HEARD ON THE STREET…

… Channel 13 insiders say that if anyone will emerge unscathed from the recent series of local programming flops and changes, it will be station vice-president Lee Clark. Indications are that the changes will reinvest Clark with some financial and creative control she lost earlier to 13’s public affairs director Bill Porter-field. Some even speculate that the irrepressible Ms. Clark may be in line for the station managership, if and when current head Ed Pfister steps down or is shoved out…

… Yes, that voice you hear on the Times Herald’s TV ads for their Texas edition is none other than Steve Allen, making it two celebrity voices on local airwaves (the other, of course, is Orson Welles who’s been telling you that “Republic Bank is Dallas”). Unlike Welles, Allen apparently doesn’t do much of that sort of thing. “Probably,” says Stan Richards, whose Richards Group created the ad. “because no one ever thinks to ask him.”



… Aggie Joke: According to Dallas bookies, Texas A&M’s 41-3 loss to Michigan (Oct. 1) was a local disaster – except for the bookies. The Dallas betting traditions of southern regional favoritism and heavy Aggie money combined with an attractive point spread to create one of the heaviest single game money losses in quite a while. How much? Says one bookie, “I’d say Dallas bettors lost at least a quarter million, maybe half a million dollars on the Aggies that day.”



… In recent history, Dallas hasn’t been known as a big railroad center, but there was a big railway merger here recently – Victoria Station bought the Railhead.



. . . Two Dallas landmark buildings will be undergoing facelifts in the next several months. 3525 Turtle Creek, once the height of residential fashion, has fallen on hard times. But Jim Coker (Jim Coker & Associates) has purchased the building and is planning extensive remodeling – into condominiums. Ditto for the wonderful old Highlander building on Lomo Alto just off of Lemmon. Billy Underwood, Jr. and Robert Edelman, partners in the 4500 Corporation who purchased the Highlander, say the condo plan is still pending but likely. Whatever the plan, it will be a complete redo, with luxury units the result.

. . . Staffers at the Times Herald claim that new publisher Lee Guittar has yet to introduce himself to the general staff. Says one writer, “He’s been here four months and I don’t even know what he looks like.”