Tag: Perry Morgan

The Rule Maker

I resigned from The Charlotte News in 1969 to go to work for WAYS radio in Charlotte. I didn’t want to be radio news reporter but John Kilgo, the WAYS news director, had offered me a company car — I was driving a rusty Chevrolet Corvair, the one I bought for $1 — and a whole lot more money.

this is a 1986 file photo of perry morgan, former publisher of the virginian-pilot and the ledger-star. photo was taken in march, l986.
This is a 1986 photo of Perry Morgan, courtesy of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, where Morgan was publisher.

So I went to see Perry Morgan, editor of The News, and resigned.

“You not hitting me up for more money, are you?” Morgan said to me.

“No sir,” I replied.

“You’re really quitting. You’re going to be a radioman.”

“Yes sir,” I said.

“Boy, you’re a fool!” Morgan told me. “You should be trying to hit me up for more money.”

I told him, I said “Perry, I know the rules. The maximum raise here is $10 a year. It would be years before you could pay me as much money as WAYS is going to pay me now.”

And Morgan replied, “I made the rules. I can change the rules.”

Postscript:  He did change the rules, at least for me. And my radio career was over before it had begun.

John "Killer" Kilgo
John “Killer” Kilgo

NOTE:  Kilgo, the guy who tried to get me to go to work for WAYS radio, had been a reporter at The News  when I graduated college and went to work there full time in June 1966. He was, by far, the most dominant  breaking news reporter in Charlotte and, it turns out, the best breaking news reporter I ever worked with or against in a 42 year career.  Most of his stories, it seemed like, were published on the front page.

Kilgo’s nickname was “Killer.”  I don’t know where that moniker came from but it was well deserved.  He did not take prisoners.

When I went to work at The News “Killer” was told to take me around my beat — I was assigned to cover county government, the District and Superior Courts and the Sheriff’s Department — and introduce me, help me get off to a good start.  He had covered that beat and knew everyone. He took me around, introduced me, said the usual nice things and then, right in front of me, he would say, “I want you to help this boy out when you can but if you got something good, call me.”

Like I said, “Killer” did not take prisoners.

Coming Friday: More Growing Up Country

Unfortunately, My Boss Was Older And Smarter

In the late 1960’s I went to my editor at The Charlotte News, Perry Morgan, and asked him to keep his promise.

this is a 1986 file photo of perry morgan, former publisher of the virginian-pilot and the ledger-star. photo was taken in march, l986.
Perry Morgan: He was older and smarter.  Photo courtesy of the Virginian-Pilot where, later on, Morgan was publisher.

Perry had promised me that if I worked hard, after two or three years he would help me move up, get a job at a  bigger paper anywhere in the country. I told him I wanted to go to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Because it was another Knight newspaper I knew he could make that happen.

Problem was, I was a pretty good reporter and he didn’t want me going anywhere. This, in essence, is the exchange we had:

“Nobody here treating you bad, are they?

“No sir.”

“Getting raises. Getting moved from beat to beat, getting good assignments.”

“Yes sir.”

“You married a Charlotte girl, didn’t you?”

“Yes sir.”

“Her family is here. Your family, your Mom and Dad, they live here?”

“Yes sir.”

“Got three kids. Just bought a house here, didn’t you?”

“Yes sir.”

“But you want to go to work for a big city newspaper, don’t you. You want to show them you’re just as good as they are, better even. Isn’t that true.  Isn’t that the reason you want to go to Philadelphia, to prove something.”

“Yes sir, that’s true.”

“Well, boy, if you had as much confidence in yourself as I have in you, you wouldn’t have to sell your house and uproot your wife and kids and move away from your kinfolk to some big city up North where you don’t know anybody. You wouldn’t have to prove anything.”

Postscript: I didn’t apply for a job in Philadelphia or anywhere else, I stayed in Charlotte another two years.  I used to think about Perry quite often and wish that I could have encountered  him when I was a lot older and little smarter.

NOTE:

Jim Waddelow
Jim Waddelow

One of our own, Jim Waddelow, who is married to Chelsea Stith, was on national television last Sunday.

How about that!

Pam Stith was watching CBS Sunday, which she had recorded while she was at church, when she saw a familiar face and heard a familiar voice.

Pam was watching a tribute to a Ponca City, Oklahoma, music teacher, a real life version of the movie, Mr. Holland’s Opus.  Nearly 300 of the students Robert Moore taught in a 30-year career, from all over the United States and three foreign countries, had gathered to honor him  — and sing to him.

Jim, an associate professor of music at Meredith College in Raleigh, is conductor and music director of the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra, a job he would not have, he told CBS, were it not for his high school music teacher.

If you take a look I think you’ll watch the whole 3 minute, 58 second segment.  Jim shows up at the two minute, 10 second mark.

BTW, Jim told me that Moore’s choral group was named best in the state for 25 of his 30 years.  The other five years?  They finished second.

Coming Monday: Sick, Lame or Lazy