Bob Harrison’s Apprentice
Kaine Riggan is the Executive Director of the Downtown Development Commission in Henderson. Riggan writes a regular column in The Daily Dispatch newspaper which appears on Wednesday. WIZS.com is re-publishing this article courtesy of The Daily Dispatch and Kaine Riggan. The photo was taken in 1988 by Ricky Stilley, and it is used with his permission and the permission of The Daily Dispatch.
I had some great teachers throughout my time in the Vance County School system. Robert Pirie from Zeb Vance and John Sadler from Henderson Junior High particularly took an interest in my writing and encouraged me to do more of it.
But some of the best tips I received on the craft came from a job at WHNC where I found myself under the tutelage of a slightly-built and mildly-ornery newsman named Bob Harrison.
“A very pleasant good afternoon everyone” is how he started the scripts from his antique typewriter with a worn-off E. His hand-written notes on half-sized manila paper were scattered across the desk as he translated them into his 5:00 broadcast script in order of their newsworthiness.
The station’s director, Peg Turner, had hired me as a weekend DJ when I was 16 and by the end of the Summer, it had expanded into filling in on Mondays for this regionally iconic newsman who had been writing and reading the 5:00 news in Henderson since 1955.
As I write this article today from the Downtown Development Commission office, I am only steps away from the doors of the municipal building where he first showed me how to sort through the police reports to scope out the headlines and remove the domestic stories for discretion and respect.
A moment of silence in loving memory of that discretion and respect.
Harrison was a chemistry, physics and math teacher at Henderson High School and had reached national recognition for his new coverage of the Harriett & Henderson Cotton Mill strike in 1959, for which he won several awards.
On many Mondays directly after the broadcast, I recall watching the clear, acrylic “line 1” button on the phone to see if Mr. Harrison had any notes for his understudy. Even after what I might have considered a smooth on-air performance, that unmistakable voice would have a stern tone as he told me to “slow down, and don’t be so damn dramatic about it.”
Wise advice for so many of life’s adventures.
What he didn’t know was that while the records were spinning for my on-air shift, I’d study those retired scripts from his army-green file cabinets and read them out loud in my best Bob Harrison impression, getting the feel for the rise and fall of the sentences. It was not only his delivery, but the writing itself that held a cadence, a meter – a rhythm that was friendly to the reader.
In fact, if you have a moment, listen to a three-minute snippet of Bob Harrison’s 5:00 newscast that I’ve placed on my website at www.KaineRiggan.com. Click on the antique radio on the homepage and it will be sure to make you smile.
It’s also worth mentioning that while collecting the juicy bits from police reports, I often ran into John Rose, who was always gracious and helpful to me. It’s particularly telling of his character that he chose to be kind given that my boss at WHNC had worked for him at WIZS and had recently become competition by moving across town along with the majority of his on-air staff.
Rose would slide me his stack of goodies after he had already sorted through the duds, saving me a lot of time. A lesser-gentleman might have just told me where to stick my asterisks.
I’ll end my Wednesday article in the words of my teacher, Bob Harrison.
“It’s 45 degrees in the Gateway City and the Kerr Lake level is at 299 feet. Today’s news is brought to you by Larry’s Service Company and Ralph’s Supply Line Country Market.”