Bill Larson Newscast
May 6, 1971
Former ABC
American Contemporary Radio Network news anchor Bill Larson is best remembered
for his coverage of Americas space program an interest that continues as he
helps to raise money from his home in Cape Canaveral, Fla. to recreate the
flight of John Glenn, the first manned orbital space mission.
It does more
for the American economy than anything except the spending that is associated
with a time of war, Bill said of the space program, which he covered
extensively in the 1960s and 1970s for local radio stations and for the
American Contemporary Network, which sent him to several launches and splash
downs of the Mercury and Gemini missions.
According to
www.billlarson.tv, his name is prominently displayed in the press site
headquarters at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, along with those of
Walter Cronkite, Roy Neal and Jules Bergman.
The spending on
NASA represents less than 1 percent of the national budget, said the former
anchor, whose newscasts were heard regularly on Musicradio77 WABC during his
tenure with the American Contemporary Network from 1970 to 1980.
NASA has
indirectly created new companies, Bill said in a Feb. 15, 2008 phone interview
with Musicradio77.com. Every dollar spent on NASA yields $7 in return.
Bill who still
does occasional voiceover work, is the senior vice president for Americans In
Orbit 50 Years, which is raising money to re-create the flight of Friendship 7,
which took John Glenn around the earth in 1962 and made him a national hero.
Hes a super
person, Bill said of John Glenn, who later became a U.S. senator from Ohio and
who sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1984.
Bill wrote and
narrated the award-winning documentary, John Glenn Recalls the Flight of
Friendship 7.
Kenneth Kesner
wrote in The Huntsville Times (Alabama) on Jan. 2, 2008 that former Air Force
pilot Craig Russell, the president of Americans In Orbit 50 Years
(www.aio50.org) , believes that recreating Glenns landmark journey could spur
waning interest in the manned space program, especially among young people.
Bill said that
he speaks regularly with Jay Barbree, the longtime NBC News correspondent, who
lives near him and who has covered the space program for more than 40 years.
There was a
thrill in covering the space program in the 1960s and early 1970s, Bill said.
It was breaking new ground.
His radio career
began in the early 1950s when he landed a part-time job for 38.5 cents an hour
at a station near the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he was majoring
in English.
Following four
years in the Air Force, Bill, who has an older brother who was once the news
director at WBBM in Chicago, worked
at stations in Colorado, Texas, Nebraska and Florida, among other places, before
landing the position with the American Contemporary Network.
He said that Tom
OBrien, the news director, was familiar with his local radio work on the space
program, some of which had been used by ABC Radio.
One of the most
important parts of my life, Bill said of his decade with American Contemporary,
where he typically did about 25 newscasts a week.
He said that
Nick George, the managing editor of ABC Radio News at the time, further honed
his ability to write for the spoken word.
You find that
there are a lot of people who take three and a half minutes to say something
when it could be done in 15 seconds, Bill said.
At the network
we used to try to get in eight stories, with three actualities, in a five minute
news cast, he added.
Bill said he has
fond memories of working with such veteran newscasters as Don Gardiner, Art Van
Horn and Bill Diehl, as well as former WABC newscasters John Meagher (pronounced
Mah-her), who did free-lance work for American Contemporary in the mid-1970s,
and Bob Hardt, who also did free-lance work before he joined the network in
1979.
Bill said that
he acquired valuable skills through his work in radio.
It teaches you
to work fast and to meet deadlines, he said regarding the constant demands of a
job where at one point he would arrive at 5 a.m. and wouldnt leave until 3 or 4
p.m. each day.
However, by
1980, he embarked on a new adventure establishing a consulting company in
Chicago that helped executives, some with Fortune 500 firms, deliver speeches
and interact with the news media.
You see people
open up, and they are happy to be able to speak, Bill said regarding the
rewards of assisting people in communicating with the public.
Through the
years, he has appeared in theater productions, television and film shows and has
done voiceovers for such firms as ESPN, Sears, Cadillac, Allstate and Ace
Hardware, as well as videos for the National Aeronautic and Space Administration
and the Air Force.
Bill said,
though, that it is hard to find voiceover work in Florida, since he belongs to a
union in a state that isnt friendly toward them.
Florida seems
to be 30 years behind the rest of the country on that, he said.
Bill said that
Americas space program needs to be re-energized.
Were not doing much now with the manned space missions, he said. I fear that at some point were going to have to play catch-up again. It would be better to have a solid program and make a large commitment for the future.