I was sitting in my living room I don't exactly remember when on a Friday night my guess was the football season of 1998. I was watching TV and I know WHIG was replaying a SouthWest Edgecombe football game without any play by play but they were using the PA at SouthWest.
Since moving to Rocky Mount In 1995 I had already been to WRMT to offer my services for radio but they had shown no interest. I walked into what they were calling a studio and met Herb Greenburg for the first time. My first experience with Herb was no better than my reception from the radio station.
My wife Pat retired from Carolina telephone in early 1999 and took a job with the Mall in the Marketing department and during a Fathers Day promotion they set up a putting green and the father who shot the lowest score won a weekend in Myrtle Beach. The Mall needed someone who could get on the PA and encourage fathers to come over and try to win the trip. Pat says to her boss my husband can do that for you and for free!
I was doing my carnival barking and here comes Herb with his camera and he is going to shoot footage for TV. Sometime while I am begging fathers to come over Herb says to Pat. "Who is that guy he's pretty good on that Mic." Pats says to Herb" You have already met him last fall, he came by the station looking to do sports but you turned him down".
By September I was doing play by play on WHIG football coverage. Of course that was September of 1999 and Hurricane Floyd. The TV station like so many was without power for a couple of days. The Saturday afternoon when the power was back on Herb calls me about 6 pm, that's Herb call you at the last minute and ask if I would come to the station and go on the air with him as cameraman and just tell everyone that had power every bit of information that the city and the state had available that everyone still needed to know about what was happening in the area concerning the hurricane conditions. He said I doubt many people have power we will stay on the air until we have told all the info that we have.
We went on the air around seven pm and about 2:30am Herb says to me. I can't believe this. The phone has not stop ringing the entire time we have been on the air. I was wore out and he was give out too. That night showed Herb how important His tiny station was to Rocky Mount. Yes we all make fun of how hokie programming is and yet we all seem to know what's on.
Herb knew nothing about how to run a TV station but he provided to all of us a little bit of Rocky Mount. He put on all kinds of programming from preachers to lawyers. Most of all if you were a civic organization you got free time on air. Thirty minutes or 12 hours with a telethon Herb did it for Rocky Mount.
I have no idea what the future will be for WHIG but what ever direction it goes no one will be able to put into it like Herb did. He gave his whole heart and Rocky Mount is better off that Herb decided after getting out of the garment business that he wanted to do a TV.
Goodbye Friend:
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Two More Gryphons Heading To World Series
Last year during the college World Series in Omaha Nebraska. Two former Gryphons on the UNC baseball team Hobbs Johnson and Benton Moss pitched for the Tar Heels. Sunday night or should I say early Monday morning two other Gryphons wrote their tickets to the Division II World Series which starts this weekend at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary.
Lander University won the final game close to 2am in the morning. Why so late? Lander who was in the position of having to lose twice saw a rain delay hold up the first shot at winning their regional and the first game didn't start until 7pm. Lander lost the game and was faced playing Columbus State but the deciding game didn't have the first pitch until 11:06.
Lander won the deciding game 5-2 and in doing so Thomas Berry the redshirt junior will head to Cary as Lander's DH and during this weekend's regional had a second week end in a row of great baseball. In the five games Berry got Six hits in Thirteen at bats, hit a home run, drove in five runs, scored three times and walked another four times to add to his already national lead in walks. For the season Berry is batting 359 and when you add 61 walks his on base percentage is 545 which leads the Bearcats.
Down at the third base coaching box is "Baseball" Britt Johnson who's playing career resulted in two at bats and he got one hit during his Gryphon playing days. As late as just a couple of seasons he has helped coach Post 58 with Hank Jones. He spent a couple of seasons as assistant coach at Nash Central before he got this gig at Lander under head coach Kermit Smith. Heading to Cary Lander is 51-7.
The game of the century for this baseball season happens today in Greensboro when 10 seed NC State plays seven seed North Carolina in a play in game for the right to join six other teams already assigned to play in the ACC baseball tournament.
At stake for the loser is the end of the season without playing in the conference tournament and by not doing that damaging their chances to make the NCAA tournament. Neither team has had the season thought would happen after both made it to the college World Series last year.
Since this is the first game it will begin at 11am. Last year in Durham over 11 thousand watched the epic 18 inning game but I doubt they will have half that many in the stands at 11am on a Tuesday morning. If more shows up it will only show you where college baseball has progressed in the state of North Carolina especially when the Tar Heels and the Wolfpack is concerned.
Lander University won the final game close to 2am in the morning. Why so late? Lander who was in the position of having to lose twice saw a rain delay hold up the first shot at winning their regional and the first game didn't start until 7pm. Lander lost the game and was faced playing Columbus State but the deciding game didn't have the first pitch until 11:06.
Lander won the deciding game 5-2 and in doing so Thomas Berry the redshirt junior will head to Cary as Lander's DH and during this weekend's regional had a second week end in a row of great baseball. In the five games Berry got Six hits in Thirteen at bats, hit a home run, drove in five runs, scored three times and walked another four times to add to his already national lead in walks. For the season Berry is batting 359 and when you add 61 walks his on base percentage is 545 which leads the Bearcats.
Down at the third base coaching box is "Baseball" Britt Johnson who's playing career resulted in two at bats and he got one hit during his Gryphon playing days. As late as just a couple of seasons he has helped coach Post 58 with Hank Jones. He spent a couple of seasons as assistant coach at Nash Central before he got this gig at Lander under head coach Kermit Smith. Heading to Cary Lander is 51-7.
The game of the century for this baseball season happens today in Greensboro when 10 seed NC State plays seven seed North Carolina in a play in game for the right to join six other teams already assigned to play in the ACC baseball tournament.
At stake for the loser is the end of the season without playing in the conference tournament and by not doing that damaging their chances to make the NCAA tournament. Neither team has had the season thought would happen after both made it to the college World Series last year.
Since this is the first game it will begin at 11am. Last year in Durham over 11 thousand watched the epic 18 inning game but I doubt they will have half that many in the stands at 11am on a Tuesday morning. If more shows up it will only show you where college baseball has progressed in the state of North Carolina especially when the Tar Heels and the Wolfpack is concerned.
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