Radio In the 50's

Historians pretty much agree that radio as we know it began in 1922. 

 I think that by 2022,  it very well may no longer exist; 

 at least not in any way resembling what it was, or is today.

Right now, its audience is largely confined to automobiles, but very soon, the car companies will be equipping their new vehicles with Internet capability....and that will kill terrestrial radio. 

And the demise of free over the air TV will not be far behind.  

 There are a number of reasons why;

WGIV Original Building  1951

people's habits have changed dramatically. They no longer watch TV like they did even few years ago. They listen to music on the Internet or download it and play it on who knows what, but they don't listen to it on radio anymore. Americans are also cutting the TV cord as well, and watching only the shows they want to...when they want to...without the commercials...via the internet and cable.  It's possible now to watch a whole season of a particular show in just a couple of nights.

The other reason is that the government wants that digital spectrum that they gave away to broadcasters a long time ago for their radio and TV stations, BACK.  It's now not only worth a lot of money, which they could reap if they sold it to cell phone companies, and such, but they could also use it themselves... for... oh,..... whatever (can you say NSA?)  But I digress.

 Having worked in the broadcast business since I was 15,  I was in the middle of many changes over the years.

 It was a great life. I enjoyed almost every moment of it. I feel as though I never "worked" a day in my life. 

And there was definitely a Charlotte Central High School connection, for which I am very grateful.

 Don Nance, my friend since the 5th grade, came across this old Charlotte Observer newspaper clipping, that frankly I never knew existed:

  That was the beginning of my more than 60 years of broadcasting. 

During those years I performed many roles; Announcer, DJ, TV host, Kiddie Show fill in, Play by play TV sports announcer (for one UNC Spring Football game) Radio feature writer/reporter, Announcer for FACE THE NATION  and other CBS shows, Host of the US AIR FORCE's world wide syndicated show, SERENADE IN BLUE, multiple commercials and Public Service Announcements, etc...

Don Nance

I never properly thanked those CHS students who were with me on that "Operation Talent" show that introduced me to my next 60 years...But, better late than never.


Thank you, my friends!

Lewis Nathanson

Delores Dollar

Linsy Farris

After all those years and stations,...the memories of my first job at WGIV in Charlotte are undoubtedly the sweetest. 

Something else reminded me recently of that cutting-edge, forward thinking, little station by the city dump.  It was the passing of Pete Toomey. 

Pete Toomey

Pete came to the attention of WGIV's founder Francis M. Fitzgerald at about the same time I was hired as the High School DJ. That would have been 1951-52. Pete lived a few houses down from the station and hung around a lot. It wasn't long before he started volunteering for small chores around the station and soon began picking up spending money doing larger tasks. He was always pleasant and well liked by the staff and before long had taught himself, with the help of our Chief Engineer Bill Lineberger, electrical engineering. After that, he became indispensable. (The station's address was "Toomey Ave,"  probably named after one of Pete's ancestors who was an early "settler" of that neighborhood.)

Hound Dog Promo Button

By the time I had moved on and entered college, Mr. Fitzgerald decided to let Pete try performing a little "on air" work. He did so well that it wasn't long before he had a loyal following of people who were hooked on that new "Rock and Roll" and the DJ who called himself, the "Hound Dawg."

If my memory is correct I believe Pete showed up several times in the number one spot according to the Charlotte radio ratings. I was told that his on air success never went to his head and he remained ever ready to help around the station, even continuing to change the light bulbs on the tower.!

Pete later joined the Charlotte Police Department in 1965 from which he retired in 1990. 

Chatty Hattie (Leeper)

He was almost the last link to the old WGIV that I worked for.  As far as I know, only "Chatty Hattie" and I are left from those "golden 50's and 60's days. By the way, Hattie Leeper (her real name) is now in the Black Radio Hall of Fame.  (Way to go, Hatty!)

All of us during the that time were "feeling" our way around. Big stations like WBT were still "riding the network" most of the day, with soap operas and quiz shows and dramas.  TV had yet to "kill off" that kind of radio programing. But soon, all radio stations would be following the independents like WGIV and be forced to produce their own shows...the most successful of which turned out to be DJ's playing records all day.

Bernie Pruet (engineer)             Mr. Fitz                  Ed

We tried a number of things before settling on "all music." I remember one summer we tried out a quiz show, called "Stump the Staff."  At 10am each weekday, everyone, the accountant, the secretary, Frances Crowell, Mr. Fitz, and anyone else in the building at the time would gather in our one small studio and try to answer questions that the listeners would call in.  The quality of the phone lines had not evolved enough at that time to be put on the air, so one of us would pick up the line and convey the listener's question to the staff.

Samuel (Genial Gene) Potts

The questions were generally pretty weak. The answers even weaker.  I remember one lady's question was directed to Genial Gene. She asked Gene if he could answer the question, "Who is my Sunday school teacher?"

Believe it or not, Gene answered it correctly...after asking her what Church she attended and what her age was, etc.

But I remember thinking at the time that "Stump the Staff" was not yet ready for "prime time."

In 1952/53 radio was still trying to appeal to "everyone."  We would feature Rhythm and Blues (that's what early Rock and Roll was called, before that it was called "race" music ) followed by Patti Page (that "Doggie in the WIndow" and so forth) Guy Lombardo, Wayne King, Tommy Dorsey...we would even play hymns several times a day. Most of  the day was broken up into 15 minute segments......The Lawrence Welk Show...followed by the Wayne King Show...then the Guy Lombardo Show....and the first time I ever said anything on the air as an official, paid announcer was, "And now, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to 15 minutes of music by the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing, Tommy Dorsey..."

Original WGIV building 1951

I won't attempt to tell you how garbled that came out.......but try saying that fast a few times...and you'll get the idea.

The little building we were in was so small that we had to put the AP ticker (Associated Press wire machine) in the bathroom, which, as we used to say, gave new meaning to the phrase, "...and now, from the WGIV newsroom..." That building, by the way, was originally part of the Morris Field complex during WW2. Mr. Fitzgerald had a way of getting the biggest bang possible out of his bucks.  The transmitter itself, as well as the tower were both purchased at auction from the North Carolina Highway patrol.

NPR in Washington, DC

A few weeks ago, I read about NPR's (National Public Radio) new headquarters in Washington. You have to see it to believe it. I was most impressed by its size and the fact that they have their own chef, plus, a wellness center, a gym, and, of course,  no 55,000 square foot station would be complete without....a couple of beehives on the roof which house  20,000 bees that are there to pollinate the vegetation up there. (Can you say "tax dollars?")

Ed pretending to know what he's doing

Around 1952, Mr. Fitz decided that we needed more room, so he purchased the soon to be torn down, pre-fab temporary Catholic School building on the other side of town and had it moved to Toomey Ave next to our little building beside the tower.
I spent several weeks of that summer, along with Pete and one of my high school buddies, Dieter Schock painting our new offices.  We were all paid the minimum wage which was 75 cents an hour...and we were glad to get it.

Unlike NPR, we didn't have any bees nests on the roof, but there was a wasp nest up there which we had a heck of a time getting rid of.

  While we were painting the walls, the boss was decorating his office with a huge new fangled kind of mural.  A paint-by-the-number mural.

Well, as Mr. Fitz always said, "It doesn't matter what a station looks like.  It's what it SOUNDS like."

Pete Toomey, Bill Lineburger, Bobby Gilbert  1953
1

The first summer I was at the station, there was a cow that grazed on the land around the station's tower and the studio wasn't air conditioned so the only way we could tolerate the heat was to open the window.  It wasn't unusual to hear that cow mooing between records.

There must have been some sort of agreement among the Charlotte Post Office workers that if any mail had an illegible address, it was automatically sent to Genial Gene. I saw envelopes with only the word gene...written on it and others totally undecipherable.......sitting on  Gene's desk.  And they were all meant for him.

One of the cardinal sins in radio back then was to curse....on the air.  It was simply unforgivable.
It was such a "no, no" we wouldn't even pronounce the name of a small musical group that was popular back then; The Art Van Damm Quintet."

We would introduce it as "The Art Van Darn Quintet."  Sometimes, "The Art Van Heck Quintet."

Julian Barber

Johnny Surratt

When Julian Barber (whose uncle by the way was Red Barber) returned from serving in Korea, he tried to get his old job as an announcer and newsman at WAYS back, but they refused.  So, he applied at WGIV and became the news director. The two primary announcer/DJs were Johnny Surratt and Eric Dehlin. Both were very helpful to this young newbie and taught me a lot about the business. I will always be grateful to the memory of those two men. Johnny did an afternoon show called "It's Surratt Race." 

Julian's job mainly consisted of writing and presenting the noon news, following which, Eric,  one of the smoothest DJ's I ever worked with, would begin his afternoon show.  Since we only had one studio, one mic and one chair, Julian would finish his newscast and while the commercial was playing, get up from the chair so Eric could sit down, then after the commercial, Julian would give the weather forecast and the close of the newscast over Eric's shoulder. Then Eric would "roll" his theme song (start the turntable) and begin his show, talking over the theme. 

Eric Dehlin

 Each of our two turntables (located on either side of the DJ) contained a switch which allowed us to  play either a 78 OR a 33 1/3 rpm record...depending on the way the switch was positioned.  Well, Julian was a great practical joker and while he was closing out his newscast over Eric's shoulder, he loved to surreptitiously flip that switch on the turntable where Eric's theme song was cued, so that  instead of starting out bright and lively, would sound slow and dark, not unlike a dying moose. 

After the first couple of times, Eric got wise to Julian and afterward would double check the turntable and flip the switch to its proper position, if necessary, before starting his theme song.

But one day, he forgot...and as the first sounds of the "dying moose" began to go out over the airwaves and the engineer turned the mic to the "on" position, the WGIV audience heard, " G - D  Dammit !"  As far as I've been able to determine, that was a "first" for Charlotte radio.

Eric later apologized on the air and I don't believe anything was ever said about it after that.
Radio was a very "forgiving" medium back then.

If something outrageous was said (and it rarely was) there was no practical way people could go back and check.  They would simply assume that they had heard it wrong.
Although, I'm sure anyone who's still around who was listening that day, remembers it.

That teenage talent show only aired one time.  That was because the station recorded the show on a new fangled medium, called audio tape (which the Germans had invented during the war and we stole afterwards.)  WGIV's one tape recorder broke a couple of days after "Operation Talent" aired so I was asked to just play records for the following Saturday's show.  (Being a DJ was what I wanted to do in the first place.) 

Francis M. Fitzgerald

Mr. Fitz was one of the most remarkable men I've ever known. He always had about 10 new big ideas going at a time.  Not all of them amounted to anything, but enough came to fruiition to make him a wealthy man.  He had plans for that little station to eventually become WGIV-TV, so he placed a mirror behind our one microphone so we could practice. He did actually receive a license from the FCC for Charlotte's second TV channel, but sold it when he realized that people had to buy a "TV converter" to receive the signal.  That station was channel 36.

Another idea he had was to build a huge media center in Charlotte to house all his proposed broadcast properties. It was to be named "Radio City" or something like that. I believe evidence of that can still be seen in the general area of the original location of WGIV.  I think it now houses apartments called "Radio Center Apartments or...?"...whatever.

There was no reason for members of our class to remember this, but another one of Mr. Fitz' ideas at the time was forming and leading a dance band consisting of some of Charlotte's finest jazz musicians. He did, and asked me if I could use any influence I had with the powers that be to select his new band to debut by performing at the Central High Senior Prom. 

His band was chosen, but not because of my influence, but because he offered them for free.

No doubt your memories of what the heck the band sounded like at our senior prom is the last thing in your vast memory bank.  But, believe me, they were very good!

I think Mr. Fitz was hoping to bring back the Big Band craze of the '30's, but like radio, those days are gone forever.  May they rest in peace.


Thanks for listening.      

-Ed

Pete Toomey

About a year before Pete Toomey passed away (May, 2013 I believe it was)  Pete recorded a tape for me highlighting his knowledge of WGIV's history. Mr. Bill Lineburger, WGIV's chief engineer and lifelong bachelor, lived with the Toomey family. Bill rented a room in their home.  Much of the history of the station was told to Pete by Bill Lineburger...who also taught Pete radio engineering.  -Lee

WGIV History by Pete Toomey

Back in 1947 ...Francis Fitzgerald, Sam Lineburger, Tom Brandon, Lloyd Epps, and a few other people businessmen, applied to the FCC for a license to operate an AM radio station on 1600 kc in Charlotte, NC. Later after this license was awarded, it became WGIV....1600 kc at the top of the dial. Contrary to popular belief that WGIV stood for “We are GI Veterans,” only 2 of these were veterans.

The letters were given by the FCC...at random...they had no meaning, except that Fitzgerald said that it meant, “We Grow In Value.” The station went on the air as a “daylight staton” i.e., operating from local sun up tilsun down, with a power of 1000 watts. The building itself was bought from the old
Morris Field base...which is now Douglas Airport, and it was brought to the site of Toomey and Remont Ave. and was pieced together ....the two buildings were puttogether....and made a studio/office complex.

(Lee Shephard....actually, the Morris field building held the transmitter/studio/record library/ AP news ticker (which was in the bathroom)......the SECOND building was purchased a few years later from the Charlotte Catholic school (it was a pre­fab
building which were used as a classroom for the students) and towed across town to the Toomey Ave site and added on to the Morris Field building.....and used for the WGIV offices...which were basically the office of Francis Fitzgerald, and a general
office area, used mainly by Frances Crowell (I believe) Fitz' secretary and general business executive.  (I was working at WGIV when this happened.  -Lee)

The tower and transmitter was bought from the state of North Carolina at an auction. The tower was dismantled, and moved, the transmitter was formally an AM transmiter for the NC Highway Patrol. Later, a second transmitter was bought for a
back up.

The station went on the air December, 1947 ....
It was “local radio”....which meant that we had DJs...called “announcers” in those days ...they sat in a studio and talked, and had a control board engineer...who was responsible for turning the microphone on and off....riding the gain of the records
(which were activated by the announcers from a turntable in the studio on either side of the announcer.

Usually, the format consisted of music of specific artists....which at the time were Eddie Fisher...the program was about 15 minutes.....

(Note from Lee.  I don't recall playing Eddie Fisher tunes at that time....but Pete could be correct. I remember those shows....15 minutes in length...featuring artists from the “World” (I believe) transcription library library....which were large 33 and a third
“transcriptions”...purchased from something called the “World Transcriptions”....I think...and featured artists such as Wayne King, Guy Lombardo....TommyDorsey...and other artists which were pretty vanilla even at the time....

Following the “standard” radio format at the time....the day was broken up into 15 minute “shows”...such as the Wayne King show....15 minutes of his music....followed by the Tommy Dorsey show.....15 minutes of his music... and soon. Most of the selections were from the “World Library” (I think I am correct
about the name of the transcription service)
I believe that GIV gradually got away from that format....and substituted more standard personality shows...

When I first joined WGIV in the spring of 1951, I believe it was....Genial Gene was the morning DJ....followed my Eric Dehlin....(not sure when his show started but it followed Gene.) There might have been some sort of show “for the housewives”
music of course..although for a short while we did a quiz show called “Stump the Staff”....Fitz would have everyone in the station come into the studio.....and the questions would come from the audience...I remember one directed to Gene.....”Who was my Sunday School Teacher?”
Gene asked a couple of questions....”What church do you go to....how old are you....etc...”and actually, he got the correct answer.

As I recall, that show didn't last very long....Fitz probably got tired of doing it. 

At noon....the news....Probably read by an announcer....until perhaps 1953? whenever Julian Barber returned from service in Korea......and was made “News Director,” and he did that 15
minutes of news.

(Julian had previously worked at WAYS before being drafted and serving in Korea...but on his return, WAYS wouldn't hire him back......So he joined WGIV. (From there, he went to WSJS TV in Winston Salem...then on to WTOP in Washington...where he reigned as the number one local TV newscaster in the Nations Capitol...for at least 10 years.)

(Personal note....I had a number of “heros” or local broadcasters I greatly admired and tried to emulate.....Julian was certainly one of them. Bob Raiford was another...later Ty Boyd...with whom I worked at WCHL in Chapel Hill.
My junior year at Central High in Charlotte, I won a trip to Washington....it's was a “Citizenship Award” or something....anyway, we were given a “free day” during the
tour, and I chose to take a cab and try to see if I could visit that great station I had heard so much about..and dreamed of one day (in my pipe dreams) of perhaps
working there.....

I lucked out....the announcer on duty happened to be a former WBT announcer, John Trimble, I had heard so much about....he showed me around the station....I even sat in the announce booth as he introduced the news.....
What a “high!”
I'm sure I saw all the “sights” of the Nation's Capitol on that trip, but for me, the unforgettable highlight was my visit to the “station of my dreams!”

I would never have imagined that not quite 10 years later I would be working there...with two of my “heros,” Julian Barber and Bob Raiford!
I hosted one of the first local morning TV interview shows in Washington, “Cadence” from 1967 – 1969.

(Back to Pete Toomey....history of WGIV)

....as the years went by...WGIV began to hire people...and it comes to my mind....some guys in those days were....(of course all gone now)....Fred Vinroot, Johnny Surratt, Charlie Friar, ....we had a female, Ann Parish, who later became Ann Parish Woods, and Conrad Phillips....I'll never forget....Conrad was a veteran
.....of the Korean War...who lost both of his feet from frostbite...He was quite a character...''

While he was on WGIV, a fellow who was in the business of marketing ...who later became real popular ...Colonel Tom Parker....he was a former side show barker, who
came up with a health “fluid”....called Hadacol.....He said he named it Hadacol..because he “Had a call” it something.

Anyhow, Conrad Phillips became one of the spokesmen for Hadacol...and Conrad really go a kick out of –­­­­­­­­­? Hadacol.... Commercials?....which were done mosty adlib. Conrad later became known as “Captain Hadacol”....and was quite a
friend of Col Tom Parker....(who later became the manager of Elvis).

We also had a fellow named Johnny Surratt....he was quite a salesperson. And an announcer....a lot of personality....
And along through the years, the hired other prominent people who came to town, such as Julian Barber....who's uncle was Red Barber,.,..Julian was basically a “news announcer” Julian was with the armed forces radio at the time the serender took place with General McArthur on the warship (....I think Pete is a bit
confused here....-Lee)

We also had a fellow named Owen Span...who was quite popular....who left and went to Winston Salem.
One of the most amazing people we ever had at the station was a totally blind man named Alonzo Squires .....Alonzo had an engineer...Henry Poole....Henry was very gifted and talented.....Henry came up with a gizmo ...where one headphone allowed Alonzo to hear what was on the air...and the other was a direct link to Henry...the control board operator..Alonzo would call the weather bureau in the morning...and remember everything the weatherman said about the weather. He memorized the
weather forecast and many other things....Alonzo would give the time ,,,,,Alonzo would say, “the time is.....Seven........and Henry would say in Alonzo's ear.....15.
This amazed a lot of people......they couldn't figure out how Alonzo could tell the time.

Alonzo was quite an amazing fellow. He got involved in a little political scandal...and he had to be terminated by the station.
After that, he went on the road as a salesman ...selling chemicals...which he actually demonstrated.

Charlie Friar was a gifted piano player ...and he played live sometimes live at Parker's piano company, which was on Trade Street and gave live shows and interviewed people and what have you... and I mentioned Ann Parish, she was a very attractive blonde and she was, I think a former Beauty Queen...by anyhow, she did a woman's show...and was very well liked.

A few “Game shows” took place....some of them written by the staff...later on, TAPE came in....and they bought their first recorder....which was a Busch...recorder
that was very un­reliable...later on they bought a battery operated recorder....that Julian would take on location...but it only had about 5 minutes of battery time...
But as time went on.....Mr. Fitzgerald...who was very knowledgeable about the business...went to a party..put on by one of the brewers.....and there was a black gentleman there by the name of Samuel Eugene Potts....a retired school
teacher...who explained that as a youngster he had a hard time talking....he stuttered.....and “rhyming” helped him overcome that handicap.

Gene was a great talker....especially injecting rhymes into the
conversation....Fitzgerald put him “on the air”....and Gene was an almost instant success.
He worked out an arrangement that he, Gene, would buy his time from the station...and then sell it himself. Myers Furniture Store, Lebos, and a few other downtown stores. ..became his “sponsors” and he would ad lib their commercials.....and no matter what he was advertising....people bought. Gene was a
great salesman. He got so good that Mr. Fitzgerald had to increase his time...(Gene was the first Black disc jockey ­ announcer
in Charlotte.) 

He got so popular he had to hire someone to go through his mail. A
lady named Josephine was the one I remember best. One lady he hired was a Johnson C. Smith student named Hattie Leper. She could read a lot faster than Gene...so he let her read a number of the letters on the air.....people started asking about Hattie....so Mr.
Fitzgerald named her “Chatty Hattie” and put her on the air at times.

Later, as years went by, Hattie did more and more, so Mr. Fitzgerald finally gave her...her own show.

Then, Joy Boy came along...Roy Sanders was his name...he was a great guy...he became so popular Mr. Fitz gave him his own show playing Gospel Music........he called himself...”Joy Boy the Joy Boy of Soul,” quite a character.

There were other DJ's there who began to play Rock and Roll....while the blacks were playing rhythm and Blues...and I was an engineer at the time and we needed somebody to open up the station in the morning at 5am....so Mr. Fitzgerald assigned
that to me. I played country western music...until 6....and I believe Owen Spann came on after that until 8 or 9 o'clock when Gene came on.

Later on...my time increased...I came on at 5..went off at 6...and came back on at 7
and stated on til 9 and started playing Rock and Roll. As the years went by, we had famous people like Bill Haley and the Comets...and of course Elvis...who increased our listenership quite a bit. (he was talking of course about playing their music)
We had what Mr. Fitzgerald called a “personality station.”
He told me to go in there and “just be yourself.” By the way, he nicknamed me, “Hound Dog,” that's spelled DAWG. I went to work there in 1953.

Later on, others were hired .....there were Scott Hubs, Hotch Scot (?) Rusty Page, and later on there was Ray Gooding....whose real name was Euriah (?) L. Gooding .....who he named “Rocking Ray.” ,,,which he still uses today....he later left WGIV
and went to WBT.

The studio facility was re­modeled many times...we had a lot of competition...but they didn't touch us. We had the top rating for 5 years in a row....and put a couple of local radio stations into
bankruptcy. They often tried to imitate...but they could not duplicate. During this renovation, Mr. Fitzgerald said that since there were so many people stand around down here....I'm going to enlarge the studio so that we can have people come in...so he increased the size of studio A....and put a long bench in there where
people could come in and watch Gene or me do our broadcasts...and the audience was instructed to keep quiet when the lights indicating that the mic was on....and ifsomebody DID keep talking...it upset Gene tremendously.

Later on, in the 60's..a completely new building was built. Which had 3 nice studios in it...all brand new equipment...and being an engineer...I had to wire most of it...which I really enjoyed. At the same time, they applied for...and got..what they called “Full Time License”...which meant they could operate in the evenings, instead
of signing off at “sundown.” However, our signal, was only North/South at the time.

Our transmtter site was moved out to Belle Haven Area and it was there until closing time in year 2003. The studios were second to none. We were actually the first radio station in North Carolina to have a direct teletype to the weather bureau. We got our weather forecasts directly from the teletype...other stations eventually got the same thing..but ours was a test.

I stayed there until 1957...and I left to go to Mount Dora (?) Florida where Mr. Fitzgerald put up another daytime station. I became manager of the station and went on the air as Hound Dawg...but I only had a couple of hours a day...because I was involved mostly with management and technical operations...I stayed there for
almost two years ...but I was eager to get back to Charlotte...finally I came back to Charlotte...went back on the air....and they had quite a “welcome back” for me. I got my ratings back up...this was the Elvis Pressley era when I returned to Charlotte...and because we had a good relationship with Col Tom Parker...there was
a DJ working for us..named Bobby Gilbert..who found this old Sun Record....and he played it...and told us this guy is good.
Bobby started playing it....etc....
so we were big Elvis promoters at the time....

Later on, we began to get into night time....radio....I was losing in it...the hours were long...pay wasn't too good....so I joined the Charlotte Police Reserves....I fell in love with police work. In 1965 I went to work for the Police Dept in the Radio Room.

I retired from the police dept in April of 1990...I enjoyed it very much.....

Pete Toomey

Francis Fitzgerald

Francis M. Fitzgerald was the founder and principal owner of 

Mr. Fitz

WGIV. He was a remarkable man. Personally, he was the first and  best "boss" I ever had. I don't remember his ever criticising me, although I made many mistakes. An announcer named Johnny Surratt who was about 5 or 6 years older that me taught me the mechanics of the job and offered valuable advice that served me well over the years.  The larger lessons I learned from just watching and being around Mr. Fitz, as we all called him.  Throughout my almost 65 years in Broadcasting, not many days went by when I didn't think of Mr. Fitz.   Very few "crises" in the topsy-turvy world of broadcasting confronted me that I didn't ask myself, "What would Mr. Fitz do?"  The answer almost always served me well.   

-Ed Myers

From a WGIV brochure celebrating "Genial Gene Day" December 15, 1951.

Genial Gene Bio....from the same publication:

Genial Gene 1951

Perspective

By John Hook 

Broadcaster,Author, Radio and Music Historian 

Although the book I'm doing isn't about WGIV, I believe it's an important, lasting influence on what happened to the musical tastes of Charlotte.  Beach Music blossomed in the unusual environment there, many aspects of what became the Beach Music scene were nurtured in that environment.

This is the perspective I operate from.  Facts and events are of course interesting, but I like to take an ontological approach and look at the historical drift in which things take place.

Since I came to the Carolinas in 1975 I've heard innumerable stories about WLAC and WGIV.  In the larger context however, I've always been fascinated by the profound impact those two stations had on two to three generations of young people, impacting even more by what became institutionalized beyond WLAC and WGIV.

For example, all stories note that WLAC and WGIV were the primary sources for R&B for quite a long time.

What hasn't been written and reflected upon are three other phenomena which took place simultaneously:

    1)  Both stations were integrated very very early compared to the rest of Southern culture.

    2)  Both stations' staffs were populated by Southerners, two important ones at WLAC were from, or influenced by, South Carolina.

    3)  WGIV nurtured a number of people who went on to become major broadcasting talents. 

One could argue that those talents were the result of Nature, or Nurture.   I believe they were the result of both.

To me this demonstrates that the programming, and background moods, of both stations were facilitated and implemented by Talented people.  I'm not convinced that just anyone could have sat in the Air Chairs of those two stations and have the same effects as those who lived and breathed them both into Living Larger than (Cultural) Life.

There is more to reflect upon regarding the talents of WGIV.  Your story, as well as Julian Barber, Owen Spann, and others, show that each of you went on to network with other important Southern talents, each of whom had lasting impact on broadcasting, and those cultural elements that broadcasters can affect.  Beyond that, many  transcended their provincial roots to become even more important in the shaping of cultures in the U.S.

Looked at from yet another perspective, the WGIV and WLAC staffs were constituted by what I consider to be the essence of entrepreneurship, that is, to shape and make history.  WGIV and WLAC changed the historical drift of the South and many Southerners in many ways.  This is what I consider to be 2nd, 3rd, and 4th levels of entrepreneurship, beyond the ordinary first level of Investment, Rolling the Dice, Standing by a Product or Service until it Comes to Fruition, and often Failing.  Only to get up and begin again.  First level entrepreneurship generally lasted 20-30 years.  Although nowadays first level entrepreneurial activity can be made up of much shorter 5 and 10 year cycles.

There are interesting stories about Frances Fitzgerald being a visionary.   At this point I maintain that belief as well.  However, there is something else I believe that Fitzgerald provided for that he never planned.  The visions, probably unarticulated, of each of his staff members.  Fitzgerald provided an environment in which innovation could take place according to the personal and professional visions of each of you.  This is what I find most fascinating of all.

In your own ways each of you were able to not only transcend the lives you led up to the moment of employment at WGIV, your participations with WGIV, and ultimately your listening public, helped them to transcend the historical drift of the time as well.

John Hook