but it was four cameras when I left, in the board room.
JK: You also featured politics. So, you mentioned the OC supervisors, the local mayor took a role…
RM: Right.
JK: …in broadcasting. So, would you share about how you paired up with these local leaders?

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords: 1983; 2000; Administrative Building; Administrative Chat; board meetings; board room; cameras; Chat Part II; Clubhouse 1; disaster group; Leisure World News; live news show; meetings; Mr. Babbitt; PCM; program; residents; robotics; studio; Third Mutual

Subjects:

Partial Transcript: RM: Sure. We started out, of course, when we first started here we weren’t a city. There wasn’t…no city of Laguna Woods. So, we were part of the county, so the county supervisors were very important and we would have the supervisor honor representatives from the different aspects, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, those kind of people on. When cityhood came around, we obviously gave a lot of coverage to the march to cityhood, which was motivated to a large extent by the closing of the El Toro Marine base. And some people wanted to make it into a commercial airport, which the residents were definitely against. They tolerated the marines because it was national defense and they said, you know, quote unquote, “They’re our guys.” But when the commercial airport concept came around it was very unpopular in this community. Most of the residents were opposed to that. So, that’s what got the move to cityhood although it took three elections to finally get cityhood here. It was going to be a part of Laguna Hills, originally and then eventually it was just its…just this community of Laguna Woods and a little bit of surrounding area. So, we had the people that were running the campaign as well as the new members of the…the first members of the city council. And subsequently, we had all of them on over the years - the ones [who] would give a report after each meeting, sort of like the board meetings. We would have the board member president on the day after those Tuesday board meetings and talk about what went on for those who might have missed the meeting. It also allowed us to promote the replay, you know, if you missed the meeting, you could see the replay on this time and this day. We found that that was a really good way to maximize our work was to record things and play it back. So, you got a different audience and you got, you know, the same amount of work, but it was multiplied by two or three times by showing it again, give people a chance to see it and they might have been out doing something else or missed it. So, we had those folks on. We also started working with our congress people. We would have them on, school board people to some extent would want to come on even though people here weren’t in school, still they were paying taxes on the schools. And, of course, the college was very popular, Saddleback College, started the Emeritus Institute, which provided classes right here in the village, classes for seniors. So, we had those folks on as well from the college and then the start of the new college at the Irvine as well. So, we covered a lot of those things, but the city council was the big one once the city came around…here in the community.
JK: I think you definitely shaped the vote in many respects. Media has such a powerful impact on just local living. So, I’ve always wondered how much…
RM: Yeah.
JK: …how much that could affect the dynamic.
RM: We were in an interesting situation in that we, you know, as they say, “No horse in the race.” But…the most of the board members were for cityhood. There were some residents who were opposed to it and we got some information from them as well and it was a close vote. The votes were actually tabulated in what was the old Administrative Building so we heard they…the whoop of joy from the gentleman who was sort of one of the backers of it, Bob Ring, and he came running down the hall and he’s screaming, we’re on the air live covering this, and he’s going, “We made it. We made it. We made it by just a few votes!” I don’t know the number, but it was pretty close. So, that, of course, was very exciting in the new city council. So, they started meeting in the Administration Building as well. We started covering their meetings also. But eventually they got their own channel which is Channel 31, which is the city’s channel. So, they do some programming and Channel 6, I think, still covers…provides the crew to cover their meetings as well for Channel 31. And they, again, have gone to robotics as well in the city hall.
JK: I think it’s neat that you were there live to show the monumental moment in the community’s history, so.
RM: Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty amazing. And, you know, there were some residents who didn’t like the idea, but most of them did, enough did and enough came out and voted. It was interesting because sometimes people don’t share the information with everybody and somebody had forgotten to tell security that there was going to be a vote that night and there was a gentleman with a big box full of ballots pounding on the door by security. And the security guard’s going like this. He’s going like this. Somebody had to go intervene and say, “No, let this guy in. He’s got the ballots from one of the precincts.” We need to get him in and count them, you know. So, it was interesting.
JK: I wanted to take it back just to the first show you went live, the Mr. X Dinner.

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords: Administration Building; Administrative Building; ballots; board meetings; Bob Ring; campaign; Channel 31; Channel 6; city; city council; city hall; cityhood; commercial airport; community; congress; county; county supervisors; El Toro Marine base; Emeritus Institute; Laguna Hills; Laguna Woods; Orange County Sheriff’s Department; residents; Saddleback College; school board; vote

Subjects:

Partial Transcript: RM: Right.
JK: At Clubhouse 1.
RM: Right.
JK: So, would you share what that event was designed for…what it was about and then going live for it for our listeners?
RM: Alright. When this place started it was pre-Medicare when this community started. So, Mr. Cortese provided a medical clinic over on the area which is now Saddleback Hospital. And it was open to the residents and it was sort of a program for the residents with doctors and nurses on staff that were there. In fact, they had 24 hour on-call, there were no paramedics at that time either down here. My understanding, so the story goes, the day after Medicare passed in Washington, Mr. Cortese’s chauffeur drove him over to the site of the what it now the hospital, which was the medical clinic at that time. There was a large sign that said, “The future home of your resident hospital provided by Ross Cortese and the Rossmoor Corporation.” And that sign got picked up and put in the truck of a limo and they drove off because, you know, there’s no way I’m going to build a hospital now that the government’s getting involved with Medicare. So, the residents decided, though, that there really was a need for a big hospital. The nearest big hospital was South County in south Laguna Beach or Hoag up in Newport. There weren’t really anything close, so the land that the hospital was built on was the medical clinic that still was at that point, but the land behind it they needed was also owned by the Rossmoor Corporation. And some of the gentlemen in the community actually played softball there. So, they lost their softball field and that was one of our first remotes was going over there and videotaping that event as they, you know, cut the ribbon on the land, so to speak. So, the hospital was a big deal and obviously financing the hospital was a big deal. So, they were looking for donors of all shapes and sizes and they had a gentleman who was going to make a large donation. They wanted to sort of promote it as a hook, so we say, to get more people to contribute. So, they said, “Well, Mr. X is gonna give this large donation and we’re not going to reveal it ’til, you know, the big event. So, they had a dinner at Clubhouse 1. Well, they said, “We want you guys to cover us.” So, what we had to do was get our technicians to run cables from the studio which fortunately was near Clubhouse 1. We had to build a ramp so cars could drive over the cables to cross the street and run them all the way to the Clubhouse 1 dining room. We actually did our evening news show live from that and then went live to the Mr. X dinner. So, it was a big deal and a lot of promotion went into all of that. So, that was our first real live remote that I was involved in. Everything else had been pre-taped, parades and all that kind of stuff.
JK: What did the community think about that?
RM: Well, we didn’t get a lot of feedback, but I think a lot of people appreciated the fact because the capacity of the dining room was only a few hundred people. So, not everybody could attend and see it. So, I think it was well received and obviously the hospital continues to be successful and the residents here continue to be very supportive of Saddleback Hospital. So, I think long term it was a good foundation to get the hospital underway.
JK: And I think just the idea of media being that way to transport someone who’s not able to attend such functions…
RM: Right.
JK: …it really can…
RM: Right.
JK: …really provide an avenue…
RM: Yeah.
JK: …for the community to come in.
RM: Well, it’s kind of…CSPAN type concept, you know, where people want to see their government in action whether it’s, you know, state, county, or whatever, even their home owner association. So, yeah it’s…I think it’s been important to be, to cover those board meetings and it gives the board members a forum. It also gives residents a forum because they have a question and answer session usually at most of those meetings.
JK: Neat. Would you have a personal favorite community amenity? I know you reside in Irvine, but…
RM: Yeah.
JK: …was it something that you took part of while living here?
RM: Not really, I think the rules were pretty strict about resident…well the facilities are for the residents, not for the staff. We did get invited to a few social events with residents and that was always nice. Early on again that was a good way to promote the station, didn’t really do much. Oh, I think one time maybe some of our guys went up and hit some golf balls at the driving range, the pro shop, or whatever. But, I guess the one that I have been most involved in over the last three years and I guess it’s going to continue is the annual car show - being sort of the Channel 6 car guy, so to speak we were interested in that. And when the community started to have a car show even though I didn’t work here any longer they said, “Would you want to come and MC it?” And I said, “Sure.” So, in fact, actually the first year I just went up to see it and they asked me sort of on the spot. So, I’ve done it for three years now and I’m already scheduled for next fall as well. So, I think that’s something I enjoy and it’s a chance to reconnect with residents who come by and say hi as well as see some nice cars.
JK: That’s great. You certainly are…represent the community so I’m sure they’re glad to see you at these shows or just in the community in general.
RM: It’s…
JK: It’s something familiar.
RM: Yeah, it’s interesting though. There’s about a 10% turn over here every year. A year or so ago one of the fellows that worked for the city was retiring, so I went up to the retirement there, City Hall party for him. And I was talking to some lady in the office and she had no idea who I was. So, I figured she was…obviously it was a new…a newer resident, which is fine. You know, there’s a lot of new people and a lot of new things all the time here.
JK: It must be fun to be known, I think.
RM: Kind of, yeah. Although, my wife and I used to joke about the fact I never really wanted to eat dinner down here because people would come by. We had one nice lady once dumped…dump a glass of water on my wife’s lap. She was gesturing and we had to move to a different table because we were wet. It was…yeah.
JK: Did you get involved with any other organizations throughout those years, or clubs or anything you’re connecting with them and featuring these organizations?
RM: Yeah.
JK: I’m just wondering, in passing, if you ever got involved…
RM: Not in the community because, again, we were employees not residents here. I got involved in American Cancer Society…off, you know, my own time off the campus here for a couple of years. And that was rewarding to see the good works that they’re doing. No, not really much other than attending some events we…I guess…I guess the one, well, let’s see…we had Gerald Ford on before he was president.
JK: Wow!
RM: When he was Speaker of the House and George, my coworker, interviewed him. Ronald Reagan was down here. We didn’t interview him, but we did cover it when he was here when he was between being governor and running for president. So, that was kind of a…an important event. And we had, you know, like I said, our congressmen and those kind of people down here so that was kind of fun to be involved there. We did attend one event that was news making during the Nixon year. Well, we got to go to the Western White House a couple of times, so that was fun. But, we had The Republican Club here was meeting and they had the gentleman who was the congressman at that time. This was when President Nixon had gone to China which was a big deal, you know, no American president had for years and years and years. So, they asked this congressman they said, “What do you think about President Nixon going to China?” And this guy’s response which probably was one of the reasons he wasn’t re-elected was he said, “I don’t mind President Nixon going to China. I just regret him coming back.”
JK: Whoa!
RM: And this was another Republican. So, that didn’t go over real well. Obviously he didn’t think Nixon should go to China, but anyway.
JK: Well, it’s certainly…you’ve had exchange with some higher political parties…
RM: Yeah. Yeah.
JK: …in the Western White House sounds like a fantastic place to visit.
RM: Well, we…it was…we didn’t actually get inside of it, though. It was funny because, you know, you see the White House now that blue drape and the…well, they had that set up outside where President Nixon’s Western White House was next to a, from security standpoint, next to a coast guard station. And there was a large, some kind of electronic radar or some kind of communication device that was there that was very powerful. So, when they would have news conferences, they would turn that off because it would mess up the cameras. If you ever saw the series that David Frost did interviewing President Nixon when he left office, it wasn’t shot at his home there. It was shot in another home a few miles away. And the reason was because he was no longer president. They couldn’t turn that equipment off anymore. It was needed for navigational purposes since he wasn’t president. They wouldn’t turn it off so it would mess up the cameras. So, they had to go to a different location. But the time he was president, they couldn’t believe it. It was actually outside. It was really nice looking, but it was this blue, you know, backdrop and podium and that was the press area outside because the weather was usually nice down there…
JK: Right.
RM: in San Clemente. Yeah, so. That was interesting and then George and I did go the day that President Nixon resigned and came back to El Toro. So, we were there with the crowd that saw him get off the helicopter and get ready to go to the…his retirement in the Western White House.
JK: You did a major event for Orange County.
RM: Yeah.
JK: I mean you’re covering…
RM: Yeah.
JK: …this and your community certainly benefited from having a station that was involved in this level.
RM: Right. Well, then there was the Laguna Beach fire which was a big deal. We did some coverage on that, albeit we couldn’t do it live, but we did some taping out there. And then we had some of the follow-up on that. And then after everything had died down, we took a tour out there with the Laguna Canyon Foundation. They actually showed us around some of the changes that had been made in the canyon. Some not so good, but some actually good as I told you earlier. Some of the trees actually need fire to open the seed pods to reproduce. So, it was actually beneficial to some extent to the canyon. And we covered, you know, Lion Country, Bubbles the Hippo. That was a famous event, the hippopotamus that escaped from there, those kinds of things.
JK: Earlier, of course, that…I wanted to go back to ’67, the airplane crash. Did you cover that?
RM: Well, I wasn’t here until ’69.
JK: Okay.
RM: So, that had already taken…we heard about it.
JK: Okay. That’s right.
RM: And there was a subsequent crash nearby, too…which was, I think, everybody escaped okay on that one. But it was a few years later. But, yeah…no, I did know about it because people talked about it.
JK: Okay.
RM: My understanding is one of the jet engines is still buried in the dirt out there somewhere. They couldn’t dig it up, so.
JK: Wow! And then I wanted to dialogue a bit about the incorporation in ’99. So, how much did your…
RM: About cityhood.
JK: Cityhood.
RM: Right.

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords: 1967; 1969; airplane crash; American Cancer Society; annual car show; board meetings; board members; Bubbles the Hippo; cameras; Channel 6; China; Clubhouse 1; community; congressmen; coworker; David Frost; El Toro; fire; George; Gerald Ford; governor; Hoag; hospital; Irvine; Laguna Beach; Laguna Canyon Foundation; Lion Country; medical clinic; Medicare; Mr. Cortese; Mr. X; Newport; Nixon; Orange County; pre-taped; president; program; remotes; residents; Ronald Reagan; Rossmoor Corporation; Saddleback Hospital; San Clemente; show; Speaker of the House; station; studio; The Republican Club; Western White House

Subjects:

Partial Transcript: JK: So, a little bit more about capturing the change. So, did you capture more residents’ voices as well? So, you captured Bob Ring.
RM: Right. Running down the hall. Yeah. Yeah.
JK: Victoriously shouting. But did you do…residents and just capture their immediate feedback? What was the program…?
RM: We primarily started working with the council members as you can imagine because it was a brand new city. They also had to have an election of city council people on the same ballot. So, people had to vote for that, so we started having those folks on right away. And then started covering, at their request, their meetings which were at first held there in the Administration Building before they got their own facility, down the road. So, yeah, mostly worked with the council members and the city staff and did that quite extensively over the years. A lot of…the reality is normally with a new city - the first members of the city council come from your home owner’s association leadership. And that’s still the case to most of the people on the council now have been on our boards here in the community.
JK: Neat. Eventually in 2001, the station renews a new contract and moves to a new building where it’s currently situated. You explained building new sets and rewiring this equipment and the robotics that were involved there. How many things did they follow through with your request to modernize? Were there a lot of changes that you were able to…?
RM: Yeah, because it was a…because the building had never been occupied. It was a building that was intended originally to be office space and the community was able to acquire [it]. Rather than build a new Administration Building, they were able to acquire that one out at a much less cost. So, we had a blank slate, if you will…the space they gave us with the studio, good news and bad news - it was on the third floor. We wanted to be on the first floor to be…have better access to the board room. But, they gave us…on the third floor. They gave us a good sized space so we were able to actually design around it. And the gentleman we worked for at that time, Ed Foley with Rossmoor Electric along with Paul Ortiz who’s the station manager, really engineered and designed the place. So, they were building that while we kept as best we could the little bit of Channel 6 equipment we still had down here on the air. Eventually, we had to shut everything off so there’s about a week where we were off the air completely. But, they were able to put, you know, microphone jacks and power in different places and put up professional lighting, gridded the place and all those kinds of good things. So, there was a lot of work that was able to be done…original studio had been actually the place where early residents picked out their carpet. So, it was definitely not a TV studio so the lights were, you know, hanging really low, hard to…easy to adjust, but not the best angle for TV. So, we now had an actual building with high ceiling[s] and they were able to bring the air conditioning up to speck and design the controller room and all that. So, it was kind of nice to move into that new facility.
JK: And then eventually you won a broadcasting award. So, would you share about the award or the…

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords: 2001; Administration Building; boards; Bob Ring; building; Channel 6; city; city council; city staff; community; council members; Ed Foley; election; equipment; home owner’s association; meetings; Paul Ortiz; residents; Rossmoor Electric; station; station manager; studio; vote

Subjects:

Partial Transcript: RM: Yeah, Doctor Strevey, who was the first president of the GRF, and the folks here had gotten involved it was called The (Leisure World) Historical Society. And they wanted to obviously preserve the memories of this community because some of the new residents were no longer here. They thought, “Well, we need to start doing something to preserve this community.” So, they started The Historical Society and they said, “We need to start giving some recognition to people who have contributed to this community.” So, they had a dinner and they honored the Leisure World News and Channel 6. So, George Phelps and myself shared a nice plaque and the newspaper got one as well. It was kind of nice to be recognized for the work we’d done. Going, you know, back to the early ’70s when there were people who wanted to get rid of us now there were people saying thank you very much and we appreciate the work you guys have done. So, it was kind of nice to be honored/recognized. And that was called the Doctor Tracy Strevey Award…and it’s, I guess, we were among the first recipients of that. They don’t give it out every year so I know it’s kind of a special thing.
JK: Certainly. And you brought…
RM: I actually got it here. Yeah. It’s here now.
JK: Okay. Lovely. And you’re sharing it with The History Center to this day.
RM: Yep.
JK: It’s wonderful. You witnessed all this change over time. So, in 2012 you retire. So, can you tell our viewers a bit about that transition and just decision to do that and what you witnessed in general?
RM: Sure, I mean part of it was I wanted to obviously be eligible for Medicare and I sort of set the goal. I said, “Well, let me get through the 2012 election.” And there was some…not only was our president re-elected, but the gentleman who was congressman decided not to run for re-election. So, that was a big deal. We had him on quite a bit, John Campbell. And he decided not to run for re-election so that was kind of a big political decision at that point as well. So, [in] 2012 I said, “This will be the end.” There was some talk for a while about maybe working part-time, but it seemed to be that it was only work out better if we just not to do that, to be available if they needed me for a fill-in occasionally, but to not really be on the payroll, so to speak. So, I went and retired, I think the biggest transition was I was used to getting up early in the morning because we were on live at 8:30. So, I had to get up and going and all that. I guess the biggest, one of the biggest fusses is now I get to watch late night TV instead of early morning TV which is nice. And I had to retrain the dog to not wake me up at 3:30 to 4. So, that was a training period for him as well. So, he lets me sleep in now which is really, really nice. We bought an RV. We’ve used that a few times, done some traveling. Our older son lives in Irvine, so we see the grandkids some. Our other son lives in Colorado, so we visit him occasionally. We did a trip this summer, we went up to Yellowstone and then across and down to Colorado and then back. So, just to kind of be on our own schedule, you know, if you have to do a doctor’s appointment at 10 o’clock in the morning you could do it. You don’t have to leave work to work all that out. So, it’s kind of nice to be able to be scheduled, plus the senior discounts are great. Our residents pretty much know about senior discounts, I know.
JK: And you were with the organization for 40+ years.
RM: Right.
JK: So, what did…what would think, I wanted to know what you think about just all the changes you witnessed, so.
RM: Sure, well we started out working for this outside production company. One thing I didn’t say was during a transition period when that company was renegotiating their contract in mid ’69, the community wanted to keep the station on the air. So, the station manager went to a local bank every day and cashed a check and paid us in cash for about two weeks which was interesting. So, I worked for those people and then the end of ’69, we went to work for Rossmoor Electric, worked for them through the beginning of 2000…let’s see through 2001. So, 2002 I guess is when we started with the new company, with PCM, worked with them. And then they became Associa and it was still PCM Associa when I retired. Now I understand it is new, a new management group here in the community. So, a lot of changes how the community built out, a lot of residents…got to know a lot of the residents which was neat.
JK: What did you think about…the OC Register called you, “The Voice of Laguna Village.” So, what is it like being in that position?
RM: You know, it’s interesting. Yeah, it’s a bit of pressure. It’s nice to be recognized other than the lady knocking the water on my wife’s lap. It was kind of flattering to have that happen. You know, really if it wasn’t for Channel 6, I wouldn’t have been in that position. So, it was the studio, the people behind the scenes, and the people who put the equipment together, people who run the equipment that make it happen. So, it’s a, you know, it’s a team sport, so to speak on that. It was nice, you know, it was…that was then and, you know, you move on.
JK: Sure. Within those 43 years it mentioned you did 40,000 interviews. So, it’s quite a few.
RM: Yeah, I didn’t count…I don’t know how they figured that out.
JK: Is there one in particular that we’d like mentioning, maybe a favorite or something that you would like to highlight with us?
RM: Let’s see…well, yeah. I made the mention that I’m sort of the unofficial Channel 6…or was Channel 6 car guy and I always really admired a gentleman that lives here in Orange County who’s a retired racecar driver/racecar builder, Dan Gurney. Channel 6 is now still showing movies every week and the gentleman that selects the films every one time would say, “Okay this…coming up in three months will be staff picks.” So, everybody on staff gets to pick one movie. So, when it came around my turn I picked Grand Prix, that movie about Formula One racing. And I said, you know, what would really be neat is if we could interview Dan Gurney. So, we called his office and set it up. He’s in the movie in a couple of scenes…a couple of the scenes the actors are at a drivers’ meeting and he’s in the meeting. So, we talked to him about the movie Grand Prix. So, that was from a personal standpoint really cool to get to meet Dan Gurney and get to interview him. And that was…that was pretty fun actually to get to do that. So, I guess for me was a highlight, a personal highlight.
JK: Sure.
RM: You know, having the congressman on was great…having the congressman recognize you by calling you by your first name is kind of an ego thing as well. We had [Robert Edward] Badham on, George interviewed him I think mostly. We had Chris Cox on and then we had John Campbell on, was the last one I interviewed as congressman. We had the Orange County sheriff on, that was kind of an interesting to see the transition from male dominated job to a lady now who’s the sheriff of Orange County, that was kind of neat to get to know her and have her on as well. So, plus the supervisors and the college people and all, but I guess the highlight personally for me had to be Dan Gurney.
JK: Understandably. So, I have to share with our listeners from…again from that same article. Paul Ortiz said a wonderful thing about you. So, may I…
RM: Sure.
JK: …do a direct quote here? Okay, “Rob is a mentor, a man of great character and a friend to me. Rob built Channel 6 from the ground up and his leadership has kept Channel 6 at the forefront of [the] Laguna Woods Village community. Rob will be greatly missed by the community and staff alike. We all wish him well.” I think that’s an incredible quote.
RM: Nice, yeah.
JK: Very well put. Just…you can see the working relationship that you had throughout those years.
RM: Yeah.
JK: So, it’s just…you built something incredible here. I think having a legacy and just having spent your time with this community really had value to your work and contributions and…again why we’re here is to…
RM: Right.
JK: …reflect on all the time spent on the air and capturing their history. You created an archive for the center, so to speak.
RM: Right.
JK: Medias will be used for the future to learn and study the community.
RM: Yeah. Well, you know, at the time this community started, as I said, cable TV was sort of, “What is this? What’s CA TV?” You know, so it was kind of new and even built a masterplan community with a prebuilt cable system as part of the construction. Most communities get wired after the fact if they are already built. Now they’re trying to course us to wire everything not just for cable, but for internet and everything else. So, they were ahead of the curve here. I guess that probably goes to Rossmoor Electric and the Rossmoor Corporation as well for…and again it was partly an aesthetic thing that Ross Cortese just didn’t like to see TV antennas, but, you know, the solution was cable TV which allowed for Channel 6, which allowed me to be there, so.
JK: That’s great.
RM: Kind of a circular deal.
JK: I’m glad they thought ahead.
RM: Yeah.
JK: It’s great. Well, I must ask because this is a wonderful perspective, someone who doesn’t currently live here. Would you ever live here?
RM: You know, if it were up to my wife, she’d probably move in next week. One of the limiting factors is one we like where we live. We’re near our grandkids which is nice. We might consider a place like this. The standing joke with my former co-workers at Channel 6 is, “Oh, good you’ll come live here and you’ll get on the board and help us out.” My understanding is there’s a rule…well, there was a rule passed when I worked here, I think it’s still in effect. If you ever worked for the management company you can’t be on the board. So, that’s out…maybe in the future, yeah. Right now we’re kind of looking…we’re in that let’s think about the next five years, where we want to be, what we want to do. So, we’re thinking about it…you never know, it could be. We’ve looked at some other places already, but since I know a little bit about those places…
JK: Just a bit.
RM: It certainly will be on the list of places to check out.
JK: That’s great. And you’ll, I’m sure, continue to travel and explore.
RM: Yeah, as long as health and money holds out. Yeah, we love to go on cruises. We also have the RV and we’re doing some of that as well. So, yeah then having the one son in Colorado is kind of a motivation to go east as well periodically.
JK: Well, since we’re in The History Center at the moment, what are your thoughts about it building as a society and what it’s become to the community now…?

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords: 1969; 1970s; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2012; Associa; Badham; board; cable system; cable TV; Channel 6; Chris Cox; co-workers; community; congressman; Dan Gurney; Doctor Strevey; Doctor Tracy Strevey Award; Formula One racing; George Phelps; Grand Prix; GRF; interviews; Irvine; John Campbell; Laguna Woods Village; Leisure World Historical Society; Leisure World News; management company; OC Register; Orange County sheriff; Paul Ortiz; PCM; president; production company; re-election; residents; retired; Robert Edward Badham; Ross Cortese; Rossmoor Corporation; Rossmoor Electric; station; station manager; studio; The Historical Society; The History Center

Subjects:

Partial Transcript: RM: As I mentioned prior, it was really important, I think, the people that had the vision to say, “You know, this place is [a] unique community. Unfortunately, people move on or pass away so there’s a lot of history that gets forgotten about. I think it’s important that they started this organization. Obviously I’m glad that it’s continuing on. It’s obviously been very successful, part of it was getting their own site. One of the things we did cover was the late Huell Howser from PBS was down here for the groundbreaking. And then a year to the day later was here for the ribbon cutting to open the door. So, seeing this get built was kind of an exciting thing as well. And I think it speaks well for the residents that wanna preserve the history and want to see the history continue. I mean just little things like the diorama out there, that’s amazing that people can actually…new people can say, “Okay, what’s your manor number? Oh, here’s where your house is. Right there.” You know, people can see that and orient them that way. They’ve also done a good job with tours and helping people get to know this…about this community for future residents and also people from the outside. I understand a lot of groups from their gerontology oriented come here for tours and The Historical Society has helped out with all a lot of that as well. So, I think it’s important…I’m glad they’re keeping it going and obviously they, you know, they’re archiving all kinds of good stuff as well.
JK: That’s neat. What would you hope the community would accomplish in the future?
RM: You know, one of the things that I guess is inevitable is people are going to disagree on stuff. So, I’d like to see maybe people getting less upset about certain things that are decided. I know a lot of times people don’t like decisions that get made and get upset about it. I think it’s as we’re seniors and retired, it’s nice to not have to stress so much on stuff. And some people maybe like to get involved and like to get, you know, involved in those discussions. For a lot people here I think they’re get happy to be here and enjoy the facilities and enjoy the lifestyles. So, I think if more people would relax and have a good time. It would probably be the best for everybody involved. But some people thrive on getting involved - whether it’s city council or the board of supervisors or their clubs or organizations, the political clubs, whatever it might be. So, the nice thing about this community is you can be as involved as you want to be and if you can’t find a club you like, you get twenty-five friends and start your own club. There’s been a lot of those here as well.
JK: Yeah, that’s wonderful to have an avenue.
RM: Right.
JK: Any last thoughts? I want to give you room to comment on anything we might have missed.
RM: Sure, you know, if people read the 50th anniversary book, I kind of equated Channel 6 with The Little Engine That Could. And we really had some growing pains in the early ’70s. Not just people wanting to get rid of us, but just technical issues and financial issues and contractual issues. So, it’s rewarding…it was rewarding for me in 2012 to be able to leave and see the station still be in good hands, be operated well, have the respect of the community and have the support of the community. So, I think that was…that was kind of exciting for me to be able to say, “Okay, I feel good about being able to leave not just, you know, cut the cord and run away.”
JK: Absolutely. It’s taking on another dynamic as you were sharing just with your recent visit…
RM: Right.
JK: …and modernization.
RM: Right.
JK: Anything that caught your eye that you would like to share as of your recent visit?
RM: Well, of course all I did was visit Clubhouse 5 because it was where the car show was. Like always, things change. There’s no staff members up there which I thought was good. Some younger people coming in and wanting to get involved with this community which kind of made me reflect back to 1969 as I, you know, wet behind the ears college kid coming up here and saying, “What is all this?” So, it’s kind of nice to see some new faces and new people up there. It’s great to see the residents still involved in a variety of things. And again, whatever their interest might be, they can do it. It’s great.
JK: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I think what you provided is just a wonderful glimpse behind the lens.
RM: Right.
JK: What you’ve experienced all these years. So, we appreciate you doing this with us.
RM: My pleasure.
JK: And that concludes the formal part of this interview.
RM: Thank you very much.
JK: Thank you.

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords: 1969; 1970s; 2012; 50th anniversary book; car show; Channel 6; Clubhouse 5; community; diorama; gerontology; groundbreaking; Huell Howser; organization; PBS; residents; ribbon cutting; The Historical Society

Subjects: