Well, not just me. Most of us in the news department. The people whose bylines you see on the local stories day-after-day on Access North Georgia, and whose voices you hear delivering the news on our companion radio stations - WDUN NEWS TALK 550, MAJIC 1029, and AM 1240 WGGA.
For me, it's a new chapter in my journalism career.
I've never been asked to do this. I've never even given it much thought.
But, here I am, sitting at my computer and the words are just flowing. However, from what I understand, it won't always be this easy. I've heard about the dreaded writer's block, as the clock ticks toward deadline and a blank page (or screen, as the case may be) stares back at you - the fingers immobile over the keyboard.
We (meaning those of us in the news department who will be doing this periodically) don't expect to be getting into any real heavy topics - politics, religion, foreign affairs, social issues, domestic issues, etc. I've always felt reporters should keep their opinions to themselves, not expressing them publicly in order to help protect their objectivity as perceived by their readers and listeners.
So, don't look for anything such as the several politically oriented columns you see posted here. By the same token, for my part, at least, don't look for any as helpful as Billy Skaggs' or Debbie Wilburn's or J.C. Smith's, and, certainly, don't look for any as witty as Phillip Sartain's.
I really don't know what to tell you to expect beyond that - or even how often you'll see these columns. The boss just said he wanted to see one occasionally.
I guess I would be remiss if in this first column I didn't say something about Ronald Reagan and Ray Charles.
It was two or three days after the former president died that I realized it was during his administration that I received an invitation to attend a White House briefing for regional reporters. That's a way of saying a briefing for reporters from outside the beltway - the traditional White House and Washington reporters. The boss was out of town so the invitation stayed on my desk for several days until he got back. I had not idea whether I would get to go, but he gave the okay.
It was September 1985 and, for the record, the only part of the tab the White House picked up was lunch in the State Dining Room.
I never got that close to President Reagan. I don't think I even shook his hand. A lucky few of us had our names drawn to sit either at his table at lunch or with the vice president, who at that time was, of course, the first George Bush. The president sat at a table a few feet away. I found the vice president to be a down to earth sort. It was a Monday and he wanted to talk about his weekend in Maine with his family, including some of the grandchildren. He talked about his dogs and going fishing off the coast of Maine, but we, of course, had a few policy issues we wanted to talk about, and he was gracious in accommodating us as we lunched.
And, I was proud of our group.
If the briefings for regional reporters were designed to give the administration a break from the tough questions from the "inside the beltway" crowd, the president and the vice president and their aides must have been disappointed - at least from the questions they got from our group. I remember very few "softball" questions. Most were serious questions about serious issues facing the country at the time, especially the loss of textile jobs in the South.
Though most of my time was spent with the vice president, I'll always remember that it was during President Reagan's time in office that I was there. I have a lasting memento of the visit: an official White House Christmas card. Yes, it's still with us and we bring it out every year at our house and put it on display with the Christmas cards we get that year.
Ray Charles was one of my all-time favorites. I saw him in Atlanta in 1969 or 1970. I was on active duty with the Air Force Reserve, stationed at Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta. I had a buddy at the base, Ken Hill, who lived in Decatur, and his wife worked at the old Atlanta Civic Center and she got us in to see Ray Charles. What a show!
My favorite Ray Charles song? "Busted." It was a big hit in either late 1963 or early 1964. I was going to school in Atlanta. It was my first time away from home, which was Moultrie, Georgia, 250 miles to the south, for any length of time. I was alone, in a strange and very big city, homesick, and, I don't know if I would have survived without Quixie In Dixie, WQXI, the rock 'n' roll radio powerhouse in Atlanta at the time.
I remember it as if it were yesterday: lying on my bed at night in the boarding house where I lived, the light still on, listening to Paul Drew on WQXI, playing music for all the "submarine race watchers" at Piedmont Park. "Submarine race watchers," as I remember, was an alias for those couples who were parked at lover's lane at the park.
One of the songs I associate with those nights in that room, listening to Paul Drew, is "Busted," by Ray Charles. Why that song out of all the others I listened to during that time, I don't know. But, I can close my eyes and still see that room, smell that room, hear the traffic outside at Peachtree and 14th, and hear Paul Drew in that low monotone voice of his "this is Ray Charles and 'Busted' for all the submarine race watchers at Piedmont Park tonight."
Wonder if we could stand another state funeral so soon? You know the president can order one for anyone.
Including Ray Charles.
Ken Stanford is the longtime news director for WDUN NEWS TALK 550, MAJIC 1029, AM 1240 WGGA, and editor for AccessNorthGa.com.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/6/157695