Friday, November 1, 1985/The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
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By TOM TAGLIABUE
Reporter
Run Stone has always had that
own-home news sivle and he hasn’t
hanged.
Stone, 49, who was in College Sta-
lon Thursday promoting his new
iook “ The Book of Texas Days,” has
een a fixture in homes at 5 pan.
rid 10 pan. for as long as most peo
ple can remember as news anchor on
PRC-TV.
Stone treated every autogiaph-
eeker like a neighbor he had not
een in a while or a new f riend he
lad just made.
One fan commented on Stone’s
[own-home style, something Stone
dd just came naturally.
"I really have a folksy approach to
he news, because I ref use to let all
he bad things that are happening in
he world diminish my feelings for
ny fellow man,” Stone said. "I think
ere still pretty good folks and hy
md large do some pretty good
hings — and sure some things go
rong, but 1 happen to he in a bnsi-
less where you mostly report the
■hings that are going wrong,'
Even when people doubted
Stone’s sincerity, he never changed
he style.
“Tne first time 1 said, ‘Good night
teighbors,' on the air was because
Houston was a small town then —
md 1 really did think of them as
teighbors,” Stone said.
“I had a person come up to me a
ew years ago saying they thought
hat was just an asinine thing to say,
>ut 1 really didn’t think so.
“It’sjust mv wav of saying that all
)f us are in this thing together and
I m one of you and you’re one of me
md let’s do our best to get along —
md that's kind of the way I ap
proach things.”
Stone, who began Ins journalism
areer in Ada. Okla. at a radio sta-
ion owned bv his wife’s brother, said
teis thankful for the vok e (iod gave
tint and for the ability to speak. In
Oklahoma, he met some olci-line t a
lk) and television broadcasters who
aught him to speak correctly, to
Photo by JON KARP
Ron Stone signs “The Book of Texas Days.”
think and to w rite stories correctly.
One of those old-liners was Dan
Rather, who brought Stone from
Tulsa to CBS’ Houston affiliate,
KHOU-TV, in 1961. Rather was
helpful in teaching Stone the proper
style and good reporting techniques,
Stone said.
Stone, who later joined Kl’RC, an
NBC affiliate, still listens to tapes of
his broadcasts while driving (tome.
He works many hours on his style to
assure that it is exemplary.
Stone agrees with the late E.B.
White w hen it comes to writing stvle.
“Good writing is a creativity of the
mind,” Stone said. “It’s not where
you put the periods and the punc
tuation marks, it’s a sum total of
what you know and what you com
municate — and writing is commu
nicating.
One of the exciting things for
Stone, besides covering the latest
breaking stories, is seeing young
journalists develop into top news re
porters. One of the best-known
young reporters Stone said he’s seen
is Jessica Savich, now with NBC
News.
Even though the television indus
try has changed, the responsibilities
the young reporter has still are the
same.
“I think you have to be honest,”
Stone said. “You have to understand
that most of the people out there
don’t really understand what the sto
ries are.”
Although the call to network tele
vision has come from his former col
league Dan Rather, Stone has said
“no” to the move.
“It (network television) is just not
what I want to do,” Stone said. “I’m
famous enough. Lord help, I can
still go into Wendy’s and get a ham
burger. Rather can’t. That’s impor
tant.”
Stone is amazed by the technologi
cal advances in the television indus
try and he also is excited by the large
number of quality young people try
ing to get into television journalism.
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