Memories of a TV guy: Born the same year as "I Love Lucy," I cannot remember a time when there was no television. Of course, the television I first knew was on a small, black-and-white screen with the picture dependent on what an antenna brought in.

(Living in eastern Virginia, I remember the occasional thrill from catching a signal from a Richmond station; it was fuzzy but it was there, and sometimes the Richmond stations carried shows the broadcasters closer to home refused. I think "Sticks and Bones" was one example.)

I started writing about television on an occasional basis in the early 1970s while filling other duties at the Daily Press in Newport News, Va. I began following TV on a more regular basis in 1979, starting as a free-lancer for newspapers in Albany, N.Y., then from 1981 while a fulltime reporter for the Schenectady Gazette (later the Daily Gazette and Sunday Gazette).

In 1994, I joined the Akron Beacon Journal as the TV writer and I remain there to this day. That meant I reviewed shows, interviewed the people who make television, wrote a weekly mailbag column for the print editions as well as handling an online mailbag at www.ohio.com, and wrote a weekly column about TV shows on DVD. And, as you know, I write for this blog, which tells you a lot about my daily life.

My duties changed in late 2006, when I became popular culture writer for the Beacon Journal. This still includes some TV writing, though less than before. But I have added movies to the things I cover, both reviewing occasionally and writing longer trend pieces. (One recent example involved why some movies are slow getting to the Akron area.) My weekly mailbag now includes non-TV questions; in addition, there are daily "Pop Quiz" questions from readers, with my answers. My weekly DVD column, running Sundays, now covers video releases of movies as well as TV.

Regular writing also includes the print version of the HeldenFiles, which appears in the Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and Monday editions. The Wednesday-Friday-Sunday versions include gossip, news bits and commentary collected from wire services, Web sites, local news and some original reporting. The Monday edition, originally called "Talking Points," mentions recent news of interest that people will be talking about after the weekend.

Because of the broader reach, this blog has also begun ranging farther afield; I have also added several pages of favorites in TV, movies and music, and may come up with some other topics. (State capitals I have visited? Well, maybe not that.)

I am a member of the Television Critics Association and have been its vice president and president. I have written one book, "Television's Greatest Year: 1954" (1994) and co-written two others, "Ghoulardi: Inside Cleveland TV's Wildest Ride" (1997) and "Cleveland TV Memories" (1999), both with Tom Feran.

I expect to write more books someday, and have a first draft of a mystery set on a TV critics' press tour. Working title: "Death Wore a Name Tag." Yes, it's supposed to be funny.

When not watching TV and movies for a living, I like to watch them for fun. I also read some, and you will find occasional notes here about books. (Reading in December 2006 and January 2007 included John Dickerson's biography of his TV-reporter mother Nancy, Alicia Shepard's book on Woodward and Bernstein, Donald Bogle's history of African-Americans in Hollywood and, still in progress, Flags of Our Fathers.

I also enjoy listening to music. (Songs stuck in my head on Jan. 20, 2007: mostly the Dreamgirls movie soundtrack, and Ray Charles's "Mess Around.") I have also discovering the wonders of home improvement, one bent nail at a time. Nature's wonder: the hacksaw.

I live near Akron with my wife and the younger of my two sons. It is a good life.