Thursday, September 13, 2012

RIP: Dallas Newsman Alex Burton


Alex Burton, longtime Dallas-Ft. Worth radio and television newsman, died Thursday of complications of prostate cancer at Treemont Healthcare & Rehab Center in Dallas, according to a story by Joe Simnacher at dallasnews.com. He was 80.

An adaptable survivor of ever-changing radio and television formats, Mr. Burton had a long and diverse career as a broadcast reporter, narrator, pundit and general observer of the human condition.

“I’ve always believed if you can’t be better, you’d better be different–and he was different,” said longtime friend and former coworker Bob Shaw of Dallas.

Mr. Burton seemed to have a nose for opportunity. His public persona was forged when he added a $5 a night stint to his duties at WBAP-TV, now KXAS-TV, (Channel 5.)

“The midnight news was the thing that made my name,” he said. “By the time the midnight news came around, I was pretty well bored and I tried to perk it up a bit.”

By chance, a plant — a prop left on the set from a commercial — became his sidekick. He named the plant Arthur.

“The floor man was going to take him away, and I said ‘Ah, just leave him there,’” he recalled. “I didn’t think there was anybody out there anyway.”

Mr. Burton developed a following reading the news to Arthur.

“I never checked, but I always suspected they paid Arthur more,” he said in 1983.

Mr. Burton worked in radio in Canada before taking a broadcasting job in Corpus Christi in 1961. He lost his first job in Texas radio after reporting the lack of sanitary restroom facilities at the station. Sulfurous water interfered with bacteria in the station’s septic tank, which often backed up into the facilities.

“The station fixed the restroom, opened it up and fired me,” he said. “As a going away present, the employees presented me the golden plunger award. I was very proud of the honor and still hold it dear.”

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