Forever a Marine ...
KARL KING, 1924-2005
Decorated ex-POW Karl King, 80, an author, former newsman and longtime SPJ member remembered for his addenda from the floor at every program, died July 25. He was buried at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery with full military honors.
Mr. King was news director at KFJZ in Fort Worth in 1961 and two years later was among the first to report the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as a staffer for Dallas radio station KBOX. He was present two days later when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV, and he interviewed many of the people closest to the tragedy. He did freelance reporting for Paris Match and monitored the 1964 Ruby trial for UPI, radio station WBAP and a California TV station. He worked for several other radio stations before retiring in 1970.
His was a full life -- joined first the National Guard and then the Marines, both at 14; walked on the Great Wall of China and visited Vladivostok, Russia, before celebrating his 16th birthday in the Philippines; swam 2 1/2 miles from Bataan to Corregidor, where he threw a grenade into a Japanese gun pit, which gualified him for the first of two Bronze Stars; worked on the railroad, which took him to Las Vegas, N.M., where he was introduced to radio selling ads -- but he was proudest of the harassment he and fellow POWs perpetrated in the Mitsubishi shipyards. One of the 22 ships they helped build sank at the dock, he said, and 18 other ships returned for repairs. He told of setting a shipyard warehouse ablaze with a cigarette and of dumping shipbuilding supplies into the Tokyo harbor. He wrote the book "Alamo of the Pacific" about his time as a POW.
In 1980, Mr. King took journalism classes at TCU, where he was given 30 hours credit for life experience. He earned a bachelor's degree. His oral history is on file at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dealey Plaza.
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MEETINGS
An Outstanding Program is Being Prepared
Members will be notified.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: $20 members, $25 nonmembers
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Blogging 101
Blogs -- short for weblogs -- are the hottest communications strategy going. Are they just the newest trend or will they change the way consumers view and receive news, as well as influence their buying practices? Should you be looking for ways to incorporate blogging into your PR efforts? How do you get noticed?
Get the answers from PR practitioner Kent Pingel, who also is a successful blogger, having gained notoreity for his company and acclaim for the site wifi-guy.com, which Forbes named "Best of the Web" for its content. The discussion will highlight the do's and don'ts of blogging.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10; lunch at noon
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: $20 members, $23 nonmembers, $18 students
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Everybody Needs a Rest Now and Then
No August meeting. But get ready for September.
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Carol Barreyre, ABC, president of Carol Barreyre Communications; EDS marketing director Mary Lewis, ABC; and Brian White, ABC, RadioShack senior director of retail communications, will offer 30 gems of wisdom from a combined 50 years experience -- from solo consultant to Fortune 100 senior VP, and from public relations to internal communications -- at the IABC/Dallas meeting Tuesday, Aug. 9. Call Jerry Stevenson at (214) 219-5341 with questions. Details here. ...
Energy experts will provide background on "Gas Pumps, Pipelines and Energy Markets: Reporting the Texas-Gulf Coast Energy Story" at a full-day seminar Tuesday, Sept. 13, at the Houston Chronicle, presented by the Foundation for American Communications, SPJ and the Texas AP. Expect an overview of energy economics, including world and Gulf Coast oil and natural gas; energy markets in the post-Enron era; and a look at hybrid vs. hydrogen automobile technology. There's no charge for journalists, but preregistration is required. See facsnet.org, or call (626) 584-0010. ...
Go "Beyond the Sound Bite" by learning more about covering politics and public affairs for television. TV journalists may apply for one of 20 expenses-paid fellowships in Los Angeles, Sept. 26-28. Fellows will meet with the 2005 winners of the Walter Cronkite Awards for Excellence in Political Journalism and attend workshops. Applications, at wkconline.org, are due Aug. 19. Address questions to Vikki Porter at (213) 437-4417 or Sophie Lafferty at (213) 437-4416. ...
A partial repeat from last month, now with an end date. Covering Chaos, the story of reporters who reported on the Kennedy assassination, is at the Sixth Floor Museum in downtown Dallas through January 2006. Historic footage, photos and artifacts narrate the four days of continuous news coverage, Nov. 22-25, 1963, and give voice to the more than 300 reporters present in 1963, among them Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer.
PRSA local update: Michelle Milford, PR assistant director of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, will present "Wear Yellow, Live Strong: How Austin's Champion Charity Spread Its Yellow Fever" at the Dallas PRSA monthly luncheon Thursday, Aug. 11, at the Park City Club, 5956 Sherry Lane, Suite 1700. Details here.
PRSA local update II: Give yourself a $20 bonus in August. Members and associate members may join a professional interest section by the end of the month and save $20 off the first-year dues of $60. Join a section here. The form will display the full rate, but you'll only be charged $40. Offer is limited to one bonus-priced section per member and may not be used to renew an existing section membership. ... Deadline is Aug. 12 to submit entries in the PRSA Health Academy Awards competition. Details here. Questions? E- Alissa Marisch at alissa.marisch@prsa.org.
PRSA local update III: A Masters SIG has opened for practitioners with 15 years experience or their APR designation. Last month, about nine Masters joined Star-Telegram reader advocate David House for dinner at Kalamatas downtown and had a grand time discussing what really torques newspaper readers as well as headier journalism/PR trends and philosophies. To be a part of the next dinner party, contact Andra Bennett, APR, at abennett@fortworthchamber.com or (817) 336-2491, ext. 265. ... John Ledingham, co-author of "Public Relations as Relationship Management," will discuss relationship management as an overarching concept for the study, teaching and practice of PR in a one-hour Healthcare SIG teleseminar (lunch provided at 12:30 p.m.) Tuesday, Aug. 9, at the American Heart Association, 2401 Scott Ave., Fort Worth. Ledingham will explain how the concept developed, its importance for developing strategy, and what he thinks is needed for practitioners to fully realize its value. RSVP by Aug. 8 to kelly.strzinek@heart.org.
