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McCook native creates 'green' teen show
A new television show for and about teens was created by a McCook native and will be broadcast nationwide this month.
Bob Anderson, now of the San Francisco Bay area, grew up in McCook and is the creator and distributor of the "Eco Company," a 13- episode, half-hour weekly show that will be aired beginning mid-September. The show is hosted by teens and reports on stories about other teens who are environmentally-friendly, such as a high school band in California that manages the school recycling program.
In production since May, "Eco Company" will air on 130 television stations nationwide and is part of the Federal Communications Commission requirement that each station air weekly three hours of educational and informational programming for kids.
The show also comes with an interactive Web site, eco-company.tv, where teens can upload videos of "green" events in their own community or school, that could end up on the broadcast show.
So how did a nice kid from McCook end up in the television business in California?
It may have begun with art classes at McCook High School. Anderson said he always liked art and being creative and still has fond memories of growing up in McCook, such as the rock group he and his friends formed in high school that went through several name changes, the only one he can remember being "The Cheerful Earful."
After graduating from MHS in 1970, he attended the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and studied broadcast journalism, graduating in 1974.
He spent one year with the Kearney TV station until "I threw my clothes in the car and came out here."
He then took grad studies at the San Francisco State University for two years, before landing his first job at a TV station in Monterey.
Since then, he's been president and general manager at local tv stations in California for more than 30 years, supervising and creating programing, along with promotion and production. For the past two years, he's branched out on his own and created Red Willow Films, a production company that develops series programming for television such as "Eco Company."
Despite living away from the area for many years, Anderson still stays close to his family, including his mother, Virginia Anderson of McCook.
"Going green" is not a new concept for Virginia, who believes her generation has always been environmentally-conscious.
"We're used to turning off lights or not letting water run," she said.
Other family members include his sisters Mary Dueland, who teaches at Central Elementary, Barb Gaskins, of Arizona and Becky Kinney of Kansas City.
And though you can take the man out of Nebraska, you can't take the Nebraska out of the man: Anderson is still a die-hard fan of the Cornhusker football team.
"Once a Husker, always a Husker," Anderson confirmed. He tries to catch as many football games as possible on TV.
For local viewers, the first broadcast of "Eco Company" can be seen at 7 a.m. Sunday, on the Fox affiliate KTVG channel 17 or 51 on dish TV; channel 4 on cable and channel 40 on a digital converter box.