Chapter 1

It can be a big help for a person to be successful in life if they happen to know the right people. That was the case for Dan Fagan who currently was the television station manager for Channel Four in Austin, Texas. Dan’s godfather was Edward Neal who is on the Board of Transpo-Global Communications and owns several television stations. At Dan’s graduation from college, Ed asked Dan what were his plans for the future.

“I have no interest in going to graduate school. I would like to have a career in the television industry and I was hoping you would put in a good word for me to do that,” said Dan.

Ed must have put in a good word as Dan was hired as a field reporter for a television station in Memphis, Tennessee. He progressed to being a news editor for a television station in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a few years later was promoted to his present position in Austin, Texas. Some of the people Dan worked with jokingly said that because of Dan’s rapid progression to his present position, “It was like someone had put a rocket up his ass.”

At thirty-three years of age, he was one of the youngest persons to be in the position of a television station manager. While Ed Neal probably had a hand in Dan’s meteoric rise, Dan had been successful in his work. He did things and made changes at his last television station as the news editor which resulted in his station having the highest-rated local news broadcast programs in their viewing area.

The major change he made at his previous television station was to overhaul the news staff to a younger, good-looking group. He then encouraged that newsgroup to be in a happy-talk mode when they were reporting the news. Kidding each other when they were on the air or making some practical jokes as they were reporting the news was a different and fresh approach to reporting the news which increased the viewership. That the news staff dressed to advertise their good looks was another feature that increased the viewership. The tight dresses the women wore with their enticing necklines were said to be responsible for increasing the number of male viewers. The men on the news team some women said were “hunks,” which increased the number of female viewers.

Dan was no slouch himself when it came to having good looks. His six-foot-one-inch height slim frame, along with a fairly handsome face made him somewhat of a women’s magnet. He had come to know his looks attracted women and he was careful in the affairs he had. He hadn’t yet met the woman he would want to have as a life partner and was enjoying the encounters he was having with a small group of select women.

He was very careful in having these encounters with women. There were periodic news reports where women in various professions, including television, were suing their superiors for sexual harassment. If you were to believe unverified reports, the women were said to be receiving large monetary settlements. The news reports he read indicated that men were coming out the losers in these “he-said-she-said-situations.” Because of his management position, Dan was very careful and guarded in the conversations that he had with women both in and outside of work.

Dan did a few things to avoid him coming out as a loser if he was ever involved in such a situation. He installed both in his office and in his condo a video and sound recording device, much like a nanny cam that he could turn on without anyone noticing. When he was in other locations and the situation called for it, he would make an effort to make it look like he was checking his phone for a text message, but in reality, he was putting his phone in record mode. Maybe he was a little paranoid in doing this, but he felt safer by doing it. Better safe than sorry was his philosophy.

At Channel Four in Austin, when he first came there, the ratings for the news broadcasts were nothing to brag about. Those ratings had Channel Four close to the bottom of the television stations in the area and he knew he needed to do something to raise the news programs’ ratings. He discussed the situation with Burt Radisson, the station’s news editor, asking if he had any suggestions as to how to improve the ratings.

Burt said, “I was thinking that we could add a segment where we have someone doing a commentary. The commentary could be on any news subject and would be something different as the other television stations here don’t have that type of a segment in their news broadcasts.”

“I agree that it would be something different and that is a good idea. I was thinking of installing a happy talk type of format here but with our present older news staff it wouldn’t work out. Who are you looking for to do this commentary,” asked Dan.

“The best person to do something like that in my opinion is Paul Conners who writes the syndicated “My Two Cents” newspaper column. He lives in Austin and he pulls no punches in writing his column. His last column in which he blasted the Speaker for tearing up the State of the Union speech is an example of that. He said she should be prosecuted for destroying a government document. I would think his commentaries on our news broadcasts would be done in a similar manner. The thing is, I don’t know if he would be interested in doing something like this,” said Burt.

“I agree with you on his columns and it would be an added feature for us in doing the news. Why not give Paul a call and ask him to come here for a meeting? Both of us could interview him and see if he would be interested in doing these commentaries.”

Paul Conners did come to Dan’s office for an interview after what was a hectic morning. Dan explained what they were looking for Paul to do. Paul was initially somewhat hesitant to do this because of the hours involved in working on the late evening news broadcasts. His reluctance started to waiver when it was explained how his commentaries would be done with all three of his commentaries for the week being taped on a Monday afternoon. Informing Paul of the compensation he would get for doing these commentaries caused his reluctance to vanish.

There were promotions during the current broadcasts that indicated Paul Conners would be doing commentaries on the Channel Four evening news broadcasts. As it turned out, Paul Conners doing these commentaries increased the news programs viewership. People were tuning in to see what was on Paul’s mind. Channel Four local news program ratings had increased in two months to where it was the number one watched news program in the Austin area. It wasn’t number one by much, but it was number one.

While Channel Four’s business operation was on Dan’s mind, so was his social life. He hadn’t yet established what he would call a meaningful relationship with any woman in the Austin area, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t trying to do that. For starters, he joined a private country club. His reasoning for joining this country club was twofold. One was that he liked to golf with the second reason being that maybe he could meet a woman at this club.

Being a member of a private country club usually meant you were dealing with well-to-do people. In the past, it was usually the man who was the main breadwinner making the big buck. The changes in society resulted in many successful single women who were now enjoying the good life and could be members of the country club.

Dan’s observation of members he saw at the golf outings or diners at the club indicated that several good-looking women were members of this country club. Single or married he didn’t know, but he hoped in time he would find out the answer to those questions. He thought that his golfing in the mixed tournaments would be one way to socialize at this club and maybe meet some good-looking women.

Because thinking that way, Dan signed up for the yellow ball golf tournament. He was paired in a foursome with Joan and Brad Summers and Teresa Cooper or Terry as she preferred to be called. The Summers owned a large landscaping business and Terry who was about Dan’s age, said she was a Vice President at a computer company. It wasn’t long after introductions were made and before the shotgun start of this tournament, that Terry mentioned she was recently divorced.