If the WIZS radio tower or the old Dispatch printing presses could talk, oh, the stories they could tell!
The tower up on the hill outside the studio on Radio Lane has provided transmissions for decades – 70 years, come May 1 when the station came on the air.
And those presses, which produced so many editions of the Henderson Daily Dispatch over the years, have long ceased their operations. The newspaper remains, although “Henderson” and “Daily” have been dropped from the mast head in favor of “Serving Henderson, Vance County and surrounding areas since 1914.”
News gathering has evolved since the tower was installed and that press spat out newspapers, and the longevity of local media in the Henderson area is due, in large part, to these two media outlet mainstays.
John Charles Rose sat down with Dispatch Editor Gary Band to chat about the old days, but also about the importance of healthy community journalism.
Chronicling the history of local media will be featured in this year’s edition of Envision Vance, a publication of the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce, Band said.
He doesn’t want to “scoop” himself, but Band did say he’d spoken with longtime reporter David Irvine. About what, we’ll learn when Envision Vance is published. Print date is May 31, Band said.
Change is inevitable, and local media is no different. The Dispatch, once a family-owned business, was bought by Paxton Media in 1994, Band said. He came on board in June 2023, and the only office he’s known is the current one on Garnett Street. He actually never visited the former office at the corner of Chestnut and Pettigrew streets, where reporters cranked out stories on manual typewriters, then electric ones, until computers came along. He never stared into “Big” Bill’s office, where stacks of newspapers and other paper filled every nook and cranny and where the paper’s editorials were crafted.
Communities rely on local media outlets to get news that’s important to them – the larger stations and newspapers carry the “big” stories, but it’s the local journalists who inform the community about what’s happening at the City Council meetings or what the commissioners talked about in their work session.
Band said it’s the job of local media “to hold up a mirror to the community.” There’s so much going on here, he added, and there’s no way for a small staff of writers to be everywhere all the time to report all the news.
“I always think I can do more and better,” Band said. And although he’s relatively new to the area, he’s worked for close to 30 years in journalism, so he’s picked up a thing or two along the way.
“You have to be out there…present. You have to love it,” Band said. He plans to continue to help Paxton put out a quality publication and to continue being a critical part of this community.
Reporting the news is critical to inform citizens, Band said. Informing them leads to citizens being more engaged in the life of the community, “more inclined to take part.”
The media, whether it’s print or radio, has an obligation to be a solid, trustworthy and reputable source for news, Rose said. Journalists separate the fact – verifiable, accurate information – from hearsay.
“This is a vibrant community with a long, proud history,” Band said. “We’re going places…things are starting to happen.”
And when they do, you can count on coverage in the pages of The Dispatch and on the airwaves from WIZS.
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