Eric Schecter - H.G. Listiak Story
Here's a story from Eric Schecter, KMLE's Director of Engineering and IT, about working with H.G. during an incredible time early on in both of their careers at KMLE.
It was the afternoon of October 17, 1989, and Game 3 of the World Series was being played in Candlestick Park in San Francisco. It was the San Francisco Giants vs. The Oakland Athletics that year.
At 5:04 p the Loma Prieta earthquake struck-a magnitude 6.9 shaker! H.G. was at the KMLE studios, then located at 7th Street and Missouri, reporting news and traffic with Stu Evans.
News of the quake was immediate, as we had the TV set tuned to the game which would have started at 5:35. We immediately swung into all news mode. I jumped right in to help H.G. by clearing the AP wire printer, and typing up summaries to hand to him on the air. H.G. handled the rest of the broadcast day with ease and finesse (when the microphone was on, anyway). It was a bit of a mad house to gather the news as it happened, but I never felt that we were more of a team than that afternoon and evening. Imagine…me the station engineer ripping the wires. Now that was fun! Of course, my memories of H.G. go back to the 1980’s when we both worked at KOY…many good times there as well.
Eric Schecter