Bob Jones has come out with a book about his career in news, called simply "Reporter," about his adventures in Honolulu, Vietnam, Spain and other places.
This month marks his 50th year in journalism. He’s worked for five newspapers, one network news organization and one local TV news operation.
The cover of his book shows a photo of him taken in February 1966 when he was working for The Honolulu Advertiser as its Vietnam chief.
"Seven of us were out in the field. We gathered around a map we’d put on the ground to see where we were. A moment later a mortar shell landed on the map, killing the other six. It put a few holes in me but nothing major. We later found out it was ‘friendly fire.’" The photo was taken as he was waiting to be transported to a field hospital.
He worked in Spain for the Madrid Times in 1959, only to run afoul of Gen. Francisco Franco’s secret police for not attending church on Sundays. Because of that, the concierge at his hotel suspected he was a communist and turned him in. His editor cautioned him to carry a Bible when he left his hotel on Sunday mornings from then on.
Cec Heftel hired him to work at KGMB in 1966, when it was still men only on television news.
Bob Sevey opposed all their entreaties to hire women. "People out there are not ready to hear a woman’s voice on television," Sevey repeatedly told them.
"I don’t think too much can be made of Sevey not hiring women at the outset," Jones says. "That was pretty standard in all media. My memory is that we only had one or maybe two women reporters at the Advertiser when I came here, and no women on radio."
Sevey resisted for several years, then hired some of the best female reporters in Hawaii, such as Linda Coble, Tina Shelton, Bambi Weil, Leslie Wilcox, Elisa Yadao and several others.
Many longtime residents remember the reporters loosening up a bit after the 6 p.m. news when Sevey went home.
"We decided to create some extra interest when we were promoting the 10 p.m. newscast," Jones recalls.
"Liberty House had brought in a bedroom set for a commercial they were going to be filming in the studio," Jones says, "and Linda Coble and I crawled into the bed and did our tease for the 10 o’clock news from under the covers."
"The blanket came up to our necks, and it looked like we were being interrupted, to say the least," Linda Coble says. "Bob suggested we use the bed as a prop. And I figured we’d just be sitting on it, but no. He got right under the covers and pulled them up over both of us. No one could tell if we were naked or dressed!"
Coble says another time, around Thanksgiving, "someone opened an oven and pulled the turkey pan out and put us electronically into the pan. We were pulled out from the hot oven, did the ‘coming up tonight at 10 p.m.’ promo and then were slid back into the oven."
Later they decided the levity could continue at the end of the 10 p.m. news.
Jones says at one point he was paired with Tim Tindall and sports anchor Jim Lathrop. "We were adults, but we did have a juvenile streak in us, encouraged by me, definitely the most juvenile of the three."
"Tim, Jim and I thought we should loosen up. There was no horsing around during the newscast, just at the goodnight. But then we sometimes went pretty far out. We all played guitar at the end of the news one night. We all wore wigs another night.
"Joe Moore, our sport guy, swung across the set like Tarzan in his jockey shorts one night.
"It was too much for Bob Sevey’s even nature when we closed off at 10:30 p.m., flashed Sevey’s home phone number on the screen and said anybody who had any suggestions about our news were welcome to call him. He said the calls only stopped when he took the phone off the hook well after midnight.
"We were criticized by Bob Sevey, but our ratings were enormous. Sixty percent of TV viewers were watching us. The KGMB 10 o’clock news was one of the do-not-miss shows on television."
"Reporter" also looks at several noteworthy documentaries Jones did for KGMB in the 1990s. "One Puka Puka," about the all-Japanese World War II 100th Infantry Battalion, won an Emmy.
Today, Jones writes a column for MidWeek. His book is available at most bookstores.
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Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
