OnQ; 2091

We continue our visit to Oklahoma more and more stories right here on broadcast provided by the system. Difference in community every day

and reach out to the neighborhoods we serve. Help System 1 3 3. And by the members. Next an in-depth interview with our Monday want to get a rose through the ranks of local TV to become one of the city's best known personalities who's going to conduct the interview. Well Patrice is partner six o'clock news. Stacey Smith one of the growers in the world right here in our own backyard where you get a load of the greenhouse starts right now. Hello

I'm Carol yes and I'm Michael barley welcome to On cue Chris Moore has the night off. Coming up to Iranians they may be the perfect flower and the local company is one of the largest growers in the world we'll have that story with some very pretty pictures from Fayette County Fayette County but first Stacy Smith is going to introduce our Monday one on cue guest Stacey. All right thank you Carolyn Michael when it comes to local television personalities they do not become much more recognizable than our guest tonight. Many Pittsburghers have literally grown up watching the trees King brought on KDKA TV. Of course I have the pleasure of co-anchoring the 6 o'clock newscast with Patrice I'm much younger than she is. And tonight we will take our hats and just talk. But before you'll meet our Monday one NQ guest Here's a look back at a remarkable television resume.

I'm John Burnett and this. Let's check in with Patrice now and find out what's ahead today. It's a birthday at 1:30. Well Patty you recall that last week mare Sophie Maslin health a team reporter Patrice King Brown has been standing by a children's hospital she joins us now with an

update for Tracy. Thank you very much Patty. Knowledge is our best defense. Patrice Richard from Gateway Center it's trading at our consumer advocate Lynn Sawyer is going to tell us how the right color can make you feel good about yourself and it can also save you money. Very good news at 6:00. Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy is claiming victory in an incredibly close primary election race but his top challenger. So welcome I want to ask your guest Patrice can brown your hair like you change in the last five minutes I know. That's the amazing thing when you look at all those years that's you know it was big in the 80s in Gallo's mall you've always been in fashion always trendy try to stay there and then you know makes a little bit of a difference in television. Our introduction to you made it sound as if you were on your way to retirement

but that is you have you heard. No not at all not at all. But what I want to do is go back a little bit and talk about you already unfortunately I know a lot about Patrice So this be might be a more difficult interview than it seems like because I already know all these things but I'm going to try anyway. You are from Pittsburgh asserts That's right Stacy grew up in Sheridan and went to Langley High School and then went all the way to West Virginia University an hour away for college and came back home. What was your major in college. As a fan or major when I was in school and it was funny because a lot of people talked about the you know these days that you really probably do need to have a degree or you might want to have a degree in broadcast journalism. But it was theater for me I was going to be a star so you missed that and and study theater and loved it and enjoyed it and taught for a year at a private school that's now gone the realer school and before I ended up in television. How did you get into broadcasting. Well you know it was funny because right after I when I was teaching for a while actually I was looking for a way to make some more money and I ended up in sales for a radio with an FM station at the time. But in my heart I had always

been what my family called the ham of the family although all three of us are in broadcasting and I just kept wanting to be involved in television. And I stumbled into the station one day I was supposed to be selling next door to be DNO and I had came back over to it and talk to Sharr who you may remember there. Oh yeah she was a receptionist and she should have told me to go away little girl. And she did and she said well they're putting a new show together do you want to you want to talk to the producer I was like sure. And the producer talked to me because that part of it was they had already hired their male host. This was in 1978. They had already hired their male host and they were about to go on the air in about a month and a half and they needed a female host and they wanted somebody new fresh face which meant cheap and you know. And there I want this is your birthday. You fit the bill right away. You're still cheap. Yeah I'll stop now but I don't want you still in charge I sure start to like it so that's why I told you that.

With all the cuts in the business and we make jokes about it that that every time they would raise the the ladder of the level I would you know every time I'd come up that close they lower the bar you know and it's like OK well I still have work. You know they can still afford me. Well you can have a lot of work in this town for a long time to help us out. You then got the job with Pittsburgh today yet you have never done any television before our life. No I had not I had a you had no idea what this meant. Now I don't know what to do with the underwriting moment none of it. And and because of that I broke out in hives the very first day I was on the air and went to the doctor just before I went on the air he gave me a shot made me sleepy. So I would have it she and sleepy. And scared. You know I didn't know what was going on. Who was your first post. The Borgias I worked with a guy by the name of Ed Malley and he was only at the station for about five months and he moved on and I see him every once in awhile and in commercials. Alice I still see Ed and then was joined by Wayne Van Dyne and then John Wade who came up from Baltimore was with the station or with the show for a long time and then John Burnett of course and I told him I could kill a career

more quickly than anybody else you're going to do if you want to jump through a few again had several people would come to guest hosting too it was fun. Pittsburgh today you for those of you who may not remember the particular program tell us a little bottle. Stacey it was the most fun. It was an hour long show. At one point it was on for an hour at 1:30 if later on the. It was on from 2:00 to 3:00. But it was a magazine show so we had a little bit of everything and that was when they were first talking about magazine shows. You would have fashion we would have interviews usually we would talk with some newsmakers at different times. Sometimes there would be music food family and if we tried to cover as much as we could in that hour and it was great fun it really really is live television was live television so sometimes you get caught you know or sometimes huge mistakes would happen or sometimes somebody would fall or you would mess up something or a Chippendale or two would surely oh my god. Yeah there are some some moments I remember we had our seventh anniversary show. Occasionally we would

go on location and we went to Oxford center at that time it was new and they decided to have our whole show done live there and they invited the Chippendales. And so they all danced the male dancers That's right and these guys came in their little Sgt. First they had a little little tight pants and bow ties and pretty much nothing else that you weren't looking. Oh I didn't notice at all no. And and they would come out and and John and I would came out and said Our greeting and they did a little dance number knowing it was afternoon television they were going to be that so risque. But at one point one of the guys did just pick me up and he's kind of twirling me around I'm So you know I always say that I'm the pigmy of refinement and to have somebody do something like that made it very difficult I was really very embarrassed. But it's hard to know what they're going to govern when well I remember I was doing a news cut in for the program at the time and I went home by oh yeah it was this was something else but you did that one well on Pittsburgh today. You had a lot of guests come through. How did you develop the technique to interview them.

You know what the first time the very first guest I interviewed was a woman by the name of Melba Moore and she had just come off of this successful Pearlie and she also had a an album out I don't remember the song at the time but I loved her and I loved her music and I gushed all over it was really disgusting. After that show I talked to our producer and he said they are coming into your home. This is your home. You can welcome them as you would and that was basically been in my mind the technique I would use. I would be happy to see them but they were in my place you know so it was there was a different attitude. Usually you could learn something but you always had to listen and you know when you're interviewing people usually give up something if you're listening and if you are willing to be flexible and go with it and given up anything yeah yeah yeah that's true. You usually can come up with a good interview. We did lots of reading you know the whatever books were coming through whatever stars were coming through town. And I was really very very fortunate I kept thinking this little girl who grew up in Pittsburgh and that's how I

was really thought of it has this wonderful blessing this wonderful opportunity to meet these people and and share their stories. And that's why I was there and I realize that it's because they were here and there was something they were going to share. Was there one particular interview was the most difficult. Oh I had a couple difficult interviews. There was one interview this man should have never been on the air because he didn't speak English. He spoke Japanese and he had an interpreter with him and he was he had a successful at that time we were owned by Westinghouse. He had a successful contract with Westinghouse and somehow I don't know how that would have worked and we ended up with him as a guest on our afternoon show. And I would say something to him and he would go on and on and on and on and on and Japanese of course I speak Japanese and then the interpreter would say it works from your body heat you know just it just like some little answer that made things tough. There were a couple others that were very difficult. Bob Jones of Bob Jones University. As you might imagine he's a very very conservative man. And

the two of us had very different ideas about race relations and how people should blend and didn't. And if they should have contact or be segregated so emotionally that was difficult but I wanted to make sure that I did that interview as as openly and as honestly as I could. Allowing him to say what he needed to say. But being different from a news person you know we don't give our opinion as a talk show host. You can i could and I could say to him I don't agree or I you know people would not agree to through the centuries my family might not even exist. Of course there was always a live audience there to always live audience which made a difference. Yeah it did. Yeah. Who was the most difficult person to get along with as far as guests not inside the studio Engelbert Humperdinck. Is that right. And I probably shouldn't say that I usually don't save it. I don't think that I like you know you don't want to bad mouth people. He was a tough tough not friendly. He was probably just a man I thought look back on it. He was probably annoyed that he had to come out that his tickets hadn't sold that night or whatever for his show

and that he had to do the show anyway and who is this talking to me. He was he would give you know the toughest answer you can get is a yes or no and he would give less than that. And he demanded champagne and we sent an intern to buy champagne he was going to go on the air if we can get him champagne. And she came back with a bottle and he was like it's domestic you know and he was it's I mean he was tough. He was he was tough from the beginning. Yeah. Was there a favorite interview. There are a couple favorites I love Charlton Heston. He was a very giving interview very gracious man and what I've what I found over the years is people who traveled with huge entourages were usually the newcomers those who were experienced who were probably truly stars rarely traveled with an entourage and he was one of one of those people. I love talking with him. I love talking with Denzel Washington for probably obvious reasons.

Yeah he was in town talking about big brothers and sisters and him and he was very gracious and it was great. I want to spend the entire time in Pittsburgh today but one other question for you. Was there a very emotional moment for Pittsburgh today. When I think about. Well I mean that ending of the show was it was a very emotional time and it was because it it had become so much so much a part of my life. It was going to be very difficult to give up. But when I think back to it to guests I don't remember so much total emotion sometimes some anger. But I don't remember tears. And although you know what we did have a woman on the show once her name was Trudie and ultimately some books were written about her she was a former prostitute who was helping young prostitutes on the streets of New York. Turn their lives around. And when she came on and looked dead into the camera and said I am a person too. And shared her story and talked about her experiences and and why she wanted to help so many people and there were some. You're right there were some very much.

You made Pittsburgh today. Left the air. You made the transition and the news was that difficult. Oh my gosh. That was that was one of the most difficult things I ever experienced. I you know I thought by that I'd been on the air 12 years so I was feeling pretty comfortable in front of a camera. And then to turn it around and no longer give my opinion. Not that anybody was dying to hear my opinion anyway but you know I mean that that he still does when we're not on the air. It was in my own little way. The limitations of news and trying to be as honest as one can and as credible as one can. And just just to know how it's done and to report the facts in a very quick turnaround as you know was was very difficult and when I started back in when I started in news I was doing medical reporting. And that was a whole new language too. So to to go to the hospitals you know if you're going to get sick Pittsburgh is a great place in which to do it. But and there are so many wonderful facilities here. But it was really a learning process really very much like going back to school and very frustrating at first. And I can imagine because I do it. Yes I know you know I know it can be.

Is there or was there a moment in your news side of your career that stands out for you. There couple moments when we broke up laughing. Yes no actually one time that that happened. You know what the most difficult story that we that we have ever had to report I believe and it is truly one that I know we all wish we never had to report on was the crash of a U.S. Airways Flight 427. You were on the air. I had taken a break I had to go she did a contract and in my contract a time in my contract that I could go home after the newscast to check on my children and see that everybody was alright and the airplane crashed in that hour and I got a call I had just dropped my daughter to dance class and I was on my way back to work because something else was pick her up. But this ere this plane had crashed and I joined you you were on the air. I would almost say an hour probably by time I got there and we went from the time I got to much been about 8 o'clock we were on the air to 1:00 in the morning without commercials without interruption trying to share a very very tragic story that impacted this area so strong with people everybody knew

somebody or someone associated with that flight. And tell them the facts but not frighten or alarm or make it more sensational than it was. So the most difficult part of the night was when we both had to say to the camera there are no survivors. My gosh that was that was weird. It really was. Let's talk about you. You have how many children I have two. I have two children I gave birth to and then I have my wonderful stepdaughter Elena and I always tell you that's that's my real job. And they are they are growing older very very quickly. And you know as they as they get older they're moving toward moving away it. I'm not going to be great with an empty nest I can tell that not at all. But my youngest my daughter Lauren is 15 she'll be 16 this summer and my son guy just turned 21. Third year University of Virginia and Elena is here in town working with the family. And it's that's it that's what keeps you going. You know the the love of your family the response and and that's what's really really real.

Is there something in the news or further in your broadcasting career that you haven't done that you would like to do. Well I did love doing talk. I really enjoyed that and I like news I would actually love it and it's probably half a million other people to end up doing one of the morning shows one of the network have an opportunity at a show like that whether I end up doing it on a network or not. But combining that what I believe now is the credibility that I have earned in news and the knowledge and with the still the love of the magazine format. What did what is happen is I was able to bypass what I think was all that trash time on my talk shows. Pittsburgh today went off the air just before things really got what I consider really trashy and on talk shows. And I was actually glad not to have to participate in that to talk about people's love lives late at night and all that. So down the road if I could do something like that I'd probably be very happy. One final question for you who's your favorite co-anchor.

Let me think it would have to these days that she gives the best interview of anyone and one I guess we have Randi. Thanks so much it's my pleasure you know and our banks so much for having me out here. Thank you. Still to come the backyard gardener finds a geranium goldmine in western Pennsylvania but first a look at what is coming up later this week on cue Carol. Stacey it's a disturbing sight for many a pregnant woman puffing on a cigarette. Then the Pittsburgh region you see a lot more often than other big cities so let's get a preview of what Michael Bartley is working on this week. Carol Pittsburgh still ranks number one in the country believe it or not for having the most pregnant women who smoke cigarettes. It is so bad that the local medical community is trying to stop it head on. They're pregnant they're smoking even though they know the warnings and the dangers it poses to their unborn baby. You can understand if someone looks at you like you're seven and a half months pregnant. When they see a

cigarette in your hand and in your mouth. Yeah but they think you are out of your mind. That's why I filled all my memory. But there is a difference with these women. Yes they're still smoking but not near as much as they used to. A breathalyzer tracks their progress in an intense one on one new program to stop pregnant women from smoking. We'll show you how it works tomorrow night on Q And on Thursday night. Home educational seminars. The men and women who live here are convicted criminals. Yet there are no visible guards no jail cells. What is this place in downtown Pittsburgh and why is it being called a major success in reforming criminals and moving them successfully in this society and the workplace and how is it saving taxpayers big money. Thursday night and that is a fascinating program again that's

Thursday night by the way tomorrow night we'll have a special phone number for you to call if you're interested in the program to get pregnant women off cigarettes big time serious problem here in the Pittsburgh region had no idea. OK yeah a lot of smokers here Michael. All right and up next one of the biggest geranium farms in the world right here in western Pennsylvania after this look at the PNC Pasch main encounter. Well chances are you spent the weekend sprucing up your garden then you might have a chance

sorry about some drain aims in your belly and chances are those dreams came from a local company. You didn't even know existed until now. Oh. It's hard to find fault with a flower like the geranium made when last summer long and they don't take a lot of care they don't even like a lot of water. You get such beautiful color you get big blooms. They can take of all the harsh sun in the summer and they come in a variety of colors and sizes. In western Pennsylvania geraniums are a homegrown favorite And when we say homegrown we mean it beneath the roofs of greenhouses in Connellsville Fayette County have sprouted up by the thousands. They're the product of Ogilvy limited

one of the largest growers of geraniums in the world. Success is due in part to the system of keeping geranium strong and healthy. The company discovered the process back in the 1960s when disease threaten the flower's very existence. Carl heads all of these North American production division at that time drain IEMs were on the verge of extinction because of the bacterial disease so they applied this this theory that if you could find one plant that had no disease in it that could sort of be the basis for all of your future plants. Today the company continues its patented process of using plant cuttings instead of seeds to grow its geraniums. It's not exactly cloning but it's close. This is a cutting that has been stuck for about a week and the base of the cutting is starting to swell so that's a sign that the root activity is starting to happen. If we look down here a little bit further we can probably find one that has some root starting There's one there that just has some just some beginning of some root starting to grow on that plant.

It will take several weeks before the plants are big enough to save the ship. Also growers in the meantime will be nurtured by sunlight and water. A computer controlled mystic system now after a period of about five or six weeks. The plant would get up to a size where we'd ship it out to our customers or transplant it into a larger container like this. Now from this size plant to here it's generally about a four month process maybe as long as five months depending on how large large the plant will go. Growing plants from cuttings not only produces hardy stock it also helps people know what they're buying. Many plants are not able to be read reproduced consistently from seed. In other words when when the cross of the pollen happens you'll get some variability so when the consumer buys if they're looking for a drain him like a variety we have called him or patriot bright red. They're going to know that the variety that they planted last year is going to look the same as the variety that they've planted this year. Ogilvy doesn't like variety. In fact new ones are already on the horizon.

This is a stellar geranium which will be a new introduction for the year 2000 and 2. So this is one that consumers will see out in the garden. One of the advantages and characteristics it's very Flora for as the flowers are kind of unusual shaped flowers. This is a different species of geranium that's called regal geranium. Years ago regal geraniums used to be something that you know a home owner could buy them in the spring but never get them to read Bloom again. Now these plants can be planted out in a sheltered area in the garden and they'll rebuild room for the for the homeowner. And you can see there's a just a huge variety of colors. As for colors red remains the all time favorite but hot pinks and salmons. They're big sellers too. One of the colors that genetically were not able to get in geraniums is yellow and it's something that our breeders would like to continue working for but there is no yellow pigment in dreams or in the geranium world. So that's one color that may happen someday through genetic engineering

ingenuity technology and careful breeding have made geraniums an attraction in anyone's garden. But the move to make them even better just in terms of the future geraniums really what we're looking for is always better performance in the garden. Larger flowers more unique colors for the consumer. And we're constantly evaluating our existing varieties against new varieties that we've bred. We feel like if the consumer buys a Draney M that has the Ogilvy name on it and there they are happy with it it grows well for them they'll come back next year and look for a variety with the old will be a name that's been kind of our trademark is good garden performance or what we say great garden performance. We're on cue ghost or the backyard gardener. Lot of colors if you like to know more about geraniums you can log on to the company's

website at Ogilvy dot com. I like the ones that head and get this next month Ogilvy starts growing point that is already thinking about this in the heat of the summer. Gotta get them groomed some day I'll tell you my family connection with the poinsettia But anyway that's going to do it for us tonight. We will be back live again on Tuesday as a reminder you can catch a rebroadcast of onto weeknights at 11:30 weekday afternoons at 12:30 or you can log on to the broadcast dot com slash television slash WQ and be sure to tune in Tuesday night for some great live jazz with our musical guests. We'll see you back here live at 7:30. Good night. Will

you QED the broadcast of all the Q magazine is made from the Evelyn foundation the Richard King Foundation and the Pittsburgh foundation the Dillon foundation to do Health Care Foundation. And by the members of WQED funding from Cuba's mine by PNC. When you think about what you want from life let me think about the financial services and advice to help you get there and see the thinking behind the money. Tuesday on cue this is Michael Barclay. After all the warnings Pittsburgh still ranks first for the most pregnant women

who smoked. Why is that. Well ask pregnant women who smoke cigarettes and will tell you about a new program aimed at stopping expect the fathers from lighting up their warnings and given the health problems that could cause their baby.