Author, Professor, Broadcaster, and Journalist
Magale Library Friends and Staff are pleased to welcome author, professor, broadcaster, and journalist Bill Mercer as our guest and speaker.
Mr. Mercer’s broadcasting career began at radio station KMUS in Muskogee, OK, in 1951. In over half a century of broadcasting, most of it in Texas, he served as the voice of the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, University of North Texas Eagles, and the Cotton Bowl. In addition to providing play-by-play and color commentary for football, baseball, and basketball games, he earned an enthusiastic following for his broadcasts of World Class Championship Wrestling, and these programs became the most popular television show in Israel. His book Play-By-Play: Tales from a Sports Broadcaster Insider, published in 2007, is both a memoir and a how-to for a career in broadcast journalism.
Among his many honors for broadcasting are being named to the Texas Pro Baseball Hall of Fame, the North Texas Athletic Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Broadcasting Hall of Fame, the University of Texas-Dallas Athletic Hall of Honor, and in 2002, to the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.
His decades of teaching at University of North Texas, from 1965 to 2007, included courses in Sports Play-by-Play, Sports Writing and Broadcasts, Announcing for Radio and Television, and Commercial Writing and Broadcasting. He created and managed KNTU-FM, the student-operated station.
It was while Bill Mercer was working at KRLD, Channel 4, a CBS affiliate in Dallas, that he became a witness to and reporter of history at the time of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, November 22, 1963. This event was the first time such breaking news was covered spontaneously, something we take for granted now. Bill Mercer and fellow reporters Bob Huffaker, George Phenix, and Wes Wise were responsible for covering the assassination and the aftermath for KRLD. They provided news and footage to Walter Cronkite and other CBS affiliates around the country. When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963, published in 2013, provides photos, insights, and reflections on the events these four reporters covered.
Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 2:30 p.m. in Foundation Hall, Donald W. Reynolds Campus & Community Center Southern Arkansas University, ► SPONSORED BY THE MAGALE LIBRARY FRIENDS ◄ For additional information, contact Magale Library, 870-235-4170.
