Mr. Gary Kerr's Farewell Message On WOWT - 12/31/98

Hello everyone. I'm Gary Kerr.

I am here now because this is my farewell as a Channel Six broadcaster after 34 years. I leave because it is time, but with many mixed emotions. I came here 34 years ago as a scared kid not much removed from a farm in South Dakota. Many of you will remember Arnold Peterson, he was farm director and I was hired as his assistant.

I went on to become a newsman and newscaster. There have been many memorable local news stories since then, too many to mention all of them. But here are a few that are especially memorable to me.

July 1971, police attmpting to break up student unrest at Memorial Park. The late 60's and early 70's was a time of rebellion against authority by young people, Vietnam war protests, and civil rights demonstrations... a period that, for a time, I questioned whether the nation would survive.

The 1975 tornado that did so much damage along 72nd street in Omaha is another of those events never to be forgotten by people who went through it.

The 1980's brought the farm recession. A depression for those farmers who saw their land, livestock and machinery auctioned off to meet debts they could no longer repay. Night after night, there were stories about foreclosures and bank closings.

1991 when the Strategic Air Command, at Bellevue, SAC which had been the backbone of our Cold War defense against the Soviet Union, became just Strategic Command, Stratcom, by adding the navy's nuclear arsenal to the command structure here. A few jobs were lost but the devastating impact on Bellevue some had predicted never happened.

Politically, 1992 will be remembered as the year Nebraska's Bob Kerrey and Iowa's Tom Harkin each made a run for the presidency. Neither made it of course, but recently Kerrey got a lot of people excited, then said "no" he wouldn't try it again.

And of course the 90's have seen unbridled prosperity... new construction of both homes and businesses, new jobs, new opportunities that have turned Omaha into a truly big city with all the advantages and problems connected to being a big city.

Most of my 34 years here have been truly wonderful years. I have made many good friends here at Channel Six.

The people who have helped me along the way, the people that I have covered who, almost without question, agree to the interview and then, at least some I'm sure, wondered why! But if I have enjoyed any success over these years, it is because of you, the viewers. Thank you, very much.

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