Fresno’s Chuck Carson, a man with the ‘gift of gab’ who helped TV pledge drives, dies

Chuck Carson passed away at age 90 on June 12. I first met Chuck in the early 1980s at KMTF-TV, the PBS affiliate, at its original site on L Street in downtown Fresno. Chuck was a volunteer pledge host and also a volunteer “Cross-over” announcer for the Great TV Auction.

He was friendly, had the gift of gab, was a talented TV personality, and easy to work with. I learned later he had started in radio and was the weather personality for KFSN-TV, which would become ABC 30.

Sometime in 1983 I got word on short notice that Ansel Adams was going to visit the station. His son had arranged a visit and was a big supporter of KMTF-TV. The morning that Ansel Adams arrived Chuck happened to be at the station. I asked him to do the interview. So, on the spur of the moment, Chuck and Ansel sat down on the couch in the KMTF-TV lobby and did a 30-minute interview. It would be the last interview that Ansel would do before his death about a year later. We both admired Ansel’s photography and learned that day some insights about Ansel’s dark-room secrets.

Chuck had a wonderful sense of humor. More than once he was the pledge host when the phones were manned by one of Fresno’s big law firms. It was during the time when “LA Law” was a popular TV show. Chuck would tell me that when he starts talking about the phone volunteers, I should just shoot tight shots of the volunteers.

His work at the Great TV Auction was right in his wheelhouse. The host was the person going from board to board introducing the auctioneers who then introduced the items on the board. Chuck was great thinking on his feet especially when things would go wrong. To adjust time he would be given cards with things to read … to slow things down he might be reading four or five cards such as when to pick up and pay, or volunteers are still needed, or there’s still time to donate your item. After reading each card he would flip it in the air ala Johnny Carson. The stage managers would have to run around to fetch the cards because they had to be returned to the card box. The Great TV Auction was unscripted… the card box was the script… if we wanted to go faster, no cards, Chuck would go from board to board.

Chuck worked as an agent. He worked for John Ferdinandi and one of their clients was Bud Noble, a local piano player who played the clubs in Fresno. He was talented and eventually was booked into Atlantic City. Chuck also represented my wife, Janice Noga. He hired her to emcee and sing at the Miss Pistachio Pageant.

His numerous accomplishments include producing, writing and acting in the Bob Hope tribute show that toured the country. Later he did Bob Hope and Bing Crosby’s tribute show, “Heavenly Laughter.”

Chuck, along with Rose Caglia, produced and directed a number of specials about the history of the Warnors Theatre, also interviewing Karen Sperling, a member of the Warner Brothers family.

In the last few years it was his idea to produce a series about aviation. The result was “Pilots, Props and Planes” hosted by Bill Vasilovich. It is the only TV show about aviation being produced in the country thanks to Chuck’s vision.

He was currently on a committee looking at creating a Valley media museum which would cover the history of TV and radio in the Valley.

From Adams to the Valley PBS TV studios to the Reedley Opera House to the music at Bass Lake to keeping Bob Hope’s memory alive to shining a light on the business of aviation to sitting in the commandant’s office at Lemoore Naval Air Station, Chuck has taken all of us on quite a journey. Thanks, Chuck. May your memory always be a blessing!

Oscar Speace of Fresno is a former producer-director for Valley PBS.