THERE’S NO INSURANCE IN A TV CAREER

Yes, the Ray Gaskin that you see peering out from a State Farm Insurance ad in the Dallas Downtown News is the same Ray Gaskin who for years was a sports reporter for Channel 8.

Gaskin, 35, fell victim to the whims of a television news producer last fall when he failed to rank high enough on the galvanic skin test, a method used to measure viewer response to TV performers. In leaving WFAA-TV, Gaskin joined the ranks of Judy Jordan, Barry Judge, Karin Kelly, and Bob Gooding, all of whom have been exiled from Dallas television in recent months.

“I recognized those tests are inevitable,” says Gaskin. “If you stay in broadcasting long enough, sooner or later it will happen to you. I was recently married and wanted a future with more job security. This is my first non-broadcasting job,” says Gaskin of his new insurance agency in the Southland Center.

Most of Gaskin’s fellow television refugees have settled into other broadcasting jobs. Judy Jordan now recites the news for KVIL AM-FM; Barry Judge, who got the boot when Chip Moody joined Channel 4’s ranks, works for a television station in Indianapolis; and Karin Kelly hosts PM Magazine in Miami. Bob Gooding, once the dean of Dallas anchormen, was last seen selling motivational books and tapes for Zig Ziglar.