Charles Kuralt on Broadcast TV
Charles Kuralt:
A Broadcast Legend
Despite being known for the scandel after his death, Charles Kuralt is a highly respected indivdual within the television and broadcast world. Kuralt grew up in North Carolina his whole life as he was born in Wilmington. He remained there during college and went the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He was there from 1951-1955 where he was super invested in journalism and became an editor of the Daily Tar Heel. He also got a job working for WUNC radio while attending university. He eventually left the university and didn't finish his degree instead working for the Charolotte News. Specifically, he was a general assignment reporter. He enjoying writing about ordinary folk and started a daily column People which would forshadow what he'd do later on in his career. He wouldn't leave before accepting the Ernie Prize: an award named after the famous war correspondent from World War 2.
After leaving he began working at CBS. It was especially exciting for him as his hero Edward R. Murrow worked their as well. So he didn't mind getting the graveyard shift. His first job was writing the afternoon radio show that would air in the morning. Before long he was transferred to the television news department (which at the time was brand new) as a writer for the CBS evening news. Eventually he went back to the graveyard shift and took a pay cut working as a reportor contact on the assignment desk. However Kuralt wanted to be out in the field more than anything, and within the year CBS offered him his dream as CBS News Correspondent.
Kuralt traveled many places. He covered the Vietnam War as well as wars in the Congo and Laos as well. He also covered notable events like piracy on the seas and even ending school segregation. He even got to visit every single country in Latin America as he was the Chief Latin American Correspondent. He also served as the Chief West Coast Correspondent before returning to New York.
However his greatest accomplishment was the "On the Road" series for CBS evening news. The series went for 13 years and attracted quite a following. He and his team visited every single state in just a rugged motor home. The result was over a million miles logged during their travels. During this he met extroadinary people and got to tell their stories. The less out there examples being sports players, rodeo riders and seashell collectors. However there were more exotic people as well such as a man who lived in a house made of beer bottles, a person who owned the worlds largest ball of string and a runner who was 104 years old. He was a people person and thus wanted to highlight ordianary people doing extraordinary things.
Kuralt's death caused people to peer into his personal life and find that he had secretly been with two women at the same time. This caused a large legal battle over who would get his posessions. Despite all this Kuralt will be remembered as a legendary feature story reportor and being committed to the thing most modern day journalist fail to remember. The people are at the heart of what journalism is about
No comments:
Post a Comment