My retirement speech, May 19, 2015
Thank you. Thank you Larry for this opportunity. And thank you Kendra for your efforts with this party.
So looking into the future this may be what my funeral would look like. Family members, friends, people I have worked with, and those in the sales department who came just for the food.
In 1910 Joyce Hall wrote the first Hallmark card. He found a way to put on paper the words he wanted to express. To tell others how he felt. I do not know how he did it. How do you tell someone you have worked with how much that person means to you. So let’s see what I can do.
There is a famous Chinese quote that sums up how I feel about leaving. But since I do not speak Chinese it is impossible to share that with you.
Today is May 19, 2015. Yesterday was May 18, 2015. 45 years ago yesterday, May 18, 1970, I started working at WFMY. 45 years. If I had shot and killed someone I would have gotten out in half that time. If I devoted just 2 minutes to tell you about each year I was here, you would be sitting there for an hour and a half.
I want to be like Frank Mickens-to give the current story, with complete details. But I feel like there is a producer telling me I only have 30 seconds.
I want to be like Grant Gilmore and get it right, so hold me 2 it.
I want to be like Tanya Rivera-so that you want to know what it has been like. You want to know.
I want to be like Larry Audas. No reason, I just want to be like him.
I have worked for every general manager except the first one. Seems he died before I got here.
I have worked for every chief engineer except the first one. He got fired for alcohol reasons.
While we are talking about drinking issues I have worked with, a rough guess, a couple hundred news directors.
I feel it is time for the train to leave the station. With the time spent in radio as an announcer, a DJ, I have been in broadcasting for 50 years. Charlie Harville, a sports director in the early years, told me one morning he was leaving. He said when the news is printed faster than he could read, it was time to go. And when we have more computer screens in the control room that we have buttons, then it is my time.
I will miss each of you. And I will miss this job. I have never considered what I do work. It is just something different and interesting each day. I have repaired cameras, transmitters, tape machines, computers, printers, audio boards, radars, microwave ovens, installed a couple hundred miles of cable and wire under the floor, so many items to take your time listing. But I like the personal items I have repaired. So many pairs of prescription glasses, so many high heel shoes, so many hair dryers, curling irons, belts, sewing on buttons, guitars, car radios, kids toys, and even repair a bra. Yes, I will miss those.
The people that know me are aware of my religious beliefs, and that I am honest, shy and modest at times. My mother loves to tell the story when I was younger I would hide behind the furniture when someone came to visit.
I was asked to list a few of the people who influenced me and my work ethics here at WFMY. It took time but I came up with four names. Of all the hundreds of people I have worked with, my list only has four names. These individuals, who none are in this room, I never want to see again. I have never thought of them as part of this family. Each of you, every one of you, have helped me, have inspired me, and have made this job a blessing.
Yes, I have trouble dealing with people. To help me deal with each of you I try and inject humor, because my thoughts are it is difficult to not like someone that is funny. When I was in the ICU cardiac unit at the hospital last year Larry called to see how I was doing. What I should have said was ‘I am doing fine and thank you very much for calling’. But instead I told him the story of a man falling off a tall building. As the man reached the half way mark they heard him shout, ‘so far so good’.
So what I would like to do is to be myself for a few moments. Just be honest with you. Is Casi here? Our HR person. When I say I want to be myself and expose myself that is just an expression.
So to be myself I need to put the humor aside, and to be honest. Because English is my second language I may have to struggle with some words.
I am very honored to have worked here. Larry’s boss Paul came to see me and he used the term ‘the end of an era’. I worked with those pioneers of this broadcast business. Back when televisions only had black and white pictures. Rabbit ears for antennas. No teleprompters. Only typewriters. I worked with those that put this station on the air. Did you know the first words on this station were profanity? And that saga still continues at times in our news room.
This station started in 1948 as an FM radio station. The following year, 1949, we added WFMY-TV. Channel 2, the Pied Piper of the Piedmont. I remember everything being green. In the early 50s it was determined the television station was losing less money that the radio station so the radio station was dropped. It was difficult in the early years. The sales manager said the gum ball machine in the lobby made more money than we did the first month. That concept would be very difficult for Dan, our sales manager, to understand today. The television station was moved from downtown to this location 6 years later. When I came to WFMY this old building was only 15 years old.
A movie that I like to watch is ‘A Wonderful Life’ with Jimmy Stewart. It is a movie about a man named Bailey who discovers what would happen to his family and town if he had never been born.
I want to turn that concept completely around. I cannot imagine my life without each one of you. Where would this station be without you? Where would I be without you and this station? Those days when I come in and feel I am carrying all the trouble of the world, just you saying hello takes all that weight away. When I am working on a piece of equipment and you come up and ask if you can help. Wow, what a difference. This station will continue. It will grow. WFMY will survive because of each of you. Each of you make this station what it is. And I am the lucky one to have worked with each one of you.
Think what you do for this station. Think what you do for others. And thank you for all you have done for me.
If years from now you happen to be at Walmart and see an elderly greater using a walker, walk up to him and introduce yourself. Chances are he used to be a news director at WFMY.
Mark Twain said ‘the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated’. No where on my to-do list is there any mention of me dying. I am only going on a very long vacation. So please stay in touch, you are still my family.
My father always told me if I had something important to say, say it with honesty, say thanks, and sit down.
So thank you.