Neal on Texas Standard: 12.16.21

Listen to my interview with David Brown on Texas Standard

and listen to my interview with David Brown

The interview aired

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Listen:

https://bit.ly/NS_TxStandard

Texas Standard Host, David Brown

Texas Standard

Texas Standard delivers timely, thoughtful coverage of politics, lifestyle, the environment, technology, and business from a uniquely Texas perspective.

Hosted by award-winning journalist David Brown, Texas Standard features interviews and reporting that reflect the diversity of the Lone Star State. From fascinating innovations that reshape technology to shifting demographics that transform the nation, from political leaders to pop culture icons.

Texas Standard is setting a new bar for broadcast news coverage, offering crisp, up-to-the-moment coverage of politics, lifestyle and culture, the environment, technology and innovation, and business and the economy. Texas Standard is also committed to uncovering stories as they happen and spotting the trends that will shape tomorrow’s headlines.

The one-hour daily news magazine is grounded in the best traditions of American journalism: fact-based, independent and politically neutral reporting. In an era in which news outlets, politics and citizens are increasingly polarized, Texas Standard offers critical breadth, variety and integrity.

Texas Standard is produced in the state capital in collaboration with KUT Austin, KERA North Texas, Houston Public Media and Texas Public Radio San Antonio, as well as news organizations across Texas, Mexico and the United States.

#nealspelce #withthebarkoff #texasstandard #npr #kut

Meet the Author: Austin Country Club 3.2.22

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED! I am pleased to announce I will be speaking at

A WA BOOK CLUB MEET THE AUTHOR EVENT WEDNESDAY MARCH 2, 2022

AUSTIN COUNTRY CLUB

4408 Long Champ Drive, Austin, TX 78746

About With the Bark Off

What if you got a call from Lyndon Johnson to be in Washington DC tomorrow to take a trip around the world? If you are twenty-five-year-old broadcast journalist Neal Spelce, you buckle up. A two-week diplomatic dream trip turned into a lifelong rollercoaster ride.

Spelce began his career as a part-time journalist in the LBJ family-owned Austin TV station in 1956, which vaulted him into a lifetime of memorable experiences with Johnson and many icons of the twentieth century. From his live reporting during the University of Texas Tower shooting tragedy to his lifelong association with LBJ, Spelce found himself behind the scenes in many of the twentieth century’s crucial moments.

The Austin-based journalist shares candid moments with LBJ and five other US presidents, including a rare interview with father and son presidents George Bush while the three were fishing and talking in a small bass boat on a Texas lake.

During his lengthy media career, Spelce saw Austin grow from a college town to a thriving city. Along the way he interacted with Texas legends such as Darrell Royal, Willie Nelson, Walter Cronkite, and more, all part of entertaining stories that he tells, as LBJ liked to say, “with the bark off.”

#nealspelce #withthebarkoff #austincountryclub #booktalk

Book Excerpt in UT's Life and Letters

With the Bark Off is available where books are sold.

An excerpt from With the Bark Off has been published in The University of Texas College of Liberal Arts magazine, Life and Letters. (It was the College of Arts and Sciences back in the good ole days!)

Here is an excerpt of the article:

The following is an excerpt of With the Bark Off: A Journalist’s Memories of LBJ and a Life in the News Media by Neal Spelce and Thomas Zigal. Both authors are graduates of the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin, which was still the College of Arts and Sciences when Spelce received his bachelor’s degrees in 1958. Spelce enrolled in the Plan II Honors Program in 1952 as a 16-year-old freshman. The program grounded him for his additional degrees – also received in 1958 – in Journalism and Radio and Television. The book was published in September 2021 by The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin.

A Page From Neal's 1958 University of Texas Yearbook & Today

Both sides Journalism

When Barry Goldwater was running against LBJ in 1964, the Republican presidential nominee booked a campaign stop in Austin, in the heart of LBJ country. Goldwater was a pilot, and he flew his own plane, a fairly large DC-3. We reporters headed out to the old Mueller airport in East Austin, and when Goldwater rolled to a stop on the landing strip, we were out there with our cameras. His supporters were there, too. He pushed open the pilot window and stuck his head out and waved to the crowd. “I’m glad to be here,” he said. “When I took off from Phoenix, they asked me if I’d ever been to Austin and if I knew where it was. I said, ‘No, I’ve never been to Austin, but I’m gonna fly east and when I get to a fairly good-sized city with only one TV tower, I’m going to land.’”

Read the entire article here: https://bit.ly/NS_LifeLetters

Many thanks to Tom Zigal, whose contribution to my memoir as well as this article was invaluable!

#ut #lifeandletters #nealspelce #withthebarkoff #universityoftexas