Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 20, 1994 TAG: 9408230056
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By PATRICIA BRENNAN THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I loved it," he said, back home in August and finishing his last week on ABC's night shift. "This is the greatest experience. When I'd have to go out in the night, I'd look to see if there were any animals out there."
In fact, he loved it so much that Matson, a former Eagle Scout, hopes his tenure as host for "National Geographic Explorer" goes on and on. During three decades in the television business, this was the only job he's campaigned to get.
Matson takes over from Robert Urich, who will continue to host "On Assignment," Geographic's syndicated program. In "Explorer's" two-part season opener, "Into Africa" (Sunday night at 9 on TBS), Matson goes to Botswana to visit Dereck and Beverly Joubert, who have spent three years following one pride of lions for a film they call "Lions of Darkness." The show also spotlights another Geographic filmmaker, Nick Nichols, working in the dense Ndoki jungle forest of the Congo.
"Explorer," which marks its 10th season next spring, scooped up 13 Emmy Award nominations in July, more than any other cable program. It's also undergoing a facelift, changing its music and opening graphics, cramming in more segments, adding music videos and giving the host an "Explorer Journal" for his own film footage and observations.
Matson, who shot five rolls of film for the first "Journal," is no amateur with a camera. "When I first started in television, you went out and shot your own stories," he recalled. "You had to do that. Then I came back and edited them."
Matson brings a light touch to "Explorer" as he accompanies the Jouberts while they film the wild animals of Botswana. The Jouberts live near one of Chobe National Park's more dependable watering holes, a place that rarely dries up even during the arid winter months. But their camp is miles from any village; in an emergency, they use a two-way radio to ask that their request for help be relayed to the nearest town.
Matson had recently returned from Africa when he came to National Geographic's headquarters in Washington, D.C., to talk about his new job, but he'll stay in New Jersey, where he has lived for nine years, and will work at Geographic's New York offices.
This year he also returns to Los Angeles, the place he called home for 11 years, to do an "Explorer" piece about fabled Sunset Boulevard. He'll also do a show about the California desert.
For a piece about Robert Ballard, Matson plans to accompany the underwater explorer during a test-dive in a small submarine.
"I like doing that stuff," he said. "I said, `Can I go too?' They said, `We hoped you wanted to go.' I've been pushing for more locations. I think it looks good to be more involved in the story."
Being involved is Matson's style. He grew up helping his father clean out active oil wells around Midland, Texas. "I started driving when I think I was about 12," he said. "I sat up on briefcases on the seat and put on a hard hat."
In Midland he became an Eagle Scout and won the coveted God-and-Country Award. When the family moved to Fort Worth, he played on the high-school basketball and tennis teams. He was on the debate team at Southern Nazarene University, a church-affiliated, liberal-arts college in Oklahoma City (called Bethany Nazarene College when Sen. Gary Hart was there).
Matson went back to Fort Worth to begin a career in radio but kept his eye on the television station in the same building.
"Everybody didn't want to be in television then," he said. "I wanted to be. I started at the radio station, doing early morning radio, but then in the afternoon I would go down and bug the TV station every day and say, `I can take pictures.' "
Matson was hired to process and splice film for the evening newscast. Four months later he was anchoring the 10 p.m. news. From there it was on to various stations and networks in sports and features.
by CNB