Jack

Aug 16, 2007 23:26

This afternoon after work, I went shopping with Nikki and we bumped into a guy I used to work the city council meetings with, Bob. Bob and I caught up, and he asked me if I had heard about Jack Oliver.

He died today of unknown causes. At least, no one I've talked to knows what it was specifically, but Jack had made it to his 90th birthday this year, and had had a stroke 10 years ago, so it's likely any number of things.

Jack was the engineer at TV30, then it was called CTV and it was run by Darla and Sheila until 2003. Jack left with them, but while he was there, he was, by every definition, a fucking wizard. He basically strapped a slew of 3/4" Sony U-matic tapes and made them work for about 15 years past the point when they were even used by anyone anymore, and that was what ran our programming for three channels 24/7 since 1977. Within a month of him leaving the station, I lost 3 decks for playback, because I do not have the ability to piece my way through a dozen boards with any sort of speed to find what had gone wrong. By the time we converted to digital, we had only 7 machines left. Jack kept these things running with literally one hand. True, I helped at the end, but Jack was the master.

He would come in on Saturdays and he and I would watch some MST3K and laugh at some of the silly gaffes we saw. We'd go out nearly every day and get everyone's klunch order, and basically Jack was a great guy, even if he did vote for Schwarzenegger.

I can't go to the memorial, because it's tomorrow and it conflicts with work, which I'm already taking a half day off of to go to my 20 year high school reunion, which I shall speak of next. But I'll remember Jack for all the little things we did at that silly station. Man, yeah I bitched about the place, and still do, but it's the sort of bitching that everyone does about everything because it's not perfect. It's as much a part of me as anything else, and I'll miss it, and Jack, for a long long time.
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