Onward…and Onward!

I am about two months into my 41st year of broadcasting.

To quote the legendary band the Grateful Dead, “What a long, strange trip it’s been”!

I think back to the beginning in 1986 when I got a PAID internship at a radio station in Mt. Pleasant, SC…just across the river from my hometown of Charleston. Little did I know then that would be the beginning of the career that defines who I am

I learned from the ground up by running an audio board and editing reel-to-reel tape (grease pencils. X-Acto knives and splicing tape were the tools of the trade). I still to this digital day say there was nothing much more satisfying then making a perfect splice on a reel of tape.

Technology would change and cassette decks were supplanted by digital recorders, and reel-to-reels gave way to Adobe Audition. Even through the evolution, I was fortunate enough to be honored by my peers for my work in news and sports.

Television would call…and over seven years in two states it would challenge me to adapt to a new medium. Radio called me back in 2004,,,and it is where I’ve stayed. Since then…I have covered many stories from state house meetings to White House events.

I even got to ride on Air Force One.

From Charleston…to Memphis…to Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill…to New York City — it’s been rewarding to say the least.

I will he honest. The business has changed. The integrity of the media has been called into question as impartiality — in a number of instances — has been replaced by ideological leanings. There are a good many of us who still remember and subscribe to what the Constitution promises: the freedom of the press to speak truth to power and hold the powerful accountable.

For as long as I can…and as long as I’m allowed…I plan to keep my Twisted Wave app, my Associated Press Stylebook and my handy-dandy reporter’s notebooks close by to supplement my Google searches, my COMREX unit and the passport that can get me wherever I need to go to talk to people and tell their stories.