NEWS has meant a lot to my life...I spent many years in radio news in cities such as Brady, Big Spring, Kerrville, Childress, Giddings, Breckenridge, Houston and Nashville, Tn. during which time I interviewed 5 Texas governors, a President and Vice-President, many Senators and Representatives as well as international and national notables. I have been heard on the Texas State Network, AP, NBC, ABC and CBS radio as well as almost having a feature on Walter Cronkite's CBS news but President Nixon's resignation pre-empted me and I only appeared in Atlanta. My last venture in radio was in Tennessee as a Christian missionary production director for a religious broadcasting network. Most of our broadcasting was in Africa and the Philippines.
In my 29 years as a chimney sweep I naturally have relied on the media to help spread the word. Here are some links to read about us, hear me on the radio and see me on TV. It is because of this publicity that I can say I am Texas' most famous chimney sweep.
We were first featured in the Brady Standard Herald in 1986. I don't have a copy of that piece as newspaper does not age well. It is amazing that I have aged as well as I have.
Tumbleweed Smith featured me on the "Sound of Texas" in 2005. Tumbleweed seemed to be on many of the radio stations I worked at. He said I was the only chimney sweep he ever had on his program which started in 1969.
The Killeen Daily Herald (Cove Herald) ran a feature story on me in the Sunday edition on November 26, 2006.
Next was a feature in the Copperas Cove Leader Press just before the winter season of 2008.
In April of 2008, Bob Phillips did a piece on me for his Texas Country Reporter TV show. I am also the only chimney sweep he has ever featured on the show. As soon as it has been a year since it first aired I will be allowed to put the story on my web site. So stand by for news!!! They spent four hours shooting the piece and it only lasted 3 minutes on TV. I had to do everything, go up the ladder, come down, move my stuff inside, drive the van, etc. about 5-6 times so they could get the shot fro several different places. Tiring but fun. I now have a better respect for movie stars and what they have to go through to get the final product.
Waco's KWTX channel 10 did a feature on me in 2008 also. It was on the "Emily Wants to Know" feature. Even though they filmed me, showed it on their sponsored TV show, gave me no remuneration and then charged me $45 for a copy of the show, they will not let me put the piece on my website.
In October of 2009 I was in the much read Magazine "Texas Monthly" . Skip Hollandsworth interviewed me for about an hour over the telephone and they sent a photographer out to shoot me on a chimney. He took about 200 photos and they used 11 ??????????
We will always be looking to alert homeowners to the dangers of not having their chimneys cleaned. After all around 10 chimney fires have occurred in the Central Texas area this heating season(2008-2009). So stay tuned and check the papers to see where we pop up next.