When I was a student at the Community Film Workshop Council ( CFWC) in New York back in 1977, Bob Teague, New York's first televison reporter of African-American descent, was the news writing instructor. Teague, pictured above, was a long-time, and highly respected reporter at WNBC-TV's NEWSCENTER 4 program. He was a tough 'take no prisoner' kind of instructor. I have to say, one of the best professors, instructors or teachers I've ever had. A proud Black man, and a straight shooter, Teague was simply no-nonsense. He understood his legacy, as a 'first.' The importance of a Black man doing a great job, in a highly visible position, in the New York market. Teague was a veteran newspaper reporter for The New York Times in the 1950's, before he made the jump to television during the newspaper strike of 1962. Towards the end of my 18 week journalism training cycle at the CFWC, I asked Mr. Teague what was it like to work around Tom Snyder, inside the WNBC Newsroom at 30 Rock. Teague paused for a moment, a broad closed-mouth smile crossed his face, and all he would say was, "He is a Professional." In Teague's books about local Television news, one of them, the noted tome, LIVE AND OFF-COLOR: NEWSBIZ, he referred to Snyder as the "NBC-TV Superstar." Nothing more. No other kind of references, good, bad or indifferent. Just that.

I am not writing the Tom Snyder 'Obit' just yet. But I have to say that he, from a-far, had a positive, though indirect impact on my career. That impact is with me everyday from the way I do interviews, to the way in which I approach a news story. With confidence. Or at least the air of confidence. Ha! He was, and remains, one of those rare television personalities who seemed completely relaxed once that RED LIGHT on top of the main camera came on. For those of us who know what that is like, to sit there, and to feel the butterflies rumble in the belly, inside of a cold television studio, not to mention with hot and bright lights in your face, as the floor director delivers 'the countdown,' and, as the red light is about to go on, well, it is a sensation few really know. Pure terror!!! Ha!