During his 40-year career as a local journalist, editor, publisher and columnist, O.K. Carter published over 10,000 editorials and columns.
He'll write some more for the Arlington Report, a new publication powered by the Fort Worth Report and KERA.
Carter, former publisher of the Arlington Star-Telegram and general manager of the weekly Arlington Citizen-Journal, said the reception to his announcement has ranged from "Oh, hot damn" to "Oh, oh damn."
"Not every column I've ever written has been friendly to the various powers that be. Some of them remember that, though I've now been semi-retired for so long that most of those people are semi-retired. I now have a whole new crop of people to antagonize. I'm looking forward to it," Carter said with a laugh.
Since his self-described semi-retirement in 2008, Carter has published several books, including multiple editions of "Caddos, Cotton and Cowboys: Essays on Arlington," and published a series of YouTube videos on local history. Carter, a former Landmark Preservation Commission member, also holds the title of "unofficial historian" and "Mr. Arlington."
Carter spoke with KERA's Kailey Broussard about the launch of his newest column ahead of the Arlington Report's launch on Thursday, Feb. 15.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Carter's journey to — and in — Arlington
"I came here in 1972, with the ambition to stick around for a year. I guess I'm not very good with my resolutions because I'm still here. But since then, I make a joke -- I gave a talk at rotary the other day, and I mentioned that I had been the only editor ever of the Arlington Citizen-Journal three times, and the only ever publisher of the Arlington Star-Telegram twice. It pays to be flexible, when you have communication careers these days because things are constantly shifting, changing. And they're still they're still changing."
Joining the Arlington Report
"I think once you become a columnist, once you do your first 4 or 5,000 columns, everywhere you go, every corner you turn, you say, oh, I could do a column about that, you know, and whether it's the International Corridor and the fusion culture that's coming up. What's happening to an old Main Street now that our little museum has become big time and moved to the Entertainment District, all of those kinds of things. Every corner I turn, there's another story there, but you can only write them if you've got something to write them for. The arrival of the Arlington Report for me is just kind of a fun thing to do. I hope it will be therapeutic as well. I'll get some of these things out of my system."
First columns
"I like to do things that, tell people what they don't know. I think my first column is really about an old topic, the Entertainment District, but I'm trying to wrap up everything that's happened out there, and that's about to happen. I mean, they're redoing Lincoln Square to make it sort of a combined live, work, play, apartment, retail, office community. You know, we've got soccer that's coming into town. We've got minor league football in a way that's come to town. We've got two new museums that are going up there. There's a new hotel that just opened, and then, that same hotel chain, Loews, bought the old Sheraton, and they're going to redo it as well."
"So there are all kinds of things happening. And you're also you're in a university town that's kind of a high-tier research thing. So you're in a place where you have 50, 60,000 students and faculty. The ideas and the research is just always churning. So there's always something going on, too. We have a town that's sort of continues to transition. And when I showed up here in 1972, it's sort of a 90% Caucasian kind of place. And now it's, majority-minority kind of place. And, I think it's interesting because so far everybody gets along. It's been Arlington's been a great incubator to develop your career and your academic life. So it and all that context, it's really made to be an interesting, interesting place."
Got a tip? Email Kailey Broussard at kbroussard@kera.org.
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