![\"Steve](\"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/files\/2014\/07\/Steve.jpg\")
<\/a>Steve Hartman (top)
Charles Kuralt (bottom)<\/p><\/div>\n
I’m Facebook friends with Steve Hartman. I doubt if \u00a0Steve is aware of that because he has tens of \u00a0thousands of friends and FANS.. not only on the internet but all over America thanks to his “On The Road” features aired each Friday on the CBS Evening News. His reports..mostly about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, are not only loved by viewers but admired by reporters in newsrooms across the country who are constantly having it hammered into their heads by consultants that viewers want hard news..not fluff. \u00a0 Yet, I remember when Steve Hartman was in Sioux Falls a few years ago and agreed to stop by the KELO newsroom, it was like a rock star was coming and he had our news staff mesmerized. I’ll admit, I wasn’t a big fan at first. I thought he was too young to try fill the legendary Charles Kuralt’s shoes. \u00a0But his amazing talent for discovering and telling the hidden story in everyone..eventually won me over and I do believe CBS was right in not only bringing back “On The Road” but in making Hartman the rightful heir to Kuralt.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 17 years now since Charles Kuralt died on the Fourth of July.
\nMy colleagues at Keloland \u00a0knew how much I idolized him and that we actually..kind of, sort of, knew each other; so they showed up at my house with a camera and reporter that day for a reaction to his death. I have no idea what I wound up saying. All I remember is fighting back tears when it suddenly sunk in during the course of \u00a0the interview that he was actually gone.
\nWe first met in Sioux City where he was the featured speaker at a regional news media gathering of some \u00a0sort. Keloland TV has always been a well respected affiliate of the CBS network and managed to pull a few strings to get me a half hour exclusive interview. I tried not to appear as nervous and star struck as I was but I\u2019m sure it showed. I had written out a list of, what I thought were, \u00a0profound questions hoping to \u00a0impress him but as it turned out, we just sat there and talked as the camera rolled. He really was just like he appeared to be on television; accommodating, friendly and humble almost to a fault. \u00a0When I asked for advice on writing he said, “Doug, what I try to do is begin each story with a sentence or two that will get people\u2019s attention; arouse their curiosity so they\u2019ll want to read on. I like to end a story the same way, perhaps with a turned phrase or touch of irony that will leave the reader with a smile or at least with something to think about. Oh, yeah..I like to remind myself to keep it simple, stupid.”<\/p>\n
Before long the time had flown by and I\u2019d hardly gotten to any of my notes.\u00a0 I thanked him for our visit and as I was leaving he asked if I had a card or something.\u00a0\u00a0He probably did that to every young reporter he spoke with\u00a0but at the moment it was to me like Mean Joe Green throwing a sweaty towel to the kid who gave him a Coke.<\/p>\n
It’s not that Charles Kuralt couldn’t do hard news. When first\u00a0\u00a0hired at CBS he covered uprisings, politics and wars including Vietnam. \u00a0But he didn\u2019t like competing with fellow correspondents and hated the daily deadlines. Eventually, amid \u00a0the turmoil of the 60’s and 70’s \u00a0he managed to convince CBS to let him just wander around the country for three months chronicling the lives of everyday Americans in search of something positive to report; to show that it wasn’t all protest marches, gas lines and hate filled political rhetoric. Well, that experiment turned into \u201cOn the Road with Charles Kuralt\u201d and lasted for 25 years. He and photographer, Izzy Bleckman logged thousands and thousands of miles crisscrossing the country in a motor home looking for stories and finding them at every turn. Each were beautifully shot and brilliantly written. But the magic happened because of Kuralt\u2019s narration. He played his folksy voice like a master violinist; always at an unhurried pace and with just the right inflections to create moods of \u00a0joy, reverence, patriotism, whimsy, or sadness. \u00a0He could read the book of Genesis and hold an audience mesmerized..even with all the boring begats.
\nHere’s a case in point that is one of my all time favorites.<\/p>\n
[youtube]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=adsc6kW1Spk[\/youtube]<\/p>\n
We met again when Keloland sent Steve Hemmingsen and me to New York to do some promos with the network personalities. While on the set of\u00a0 CBS Sunday Morning I thought about asking him if he still had my card..but didn\u2019t.
\nThen in 1986, during the height of the farm crisis, Dan Rather decided to take the CBS Evening News on the road for three days. The network set up shop in our Keloland studios. After just one day, though, Rather had to leave so they called in Charles Kuralt to anchor the broadcasts. Not only did I get a chance to watch my hero on the job but after the news we actually got to hang out together. He asked Steve and me bring our wives along and join him along with CBS Evening News Executive Producer, Lane Venardos, \u00a0for dinner. He asked what’s a good place? We said..the Lafayette. \u00a0 Linda still loves to talk about how Charles Kuralt himself actually hopped in the back seat of our car for a ride to Sioux Falls’ only French restaurant with CBS picking up the tab. \u00a0It was a magnificent evening filled with cigarettes, cocktails, great food, laughter and the unforgettable stories especially with Charles spinning yarns of his travels..becoming more animated with each scotch.<\/p>\n