Texas Country Reporter - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Texas Country Reporter is a weekly syndicated television program hosted and produced by Bob Phillips

Bob Phillips

Robert Leon Phillips, known as Bob Phillips , is an American television journalist best known for his long-running program Texas Country Reporter...

. It airs in all 22 Texas media markets, generally on weekends, and reruns are broadcast nationally on the satellite/cable channel RFD-TV

RFD-TV

RFD-TV, or Rural Free Delivery TV, is a United States satellite and cable television channel devoted to rural issues, concerns, and interests. The channel's name is a reference to Rural Free Delivery, the name for the United States Postal Service's system of delivering mail directly to rural patrons...

. As of April 2008, Phillips had taped two thousand episodes of the program.

Texas Country Reporter showcases Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

people and places, with an emphasis on rural areas and a style similar to that of Charles Kuralt

Charles Kuralt

Charles Kuralt was an American journalist. He was most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.Kuralt's "On the Road"...

's "On the Road" reports for CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

News. Originally called 4 Country Reporter, it debuted in 1972 on Dallas television station KDFW

KDFW

KDFW, virtual channel 4 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex designated market area....

, Channel 4. In 1986, Phillips left KDFW and began selling the show in syndication, adopting the Texas Country Reporter name. In the Dallas market, KDFW didn't pick up the syndicated version, but rival station WFAA Channel 8 picked it up, calling the show 8 Country Reporter. Around this time, Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen, often abbreviated DQ, is a chain of soft serve and fast food restaurants owned by International Dairy Queen, Inc, who also owns Orange Julius and Karmelkorn. The name "Dairy Queen" is taken from the name of their soft serve product, which the company refers to as "Dairy Queen" or...

became the show's main sponsor, which allowed Phillips to be the chain's spokesman in its ads as he promoted food items at its Texas-based restaurants.

One of the show's trademarks is Phillips' Texas-flag

Flag of Texas

The Flag of the State of Texas is defined by law as follows:The Texas flag is known as the "Lone Star Flag" . This flag was introduced to the Congress of the Republic of Texas on December 28, 1838, by Senator William H. Wharton...

-styled SUV, seen in the opening credits crossing the Regency Bridge

Regency Bridge

The Regency Bridge, locally known as the "Swinging Bridge," is a one-lane suspension bridge over the Colorado River in Texas. It is located at the intersection of Mills County Road 433 and San Saba County Road 137, both gravel roads, near a small community called Regency. The bridge saddles Mills...

, a small one-lane suspension bridge

Suspension bridge

A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...

over the Colorado River

Colorado River (Texas)

The Colorado River is a river that runs through the U.S. state of Texas; it should not be confused with the much longer Colorado River which flows from Colorado into the Gulf of California....

between Richland Springs

Richland Springs, Texas

Richland Springs is a town in San Saba County in Western Central Texas. The population was 350 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Richland Springs is located at ....

and Goldthwaite, Texas

Goldthwaite, Texas

Goldthwaite is a small city located in Mills County in Central Texas. The population was 1,802 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Mills County, which is named for John T. Mills, a justice of the Supreme Court for the Third, Seventh, and Eighth districts of the former Republic of Texas....

.

The show is independently syndicated, with Phillips retaining half of the ads for regional sponsors; he appears in many of the regional ads, and the sponsors' logos adorn the back of the famed SUV. For twelve years, the show has headlined the Texas Country Reporter Festival in Waxahachie

Waxahachie, Texas

Waxahachie is a city in Ellis County, Texas, United States, and a southern suburb of Dallas. The population was 21,426 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Ellis County....

, south of Dallas, with some of the people highlighted on the show in attendance.

Texas Country Reporter posts selected segments to its YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

page, and some have been featured on local newscasts. A three-DVD highlights set, Go! Stay! Eat!, was released September 17, 2005.

A national version of the show, On the Road With Bob Phillips, is planned to debut in 2010; Phillips previously did 60 stories in 35 states as part of a "Texas Country Reporter Discovers America" series for the show's 25th anniversary in 1998.

The show is sometimes incorrectly confused with the long-running and recently revived The Eyes of Texas

The Eyes of Texas (TV series)

The Eyes of Texas is a long-running regional television series which aired original episodes from 1969—1999. The program focused on unique people, events and places throughout the state of Texas. It was produced and syndicated by KPRC-TV & Stonefilms , both in Houston...

, hosted by Ray Miller

Ray Miller (Texas journalist)

Ray Elvin Miller was the creator and host of The Eyes of Texas , a television anthology series, syndicated through KPRC-TV, the NBC outlet in Houston. A native of Fort Worth, Miller began his career in radio there in 1938 and thereafter relocated to Houston...

, which predates TCR by several years, and was produced by KPRC-TV

KPRC-TV

KPRC-TV is the NBC affiliated television station based in Houston, Texas, and serving the Greater Houston television market. It has studios located in the Sharpstown district on the Southwest portion of the city, and has a transmitter site in unincorporated Fort Bend County near Missouri City...

in Houston throughout both the original and newer versions.

Notable TCR segments

Jay Boy Adams
Jay Boy Adams
James Wallace Adams, known as Jay Boy Adams , is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Lubbock and San Antonio, Texas, known particularly for his talent for storytelling in his songs.-Early years:...

, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
Johnny Anders
Johnny Anders
John Earl Anders, Jr., known as Johnny Anders , is an automobile body shop owner who engages in the unusual hobby of metal artwork and also serves as the mayor of Stamford in northern Jones County in West Texas. Stamford is north of Abilene and straddles the boundary with Haskell County to the north...

, mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

of Stamford
Stamford, Texas
Stamford is a small city located on the border of Jones and Haskell counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 3,111 in 2008. H. McHarg, president of the Texas Central Railroad, named the site in 1900 for his hometown in Connecticut...

and metal artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
Bud Andrews
Bud Andrews
Curcy Hendricks Andrews, Jr., known as Bud Andrews , is a retired deejay at Radio KDAV in Lubbock, Texas, who in 1970 is said to have "discovered" the Mississippi-based humorist Jerry Clower.-Early career:...

, retired deejay
Deejay
A deejay is a reggae or dancehall musician who sings and toasts to an instrumental riddim .Deejays are not to be confused with disc jockeys from other music genres like hip-hop, where they select and play music. Dancehall/reggae DJs who select riddims to play are called selectors...

in Lubbock
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
Susan Isabelle Bailey (1923-2008), bait-stand operator, fishing guide, and conservationist in Bridge City
Bridge City, Texas
Bridge City is a city in Orange County, Texas, United States. The population was 8,651 at the 2000 census. The town borders the Neches River and Cow Bayou. It is part of the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area....

, Texas
Blues Boy Willie
Blues Boy Willie
William Daniel McFalls, better known as Blues Boy Willie , is an African American electric blues singer and harmonica player from Memphis, Texas...

, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

from Memphis
Memphis, Texas
Memphis is a city in Hall County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 2,479. It is the county seat of Hall County.Memphis is the birthplace of former U.S...

, Texas
Minnie Lou Bradley
Minnie Lou Bradley
Minnie Lou Ottinger Bradley is the matriarch of the Bradley 3 Ranch in Childress County in the Texas Panhandle. An inductee of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, she is a trailblazer for women in the field of livestock breeding and ranch management. She is the first woman...

, rancher near Childress
Childress, Texas
Childress is a city in Childress County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,778 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Childress County. Like the county, the city is named for George Campbell Childress, a native of Nashville, Tennessee, who was the principal author of the Texas...
John Bramblitt
John Bramblitt
John Bramblitt is a blind painter of American origin. He began painting after losing his sight in 2001 after a series of severe seizures. His art has been displayed in over 20 nations and he has been the subject of numerous media stories including a documentary that won several short film awards...

, blind artist
Matt Brown
Matt Brown (track and field athlete)
Matthew S. Brown, known as Matt P.F. Brown , is a football and track and field coach at Idalou High School in Idalou in Lubbock County, Texas, who is a gold and bronze winner in the Parapan American Games...

is a football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

and track and field coach
Coach (sport)
In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...

at Idalou High School, who is a gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

and bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

winner in the Parapan American Games
Parapan American Games
The Parapan American Games is a multi-sport event held every four years after every Pan American Games for athletes with physical disabilities. The first Games was held in 1999 in Mexico City, Mexico...

, He lost his left leg, amputated above the knee, as a result of an industrial accident in December 2005.
Jared Charles Calvert, young pilot from Ranger
Ranger, Texas
Ranger is a city in Eastland County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,584 at the 2000 census. Ranger College, a community college, is the second largest employer in the community....

in Eastland County
Eastland County, Texas
*Carbon*Cisco*Desdemona, a ghost town*Eastland*Gorman*Mangum*Olden*Ranger*Rising Star*Romney-See also:*National Register of Historic Places listings in Eastland County, Texas*Santa Claus Bank Robbery-External links:** at the University of Texas*...
Los Ebanos Ferry
Los Ebanos Ferry
The Los Ebanos Ferry, formally known as the Los Ebanos-Diaz Ordaz Ferry, is a hand-operated cable ferry that travels across the Rio Grande between Los Ebanos, Texas and Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Tamaulipas. It is the last of its kind along the entire stretch of the Rio Grande...

, historic hand-pulled ferry crossing the Rio Grande at Los Ebanos
Los Ebanos, Texas
Los Ebanos is a census-designated place in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States. The population was 403 at the 2000 census. It is part of the McAllen–Edinburg–Mission Metropolitan Statistical Area...

in Hidalgo County
Hidalgo County, Texas
Hidalgo County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Located in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, Hidalgo County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States, and is the seventh most-populous county in Texas. Its population in 2010 was 774,769, a 35% increase from 2000...
Virgil Johnson
Virgil Johnson (singer)
Virgil Lewis Johnson is a retired African American deejay, formerly at radio station KDAV in Lubbock. He was the lead singer of The Velvets, a 1950s and 1960s vocal quintet from Odessa, also in West Texas. They are best remembered for their 1961 hit "Tonight ", which peaked at No. 26 on the...

, retired deejay in Lubbock; formerly with The Velvets
The Velvets
The Velvets were an American doo wop group from Odessa in Ector County in west Texas. The African American quintet was formed in 1959 by Virgil Johnson, a high school English teacher, with four of his students. Roy Orbison heard the group and signed them to Monument Records in 1960. Their first...
Longhorn Cavern State Park
Longhorn Cavern State Park
Longhorn Cavern State Park is a state park located in Burnet County, Texas, United States. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is administrator of the facility. The land for Longhorn Cavern State Park was acquired between 1932 and 1937 from private owners. It was dedicated as a state park in...

near Burnet
Burnet, Texas
Burnet is a city in and the county seat of Burnet County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,735 at the 2000 census.Both the city and the county were named for David Gouverneur Burnet, the first president of the Republic of Texas. He also served as Vice President during the...

, with tour guide Kaye Barlow, a former teacher
Gary D. McCaleb
Gary D. McCaleb
Gary Day McCaleb is the vice president and professor of management at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas, and a prominent civic leader who formerly served as mayor of Abilene, the seat of Taylor County...

, former mayor of Abilene
Abilene, Texas
Abilene is a city in Taylor and Jones counties in west central Texas. The population was 117,063 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Abilene Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2006 estimated population of 158,063. It is the county seat of Taylor County...

; vice-president of Abilene Christian University
Abilene Christian University
Abilene Christian University is a private university located in Abilene, Texas, affiliated with Churches of Christ. ACU was founded in 1906, as Childers Classical Institute...

; co-founder of the National Center for Illustrated Children's Literature in downtown Abilene
Scott Myers
Scott Myers
Scott Myers is an American painter and sculptor who lives and works in Texas. He graduated Texas A&M University in 1984 with a doctorate in veterinary medicine. He studied sculpture throughout Italy focusing on Florence, Venice and Rome. Sculpting in Tuscany, he cast his work in bronze at the...

, sculptor of some of famous faces at the Professional Football Hall of Fame.
Post
Post, Texas
Post is a city in and the county seat of Garza County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,708 at the 2000 census.There are many ranchers and civic boosters in Garza County, among them Giles McCrary, a former mayor who operates the OS Museum, a hybrid of exhibits from both the American West...

, Texas, historic district with focus on the Hotel Garza
Myna Potts
Myna Potts
Myna Gayle Hicks Potts is an historical preservationist from Chillicothe in Hardeman County in West Texas who is the curator of the Medicine Mound Museum in the nearby ghost town of Medicine Mound. Only two buildings remain in the town...

, historical preservationist
Preservationist
Preservationist is generally understood to mean historic preservationist: one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects or sites from demolition or degradation...

from Hardeman County
Hardeman County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 4,724 people, 1,943 households, and 1,319 families residing in the county. The population density was 7 people per square mile . There were 2,358 housing units at an average density of 3 per square mile...
The Quebe Sisters Band
The Quebe Sisters Band
The Quebe Sisters Band is an American fiddle Western swing group from Fort Worth, Texas, United States. The band consists of sisters Grace, Sophia and Hulda Quebe as well as Joey L. McKenzie on guitar and Drew Phelps on upright bass...

, young fiddle players from Burleson
Burleson, Texas
Burleson is a city in Johnson and Tarrant counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is considered a suburb of Fort Worth and is located in the rapidly growing suburban expanse just south of the city. As of the 2010 census, the population was 36,690, having increased from the 20,976 residents counted...
Rosebud Fountain and Grill in downtown Victoria
Victoria, Texas
Victoria is a city in and the seat of Victoria County, Texas, United States. The population was 60,603 at the 2000 census. The three counties of the Victoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 111,163 at the 2000 census,...
Robert E. L. Smith, established Depression Expression Museum in Lamesa
Lamesa, Texas
Lamesa is a city in and the county seat of Dawson County, Texas, United States. The population was 9,952 at the 2000 census. Located south of Lubbock on the Llano Estacado, Lamesa was founded in 1903. Most of the economy is based on cattle ranching and cotton farming. The Preston E...
Robert "Bob" Terry (born c. 1963), owner of Wild West Toys in Azle
Azle, Texas
Azle is a city in Parker and Tarrant counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,947.Popular tourist attractions include marine sports at Eagle Mountain Lake such as swimming, fishing and boating.-Geography:...

near the Tarrant
Tarrant County, Texas
Tarrant County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, it had a population of 1,809,034. Its county seat is Fort Worth. Tarrant County is the sixteenth most populous county in the United States and the third most populous in Texas. The county is named in honor...

/Parker
Parker County, Texas
As of the census of 2003, there were 98,495 people, 31,131 households, and 24,313 families residing in the county. The population density was 98 people per square mile . There were 34,084 housing units at an average density of 38 per square mile...

county line, the last American manufacturer of the cap pistol.
Simon Vega
Simon Vega
Simon H. Vega is a retired high school teacher who became a personal friend of singer Elvis Presley while the two served together in the United States Army in Germany from 1958—1960. In 1993, Vega turned his house into a museum called "Little Graceland" located in his native Los Fresnos in...

, owner/operator of "Little Graceland" museum in Los Fresnos
Los Fresnos, Texas
Los Fresnos is a city in Cameron County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,512 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville and the Matamoros–Brownsville metropolitan areas....

dedicated to his Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

friend, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
Kees Maarten Verheul (born ca. 1936), owner of Aermotor Windmill Company of San Angelo
San Angelo, Texas
San Angelo is a city in the state of Texas. Located in West Central Texas it is the county seat of Tom Green County. As of 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total population of 93,200...

, the last manufacturer of windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...

s in the United States
Roddy Rawls Wiley (1924-2010), owned the Oakwood State Bank
Oakwood State Bank
The Oakwood State Bank, is a small bank with a single branch in Oakwood, Texas operated by Roddy R. Wiley, Jr. It is called the smallest bank in the United States. It serves some six hundred accounts in the same manner that it did in the 1950s -- without new banking conveniences of recent decades...

in Oakwood
Oakwood, Texas
Oakwood is a town in Freestone and Leon counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 471 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Oakwood is located at ....

, the smallest bank in the United States

The last high school commencement ceremony held in Spade
Spade, Texas
Spade is a census-designated place in Lamb County, Texas, United States. The population was 100 at the 2000 census.To the north of Spade is the Triple Arrow Ranch, a spread with historic relics owned by Lamb County Commissioner's Court Judge William A...

, which featured a wounded Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

veteran finally graduating from his school. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPNS6tMY26o

The unusual arrangement between the East Texas high schools of Apple Springs
Apple Springs Independent School District
Apple Springs Independent School District is a public school district based in Apple Springs, Texas .The district has two schools, Apple Springs Elementary School and Apple Springs High School , with approximately 140-165 students...

and Hudson
Hudson Independent School District
Hudson Independent School District is a public school district based in Hudson, Texas .In 2009, the school district was rated "recognized" by the Texas Education Agency.-History:...

. Apple Springs participates in football but has no band program while Hudson has a band but no football team; thus; Hudson serves as Apple Springs' "band" during football games.

Notable TCR segments

Related links