Jule McGee 4

It wasn’t long before Jule’s energy and passion for news caught the attention of WTVT General Manager Gene Dodson. Jule ran into Dodson in a hallway at a time the station head had just gained an interest in environmental concerns. The two had a casual conversation and Dodson gave him a news assignment that would impact Hillsborough County for decades to come.

“He said, ‘Jule, I want you to get out there with Roger Stewart (then the County’s environmental czar) and find every polluter…every person, business, used battery storage area, paint factory, manufacturing plant that may be polluting our lakes and rivers or putting deadly toxins into our air and I want them exposed.’ He told me to take as long as necessary but he wanted Hillsborough County’s environment cleaned up.”

“I was a little surprised because it never struck me that he would be that concerned. I think maybe he had attended some meeting somewhere or heard people talking about this stuff and just felt he was in a place to do something about it. We spent about a year on this and Dodson was very happy.”

The event that had the most significance on the way Jule viewed his career in news was the flooding of the Suwannee River in 1973. He can’t seem to say too much about it. It impacted him so much that even though he saw firsthand the result of chronic rainfall mixed with spring-fed rivers, Jule bought a vacation/retirement home along one of its tributaries some time ago.

"Ray Blush and I went up there towing our own boat. We spent a week on that raging river, going places its waters had never gone before," recalled Jule. "The Suwannee had over 200 springs feeding it and on top of that it just kept raining and raining. It simply didn’t stop. I could look from our boat and see the top of power poles down under the water. It was bad...a river totally out of control. The River’s waters were as high as 88.6 feet above sea level at White Springs, Florida while flood stage there is 77 feet. They ran even higher in various places as it wound around residential, tree, pasture and farmland in several counties."

“The flood showed people’s resilience. We saw people of all kinds coming together: churches, government, civic organizations and individual citizens. They all pitched in to help their neighbors get through the horrific ordeal. People in nursing homes had to be moved out of state. The roofs of some people’s homes were ten feet underwater at places. It was unbelievable…and we got film of it all. It was the one of the stories I worked on at WTVT that stuck with me all these years.”

Jules' dramatic film was sent each day by bus to Tampa where a Channel 13 newscar picked it up at the downtown bus station. The film was processed, edited, and aired nightly on PULSE news at 6 and 11 pm.

The Blush/McGee team had proven their worth and would soon reunite for a high-profile, long-running series at WTVT.

Jule has nothing but compliments for his producing partner, Ray Blush.

“I guess he would have to be one of my oldest and best friends," declared Jule. "You don’t live and work as close as we did if you weren’t like family. You couldn’t have gone through all we did together unless you were close. You’re always looking for an athlete that could do many things and Ray Blush could do everything: reporting; writing; photography; on-air hosting and stand ups; everything including emerging from underwater in full scuba gear, grabbing a mic, and doing an intro!”

(Left - Ray Blush)

And so, “Project 13” was born out of the experience of the Suwannee River flood.

When Blush and McGee returned to the station, everybody agreed that the Suwannee River flood effort had been so notable that a program devoted to hard news and features around the state should go long and have its own time slot. “Project 13”, which had been on Channel 13's schedule for several years as a studio-based interview program occasionally produced on location with the remote unit, was re-launched soon thereafter. Backed enthusiastically by regional advertiser General Foods, "Project 13" was placed in a very lucrative time slot on Sunday evenings between PULSE news and CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

“Project 13 was perfect for me," stated Jule. "I had developed into a long-form journalist. With Project 13, you had a half hour to tell your story, minus the commercials. That was my cup of tea.”

“Ray and I picked a subject and jumped on it week after week. That was a tough job...juggling the planning, the filming and the editing. We were usually working on 3 or 4 ideas at the same time. Wednesday was our Monday. We started a new program every Wednesday with two to four days to shoot our film. Then we put it together on Mondays and Tuesdays. We met once or twice a month with Hugh Smith to inform him of what we were working on, what we had planned. He pretty much left us to our own devices. If we stumbled onto a very controversial subject, he would chime in. Otherwise, he just gave us the nod to do our jobs.”

LOCATION-LOCATION-LOCATION! PROJECT 13 COVERED STORIES AROUND AND BEYOND TAMPA BAY
Left: Tampa International Airport Center: Key West Right: WTVT's Studio B

Once the film was processed in Channel 13's own color lab, the work of post-production commenced with Jule logging thousands of feet of 16mm footage, then creating a cut using traditional film editing techniques....film winders, an optical viewer, and scissors and glue. Every editorial decision had to be planned for the final assembly involving the station's videotape facilities.

"Duane Martin and Bryan Reese were the guys who helped me take all the film and dub it to video. Jim Benedict would take control from the booth and supervise putting everything together. He got us to our finished product, put in the titles, credits, etc. He directed the final production, which often included taped studio introductions and always did it well.”

(Left) Jule, Larry Elliston, and Ray Blush

INTENSIVE WORK IN THE EDITING MADE 'PROJECT 13' A WEEKLY CHALLENGE.

Project 13 began with Blush and McGee. Later on, John Ferrugia, an aggressive investigative reporter, joined the team. After that came Larry Elliston, who channeled the spirit of Charles Kuralt-style reporting. Jim Benedict's role as post production supervisor expanded to that of production assistant on many segments.