Instant Nostalgia (Or: How Old is John McCaa, Anyway?)

This morning, we stumbled across some vintage video recently posted to YouTube featuring Dallas newscasts from the early and mid-1980s. So, yeah, there's Iola Johnson, John Criswell, a boyishly rugged Dale Hansen and John "Dorian Gray" McCaa (seriously, wow) on WFAA-Channel 8.....

By Robert Wilonsky

December 8, 2006

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This morning, we stumbled across some vintage video recently posted to YouTube featuring Dallas newscasts from the early and mid-1980s. So, yeah, there's Iola Johnson, John Criswell, a boyishly rugged Dale Hansen and John "Dorian Gray" McCaa (seriously, wow) on WFAA-Channel 8...

...and Brad Wright and Harold Taft at KXAS-Channel 5...

...and KDFW-Channel 4 with Ron Jackson (in 1989, who knew?) and Paul Crane.

But some of the best footage, courtesy our pal Steve Dirkx, comes from Channel 8 in 1981, when Chris Thomas offered a relatively long piece (about two minutes) about local punk-a-new-wave icons the Telefones (ya know, the Dirkx Bros.' former band). When's the last time you saw a story about "underground" rock on local TV news? Fine, when's the last time you watched local TV news? --Robert Wilonsky

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