The Argus Observes --- An election night party with KSRV

By Don Lynch
From the November 6, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer

(Editor’s note: Don Lynch had explained in a previous column that the Argus-Observer office would be the center of an election night reporting effort, with the public invited to watch the tallies go up on a huge blackboard pieced together by news editor Hugh Gale and posted along the back wall of the office. In this column he shows his pleasure with how well the effort worked. )

Our big election night party is over. For the first time (radio station) KSRV and the three Malheur County newspapers combined resources to work as a team in reporting the election returns, and with marked success.

The various parts of the team functioned smoothly. Returns were gathered as fast as the precincts counted them, tabulated rapidly and broadcast to listeners immediately. The organization permitted the newspapers to place their resources at the disposal of the radio station so it could concentrate on the technical effort of keeping the broadcast right on top of the fast changing returns.

It was a pleasure for we news reporters to watch the radio people work. We moved rapidly ourselves in compiling returns, but we write our report rather deliberately. By contrast the radio crew works at top speed.

I don’t see how they hit the terrific pace when they’re on the air. They become razor sharp when they take the microphone. And the man at the mike on election night has to have a solid dependable team behind him. The radio people see to it that these requirements are met in order to insure a good performance for the listener.

Visitors seemed to enjoy being guests of KSRV and the Argus-Observer, watching the broadcast and the tabulating. They enjoyed the cider, coffee and doughnuts, too.

The (Vale-based) Malheur Enterprise and the (Nyssa) Gate City Journal have expressed gratification at the way our joint effort worked out. KSRV has expressed its satisfaction too. We feel just the same way and we certainly enjoyed joining with KSRV in giving an election party which was well received by the public.