Jule McGee 5

JULE McGEE STORY Continued...

One of Project 13’s grander efforts was documenting the path of coal all the way from the mines to Tampa generators. Titled “Old Man River,” the program was inspired by soaring energy bills and the Arab oil embargo of 1973. For two weeks, Project 13 cameras traced the transfer of the coal from the digs of West Virginia and Kentucky, recorded it being loaded onto barges at Paducah, Kentucky and moved on down the Mississippi River to a transfer station in the port of Devant, Louisiana. There it was transferred to ocean-going barges and pushed across the Gulf to Tampa for use by the Tampa Electric Company (TECO).

COAL BARGES TETHERED TOGETHER AND TOWED BY 'GIRLY KNIGHT'

“The cooks aboard the tow boats moving the barges along the river were the best I’d been around,” McGee remembered. “Everything they made was mouth watering. It was a really interesting story to cover but I guess anticipating those delicious meals made it all the better.”

(Left - Ray Blush enjoys some southern cookin')

Spending time on the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico was quite an experience for Jule as well. He, Blush and Ferrugia flew by helicopter from Grand Isle onto the drilling platform.

“It was quite different. You live on the giant gantry, stay up long shifts and give in to the winds of the ocean. You really have to get used to sleeping on those things….such tiny objects in this vast ocean. Those guys worked hard. Offshore drilling is one of the most dangerous jobs there is in the world. Our job was easy in comparison but we did have to put a lot of energy into keeping up with them. It was very interesting to see just what they did and how hard they worked to get the oil and move it on to the refineries.”

(Left) John Ferrugia, Jule, Ray Blush

"When Phantoms Roar" was all about the noise complaints the Air Force was getting from jet takeoffs and landings out of MacDill Air Force Base. To get the story, the Project 13 staff flew in helicopters and F-4's. John "Mak" Makinen, who frequently assisted the production, filmed from the MacDill control tower while recording Ray Blush’s cockpit interview with the pilot flying "Mad Dog One". To get the most dramatic in-flight footage, Jule flew alongside in a helicopter as Blush’s jet made a low-power takeoff.

One of their more popular entries was titled "The Peace River" and told the story of the Canoe Outpost near Arcadia run by Tex and Donna Stout.

The story featured a profile of the Stout's business and was also an environmental warning about the use of water for developing real estate.

The program was one of Jule and Ray's favorite segments and aired on WTVT in 1975...which was the age just before home video. Thirty three years later BIG 13 received a request from the Stout's daughter, Audra Dunn. "Do you have a copy of the Project 13 that features my parents?" she asked. "My family would love to see it again".

A clip from "The Peace River" segment was shown at the WTVT Employee Reunion in 2005, showing the Stout family singing "Just A Dream In My Heart" around the campfire.

Reached by Email, Jule confirmed that he had a copy of the show (Hurray for Jule!). Jule contacted Audra with the good news and on November 8th, 2008, a screening of the episode was held at the North Carolina residence of matriarch Donna Stout. Attending was Jule McGee and his wife Millie, Donna Stout, Audra (Stout) Dunn, several Stout family members, and Project 13's technical director Jim Benedict, who came from his North Carolina retirement home.

But that's not all: A new introduction for the screening was taped by Ray Blush!

“One of the last Project 13’s we did was called “48 Hours.” It was long before the current program that’s on CBS now. It was one we did at the last minute, not planned at all, about a kidnapping down in Sarasota County out on the beaches. It happened and we quickly talked about it and decided that following the initial search and investigation process would be a good thing for our viewers to see. We had no idea how it would turn out.”