Will you consider this?

You're invited into someone's home for over 40 years, and now he's still invited.

I'm Christine Zak-Edmonds.

Stay with me to find out who that guest is.

(upbeat music) He's soft spoken and sincere.

And Bob Larson has donned a microphone for over 50 years in Central Illinois.

Please welcome him to "Consider This."

- Well, Chris, thank you very much for having me on.

I'll tell you, it's rare that I'm on TV anymore.

- It really truly is, yeah.

- (laughs) It is.

It's been over seven years since I retired.

I can't believe where the time has gone.

But, you know, I do a few things here and there, but this is one of those rare things where somebody interviews me.

- Well, how about it?

That's kind of fun, isn't it?

- Hey, it is, I can be on the other side.

- So, we need to know more about you because when you were behind the news desk, you're reporting news, not telling us about you - Right.

or your life.

- Right, which is-- - So you're from Morris?

- Well, and I was gonna say you did the same thing, so you didn't want, it was the news that you were putting on, not about yourself, yeah.

- Not about us, right.

- So you're right, I'm from Morris, Illinois, which is just up the river.

And I lived there first 19 years of my life went to college at Joliet Junior College, JJC, just like ICC here.

- [Christine] Okay.

- And then graduated from TCU down in Fort Worth.

- And how did you do that?

What was that all about?

- Okay, I started working in radio when I was 16 in Morris.

And a guy that I worked with who was a few years older, went to TCU and I knew a few other people that had gone down there in other times, older than me.

And he said, "This is great down here, you know?

Oh, you'll love it," and blah, blah, blah.

So I applied to a few Illinois schools and was accepted, but, you know, you're 19 years old, you think I've lived in Morris.

- [Christine] I'm gonna get away.

- I'm going to get away.

- Right?

- You know, it's one of those teenage things.

So I did 900 miles away.

And I think it was a very good growing up experience for if nothing else, because I couldn't come home on a weekend and whatever.

And it was great.

I mean, I said those were the only two years I didn't have a cold in the winter (both laugh) because I was so far south.

- Your parents were fine with that?

That that was your choice?

- Yeah.

Yeah, they were fine.

And of course we didn't have cell phones, didn't have iPads.

Didn't have any of that, it was plain old phone.

- Did you have a code to call them so that they could call you back and okay.

- Yes.

Occasionally that would happen.

And they usually called me once a week - [Christine] Okay.

- Okay, and so that was when I talked to 'em.

My dad also had little cassette, he bought a couple of tape-- a couple of recorders, very primitive.

And he would record stuff during the week that was going on at our house, if the neighbors came over or whatever.

So I would get one of those once a week.

So it felt like I was still home.

- [Christine] Sure.

- Which was kind of nice.

And that was my dad's idea, not mine.

- Fun.

- So it was.

- Did you major in communications?

- I did and it was, but it was interesting when I was a junior in college down there.

I really wasn't too sure which direction I was gonna go.

I didn't really major in journalism.

I had a minor in journalism, but it was mainly in communications, speech communications.

And, you know, I thought, well, we'll see what had happens when I get out.

I knew as most people when you start in a small town, in a station, you're the guy that does everything, the Jack of all trades and master of none.

And that's what I was.

So I got a real flavor of a lot of things.

Now, interestingly enough, I knew I didn't wanna do sports reporting.

I didn't feel like I was really too good doing play by play or anything.

I loved the weather and you know, of course you had to do news plus announce and whatever.

So I was looking at either weather or news cause I knew I couldn't be a disk jockey my whole life.

And so when the job opened up here in Peoria, when it was time to graduate, I spent spring break going different places, including here.

And there was an opening at WMBD.

And I came, interviewed, and they hired me and I started in June.

And what was nice about that as I think back, at least from March until the first, no, the end of May actually, I at least knew I had a job when I got outta school.

- Correct, correct.

- A lot of times today kids are-- - Couple years.

- Yeah, they're looking around trying to figure out whatever.

So I was really lucky.

And I don't know about you and in your career, but there's been times when I think it's been as much luck as anything.

- Absolutely.

- At the right place, at the right time, or whatever.

You know, there was a to move up to something else and you happen to be there and they liked you and so you moved on.

- So in the first place, when you started working at the radio station in Morris, that was something you just thought was gonna be fun or you wanted to make a little extra money or what?

- Yeah, well kind of both.

And what's interesting about that is it's strange that I'm even in this business.

Because when I was in school, I was just that other kid in the back of the room, hated book reports.

Okay sorry, but I hated book reports.

(Christine laughs) I did not want it cause I was scared to death.

- To be in front of an audience?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- And somewhere the extrovert came out and I guess being on radio.

So I sort of attribute that.

Because a guy was leaving there that was friend of the family of the Morris station.

And I think he did it more, not because he wanted to promote me, but he needed, he wanted to get somebody in his spot.

- [Christine] To make sure he didn't have to stick around.

- And I don't know what possessed me, but I went down and auditioned and you know, here's this kid that's half scared to get up in front of people.

And I did it and I loved it.

I did, you know.

And so at 16 I got this radio communication broadcasting in my blood.

- [Christine] Right.

- And so it helped me because I knew that's what I wanted to do in college then.

But it's interesting because I went from an introvert to sort of an extrovert.

My wife still doesn't hardly believe it, but.

- So when did you meet her?

Is she from Morris?

- Yes.

She is a native of Mor-- Or from Peoria actually.

- All right.

But interestingly enough, after we dated a while I found out her dad was from a little town north of Morris.

So is it a small world or what?

- [Christine] It really is.

- So, and how we actually got together is that a cousin of hers who was born and raised in Morris saw me at a function up in Morris.

It was rain-- I remind her of this.

It was raining that day and it was at the Corn Festival.

I know El Paso has one.

Morris, this was the County Corn Festival.

It's in Morris every fall.

- Big one.

- Big one.

That was the big thing.

So here we are outside of the courthouse and it starts to rain with neither one of us have an umbrella.

Now it wasn't raining hard, but she's telling me all of the great attributes of this cousin she has down in Peoria and that I should call her.

It took me about six months, but I finally called and we dated for a while and got married in 1977.

And here we are all these years later.

Oh, that's just-- - She still put up with me, yeah.

- How about it, yeah?

(Bob laughs) Yeah, well, you know, there is a talent to that for sure.

(Bob laughs) A lot of acceptance.

- Well, especially in this business.

- Oh, absolutely.

- Because you are gone a lot.

And especially as you well know when you start there's weekends and holidays and - [Christine] Early morning shift.

- Early morning shift, - Yeah, late night.

- all kinds of-- Whoa, excuse me.

- Yep, yep.

- There's all kinds of things that, different hours that are not the eight to five Monday through Friday.

- No, no, it's a challenge - It is.

It is for the whole family.

- for everybody involved.

- [Christine] Right.

- And then of course we only had the one daughter, but for people that have multiple children and if they're in sports or any kind of activities, - You miss a lot.

- you can miss a lot, you know.

Which I was fortunate by the time our daughter got to be old enough, I had been at the station long enough that I just planned my dinner hour - [Christine] Around.

- around if she was in choir or something else.

So I missed very little, which I was again, real lucky.

- Absolutely.

So let's go back to, so 1971, you came here?

- Yes.

I came here in May 23rd of '71.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

And like I said, I knew in March I was coming here, but I think back, and I've mentioned this to my older grandson, who's a teenager.

And, - You say that as if.

- reminded him, that you realize that there hadn't been color TV very long when I started.

And he looks at me, you know, like I came from outer space or something.

And I said, "There was film."

And I said, "Think about it at your age, you'd never put film in a camera."

- No, that's right.

- [Bob] See.

And then it's usually just a little load thing, right?

- Well, yeah, I mean, it's all-- - [Christine] Don't do it in the dark.

- No, you don't have to worry about that.

But you know, we had the old Bell and Howell 16 millimeter.

- [Christine] That were heavy.

- That were heavy.

And we only had one at MBD and I believe the other stations were the same way back in '71.

We only had one sound on film camera, one.

So when we went out to cover fires and accidents and stuff, it was silent, that was silent.

- All Bell and Howell, right?

- All Bell and Howell, and it was crank.

You didn't even have batteries in it.

- [Christine] I know.

(chuckling) - So.

- I remember, and then you had to set the lighting, the aperture and everything.

- Yeah, the aperture and all that kind of thing.

And, you know, you learned really quick.

It was baptism by fire.

- [Christine] It certainly was.

- Well, cause I had never done anything as far as television.

Well, I did a little bit on campus at the station there, but I mean, as far as covering news and working with film camera, I hadn't done that kind of thing.

So you learn very quickly, you roll off the first 10 feet of film cause it's exposed (Christine laughs) and of course there's stories about people that forgot to do that and you know, came to regret it.

But anyway, that didn't happen to me.

(laughs) - Okay - But anyway.

So you learned all these things.

But today we're used to going live places, satellite, all this kind of thing.

And none of that was available, especially at a local level.

- No, well we heard about it, - We didn't have, some of the cartoons and everything or like "The Jetsons" or something.

- Whoa, yeah, that'll happen.

- Oh sure, yeah.

- Yeah, I'll be on camera talking to somebody, on the telephone, - Yeah.

- I don't think so.

- Well, Karen's parents have been gone several years and we often have said if they came back just for a day today, they wouldn't believe all the changes.

You know, I mean just electronic stuff.

- Right.

- When my father-in-law died, there were only four stations in Peoria.

I mean, that was it.

- Cable hadn't - Right, and we got up to change the channel.

- You had to get up and change, there wasn't any of the remote.

- [Christine] Right.

- And you know, so a lot of things have changed many for the good in terms of the immediacy of our business, being able to show stuff.

And I will also tell you since I've retired, another thing that's kind of nice, especially for those that are snowbirds and go somewhere south in the wintertime, you can now watch the local news, - Down there, right?

- down there, live while they're doing it.

You know, the live streaming.

- Right, correct.

- Which wasn't available when I first retired.

- Right.

- You couldn't livestream, big cities, yes, but you weren't seeing it here.

So I mean, even just.

- But you're kinda glad, aren't you?

- Well, yeah.

(Christine laughing) Well, and of course the other thing that hadn't happened yet, and it was just about to happen was HD TV.

The networks were doing their programming in HD, but locally we hadn't switched over yet.

- Right - None of the stations.

And they actually invited me back.

I retired at the end of November of 2014 and they had me come back in April when they had to redo the whole studio, all new cameras, new lighting, new everything, and new set.

And let me see this new thing.

- What was going on?

- So even since I've retired, we've gotten, - Big changes, right?

- big changes, you know, HD and I kind of kid and I said, "That was probably great for the audience."

I think of the movie, "Tootsy" where they were going to do a close up on - Dustin, yeah.

- on Tootsy and Dustin Hoffman - Right - who played this woman in there and they said, "How close do you want?"

Or "How far back do you want to pull the camera?"

Said, "How about Cleveland?"

And I was thinking with HD, maybe for me, - Would be the same thing.

- that would be better, you know?

Not a real close up where it shows all the fine details.

- All the imperfections, - Imperfections of your face.

- Perfect for imperfections.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, that's right.

- So you have done a little bit of everything at Channel 31.

- I have.

- Then you're retired and they brought you back.

- Yeah.

- For a while.

- For a while I was doing by myself, I was doing something called "Active Living" and Kevin Harlan had come back for a second.

I knew I'd been there a long time when the general manager, - Is recycled.

- recycled.

So he came back and the first thing he did was bring me back to - [Christine] Had you retired, he was still there or?

- No, no, - Okay.

- He wasn't there, he was out in California.

- Okay, all right.

- And then, you know, came back.

He left our station, went to Wisconsin and was out in California.

So anyway, he came back and he says, "Geez, we need to use you do something."

And so we started this thing, "Active Living" where we did some spots for those who were retired or senior citizens.

And that ran every week, especially during ratings on the six o'clock news, I guess.

And I did that for several years.

And then once Tom McIntire retired, which was the next spring, I retired the end of November of '14.

And he retires at the end of May of '15.

Well, shortly after that, Kevin says, "What if I get you and Tom, you guys are kind of well known in the area, been around forever."

- [Christine] Icons.

- Well, (Christine laughs) "And if I can convince him to come over and you guys do a little feature once in a while."

I said, "Well, I'll do it, but you're never gonna get him to come over here.

I don't think."

Well, surprise, surprise.

Kevin's a pretty good salesman.

- [Christine] He is.

(Bob laughs) - So you know, voila, Tom and I have been doing this, I think either since '15 or '16, I forget which.

I mean, I can't believe it's been that long.

- Right, but it's fun.

And this is-- - It's something.

And we do it during the rating periods basically because he's retired, he has his life.

I'm retired, I have mine.

And you know, so it's not a burdensome thing.

- Right, it's not the weekly commitment.

- [Bob] No, it is not.

And I laugh because even though I retired full time at the end of '14, never thinking I was really gonna do anything more at the time, then Kevin comes back.

Well, the next year, in fact I said goodbye to everybody, thanks for all these years doing the "Santa Parade."

But I didn't even know if they'd invite me back for that, see?

- And you've done that for how many years?

- I have never missed one of those.

- Since 1971.

- '74.

- '74, okay.

- '74.

And I really have not been off the payroll since I left.

So I have been there 51 years.

- Isn't that crazy?

- It will be in May, at the end of May, it'll be 51 years.

Because in '15 I did one half hour program, which I got paid for.

And so I was on the payroll in '15, I guess it was in '16, then that Tom and I started this and I was doing "Active Living" when whatever.

So I got paid in '15 once and '16.

So I've never really been off of their, sometime during the year I was getting paid.

So I always laugh and say, "Yeah, I'm retired, but I'm still on the payroll."

- [Christine] There you go.

So the "Santa Parade."

- Yeah.

- You know, you are just so calm and cool and collected.

And have you ever been thrown any curves?

- Oh, there's been a few mostly early on.

I can think of a couple of times.

One time, this is when the station was still downtown.

So I think it would've been early on 1976 maybe.

Yeah, because in '77 we moved out onto University, the stationed did.

And it was either '75, '76.

Santa Claus was on a sleigh and at that time, the driver of the sleigh was, they had a float with Santa up on top and whatever.

But the driver is sort of obscured, he's got this little porthole to look out.

- Little window, right?

- And again, somehow it didn't get communicated I guess, to him.

And you know, now we have IFBs where we communicate - Correct.

and all that kind of stuff.

We can hear each other and stuff.

Back then we didn't have that.

So they had a boom mic.

So that Santa was supposed to stop in front of our marque, where we were brought casting and then say his "Ho, ho, ho" and all that stuff.

Well, we had a floor director down on the street and Santa was going slowly, but wasn't stopping.

And so the director is like, (worried exhalation) this is live TV, what are we gonna do?

So the floor director and I won't yell real loud so your audio person goes deaf or anything, blows the mic out.

But said, "Stop!"

You know, like that, and the guy - Oh, no.

- put on the brakes and Santa went over, - Toppled.

- toppled over, you know, I don't know which one of the reindeer, but he kind of fell.

I mean, he caught himself, but he fell over one of the reindeer.

So there were some things that have happened on live TV.

We've, but nothing major, you know, nothing really bad.

- What's the most difficult story that you ever had to cover, do you think?

- You know what?

I would say, and I was actually on vacation, but came back and that was probably 9/11.

In my career.

I think that was probably because it was such an emotional thing.

And yet, as you well know, when you're doing this story, there has to be, you have to compart-- put that over in this compartment over here and try to do this story without being too emotional or anything.

- Correct.

- We happened to have a reporter that lived out in Washington, D.C. and he was on vacation.

So he got brought back and he was doing reports as well.

But that was probably the toughest for me that I can think of.

The only other one that comes to mind and that was the first few months that I was at the station.

In 1971, I know you weren't here then.

But in October, I believe that's the date.

We had a airplane crash out at the airport and several were killed.

It was a commuter airline.

And so that was pretty challenging too.

Especially I was not used to covering that kinda stuff.

- Correct - I'm from Morris, you know, we don't have that kind of stuff.

- Doesn't go on, right?

- Yeah and I'd been just fresh outta college.

I had some experience, but again, not working in the city, the size of Peoria.

This was something new.

So that was a challenge for me too.

- And then when you live here for so long and you know, some of the people who are - [Bob] Yeah.

- somehow related to whatever the news story is, - It is.

- it's kind of difficult to separate yourself and be the newscaster and not the friend.

- [Bob] That's right.

And in fact, I mean, that's the other thing, everybody has friends.

But I have always tried to not be too friendly other than "Hi" and "How are you doing?"

With any politicians or anybody like that.

I didn't wanna get real close to those people, because in case you would have to run a story and you have somebody call up and say, "Gee, did you have to be so tough?"

Or whatever.

- Right So most of the friends I had were, I would say non-broadcast and non-politicians.

Again, not saying I didn't know some of these people and I would consider them an acquaintance or whatever.

But I just purposely tried to do that so that you could maintain some objectivity.

- Right, you have been known to make some puns.

- Oh, yeah.

- Those just happen.

- Those just happen with me.

- Has that always been?

- Yeah, it's a sickness I guess.

(Christine laughs) I don't know, but I never knew what our story at the end was going to be, the kicker story or whatever.

- Right.

- At the end of the newscast, sometimes they have these little.

- [Christine] Silly little things.

- Yeah, silly things, lighter news.

And it just, stuff pops into my head.

and I never asked the producer, "What's the story tonight?"

Because I always felt like it was better for me if I just reacted to it.

- [Christine] Correct.

- I didn't want to, you know?

- Be rehearsed, yeah - Be rehearsed at all.

- Yeah.

- So yeah, I just, even now my wife will go, (exasperated sigh) at home, I don't do it a lot, but you know, (Christine laughs) it just happens.

And so, you know, it does help to be able to ad lib, especially in a parade or doing those kind of things.

The other thing, getting back to when I said that I hated book reports.

You know, you gotta be careful what you wish for because here I dislike book reports and yet what did I do for several years?

Part-time at the station?

Did weather.

- Right.

- Well, as you well know, there is no scripted weather.

- [Christine] No, it's very difficult.

- You have to have a beginning, middle and end and do it in three minutes and it's all ad lib.

And so first you have to know your material, but secondly, it is a book report.

So, I always laugh.

I'm sure some of my English teachers thought "He's doing the weather?

He hated getting up in front of people and doing stuff."

So you never know.

So I always tell people when I would go to classes and stuff, reading is very important and don't, - Don't discount the-- - So you dislike discount, because someday you may end up doing something that involves that.

And I did.

But again, I think it's the love of doing something.

I loved weather and so it made it easier for me to get up and do that because I really did get involved in that.

- [Christine] But then you made the switch.

- Then I made the switch.

But see, that was the other thing I meant to mention at the beginning.

When I came to town, the ABC station, no, we were the only ones now that I think about it that had an AM, FM, TV combination.

- [Christine] Correct, right?

- You know, E.K.

didn't, they were just television and HOI had split with WIRL before I came here.

So we had AM, FM and TV, which in some ways for a new person is kind of nice because you get to be on all three.

- Correct.

- See?

And that's what happened.

When you were in the newsroom at MBD you did all three of these things.

- Right.

- You were on all three of the stations.

So that allowed me to do news on radio for several years and still do weather on television.

But you know, eventually in 1990 in May, we had gone through a few anchors and I'd been there, well, since '71 and Gene Robinson made the decision to put me in news.

And I went, "Whoa."

He says, "Think about it for a few days and see if you wanna do that."

Cause I always saw myself in weather.

- [Christine] Correct.

- But I made the switch and didn't regret it.

I kid though on days when things were hot and heavy in news, I would kiddingly say, "Geez, I wish I was back in weather again," - [Christine] Exactly, drawing the maps by hand.

- Or if it was bad in weather, I say, "Ooh, I'm glad I'm in news today," - Right, right.

- So no regrets?

- No regrets at all.

And I've been really blessed to work with some great people, I really have.

And I've stayed in touch with a lot of them.

Many of whom are out of the business now.

- Correct - Not so much retired, but just out of the business.

- Right.

- And have done other things.

But yeah, I mean, Tom and I could probably regale you for hours.

- Well, we'll get to that.

- Well three of us could do that for hours because of you working with him and now me you working with him.

So yeah, I mean, when you're there 51 years, there's just lots of stuff.

- A lot, right?

You've seen so much.

Well, thank you for being with us.

- Well, thank you for having me.

This is great fun being on the other side.

- I know, how about it?

(Bob laughs) Well, and I hope that you've enjoyed learning a little bit more about Bob, that he kinda kept a secret all these years.

(Bob laughs) So stay safe and healthy.

(upbeat music)