Old time television lives on
BUG GUTS & BEAUTY
By Orpheus Allison
Fifty-five years is a very long time in television and radio. Very few programs make it past a year or two. In local programs that is a major milestone. Potato Pickers’ Special has done this and it is to be a feather in WAGM’s cap.
At one time most television was done live and with local people. You did not have resident quacks like Drs. Phil and Oz to entertain people. Instead you would have local personalities providing the commentary and entertainment for their neighbors. Early in WAGM’s history the simplest thing to do was to park a camera outside and see who wandered up.
Pickers’ was a show that met many requirements for the local broadcaster. It answered the license demand to produce local programming to meet the needs of local audiences. For farmers, farm workers, and supporting members in the days before we had cell phones it allowed farmers to farm without having to call each of their employees with updates on status. Somebody would always be left out of the loop.
From the late 1960s through the ‘80s and ‘90s the host for WAGM’s program was John Logan. His mark on the show and The County continues to echo today.
At the time I worked at the station, the show was two hours of live, anything can happen, television. There was a fully working kitchen in the studio and guests and crew were served fresh-made breakfast six days a week. The kitchen was important since there would be moments of sheer boredom as John and the other hosts plowed through stacks of notes. Bacon frying is exciting.
One learned a lot about patience in those early morning hours. First rule, make coffee, lots of coffee. One quickly learned to have at least four pots of coffee on hand before the show started. The blacker the better. Sometimes John would make camp swill which was boiled coffee grounds unfiltered. The sludge from those pots was delicious.
John also made a habit of bringing on local musicians, usually staff members who could pluck the strings or warble a few words of “Grandma’s Feather Bed.” Spud and Rotor introduced the audience to paisley orange suits and slightly scandalous lyrics.
On Saturdays it was the hunt and fish day. Usually Stacy Meister could be found there tying flies and pulling John’s beard hair out to make a great bug fly. If you could make the case that your idea was connected to the local agriculture industry John would find a way to get you on the air.
Today’s show is no more than a shadow of those days. You will not see the cooking line from Tim Hortons making fresh donuts for everyone. Few of the cooks could manage a pancake or an egg sunny side up. Where John would holler for the outdoor camera there is no outdoor shot to go to. No sunrise to watch as it comes over the hill from the Aroostook River valley.
Such a camera would be useful for Mr. Shapiro’s weather, but it is doubtful that live cameras will be budgeted into WAGM’s budget. In those early days we made do with odds and ends of connectors and wires.
For all that it is missing, the show still manages to perform a variety of functions. It is live. So the audience can see and hear what goes into making a television show. It helps to organize work teams and offers them a one-stop location, and it does help to get the word out about changes in the food industry.
Today they will probably not have a breakfast of fresh trout and salmon but they will showcase local industry in a manner that shows community pride. Happy Anniversary to Potato Picker’s Special.
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist living in The County. He began his journalism career at WAGM television later working in many different areas of the US. After 20 years of television he changed careers and taught in China and Korea. Graduating from UMPI he earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina.
