40 years and counting

This month marks the 40th anniversary of my career in radio news. It all began at a now-defunct radio station in Marietta, WBIE, and what a year I picked to begin my new career.<br /> <br /> Stop and think about it. 1968. <br /> <br /> On March 31, President Lyndon Johnson stunned the world with the surprise announcement that he would not seek re-election.<br /> <br /> Four days later, on April 4, Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated.<br /> <br /> Two months later, on June 4, Robert Kennedy was assassinated. That's when he was shot; he died June 6.<br /> <br /> In August, the Democratic National Convention turned violent as anti-war protesters filled the streets and clashed with police and the streets of the Windy City became blood-splattered and filled with tear gas.<br /> <br /> Quite an introduction to the world of news for a then-23 year old... with little or no formal training in being a reporter. Oh, I had picked up a few pointers along the way in the brief radio career. But, until then, my experience was limited to the programming side of things, mostly as a music director and disc jockey. News, was a nuisance. Hey, every newscast meant at least one less song I could play on my program!<br /> <br /> But, I needed a job and WBIE needed a news director. So, Jim Wilder, the owner, and Roger Allison, the program director, took a chance on me. And, I haven't looked back.<br /> <br /> Much has changed, of course, since then.<br /> <br /> Women and blacks now play prominent roles on radio and TV news staffs across the country. The computer age has revolutionized the way we cover things, from the way we write stories to the way we read them on the air to the way we gather the "sound" that you hear as a part of our newscasts... the little snippets from a news conference or a meeting or the scene of a fire, plane crash, etc.<br /> <br /> With the advent of the Internet and our own news-oriented Web site, accessnorthga.com, our reporters have had to learn - and are still learning - to write for the eye as well as the ear. Long ago they started having to carry a camera with them in addition to an audio recorder so we would have pictures for the Web site. Now, a video recorder is a part of their equipment package because of the TV-style newscasts we now are doing on line.<br /> <br /> Even our newspaper reporter friends are now having to pack an audio recorder as well as a video camera. You see, many papers are also getting into the business of posting audio and video on their Web sites.<br /> <br /> What we cover and how we cover - from the network level, anyway, radio and TV - is now been driven, to a degree, and unfortunately, by the 24/7 cable television channels. They have so much time to fill that they offer stories on events that 40 years ago would have been relegated to the supermarket tabloids or People magazine. They make such a big deal of some of these stories that the so-called "mainstream media" feel, I suppose for competitive reasons, to pick them up and that, in turn, gives an air of legitimacy to the story. And, so, not only do you get it on CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc., but also now it's a big story for ABC, CBS, and NBC. <br /> <br /> They are not all celebrity-driven but in many cases involved "local" stories that are transformed into national stories. These are usually stories - albeit it with an unusual twist - about a crime that 40 years ago only the local paper and radio and TV would have reported. Some, of course, are worthy of national coverage - maybe for one day, but for a week or two or more? I think not. Some things are better left to the tabloids.<br /> <br /> So, how will things look 40 years hence.<br /> <br /> Will man have landed on Mars by then? Will the South have hosted another Olympics? Will we have had a female, black and/or openly gay president? Will we still be in Iraq? Will there still be a Lake Lanier? Will the area between Atlanta and Charlotte - including Gainesville - be one metropolitan area as some people began predicting 40 years ago? Will Sean Hannity's son be host of an ultra-liberal radio talk show, the polar opposite of his Dad's? <br /> <br /> Tune in.