Blasts From the Past: Rob’s TV Restaurant Reviews on KVUE and FOX 7

I never set out to do restaurant reviews. I had gotten my PhD at the University of Michigan to enable me to teach at the college level, first at UT Austin and then at California State Long Beach.

While I very much enjoyed teaching, it soon became apparent that teaching courses in Broadcasting and Advertising would not produce any really meaningful income. So with a young family to support, I left the teaching profession and returned to Austin to start a market research and consulting firm that serviced radio and tv stations.

I’d always been a foodie since before I’d left Connecticut and while I was traveling on business, I finally had a few extra dollars to indulge my palate at some of America’s great restaurants: The French Laundry, Per Se, Commander’s Palace, Daniel, Nobu, Babbo, Spago, Bouchon Bistro, Rao’s and so many others.

So that food itch was always there and it was great fun when I got a chance to scratch it.

Then a serendipitous moment occurred. I had finished a research project for 590 KLBJ radio and, based on the results, we’d kicked around the idea of creating some programs to address the audience’s recreational interests with dining out being one of the major ones.

The decision was made to start a restaurant review program that would air on Fridays.

But life is full of unexpected twists and turns. So after the station had difficulty finding the right host (and being aware of my food background) they asked me to temporarily host the show.

It was a natural transition for me and soon the “temporary” became permanent. Not long that after I got a call from the General Manager of FOX 7 TV. He asked if I would consider doing a review show on his station.

While I had never planned to become a full-time restaurant critic, the TV gig kind of cemented things. I did reviews for FOX for eight years and then moved to KVUE TV for four more years.

After that, I developed the Dining Out with Rob Balon website and continued to post weekly reviews on KLBJ. Earlier this year it occurred to me that many of our relatively new readers may have never had the chance to watch my TV reviews.

So I’ve picked out some clips that made their way to YouTube which you can watch by clicking the videos below.

Welcome to my world and Bon Appetit!!