Paul James, a local television fixture for 38 years and a pioneer in the development of TV sportscasting, will make his final regularly scheduled appearance on KSL-TV Friday.
"I've been doing television and radio, generally working seven days a week, since 1959," James said Tuesday morning. "That was fine when I was 35. But I'm 58 now, and in the last couple of years the stress has finally gotten to me. My doctor says I need to slow down. My wife says I need to slow down. And now I'm saying that I need to slow down."Which is not to say that he's retiring - not completely. James recently signed a new five-year contract with KSL Radio to continue calling the play-by-play for their coverage of BYU football and basketball games. And he says he will be available to occasionally work for Ch. 5 on a freelance basis.
But James' days as a KSL-TV regular are over as of Friday, bringing to an end one of the longest and most successful runs in television history. Not only has James been a Utah television staple since 1951, but he and weathercaster Bob Welti have worked together almost that long. And KSL's anchor team of James, Welti and newsman Dick Nourse has been together for 24 years - longer than any local news team in American television history.
"I kind of hate being the one to break up the team," James said. "But I guess if it's going to happen, I'm glad it's because one of us is choosing to leave, not being forced out or dying or anything like that."
Indeed, the Nourse-Welti-James team will break up on top of its game, as the heart and soul of the market's top-rated news operation.
"That's the way to go out, I guess," James said. "On top."
James broke into the television business in 1951 while still attending the U. of U. (yes, that's right, Cougar fans - the voice of BYU sports was originally a Utah man). He started out as a booth announcer for KCPX (now KTVX), but was soon asked to fill in for a departed sportscaster.
He's been filling in ever since.
In 1959 he was given the opportunity to do something he'd always wanted to do - play-by-play for U. of U. sports on KDYL Radio.
"It was kind of scary at first," James said, remembering how he had to prove himself to the broadcast sponsor by doing an audition tape at a Ute practice. "But those were great years for Utah sports, with Lee Grosscup, Roy Jefferson and Billy McGill playing for the Utes."
When KUTV owner George Hatch obtained the Utah radio rights for KALL, he allowed James to continue calling the games for one year, but then insisted that he sign with KUTV when his KCPX contract expired.
"That was fine as far as I was concerned," James said, "because all I really wanted to do was the play-by-play. I didn't really care which TV station I worked for on the side."
At least, not until KSL came along and made a strong pitch for the top-rated team of Roy Gibson, Welti and James to move from Ch. 4 to Ch. 5. Gibson balked, but Welti decided to channel-hop, and James wanted to go with him - especially since the KSL deal included BYU play-by-play on KSL Radio. But he was still under contract to KCPX, and he'd already signed a one-year deal with KUTV as soon as his Ch. 4 contract was up. Was KSL willing to wait?
They were, and so he signed a contract with KSL that would not take effect until after his year at KUTV, making him the answer to this local media trivia question: Which local TV personality has the distinction of being under contract to KSL, KUTV and KCPX - all at the same time?
Of course, that didn't last long. When Hatch found out about the KSL contract he decided to let James out of his KUTV pact, and in 1965 the Nourse-Welti-James era on Ch. 5 was underway.
Not coincidentally, KSL became the news leader in the marketplace, a position it has held rather securely ever since. And James has consistently worked his seven days a week during football and basketball seasons, preparing for game coverage when he wasn't working on his twice-daily sportscasts.
"The only way you can understand how much work it takes to prepare for play-by-play is if you've done it," James said. "I did it because I loved it. But there were some hard trade-offs involved."
Those trade-offs included going months without spending any time with his four children, and missing out on most family activities for the past four decades.
Oh - and don't forget the ulcers.
"It finally caught up to me," James said. "It took me about four months to recover from a trip to Australia with the BYU football team a couple of years ago. And lately I've found that I'm just not enjoying the work. And that can only mean one thing - it's time to move on."
In addition to his play-by-play work on the radio, James said he will be spending his time playing bridge, gardening, traveling with his wife and finishing up the family's new cabin at Bear Lake.
"I'm going to enjoy life for a while," he said.
And after 38 years in television, life for Paul James begins Saturday.