Here's an incomplete collection of messages posted by UPI staffers who were laid off or otherwise left the company in 1990, after the collapse of the FNN group. These messages appear exactly as posted):
032m bureaus my last trick is tomorrow, but eye wanted to message today to catch as many of you as possible. the last nine years have been the most rewarding of my life. for that, eye have all of you to thank. most particularly, deepest thanks to everyone (many long since departed) in hx, who taught me the business and how to have fun while eye worked; in ia, who brought me along; in tr, trc, nk and nc, who drove themselves so hard for me and for upi, under sometimes impossible conditions; and here in wa, who welcomed me as a colleague and friend eye intend to cherish the good memories (there are so many) and let the others fade. eye'm going home to baltimore, but things have changed since eye left so many years ago. now eye will always think of it as br, and of myself as a unipresser. when "'twas the night before christmas" runs on the message wire christmas eve, will someone please fax me a copy? tnx et chrs. -- o'shea-ntl upi 10-19-90 10:37 aed 020m r v buros: from michael v. uschan-uc today i am writing "30" to my 20 years with united press international. i started dec. 22, 1970, after taking my final exams at the university of wisconsin-milwaukee and have been a "unipresser" ever since. i'm one of the few left who can remember what it was like before computers came on the scene and teletype operators like "steady eddie" panek put out our copy; when we were still owned by scripps howard; and when we were battling rox even-up and winning more than our share of the news wars against them. it's been a wild ride and a memorable one -- both for the stories i covered and, more importantly, the wonderful people i worked with at upi in three different decades. whether they sat next to me banging out bulletins on a plane crash or a presidential primary -- or just voices on the phones or names on message wires from across the country -- it was like being part of a dedicated brotherhood. there were some "wild and crazy" upi types that helped make a difficult day more bearable with some humorous asides ... or just a word of sympathy because they knew what i was going through. even my immediate bosses have been decent types and the last few years about the only good thing about my job has been the people i worked with. i've hated the string of good-bye messages the last few months. it's been like an extended wake, not only for departing unipressers but for the upi that once was. when it came down t it, i wanted a chance to say "thanks" to all the great people i've worked with -- and to remind them to take pride in the fact that their dedication and hard work under increasingly trying circumstances is the only reason upi is still around today. now my only problem, besides finding a new job to carry me to retirement, is what to do about my personalized license plate -- which reads "upi 1." any suggestions. msg me on cin. "30" michael v. uschan - uc (for a few hours more) upi 10-23-90 05:32 ped 081m all "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." dickens never worked for upi, but after seeing the guillotine fall on several hundred people -- and having been forced to pull the lever on 8 people myself -- in the past five years, one has to wonder. like a lot of unipressers, i have had a child-like faith that upi would somehow survive, but i decided six weeks ago to leave because i could no longer accept the role of executioner of staffers whose management had failed them. perhaps that smug bastard john morton was right when he wrote several years ago in the washington journalism review that upi was destined to fail because of marketplace dynamics. i chose to believe differently and the fact that we are still here after years of mismanagement tends to support my belief that upi could have been a thriving concern if the company's top executives had done things differently. on balance, my 10 years here have been the best of times, mostly because of the people with whom i worked, both as a staffer and a manager. chrs for the last time. burnett/sm-tr-cz-sm upi 10-24-90 11:01 aed 361m all to cheer you up a little. radio station wtvn, a biggest watt clear channel station in cz, has been running a promo that starts off by listing all those biggie watt clear channel stations in the midwest. wgn, whas, wlw, and on and on. says what two things does wtvn have that those stations don't? call letters that stand for "the voice of news" and the upi midwest news leader award. and it goes on to tout its midwest award in the upi news contest. but don't get your chest too blown up. this contest was on the 1989 news stories, submitted in cz at the end of 1989, given state award in spring of 1990 and the regional award not too long ago. but in the meantime, the station has dropped uupi, however it keeps it for its fm side. latimer-cz upi 11-07-90 10:13 pes 375m all before everyone gets out the door... Party at Wieck's, Saturday, Nov. 10, weekend after the election. All invited for chile (green et red), bbq et beer. It's at 2665 Danny Lane, near beautiful downtown Farmer's Branch, 214-484-1076. Bring yer favorite war tale et effigy. Pass it along to all the exes. Find yerself a Texas-bound freight and hop aboard. --wieck-da Nearby Hotels= The Summit, 2645 LBJ Freeway (I-635), 214-243-3363. Nice place with weekend rates and within a long crawl from Wieck's house. Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, 4099 Valley View (I-635 at Midway), 214-385-9000. Also nice and about 3 miles from the house. Nearby Motels= Motel 6, 2753 Forest Lane, 214-620-2828, opposite side of LBJ from The Summit. Red Roof Inn, 1720 S. Broadway, 214-245-1700, fairly close, east of I-35 north of LBJ. Texian Inn, 2660 Forest Lane, 214-484-9111, near the Motel 6. Other= Courtyard by Marriot, 2930 Forest Lane, 620-8000, SE quadrant of Forest Lane at Josey Lane, almost crawling distance. Directions From Muskogee take U.S. 69-75 to Sherman, stay on U.S. 75 to DA, bear right on I-635 (LBJ) exit. West on LBJ to the Webb Chapel-Josey Lane exit. Follow the access road across Webb Chapel to Josey. You're almost there. Turn right (north) on Josey and move to left lane. Go across creek with a park on the left and in front of the Janie Stark Elementary School turn left (west) on Farmers Branch Lane. Turn right (north) on Tom Field, a T intersection, et start looking for a spot to park. Danny Lane is the next left. Corner house north side of Danny, west side of Tom Field. If staying at Summit Hotel, simply follow the access road across Josey and you'll go right to it. From there, take access road to Ford Road right (north) to Farmers Branch Lane right (east) to Tom Field left (north). From Houston take I-45 to DA to I-35 northbound (toward Denton) to I-635 eastbound (LBJ) like yer going to the old Midway bureau location. Take the Josey Lane exit, right lane off LBJ, and turn left at the light (north) on Josey. Go through a series of several stop lights near LBJ and get in the left lane. Cross over the creek with a park area on the left and watch for the Janie Stark Elementary School with a playground on the right. Turn left (west) at the school on Farmers Branch Lane and go about a quarter mile or less and turn right on Tom Field which T's in from the north. The next left is Danny Lane which T's in from the west. Park wherever you can. It's the house on the northwest corner. Early suspects Bruce Bakke-exDA J.B. Blosser(?)-exWI/TW/KO Roy Brightbill-NE Gayland Bryant-exAQ/KP Chuck Cannon-exDX Barb Cannetti-exHS Jeri Clausing-US Cheri Chapman-exDA/KP/AC Harry Culver-exKO Paul English-exKO Ken Flynn-exWC Helen Gaussoin-exFR Dave Hale-exUPIEOprez Bob Hebrank-DATSC Travis Hughs-exDA Mark Langford-US Bob Lowry-US Darrell Mack-exHS/DA Thom Marshall-exDX Mede Nix-MP Dave Rosso-WA Rocky Scott-exTA/KO Gerald Schumann-exDAP Brad Smith-DX John Thompson-exKO Steve Watsky-exBG Jerry Witcher-KO David Zizzo-exKO Could be suspects Lisa Addison-exGT Marge Boatright-exDA Tom Brooks-exDA/TM Ron Cohen-exWA Debevec-MS Ellen Debenport-exCK/NE Roberto Dias-NXF Drolshagen/Wallace-exHX Ken Englade-exallover Bill Ferguson-HX Steve Forsythe-exJC/TW Bob Inderman-exDA/KP Bob Kieckhefer-HX Dave Kingham-exTM (efforting Lloyd-Davies & Farris) Liz Leech(?)-exKP/AC (efforting Linenberger, Rosewicz, A.Yemma, B.Rotzell) Jacqueline Scott Shannon-exKO Gary Taylor-exDX/HS Tommy Yates-exCK upi 11-07-90 01:56 pes 103m unipressers: wrote a sty today about near-death experiences. the psychologists are skeptical about all the supernatural claims. but they say the phenomena are powerful events that usually leave people who experience them with a much better outlook on life. hope tt's true for our brush with death. chrs. stein-wa upi 11-08-90 03:56 pes 019m all it is with very mixed emtions that i bid upi farewell today. my five and ahalf years with the company -- i joined a month before the april 1985 bankruptcy -- have been an amazing roller coaster ride, professionally, financially and emotionally. i'm leaving for a writing job with a small, independent publication. i will miss most the support and comraderie of great colleagues show shared the horror stories and triumphs in the ongoing struggle to survive, compete and, more than ocassionally, beat the hell out of the other guys. i hope i made a contribution to that effort. i will also miss the chance to write about things that really matter -- like the 1988 presidential campaign and the budget battles the last two years -- for a national and international audience, albeit a steadily shrinking one. and, i expect i will miss the crush of daily journalism and wire service deadlines. those with whom i've worked know whho and what i will miss least. if upi dies in the weeks or months ahead, i hope the last story on the wire is not some fluffy enterprise piece but a hard news story that's better written, better edited and move faster than ap's. that's what we did best in the glory days and that should be our epitath, hopefully to remind editors what they will be missing. best of luck to all of you. i hope you find a way out of the upi quicksand before it sucks you under. i enjoyed sharing the roller coaster ride with you, but it's time for me to get off. 73s bud newman-wa upi 11-30-90 11:30 aes
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