Gary was one of the premiere radio operators in the State of West Virginia, an affable, outgoing , and generous gentleman. Gary was always just a phone call away to me as a young inexperienced radio guy.
He had also employed my younger brother as a copywriter at WCLG, while Clint was in Morgantown working on his degree. Many Journalism Professionals got their start at WCLG.
My fondest memory of Gary involved me involving him in one of my off the wall radio promotions.
In 1982 the West Virginia University Football Team's opening game was against the University of Oklahoma and the game was to be played in Norman, Oklahoma.
This was the third season for Coach Don Nehlen and the "new" Mountaineer field and the Program was evolving into a new level of National prominence under Nehlens's guidance. But still, scheduled as the Home opener for the Sooners was tantamount to a a lamb sacrifice to a National Championship calibre team coached by Barry Switzer. Though West Virginia was on an upward turn, Richmond and Temple were still on the schedule, and teams of that calibre felt a great deal more comfortable.
These were the days before the expansion of cable television, ESPN, and nearly every Division I game being televised. The WVU Athletic Department had made arrangements to have the game broadcast back to West Virginia via "closed circuit" rebroadcasting the game into the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown and the Charleston Civic Center and charging admission for WVU fans to see this historic meeting being played over 1500 miles from Morgantown.
Being the 29 year old owner of the radio station in New Martinsville, WV that carried the Mountaineer Sports Network and foolish enough to constantly be thinking outside of the box for promotions to help my business, it occurred to me I could pull quite a coup if I could get that broadcast somehow in little old New Martinsville.
Mike Parsons, was then and continues to be, the go to guy in the Athletic Department at WVU and was responsible for producing this unique closed circuit broadcast from Norman. I called Mike and complimented him on his creativity in bringing the broadcast back to WVU fans and confirm, my suspicion that it would be broadcast live via the relatively new satellite technology, which he confirmed.
Learning that, I transitioned to my best persuasive plea that it was a shame that the folks in my part of the State were well over two hours from either of his chosen venues. I suggested to him that I doubted if the University would lose any potential revenue if he would share with me the satellite coordinates that the game would be broadcast on, so that I might be able to receive the satellite feed for the loyal yet often ignored Mountaineer fans in the Mid Ohio Valley. Miraculously, Mike agreed under the conditions that I would not sell tickets or share the satellite channels with anyone else, which I readily agreed.
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| Portable Satellite dish |
Okay, I had done it. Now I just had to figure out how to get a satellite receiving dish, in this era they were about 10-12' in diameter and retailed for somewhere between 3 and 5 thousand dollars, quite cumbersome. I also had no idea where I would have this big deal viewing party.
I sat down that afternoon with my crack sales guy, Spike Riel to share with him what I had wrought and enlist his help into making this a success. We had a customer who sold these residential satellite dishes which was a huge business in rural West Virginia in the mid 1980's, but were in their infancy at this time and this would be a great promotion for the Dealer, we decided. We checked with Mike Wilson, and fortuitously he had a satellite dish mounted on a trailer which he used to demonstrate the service to potential customers and he agreed to set it up for us to use wherever we decided the have the shindig.
We decided to rent the Magnolia Yacht Club Building on North Main Street in the Parlor City, right on the banks of the Ohio River. It had plenty of room for our 100 plus guest/ customers we had invited, had a nice yard with plenty of clearance for the satellite dish, and a large bar that spanned one end of the building conducive to necessary adult beverages to soothe the potential beating by one of the best college football programs in America.
All was set and the excitement was building for the opening day game party on 9/11/82. Then I read in the Charleston Gazette, WVU Assistant Athletic Director Mike Parsons had said that somehow the satellite channels for the game had gotten out and that the numbers that had originally been given to me in confidence had been changed. It seems that Parsons had given the information to others after I had asked for it and they had not been as protective of the information as had I and it was severely cutting into his already weak ticket sales to his closed circuit pay per view event.
I called Mike and plead with him to give me the numbers because I had not told a soul what they were, that I had my reputation on the line and several other angles of graveling for the information in order for me to save face on that Saturday. He wouldn't budge. It looked like I was going to have egg on my face.
I happened to be talking to Gary Bowers that same day, and knew that he was not the Mountaineer Sports Network franchise in the University City, in that it is a partnership with the West Virginia Radio/ Greer Corporations and WVU. West Virginia Radio was his competitor and he had an uphill battle making any inroads into WVU Sports. I shared with him the predicament I was in. He thought the idea I had was outstanding and decided he would like to do it for his clients also. He also was eager to get one up on Parsons.
He made the offer if he could use the idea he would do all he could to make it work for both of us. This was on Wednesday the 8th. Gary and I spoke 3 or 4 times a day Thursday and Friday on leads and angles; all failing.
I had not let the word out that the entire idea was in serious jeopardy to anyone in New Martinsville, always optimistic that something would save the day.
The game was to kickoff at Noon Central time Saturday, at 5 pm Friday the 10th, the 5th birthday of my oldest son, I still had no hope I was going to get the game's satellite feed.
This was the days before cell phones and around 6:30 pm I get a call at home from Bowers, he tells me he has just heard back from a former student / employee of his at WCLG, who is now working for Western Electric in New Jersey. The guy is in charge of the satellite uplink for the WVU-OU game the next morning. He has told Gary that the coordinates are the same as the original that I had been given. He also told Bowers that he would send us some kind of cryptic sign downline to let us know we were going to get the broadcast about 15 minutes before kickoff.
This was some relief, but I was still skeptical and concerned with the technology.
I was at the Yacht Club early the next morning and shared with Spike for the first time that there was a chance we would not have the video feed and that we needed to get all of the customers pretty well plied with alcohol early to sedate the possible trauma.
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| The Yacht Club |
About 10 minutes before the scheduled kickoff the snow momentarily ended on the screens and just for a few seconds a slide came up that said Hello Morgantown, Bon Appetite Gary! That was the sign, hallelujah.
It was a beautiful late summer Saturday on the River and the Mountaineers surprised all including Barry Switzer as Jeff Hostetler and team spanked the Sooners 41-27.
I had pulled it of with a little bit of help from my friend. All was good on the banks of the Ohio River and in our little corner of the Mountaineer Nation.
Travail bien fait, Gary
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