Former KDFW reporter Jack Brown (1934-2007)

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http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4302686&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.2.1

 

http://community.myfoxdfw.com/blogs/RichardRay/2007/09/08/A_Texas_Voice_Silenced

 

I must say how I missed Jack Brown ever since he retired from KDFW some years ago (about the late 90s). His end-of-the-newscast pieces would never be THE BIG STORY, but they were vital nonetheless, because they gave the viewer at home a look into a world of the ordinary folks. People who would lead unassuming everyday lives, but who's stories would enrich you like none other, people whose stories were a breath of fresh air from the contrasting crime and city-hall-politics stories that would lead the front of the news. His reports would often profile some of the most interesting places to visit that Texas has to offer. Mr. Brown's stories were always a treat to look forward to.

 

Here is what the late Chip Moody said in his autobiography, "Moments", about Jack leaving KXAS for KDFW in 1980:

Soon after I started at Channel 4, one of the longtime reporters over Channel 5, Jack Brown, was getting very frustrated because many of his stories, which were usually newscast-ending vignettes about Texas, driven by unusual characters and needing at least 2 minutes of airtime to tell a story adequately, were not getting aired or were being cut because more and more stories were being packed into the newscast and the newscast would run out of time. This upset Jack because he worked hard on those stories.

One day Jack called me at Channel 4 to express his understandable disappointment. So I told Jack to send an audition tape over to John McKay, the (then) new general manager at Channel 4. Jack, who had been at Channel 5 for 22 years, quickly got the job at Channel 4, and gave his notice to Channel 5. Bill Vance (the ND at the time) posted a memo on the board at the station, saying, "Jack Brown has quit and left for Channel 4." Period. In a classic move, and in his typical good, dry, understated humor, Jack tacked his own memo underneath Bill's, which read: "Dear Staff: I don't know what all this fuss is about. It's always been my policy to change jobs every 22 years. Regards, Jack." It's one of the best memos I've ever seen in broadcasting.

 

He was a man who in his small way, left (if not the world) at least Texas plenty better off than when he found it. Retired KDFW reporter Jack Brown, dead at 73.

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RIP