Other Memorable Remote Broadcasts
There were three other remotes that stand out in my mind: The 1976 Presidential Visit by Gerald Ford, the 1979 Inauguration of Governor Dick Riley, and the Inaugural Ball that evening.
On October 23, 1979, 19 South Carolina was scheduled to play #12 Notre Dame in a 1 PM game at Williams-Brice Stadium. President Ford was in a tight race with Jimmy Carter that he would lose ten days later. South Carolina Republican Governor James B. Edwards invited the President Ford to attend the Football Game followed by a reception at the Governor’s mansion. WIS Radio was spread thin to cover three locations in the city during the visit: the arrival and departure at Columbia Metropolitan Airport, Williams-Brice Football Stadium, and the Governor’s Mansion.
The stadium was easy. President Ford would sit on one side during the first half and the other side the second half. We would cover the action with Bob Fulton and the Gamecock Football Network team. This was the year before I would start covering the games, so I was free to manage technology at the Governor’s Mansion. The airport would be covered by one of our field reporters using one of our portable two-way radios. We were set to go.
I arrived at the Governor’s Mansion just as Air Force One was landing and I listed our report go flawlessly there. I parked my car in the space normally designated for the press on Gadsen Street behind the mansion and left my parking credentials on the dash under the windshield. I was early enough that I had beaten the president’s Secret Service Detail there. I was greeted by a couple of State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) agents with whom I was familiar. I was shown the designated press area. I then set up our Marti remote transmitter and established communication with the station. Our field reporter arrived at about the same time. About an hour before the expected arrival of the presidential entourage, I heard a commotion and one of the SLED agents told me that the Advance Secret Service Detail had arrived.
The coverage of the reception went as planned and the President left about an hour later to head back to the airport. I broke down the remote equipment and started carrying the first load back to my car only to discover that it wasn’t there! One of the SLED agents told me that the Secret Service had all the cars towed away as a security measure. I asked him if he knew where, but he said he didn’t know. At that moment one of the Secret Service Agents walked by and I asked him if he knew where the press cars were towed.
He looked narrowly at me and asked me how I knew he was a Secret Service Agent. I bit my lip and told him as politely as I could that no one else was walking around with an ear bud in his ear while talking into his sleeve. After glaring at me a moment, he smiled and said, “fair enough.” He asked his sleeve where the cars were and got the answer in his ear bud that they were taken to parking spaces on Calhoun Street a couple of blocks away.
I retrieved my car, drove it back to the Mansion, loaded my gear and drove away with a sigh of relief.
January 10, 1979, dawned clear and very cold, with a temperature of 20 degrees Fahrenheit. A typical Inauguration Day. The steps of the south Entrance of the State House, which is the true “front door” of the building was decked out in red white and blue bunting with a podium and platforms for the state dignitaries and elected officials who were gathering for the first Inauguration of Richard Riley who was succeeding James Edwards as Governor. If the name Richard Riley sounds familiar, he was appointed as the U.S. Secretary of Education under President Bill Clinton.
Fifty feet south of the State House Steps there were two camera decks/press platforms on either side of the main aisle in the audience area set at a slight angle lined up with the podium in the center of the steps. WIS radio was assigned to a wooden plank desk on the eastern front corner of the west platform. Other radio stations covering the inauguration were set up similarly on the front rows of both platforms. Behind where we were sitting the TV and print press cameras were on risers shooting over our heads as we sat there broadcasting.
That’s Russ McKinney one of the WIS Radio News Reporters to my right He later became a spokesperson for USC and now is working for SC Public Radio.
We decided that with all the two-way radios and TV microwave dishes all around us not to use the Marti and risk interference. So, we rented a broadcast loop from Southern Bell. I was freezing sitting behind my classic mustard colored Shure SE-30 remote audio board that sported three microphone inputs and audio processing on the output that would compensate if I was slow in adjusting the volume with the ebb and flow of the speeches, bands and applause. Beside me was the lunch box sized Motorola two-way radio that was used to talk to the announcer at the station if necessary. On the other side of the two-way radio was our reporter, Russ McKinney, who would be reporting live between the scheduled events. Russ was wearing one of the headsets with the microphone attached that we used for the football games as was the Sure RE-30. Russ’s microphone was plugged into channel one of the board, A spare headset/microphone was plugged into channel 2 and a feed from Jim Covington’s press feed kit was plugged into channel 3. Jim had been with WIS-TV but had gone to work for the State, managing the audio feeds for large press events like this inauguration. Instead of plugging a headset for me into the board, I was wearing a large rather bulky headset with an AM Radio built in. That way I could hear the station without interfering with the other broadcasters around.
It was still in the lower twenties when the ceremonies started at 11 AM and still in the twenties when they ended at noon. Instead of going back to the station, that day I took my Karmann- Ghia with all the gear home with me and spent the afternoon warming up and shedding my cold weather gear. Then I put on a suit and tie because that evening we were covering the Inauguration Ball at Carolina Coliseum.
I arrived at the Coliseum at 6 and parked in the press parking behind the building along Park Street outside the Elephant Room, which was the place the elephants stayed when the circus was there. I met Jerry Dean Pate, our talk show host in the press space outside the arena, set up the equipment I had with me and began broadcasting cut-ins as Jerry was able to find a guest who was willing to come out of the party and talk with us. By 9 PM, we were done, and I headed home again with my VW full of radio gear.
Writing about these remotes reminded me of one that I had completely forgotten. Or, maybe, just wanted to forget: my first remote at WCOS. In 1966 I was just getting going on the “All Night Satellite” the overnight show. One afternoon when I checked by the station one of the sales guys cornered me in the office to tell me that he had sold one of my shows to Burnside Dodge. Their showroom was on the corner of Gervais and Harden Streets, where the Trailways Bus station would eventually wind up. He told me that a part-timer would be brought in to run the board at the station and that I would be in the showroom with the dealer’s sales crew. I was set up with a microphone, a radio and small remote board and a telephone to talk to the DJ back at the station who would play the records, commercials and do the news. I thought it was crazy to try to sell cars between the hours of 1 and 6 AM. Turns out I was right. And the dealership was skeptical. They supplied a single salesman to cover the event, and he and I didn’t see a single soul walk through the doors. Automobile dealer remotes are a thing today and maybe just as successful as that one was.
I was born in a great Radio Town; Jacksonville Florida. So it was only natural that I joined WUSC (AM at the time) in my first semester 1963. I went on to a career in commercial radio and television in Columbia, WCOS AM & FM, WIS-TV, WIS Radio, SCETV and PBS. I'm retired now, giving back since 2010 to the station that started my career, WUSC-FM. If you did the math you will know that I celebrated the 60th anniversary of my first radio show ever in November 2023.