Brush with Famous - Carole Simpson

ABC News publicity shot
(internet image)

This latest stretch of brushes with fame are from our days in South Dakota when I was a reporter/photographer with KELO-TV.

During the Presidential campaign in 1988, Vice President George H.W. Bush addressed the South Dakota Legislature and had a press conference.  I was in the room for the press conference, but didn't get to ask a question, which is why I don't include the 41st President among my brushes with fame. 

Television stations in the middle of the country were just beginning to purchase satellite trucks so they could go live from anywhere.  In South Dakota, however, my KELO-TV bureau was rare in that the station had set up a microwave rely to transmit a television signal over the 191miles between the Capital city and Sioux Falls where the studio was located.

It's how I transmitted my edited stories to the station for broadcast and could also be used for a live shot on special occasions.  What made something a special occasion was an extra hand.  As a one-man band operation being on camera and running a camera were difficult before you added to the complexity by doing it live.

That microwave link is why Carole Simpson a reporter/anchor with ABC News in 1988 was in my office.

She was covering Bush's campaign visit and my station, a CBS affiliate, agreed to let the ABC station borrow our microwave to get their story out, with no satellite truck available, the next option would have been making a 4 hour drive or flying the video back to Sioux Falls.

As I recall, Ms. Simpson had her story done and was just waiting for her cameraman to finish the story so they could follow the campaign to the next stop.  KELO was my first TV job, so being around a national reporter at the top of their profession was a cool opportunity.  

Nothing stands out from her brief visit other than how normal it was - she asked about my job (her career began in Chicago which was nothing like South Dakota whose population was less than a million) and answered my questions about her career.  She was open and friendly and didn't act like we were from different sections of the media food chain.

1988 was a big year for Simpson, and not because that's when she met me.  It was the year she became the weekend anchor for ABC News in 1988, the first African-American woman to anchor a network newscast.