I am thinking this story probably needs to be told about now. If you were a Preston Smith fan, I would like to apologize for my boss. I did a lot of that the day this happened. We did news in a little different way back when.
We were always in competition with the newspaper. People had grown up with the only paper in town, and the paper was just abusing their subscribers (in our humble opinion). The paper always had first shot at interviews so their “editorial board” could make endorsement decisions on political candidates. Since we didn’t endorse, a lot of the candidates just ignored us. We fought and we fought hard. I happened to have a contact in the Governor’s office at the time, and he was planning to come to our town to get the newspaper’s endorsement. I managed to talk my way into getting an interview with the Governor in the limousine on the trip from the airport to the newspaper office.
Yay! It was a coup to say the least. We all loaded up in the limo…and I managed to get my interview done rather quickly-it was good stuff, too! The Governor asked what radio station I was with and I told him. He had the driver tune us in just as the News Director(my boss) was starting the noon news. Of course the Governor being in town was the lead story…so the boss opens with (and I will never forget this), “Bozo the Clown in town today. Yes, our very own Gene Turney is interviewing Governor Preston Smith as we speak. Bozo is here….” The driver turned the sound down, and pulled over to the curb. My door was opened, not a word was said, and I got out onto the curb. The motorcade took off in a flash while I stood there wondering how I was going to get back to my car.
Interestingly enough, a carload of laughing hyenas pulled up to offer me a ride back to the airport. They were all with the newspaper and heard what my boss said on the radio.
Several days later, I had occasion to talk with my contact in the Governor’s office. I must have apologized a hundred times. “That’s alright! The Governor thought it was hilarious, and the driver got a talking to for kicking you out of the car.”
I had several more interviews with the Governor as he finished his term. We would start off by laughing at what happened that day, and I always received a warm welcome from him.
short stories 