User:Justrluck

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My surname is Luck and my first name starts with an R. When asked what monogram should be put on a jacket a former employer issued to me my reply was just "R Luck". However when received the jacket label read "justrluck".

In 1968, after graduating from Hermitage High School in Henrico County, Virginia, my best friend's father gave me a job at WTVR-TV in Richmond, Virginia. I was a cameraman operating a Norelco PC-70 for news, public affairs and children's programming.

After about nine months the technical director for the news was drafted (this was 1969 - he was about to go to Viet Nam) and I applied for the position. I then became a 19 year-old technical director for "the highest rated news show in America". Our rating for the Richmond metro market was 57% - the highest rating of any news program in any market. Although the Richmond market at the time was only the 56th in the USA the rating was still a significant mark in television and marketing. It soon changed as the competition made advances towards changing that status. Ironically, I later worked for the competition, WWBT-TV12, on their innovative news broadcast, The Scene Tonight.

In addition to news my job duties at both stations included production of commercials and public affairs programming. In 1974 WTVR purchased a hand-held Sony video camera and I became one of the pioneers in hand-held video production.

In 1979 I moved from Virginia to Florida and went to work for WLCY-TV channel 10, an ABC network affiliate. 16mm film was still the primary tool of the news department but ENG (Electronic News Gathering) was just making inroads into the industry. WLCY had no film processor and their daily newsfilm was processed by a competitor, WTVT TV. WLCY became the first in the Tampa market to switch exclusively to videotape instead of film for news gathering.

In 1987 I was employed by the Home Shopping Network as an on-air producer.

In 1989 I was appointed general manager of Home Shopping Spree, a network broadcasting 24 hours a day 7 days a week wholly owned and operated by HSN, Inc.

In 1999 I became the Programming Manager of America's Store.

In 2001 our New York transmitter on top of the World Trade Center was destroyed.

In 2003 my position was eliminated as the programming of America's Store was incorporated into the HSN programming department rather than as a seperate entity. America's Store ceased broadcasting entirely not long thereafter.