Q: What's your best tip about media relations?
A: Not all media is the same! Good media relations involve understanding the differences between print and electronic media, and knowing what specific reporters need to tell the story. We help reporters best by providing timely and accurate information, making appropriate people available, and respecting individual deadlines. Along the way, we have an opportunity to educate and clarify issues that are important to our clients.
Q: Describe a project you are particularly proud of completing.
A: Rebuilding the images of various clients, and in particular, taking an unknown candidate in a field of 14 candidates, to nearly defeating an extremely well-known, former incumbent in less than three months. This gained us tremendous national recognition.
Q: What attracted you to a career in Public Relations?
A: My dad was a great encourager and he ‘encouraged’ me into the field of broadcasting. He majored in journalism, spending his entire 30-year career in public relations with one of the largest companies in the world. While I obtained formal training in college and in career experiences - I learned successful media relations at an early age during family dinner table conversations each night.
Q: What is something that you should throw away, but haven’t. Explain.
A: I have several boxes of ¾" video tapes of my early years as a television anchor and reporter. Always wanted to condense them or ‘dub’ them to one tape—but technology changed. Does anyone have a ¾" machine I can borrow?
Q: Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met?
A: I have had an opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people. Politics: Presidents Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush (41); Vice President Dan Quayle, House Speakers Dennis Hastert, Thomas Foley, Newt Gingrich; Sec. of State George P. Shultz and Colin Powell; Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Barry Goldwater, Jack Kemp, Bob Dole, Elizabeth Dole, Attorney Gen. Ed Meese, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Oliver North, Rush Limbaugh, George Will; Entertainment and Sports: Charlton Heston, Jay Leno, Bob Hope, Rich Little, Paul Harvey, Rob Reiner, Mary Hart, Crystal Bernard, Charles Gibson, Joan Lunden, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Joe Dimaggio, Don Drysdale, Reggie Jackson, Keith Jackson and Al Michaels.
Q: What kinds of movies do you like and why?
A: Those with great stories of adventure or inspiration-- National Treasure, Star Wars, Ben-Hur, Pride of the Yankees. Also musicals or romantic comedies--Sound of Music, Paint Your Wagon, Sleepless in Seattle and Sabrina.
Q: Have you ever sung in public? What happened?
A: Long before there was American idol, a Houston radio station (KULF-AM) encouraged listeners to sing Christmas Carols live, in studio. I was a big teenager but not yet able to drive-- my dad took my brothers and I, along with another family, to the radio station late one night. I don’t know if few people listened to that radio station or if we just scared away ‘competitors’—either way, we were the only people that showed up. We had fun, but never made it to America’s Top 40.
Q: What’s your favorite concert you’ve ever attended?
A: Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme's ‘Diamond Jubilee World Tour’ with Frank Sinatra.
Q: If you knew you could try anything and not fail (and money was no object), what would you attempt to do?
A: Help others succeed.
Q: What super-power would you most like to have, and why?
A: Jedi mind tricks - this would come in handy when dealing with political reporters or newspaper editorial boards.
Q: If you could eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
A: Bread and wine—some folks will understand what I mean. (Uh, can I also have a side of butter?)
Q: What is the most creative nickname you have ever been given? How did you get it?
A: ‘Stosh’—Because of my first name, friends tagged me with the same nickname of NHL Hockey great, Stan Mikita, legendary center and captain of the Chicago Blackhawks.
Q: What is the furthest away you have traveled to?
A: As a television reporter in Fairbanks, Alaska, I traveled to two very remote places: First, to an offshore oil platform 50 miles off the coast of Nome, Alaska. Second, I accompanied the Air Force for mid-air refueling of B-52 bombers over the Polar Cap (North Pole).
Q: If you were stranded on an island, what is the one thing you could not live without and why?
A: My wife —because she makes any place a paradise.
