For my friends who worked in the Houston Broadcast industry, I heard this morning that Dennis Hanovich passed away recently.

Dennis was a one-of-a-kind guy. He worked for CBS News in New York early in his career. Dennis and I had polar opposite beliefs in pretty much everything; politics, religion, etc... but I could always count on him as a true friend, and he could count on me. I met him in 1987 at Cannatas where he hired me as a video duplicator. He said that I was the 'coolest Gentile' he ever met. He also said his biggest claim to fame was he took part in the '68 riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. I have not seen him in years, but we always kept up with each other.

I recall one time at Cannatas, there was a threat of a hurricane hitting our area. The main conversation at work was ‘Where was everyone going to evacuate to?’ A few years before this, I was working out of a TV truck and one day we parked just outside the fence at the end of a runway at Hobby Airport to film aircraft taking off and landing for B Roll footage. I noticed that the fence around Hobby was the Hurricane Fence brand. Dennis stopped by my work area and asked where I planned to evacuate. I responded, “Hobby Airport. They have a hurricane fence around the airfield.” I don’t recall seeing someone laugh so hard as Dennis did when I said that. From that time on, most of our conversations were telling jokes about Hobby Airport.

Recently when a hurricane was approaching, Dennis offered my family and me a place to stay - all pets were welcome too. I did not take him up on that offer, we already had a place to evacuate. I now wish I had taken him up on the offer, however.

This news of his passing breaks my heart.