[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 24, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E77-E78]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             IN PRAISE OF THE PBS AND MR. GEORGE COVINGTON

                                 ______


                          HON. CHARLES WILSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 24, 1996

  Mr. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate a friend and 
fellow Texan, Mr. George Covington, on his upcoming appearance on the 
Public Television series ``People in Motion.''
  George has spent the past 20 years establishing himself as one of 
this country's most vocal advocates for the millions of Americans with 
disabilities. He worked for and has been a member of the President's 
Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. He served on the 
staff of former Speaker Jim Wright as the speaker's disability 
specialist and for Vice President Dan Quayle, as Special Assistant for 
Disability Policy. With my office, he designed and implemented the 
first fully accessible mapping of Capitol Hill and the monuments. This 
project, the Tactile Capital, provided hand-held braille and table-top 
scale maps of Washington, DC, that brought our Nation's capital into 
focus for the first time for millions of visitors with low or no 
vision.
  He is an internationally recognized speaker on universal design, 
disability rights, and photography. That last entry is particularly 
noteworthy, because George has been legally blind since birth and now 
has only 5 percent usable vision. His career has spanned the fields of 
law, journalism, education, government, and disability civil rights. 
But he is the first to tell you point blank that he does not want the 
burden of being ``inspirational'' to able-bodied people--and add that 
this is the wish of most people with disabilities.
  It is for this reason that George's appearance is so very appropriate 
and important to a series like ``People in Motion.'' He has spent most 
of his life fighting negative images, myths, and stereotypes about 
people with disabilities.
  Last year PBS broadcast the first installments of this unique series. 
In April, PBS stations around the country will air three new episodes 
of ``People in Motion.'' Like the premier episodes, these seek to break 
through the standard media representation of people with disabilities, 
and will help change forever the way most of us see those with a 
disability. With a census estimate of 49 million Americans falling into 
this constituency, I suggest that it is important for us to learn more 
about these fellow citizens.
  I want to commend PBS for its commitment to ``People in Motion'' as 
well as recognize the important contribution of local public television 
stations planning to air this series. I urge you to watch this 
outstanding series, so that we may all applaud the work of people like 
George Covington and the foresight of PBS programming.

[[Page E78]]


       ROGER ERICKSON'S DEPARTURE FROM THE WCCO GOOD MORNING SHOW

                                 ______


                          HON. BRUCE F. VENTO

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 24, 1996

  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, today I want to pay tribute to Roger 
Erickson, one of Minnesota's special radio personalities, as he steps 
down from hosting WCCO Radio's Good Morning Show. Although Roger 
Erickson is not retiring, as of February 1, 1996, after 35 years on the 
WCCO Station Good Morning Show, he will hand over control of the 
program to his new on-air partner, Dave Lee.
  Just a few years ago, Charlie Boone, a long-time cohost, stepped out 
of this special Good Morning program and, in a way, Erickson's 
departure marks the end of an era. I have no doubt, based on the good 
talent of Dave Lee and the format, Good Morning will remain a Minnesota 
early morning tradition. But the warm surround sound of Roger 
Erickson's dulcet tone crooning ``Good Morning'' or school 
announcements will be missed.
  Over the past three and a half decades, Roger Erickson has become a 
preeminent voice in Minnesota morning radio. Roger has relayed the news 
with insight and compassion and entertained us with stories and 
humorous sketches. His school closing announcements have become a 
Minnesota institution: Generations of children have listened 
breathlessly to Roger on cold winter mornings hoping to hear their 
school called. Roger's warmth, spontaneity, and imagination have earned 
him thousands of loyal listeners. Some conjecture has it that in his 
youth he was a character in a Charlie Brown comic strip.
  Roger Erickson's radio shows have been popular not only because he is 
a gifted broadcaster, but because he truly understands Minnesota and 
the culture of subtle Scandinavian humor. Roger was raised on a farm in 
Winthrop and studied speech and theater at the University of Minnesota. 
He was determined to work for WCCO Radio and, in 1959, took a job as 
Bozo the Clown on WCCO-TV in Minneapolis to get his foot in the door at 
the station. Within 2 months he was offered a WCCO Radio job, and he 
has continued there ever since, enthralling local audiences with spoofs 
like ``Minnesota Hospital,'' ``Charlie's Cafe Mediocre,'' ``Air 
Lutefiska,'' and, most recently, fishing stories from two characters, 
Gill and Finn.
  WCCO Radio prides itself on its Good Neighbor approach to 
broadcasting and Roger Erickson exemplifies the very best of the Good 
Neighbor tradition. Although we will miss hearing Roger's voice every 
day on the Good Morning Show, we are pleased he is continuing his work 
at WCCO in other capacities and wish him the very best in all his 
endeavors.

           [From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Jan. 4, 1996]

 No More School Closings for Erickson as He Leaves Cohost Role at WCCO

                           (By Noel Holston)

       Shouldn't there be an honorary school closing or something?
       WCCO Radio's Roger Erickson says he has had enough of the 
     early-to-bed, early-to-rise lifestyle that's been his for 
     almost 35 years. He plans to give up his cohost role on 
     'CCO's ``Good Morning Show'' on Feb. 1.
       Erickson will continue to participate in prerecorded ``Good 
     Morning'' features, such as the ``Minnesota Hospital'' 
     spoofs. He'll still do personalized plugs for certain 
     advertisers and work on Saturdays with Charlie Boone. But 
     he's handing over the helm of the weekday show to Dave Lee, 
     who has been part of it for the past four years.
       I'll still be around the station four or five days a 
     week,'' Erickson said Wednesday. ``I may even do some live 
     stuff occasionally.
       ``I won't be doing school closings, my one claim to fame,'' 
     he added.
       Erickson said he had been talking with general manager Jim 
     Gustafson for some time about cutting back. ``Roger actually 
     wanted to make this change sooner, but he graciously agreed 
     to wait until now,'' Gustafson said.
       Erickson lists his age at 47, but that's in Jack Benny 
     years. He's actually closer to 67, and he concedes that his 
     wife, Margaret, has been after him for years to make some 
     adjustments that would allow him to stay up a little later 
     than his usual 7:30 or 8 p.m.
       Erickson said he has never seen ``ER,'' let alone ``Late 
     Show with David Letterman.''
       ``I hear there are people who eat dinner as late as 6 
     o'clock,'' he said. ``Is that true?''
       ``You really don't have a life at night,'' he continued, 
     more seriously. ``I know I'm not the only one. I know there 
     are a whole lot of people doing a variety of jobs who have 
     those kind of hours, so I'm not going to sit here and 
     complain. I've had just a great run. I've loved doing that 
     morning show.''
       Erickson, born and raised in Winthrop, Minn., studied 
     theater at the University of Minnesota.
       He gushes about the great early training he got doing radio 
     drama for campus station KUOM-AM.
       Erickson left a Stillwater radio station in 1959 to take 
     his first job in Minneapolis, which wasn't as one would 
     guess, at the Good Neighbor of the North--or even on radio.
       ``I auditioned at WCCO about 2,000 times,'' Erickson 
     recalled. ``I knew it was where I wanted to be, but I'm sure 
     that, like most radio stations, they listened to the tape and 
     then they put it aside. So I never got a call. And then the 
     Bozo opportunity came up.''
       The Bozo opportunity?
       Erickson said the original Bozo the Clown, Chicago 
     broadcaster Larry Harmon, syndicated his show's format to TV 
     stations around the country, which had only to hire a live 
     clown to talk to kids and introduce the provided cartoons.
       ``I thought, `This is the opportunity I'm looking for. I'm 
     going to go into [radio] through the back door. I'm going to 
     go in through television.'''
       Erickson auditioned to be Bozo at WCCO-TV, Channel 4, and 
     got the job. Two months later, the radio station offered him 
     a job as well.
       After a couple of years of night work, WCCO teamed Erickson 
     with Maynard Speece (``a great storyteller who regularly 
     challenged the parameters of Minnesota taste'') on the 5 to 7 
     a.m. shift and with Charlie Boone in the afternoons.
       ``I would run over [to Channel 4] between 7 and 9 and put 
     on the [Bozo] makeup and the costume and do some live spots 
     for maybe Hostess Twinkies, take the makeup off, run back,'' 
     Erickson said, ``Charlie and I would start working on our 
     afternoon show, work up to 1 o'clock, go on the air 1 to 3. 
     About 3:30, I go back over to television, prepare the Bozo 
     show, which went from 4:30 to 5. And at least once or twice a 
     week, I'd visit a store as Bozo the Clown, with about a 
     thousand kids lined up. And I wouldn't have had it any other 
     way. It was fantastic.''
       Boone and Erickson eventually became the morning team, and 
     their weekday partnership lasted until 1992, when Boone cut 
     back his hours. They reigned supreme in the mornings for 
     almost three decades, challenged only by the Knapp and Donuts 
     team on KSTP-FM in the '80s and finally edged out in, the 
     '90s by Tom Barnard's morning crew on KORS-FM. The ``Good 
     Morning Show'' remains one of WCCO's strengths.
       Erickson dropped out of Monday mornings last fall, a move 
     designed to lighten his workload and give heir apparent Lee 
     an opportunity to flex some different muscles.
       ``I feel very comfortable leaving now,'' Erickson said. 
     ``It's in good hands.''

                          ____________________