2012 Silver Circle Inductee Bruce Friddle

Bruce Friddle began his career in the mid 1960’s working for SWAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia as the only news photographer. Highlights of his career include working on the Grand Ole Opry, serving on the crew of the first live telecast of the Masters Golf Tournament, being invited to join the “Wide, Wide, World,” and working on the Dinah Shore “Chevy Show.”

While in Peru for 15 years, Friddle produced 36 documentaries for the U.S. Information Service, and produced two daily soap operas in Spanish. He was part of the location crew for the movie “The Old Man and the Sea,” and was an associate producer for the Academy Award nominated feature film “The Gallant One” from Disney.

In 1988, Friddle joined the City of Plano to launch the Plano Television Network. In little more than a decade, he grew a staff of three to a staff of twelve. During his tenure, Friddle took pride in recruiting and training volunteers to form the backbone of the fledgling network. Many of these volunteers have gone on to successful careers at major-market broadcast stations. As a visionary in the ever-changing world of television technology, Friddle assisted the Collin County Community College in creating their Applied Graphic Design Technology program. The curriculum trains today’s artists and designers in computer aided communication design.

When he retired in May of 2001, he left the Plano Television Network staff with a legacy of almost 200 awards, including 4 regional Emmy nominations, 13 Cable Ace nominations and 3 Cable Ace winners. Friddle’s staff credited him with encouraging them to beat the odds to prove that a municipal cable access station can be competitive in “real world TV.”