In this 1980 segment for PM Magazine, co-host John Walls profiles the Sabine Pilots Association, whose members safely guide freight and tanker ships through the narrow waterways connecting the public ports of Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange to the Gulf of Mexico. PM Magazine was a local news and entertainment television program broadcast on Beaumont’s KFDM-TV in from late 1970s to the mid-1980s. This segment aired on April 14, 1980.

PM Magazine, also known as Evening Magazine, was a local weeknight news and entertainment television series broadcast on multiple stations across the United States from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The program combined both local and syndicated segments, with common subjects including local people and events, lifestyle and consumer tips, and human-interest pieces. KPIX in San Francisco premiered the first iteration of Evening Magazine on August 9, 1976. Station owner Westinghouse (Group W) Broadcasting subsequently introduced local versions at its other stations, before syndicating the format to other television markets as PM Magazine. The Tyrrell Historical Library Collection encompasses hundreds of PM Magazine segments broadcast on Beaumont’s KFDM-TV between 1979 and 1985. Leeza Gibbons and John Walls were the program’s original co-hosts. Gibbons went on to become a correspondent and co-host for Entertainment Tonight from 1984 to 2000. She also hosted her own daytime talk show, Leeza, from 1993 to 2000. At least ten other Texas stations produced versions of PM Magazine, including KFDA in Amarillo, KTBC in Austin, WFAA and KDFW in Dallas-Fort Worth, KVIA in El Paso, KHOU and KHTV in Houston, KCBD in Lubbock, KSAT in San Antonio, and KAUZ in Wichita Falls. Group W canceled the format in 1990, with final episodes airing on August 30, 1991.

K. I. SELINIDIS, Retired Sabine Pilot (07/01/1973 to 06/30/2004)

2023-07-26 21:57:39

Today, July 26, 2023, I vividly remember how pleased and excited I was when more than 43 years ago, as the president of the Sabine Pilots, I climbed aboard the tanker OCEAN LION. I was escorting PM Magazine's co-host John Walls, who was willing to profile the Sabine Pilots Association, and Roland Respess, who was the assigned pilot, who was to pilot the ship to sea. Today, Captain Wesley Moore, member of the Sabine Pilots Association, came across the video, and was kind enough to share it with me. At the age of 86, it is so sweet and kind to be remembered. Thank you, Tyrrell Historical Library Collection for preserving, reminding the people of Texas, and memorializing the valuable service provided by the Sabine Pilots in maintaining the safety of the Sabine Neches Waterway which is the gate to the Gulf of Mexico. It is the link of our industrial complex with the rest of the world, and essential to our national security. Captain Wesley Moore, thank you for sharing this video with me today.

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