I went to Oxy and I love Huell Howser and California Gold!  I was very excited he covered Obama's Oxy years and I kept missing it on my local PBS so thanks for posting it.  

I was attending Oxy in the early nineties when a professor there introduced me to the program, which has been on California public broadcasting stations for decades.  Yes, he is annoying.  But he has a quality that you would probably need to see an episode not involving something of such national interest as the president-elect to appreciate.  His usual shows cover things of more small-town importance.  His style is overly enthusiastic.  He musters jumping-up-and-down level excitement over subjects like abandoned railroad tracks and other things regular people would regard as mundane.  His enthusiastic interest comes across as earnest (who's to say what he's really thinking) and the ordinary people he interviews react to this interest and become excited about the subject matter themselves.  

If you just see him once or twice you're bound to find him annoying, but he grows on you.  The show always makes me smile and puts me in a good mood.  And sometimes they actually visit really cool places you'd never get to see if not for the show's coverage.