Bob Singleton Apr 29  Columbus, OH  43202 Phone: (614)263-0137

I got out of the US Air Force in July 1969, just in time to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. To the best of my knowledge, the two events were unrelated. When I returned to Ohio State a few months later, I learned that an old friend was working for a Columbus radio station (WCOL am & fm). I went downtown for a visit and wound up getting a job.

The GI-bill was helpful but nowhere near enough to pay for school. My job on the radio station switchboard made up the difference. It was mostly taking telephone requests for the top-40 hits of the day (remember Bobby Sherman???), Writing up lost dog reports, and getting coffee for the d-j's. (highlight of my switchboard career was camped on campus. The radio station became a sort of information central. Very exciting for a week or so. Then four kids were killed at Kent and OSU was closed.

By happy accident, the switchboard was just outside the newsroom door. I made it thru the door that fall and got a new job as a reporter. It lasted until 1978. That's when I left radio and moved across town to WCMH-TV, the NBC affiliate in Columbus, where I stayed until late in the last century.

I continued school while working and finally graduated from OSU (BA/history 1972, MA/journalism 1974). Had a good career. Was close to three presidents. (saw Gerald Ford at commencement, said good morning to Ronald Reagan during a Columbus campaign stop. Asked candidate Bill Clinton to move when he sat on my jacket during a news room visit.) Years later I watched from a top floor of the main OSU library as President Clinton spoke to a crowd of students on the oval below. We were getting some high angle video to show the size of the crowd. As my photographer aimed his camera thru the window at the president ... I thought of Dallas ... Of another window with a high angle view of a president ... And I wondered why there were no secret service agents in sight.

Other highlights of 29 years in broadcast news --- helped get an innocent man's murder conviction overturned, helped a cop wrestle a .38 caliber revolver from an angry drunk, never got sued or fired. Never made it to the network but NBC recently bought the station so, in a way, the network came to me. I quit last October. Just felt I'd be better off without deadlines for awhile. It's not retirement. I'll be doing something else in a while. I'm not sure what. Have been working on a project involving travel and television. I'll let you know if it works out.

I have lived in Columbus more or less since 1970. Not far from the OSU campus. On a football Saturday I can hear the crowd in the stadium.

Never been married. Came close but got a parrot instead. Thieves broke in and stole him last fall (after 26 years). Bastards.

I'm writing this on my first computer. It's a five year old MAC powerbook that I bought used. Ancient by 2000 standards but growing more functional by the day. Or maybe I'm getting less unfunctional.