5 Minutes With... Bob Lape

BOB LAPE, KENT STATE ’52

Upon beginning your studies at Kent State University, did you know that journalism was the career path for you, or did you find your passion along the way? My ambition, in the yearbook of Akron’s John R. Buchtel High School was “To ink that contract with CBS.” This was the Edward R. Murrow era. It took me 30 years. In the meantime, other alphabetical trios – NBC, ABC, USA, FNN, occupied my attention. And when I did sign on at CBS, my “Bob Lape’s Dining Diary” would enjoy a 30-year run every day, 15 times a week.

I have always loved reading, writing and performing. My high school aptitude test listed my top three interests as becoming a minister, radio announcer or diplomat. Communication was the common denominator. I figured radio as the money path. My favorite of Murrow’s great team was Eric Sevareid, whose look, sound and brain made an extraordinary package. So, imagine my reaction when I bested him years later auditioning to anchor a new national TV feature based on The Gallup Report.

Were there any individuals who inspired you throughout your undergraduate studies? Anyone who had a lasting impact on your life and career? In the early 1950’s, the entire Radio Speech staff lit my fire, from

Professor John Weiser's opening remark in September 1951: “If you’re going to be five seconds late, don't come. The program will start without you. Better be five minutes early.” Those lines made me a social pariah the rest of my life. Walton Clarke was a role model in how to look and sound as a broadcaster. John Montgomery cleaned up some diction bugaboos of long-standing. But Bob Stockdale was forever inspirational in speech creativity and assurance. And at the time he was igniting student speakers, we had no idea this man was a repeatedly promoted battlefield Marine (private to captain) as well as a Ravenna City Councilman (age 21), Portage County Sheriff (eight years) and Ohio State representative and senator for a total of 20 more. Then he became a Provost at Kent State!

What compelled you to join Phi Kappa Tau? My path to Phi Kappa Tau was blazed by George “Bill” Reed, an impressive guy I'd known slightly at my high school. Bill was doing a fine job in Army ROTC leadership, seemed totally at home with academic and social demands of campus life, and his brothers seemed a most cordial and accomplished crew, as indeed they were.

What are some of your fondest memories as an undergraduate member of Phi Kappa Tau? As I was commuting from Akron and working – radio station by day and gas station at night – the one year I lived at the PKT House was a hoot. As the only son of an only son of an only son, the band of brothers was a revelation. Communing at meals and social events and private

movie showings engendered friendships that lasted a lifetime.

Are there any stories or individual moments that you feel were career defining achievements for you? In my first news director job, at WICE in Providence, RI, when President Dwight Eisenhower declared nearby Newport to be his Summer White House, I declared myself to be a Summer White House Correspondent for my station. This involved driving ten miles to the Naval War College on the Newport Navy Base every day to be briefed on Presidential activities and pronouncements. All the newsies would then race to phones or microphones to spread the word to the world.

After one such briefing, Press Secretary James Hagerty summoned me to his office, a highly uncommon occurrence. “Lape,” he said, “Did you write that editorial on the Little Rock, Arkansas, school integration crisis that aired on your Station?” When I said I did, he said, “Well, The Boss heard it. he liked it, he appreciated it, and he wanted you to know.” To my 23-year-old ears, that was not only music, but also confirmation I’d chosen the right profession.

Another super-charged event was the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965 – a cataclysmic 14-hour power collapse that found me leading a huge news team to the largest radio audience in history. I was news director of Westinghouse Broadcasting Company’s WBZ Radio in Boston, which had the great good fortune to return to the air in mere minutes as the sole voice of the ten-state paralyzed area. For once, Senators, Governors, Mayors and first responders flocked to us to disseminate calming consultation and helpful advice to all with a radio.

Our big brother and building-mate WBZ-TV was impacted by the blackout, so my radio news team was more

than doubled with the addition of the video crew. It was literally thrilling to know everything you did counted, right now. The historic solo non-stop news broadcasting, shifting the informational fulcrum from New York to Boston, won a special Congressional Citation for the New England giant. If memory serves, the WBZ audience neared 15 million.

As a restaurant reviewer and food critic, can you share some of your most memorable dining experiences with our readers? Over a half-century of reporting every aspect of ingestibles, and having unique autonomy, I felt required to give every aspect of food and drink its moment in the sun. If I didn't know it, I'd get someone who did to share it. Many "foreign" cuisines required study and tasting, and what exciting and extraordinary evenings that triggered. I’ll never forget spending hours with Miss Ruth, manager of the highly regarded Japanese restaurant Hatsuhana in NYC, as she gently led me through the piscine progressions of sushi and sashimi. I was more intrigued by her time in a Nisei internment camp in WWII, but managed to keep the chopsticks in gear.

I built a working food library of 4,000 books. Being married to Joanna Pruess, a gifted cookbook author, made us first in line at library book sales throughout New England -- first at the door with grocery bags to score.

Much of my father’s career was in retail food in Ohio and I spent summers scouring small town suburban grocery stores and meat markets, Thus, big city ethnic adventures were a novelty, but essential and exciting.

Given prosaic Midwestern food roots, it was more than satisfying to be asked to deliver keynote addresses in later years at the Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park) for the new breed, and the Ameri-

can Culinary Federation (San Francisco) for the professionals.

Of all your accolades and achievements, what are you professionally and individually most proud of? It took 70 years to get it, but the Kent State Alumni Professional Achievement Award takes the cake. Not just because my author daughter Deb Lape wrote my nomination repeatedly until she could not be denied, but also because it encapsulates the whole deal.

I’ve received a number of lifetime achievement awards—notably from food, wine and dining industry organizations and chambers of commerce. And after arriving back home, I became the first resident member trustee of the nonprofit Eliza Jennings Senior Campus, in its 120-year history. I also served as vice-chairman and chairman of its Residents' Association.

Do you have any advice for our undergraduate brothers hoping to pursue a career in journalism? Be prepared. For anything and everything. Know your audience -- both on the other side of the microphone and in the back of the balcony. I often had no clue to my first assignment of an Eyewitness News day until it was handed to me and the three-person film crew who would accompany me, shoot the story and send the 16 mm film back to the newsroom via motorcycle courier. Sometimes I rode with the film, biking through New York City traffic.

If you think you're cramming for an exam, consider facing a news conference by a president, governor, foreign diplomat, college president or technocrat. And having questions ready to elicit news. This meant that every second riding in the camera crew car was spent absorbing the morning papers and other

sources bearing on your subject, taking notes and analyzing the physical setting of the shoot. You will tell the cameraman what you want filmed.

In the early 1970s, I anchored three half-hour interview programs in the Sunday morning “Culture Gulch” in New York: “Eyewitness News Conference,” “The Board of Ed Reports,” and “This Week in Religion.” The latter two were taped earlier; “News Conference” was shot live at 10 a.m. Sidewalks outside WABC-TV were paved with print, radio and TV reporters, photographers and camera crews from other stations and networks, waiting to pounce on our guests for something we’d just unearthed.

Describe to us the journey of witnessing firsthand the shifting landscape of journalism and media consumption throughout your 70-year career? I found the transformation of journalism and media consumption to be a major pain in the fanny over my 70-year run through it. I was very successful at all my stops along the way, but that did not always have a darn thing to do with the outcomes. After 24 years with CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS, delivering a weekly restaurant review page I created and tailored to its readership, and the most popular feature in the newspaper, the Internet ate my lunch.

I’d received modest raises along the way and CRAIN'S insisted in buying all meals reviewed. But there came a day after slow but steady erosion of advertising revenue to online venues that I was invited to lunch by managing editor Greg David and told “It’s either you or the newspaper.”

The same line, in essence, would come six years later from WCBS Newsradio

The good news was switching from film to videotape, enabling us to turn around the news visuals much faster and start editing right away. Cell phones were a blessing, too, and I could and did visit up to a dozen restaurants in

a single day of the then brand-new New York Restaurant Week, airing live interviews at each. As I was paid AFTRA Scale by the individual feature, the more, the merrier.

What were some unique foods you’ve had the opportunity to try? My challenge to share diverse cuisines with my broadcast and print audiences grew when I folded travel under my journalistic umbrella. The world was then my beat, and I felt obliged to taste the local culinary fare, even if "local" was Singapore, Capetown, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Edinburgh, St. Petersburg or Mola di Bari. Game often provided a thrill or two, and a grill restaurant starring a dozen jungle denizens near Johannesburg

was a revelation. I was blessed to have media invitation to ten different regions of Italy, traveling with Italian American restaurateurs to a different one every year. Bliss!

Occasionally, seafood might stump us, but we forged ahead, even if the dish seemed to be big bugs. And sometimes it was! I'd not even experienced shrimp till my early 20’s but have made up for it since.

The New York Restauranter, Drew Nieporent once described you as the “harbinger of the Television Food Network.”

With such a designation, are there any cooking shows that you are partial to? Timing and a runaway TV hit feature brought the food world to my door. Because the Eyewitness Gourmet always offered free copies of the filmed dish recipe, my desk was constantly awash in thousands of requests. This helped me judge what most interested the public, and schedule future presentations to meet it. The Gourmet had the appealing trait of being only GOOD FOOD, and was an engaging way to end the news week -- every 6 p.m. News program on Friday (New York City), Saturday (surrounding states -- NJ, Conn., NY, and Pennsylvania (Bucks County). The Sunday feature was re-run the next morning on the local news inserts in "Good Morning America." I often broadcast those and would find myself introducing myself.

I had the good fortune to introduce many Food TV stars to television for the first time, preparing dishes in their own restaurants. Among them: Jacques Pepin, Lidia Bastianich, Bobby Flay, Tom Colicchio. I filmed often at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.