The name of the KWWL executive who helped launch the ITN has slipped my mind. I wish I could remember his name because he had to do some selling to convince the University that live telecasts of home basketball games would not hurt attendance. He insisted the telecasts would have the opposite effect. He was right. By 1981-82 Iowa basketball games were bumping "Hill Street Blues" off Thursday nights. I was in middle school when ITN started telecasting select games. Ron Steele, who is still at KWWL as news anchor emeritus, did play by play. Bob Hogue gave us plenty of "Oh My's" and "Stokes With The Jam" during my high school years, by which time Iowa Basketball was appointment TV. By the time I was a UI freshman in 1984 I bought student season tickets the instant they came available. Largely because I had been watching all those years on ITN. This was a perfect example of the athletic department doing what Barta is not doing now; keeping the future Iowa consumer in mind. Between Bob Hogue and Larry Morgan, the whomever that teamed with Mac McCausland, you had Jeff Moe lookalike Bob Healey. Bob became more notorious for his post game adventures in downtown Iowa City than broadcasting the games himself. I would have preferred Thom Cornelus from the Quad Cities. Anyone know if he still does sports down there?
