Jule McGee 7

He became the live truck operator for Pinellas County in the early 80’s. It was a time when competition with Channels 8 and 10 had become more intense, but Jule still managed to maintain cordial relations with people like his good buddy, Chuck McClaren, who drove Channel 8’s live truck in the area. “Whoever got to the scene first, we’d pull two cables so things would be ready for the other guy,” Jule said. “It was just a great, cooperative atmosphere. While we were competitors, we always helped each other. If one of our trucks would break down, the one who was still up would try to help in some way.”

One more comment about WFLA from Jule: “Channel 8’s first live truck was called the Praying Mantis…it had a big ole gantry on it. Odd looking.”

INTO EVERYONE'S LIFE SOME RAIN MUST FALL...AS JULE DISCOVERED ONE DAY
WHEN HIS CAMERA WAS STOLEN FROM AN ENG UNIT.
SKETCH BY BOB WALKER

Former news director Jim West tells tales of Jule
Photo by Sara Clark

Since McGee had been at WTVT for the greatest part of its first fifty years, he seemed to be woven into many of the stories related by the various speakers at Big 13’s 50-year reunion in 2005. It seemed almost everybody had a Jule McGee story, on and off the program.

One of the most entertaining McGee yarns came from former News Director Jim West, who talked about sharing a hotel room with Jule while at a convention in Texas.

“Oh, you would have to bring that up!” said Jule, obviously on the defense. “When they had the RTNDA (Radio and Television News Directors Association) convention in 1984 in San Antonio, Texas, Jim went out there as news directors always did for that meeting. There was a big brouhaha to see who was to be first on the air with satellite feeds off the local trucks.”

“WTVT and Channel 10 were both in the process of getting satellite trucks. All of a sudden, Jim got wind that 10 was very close to going live from the convention with a borrowed truck…just to claim that they were first. In order to beat 10 to the punch, Jim decided he wanted to do a story live via satellite from the convention in San Antonio about CONUS (continental United States), a group of cooperating stations involved in satellite news gathering.”

“He called and told me to catch the next plane out. I followed orders. When I got to San Antonio there were no hotel rooms. It wasn’t all that big a place and several big conventions had grabbed every room there was to be had. Jim invited me to share his room. And then he told everyone at the reunion that we shared a bed…each facing the other way and not moving an inch all night!!"

“Now, I don’t remember sharing the bed with him – I just don’t remember that at all BUT if I had you can bet I would have been as far to the other side as possible. No, I would have slept on the floor. I can assure you that I didn’t crawl in any bed with Jim having a come hither look on his face. I probably slept on the couch. But whatever, he told a good story and I just don’t remember the exact details as well as he does.”

(Left) Jim West and Jule in Washington, D.C.