A collection of photos that I'm always wanting to show everybody, most don't fit onto any of the other websites I do. Complete with the stories that go along with each. Most pictures have larger versions that can be seen if you mouse click the smaller versions, below.

Rick Nelson, Summer, 1979. Rick was another celebrity that Doug Matthews wanted his photo taken with so he got me into the show. I'd met Rick before and knew he was a nice guy, so leading up to this I'd found and bought a copy of his very first album, entitled RICKY from a local record collector named Henry that I'd worked with at WVWR. This show was at the Roanoke Civic Center Auditorium (a separate building from the Coliseum) and there was a big backstage area used for staging theatrical shows and the like.

We got there early and got to spend about an hour with Rick and his band. I pulled out the album and asked him to autograph it and he seemed truly amused and amazed that somebody still had a copy of this. He said "Can I borrow this?" and I told him "of course you can" and he took it around and showed it to every guy in the band, saying "Hey, what do you think of this? My idea for the cover for our NEXT album!" All of the band got a hoot out of it, too. He then signed it for us and posed for pictures.

Rick died in a plane crash in early 1986. I was working on the air at WKSF (Kiss-FM) in Ashville, NC when the story came across the wire. When I saw it I ripped it off the teletype machine, took it back to the FM control room, read it, then sat there and cried.

The Monday Extra Section, August 1979. This was the infamous newspaper article that got me fired. Woody Holton, the son of former Virginia governor Linwood Holton, was a writing intern for the Roanoke Times & World News and was doing a feature story on the all-night disc jockeys at Roanoke's top four stations. He interviewed me at WFIR, Steve Finnegan at WROV, Tom Ohmsen at WLRG and Chris Michaels at WSLC.

During this interview I told him that I liked working overnights because you can play records at night—which were marked with a red dot—that they don't let you play during the day (something that's generally been true at every radio station since Marconi invented the thing). I also mentioned that we'd recently done a Chicago weekend and I'd brought in some of my Chicago albums to play. Well this came out on a Monday morning. I'd gone home and gone to sleep. The phone rang and woke me up at 10:00 AM. It was our Operations Manager and I was being fired for "giving out the station's format and admitting that I played my own records on the air in the newspaper." WUEZ's Scot Morris was hired to replace me.

I thought "oh great" and went back to sleep. Around 11:00 it rang again. It was my friend Bucky Stover who was the afternoon guy at WUEZ who just found out that I'd been canned and Scot hired to replace me. Bucky told me "well, looks like we have an opening and you need a job" so I told him "sounds good, I'll be up there this afternoon and you can show me the board." I went back to sleep. The phone rang again about 1:00. It was the WFIR GM Doug Matthews who told me "the operations manager had no authority to fire you without asking me first, so you have your job back." I woke up around 2:00 and called him back and said "thanks but I've already accepted a job at WUEZ." I went to WUEZ, was trained by Bucky, worked one hour on the air and was put on the schedule to do middays starting Tuesday.

So in the course of about six hours I went from having one job to no job to one job to two jobs to one job. Ain't that just like the radio business? The other interesting thing about this article is that lots of people saw the photo and saw the name Pat and thought I was a girl. This is why I grew my very first moustache.

Willie, April 10, 1980. For a while, Cliff and I could talk our way into anything. Especially country and western shows because Cliff had become friends with most of the major acts at the time. We'd met Willie in 1978 (see above). Then we saw him again when he was on tour with Leon Russell in 1979. This was our third Willie show in three years.

This was the day that we found out that the band was staying at The Hotel Roanoke and gone there and found the room of drummer Paul English and gone up there to party. Don Bowman was also there. Don is famous for writing the song made famous by Jim Stafford, Wildwood Weed so it was kind of appropriate that we were sitting there enjoying some with him. We hung out there until the band had to board the bus and head to the Roanoke Civic Center coliseum then we walked over there (a stone's throw away) with our passes and hung out backstage.

We didn't see Willie until he came in at showtime. He had on a pair of big sunglasses with red, white and blue striped frames which matched his r-w-b guitar strap. We got to sit on the side of the stage, behind one of the speaker columns, for the entire show and that's where I snapped this photo.

WROV with Fisher & Frelantz. In December 1979, I fulfilled a lifetime goal by being hired at WROV. My first time on the air there was in January, 1980. I then had the privilege of working for "The Rock of Roanoke" with venerable personalities including Larry Bly, Bart Prater, Rob O'Brady, Barry Michaels, Dave Shropshire and my close friend Steve Finnegan.

But the "heyday" didn't last much longer. Eight months later we learned that WROV had fallen from first to fifth place in the ratings, displaced by the brand-new Top 40 station, K92-FM. WROV then changed to a more "adult" format and became "The Station You Grew Up With." And people began leaving. Finn to Greensboro, Shrop to Iowa, and Barry eventually to Orlando, FL. Before long, Bart would be on K92. I stayed, but it wasn't nearly as much fun.

Until March, 1981 when Jack Fisher and Fred Frelantz returned to WROV to reprise their hugely popular two-man show from the mid-1960s. I grew up listening to these guys, at the time they were GODS. They decided to show up, one Saturday per month, and I was the person who got to assist them—keeping the program / transmitter logs, finding records that they wanted, and helping with anything else they needed. I became friends with them and remained so until Fred died in an apartment fire in 1986, and Jack passed away in 2024.

Pictures: Me at WROV, 1981. Bottom: Jack and Fred during their first show together in about 15 years.

You can read all about WROV here.

Rick Springfield, May, 1982. In March 1982, I was hired to work weekends at Roanoke's new FM CHR powerhouse WXLK-92 with the likes of Bart Prater, Bill Jordan, Vince Miller—all former WROV guys. At the time, Rick Springfield was a big star. He'd just put out his second big album and was starring as Dr. Noah Drake in the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital. He was on what was called the "Success Hasn't Spoiled Him Yet" tour.

The radio station was doing a contest where people were encouraged to write us and tell us why they should win a trip to Los Angeles for a cameo on General Hospital and a dinner with Rick, and the person who sent in the best entry would. The winner sent in a doctor's prescription form that said she was sick and had been prescribed the cure of having dinner with Rick. The runner-up—the one we really thought was best but couldn't really pick because of the nature of the entry—was from some lady who said "I need to win the trip to Los Angeles because I have Tom Selleck's underwear and I really need to return it to him."

Right in the middle of this promotion he came to Roanoke. The K92 folks got to go to his show and meet him. Though he posed for photos, he was not the friendliest celebrity I've ever met...

The Case of The Missing Case. I left Roanoke for WGNI-Wilmington NC in early 1983, and by Fall 1984, I was working at the all-new WKSF-Asheville NC a.k.a. 99.9 KISS-FM. The station started out doing straight Top 40 but over time, evolved into playing an increasing amount of classic rock. Especially overnight, when I was there yelling, screaming, rocking, rolling, and having the time of my life.

During the spring of 1986, we did a promotion with the local Miller beer distrubutor in which the premise was that one of us KISS personalities stole a case of Miller Lite beer and it was up to the audience to figure out which one of us it was. Clues were given out weekly. Listeners were to send their guesses in on post cards and of those who guessed correctly, a winner would be drawn.

We were all told to show up one afternoon and have our photos taken for "wanted" posters that would be placed around town where beer was sold. Our midday girl, Dawn, wasn't able to be there for the photos so a picture of one of the sales girls was used instead (in the picture you see here, I've fixed this and that really is Dawn). We were all told to look like convicts, which is why some of us are trying to snarl in the pictures. As a radio announcer, I was used to being a local celebrity but prior to this, nobody had any idea what I looked like. Once these posters were everywhere, I'd go in places and everybody recognized me—which was weird!

As you'd expect, the "thieves" ended up being John and Chuck. Of course it did. Anytime a station does any promotion where people have to choose between the DJs, it's always the morning team. And besides, it couldn't have been me—I'd never steal a case of Miller because I think that Miller beer sucks!

You can read more about KISS-FM here.

Pat Paulsen, May 15, 1986. KISS-FM did a promotion with The Punch Line comedy club in Greenville, SC. Thursday night was "Kiss Night" and on this particular one I was nominated to be the guy from the station who went there to do the call-ins. My then-girlfriend Mary went with me. It was known beforehand that Pat Paulsen—the guy who became famous doing the low-keyed editorials, then running for President on The Smother's Brothers Comedy Hour was going to be there.

Mary knew this and seemed normal, but when she walked into a room and saw Pat sitting there she started acting like Lucy at the Brown Derby. The show was HILARIOUS. Vince Champ opened the show. Vince, a black guy, walked out there wearing a pair of sunglasses onto which he'd pasted life-sized cut-outs of some blue-eyed white person's eyes. He looked up and smiled and said "This is what happens to white people when they fall asleep while they're sunbathing!" I've heard and written a LOT of humor in my life but honestly, I don't think I've EVER laughed that hard before.

After the show several of us ended up going out drinking and bar-hopping with Pat. That truly was a night to remember, with one of the funniest guys who has ever lived.

At the Roanoke Star on Mill Mountain, May 1989. The Mill Mountain Star was built in 1949 for the Roanoke Merchant's Association by the Roy Kinsey Sign Company (Roy's son Warren went to Calvary Baptist Church when I did). Dave Garroway once did NBC's The Today Show from there. I'm not even going to begin to try to tell you some of the stories I've either experienced or heard which happened either under or near the bottom of The Star.

It is a mythical place. Sadly, several people have snuffed it out over the years IN STYLE by climbing to the top of The Star and jumping off. Not wanting to encourage such, but honestly, can you think of a better way you'd want to go? On a brighter note, most every single one of us—I mean "Roanoke Teens" over the years—experienced some of our earliest romantic dreams come true up at The Star (Billy Joel: "Cold Beer, hot lights, my sweet romantic teenage nights!").

Anyway, this photo was taken in 1989 when I'd gone to Roanoke looking for a radio job. In one day, WROV-FM told me I was "too up-tempo and too crazy" and K92 told me "I wasn't up-tempo or crazy enough" then WSLQ told me "We love you and will hire you for $6 an hour!" and I told THEM "YOU are crazy." That evening my old friend Sam Lacy and I drove up to The Star (for the umpteenth time over the years) and shot this classic photo.

Waylon, Summer 1989. Cliff called one day and said that Waylon Jennings was going to be appearing at The Tobacco Festival in Danville, VA (about halfway between here and Roanoke) and invited me to meet him there and go to the show. I did. We met at this small bar on Highway 86 as it comes into Danville (which these days is a women's clinic and has been for years, despite the fact that you'd think Danville would be the type of town where some guy like Eric Rudolph would walk out of the woods and blow the place up real good).

While sitting there at the bar, just bullshitting, we had the entire rest of the clientele believing that we were Waylon roadies and they were asking us questions and we were making up answers and they were buying it all and thinking they were mingling with the stars and loving every minute of it.

Later we went to the Holiday Inn where Waylon was staying and found him in the restaurant. Cliff had met Waylon several times before but not me. We approached the table and he looked like he recognized Cliff, who introduced himself. Cliff, who wanted to see "does he REALLY remember me?" then told Waylon "And here's Pat, you remember Pat, don't you?" and Waylon looked at me and said "Uh, yeah, hoss! Good to see you again!" So Waylon remembered me even though he'd never met me before (probably he just didn't want to hurt my feelings, bless his heart).

Paul McCartney, Summer 1989. Over the course of two summers there were four BIG shows at NC State's Carter-Finley Stadium. The Who, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. Of these I went to the middle two. The Paul McCartney show was great. I'd bought tickets on the twenty-first row but, because they'd decided to put a camera on a stand where my seats were, we were relocated to Row 18.

And surprisingly I was able to sneak my camera and telephoto lens into the venue because of my wife and her temper. The camera was in the bottom of a great big bag she was carrying. As we approached the gate she was drinking a bottle of orange Gatorade. Some bitchy girl who was supposed to be searching all the bags told Mary that it no food or drinks could be taken into the show. Mary asked "Well just what am I supposed to do with it then?" The girl said "Pour it out NOW!" so Mary unscrewed the top and proceeded to pour it out on top of this girl's feet. She was so flummoxed by this that she just stood there as we handed the next guy our tickets and walked on in with the camera in the unsearched bag.

The show opened with a montage of film of Paul's career projected on a screen behind the stage, each proceeded by the year. You saw "1964" then a clip of The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Then "1975" followed by Paul with the Wings playing Band On The Run. After a few more clips, the word "NOW!" appeared, they hit the lights, there was a big pyrotechnic explosion and there he was. I guess this will be the closest I'll ever get to one of the Beatles.

WPTF-TV, 1991. Upon graduating from NCSU the first time with a Summa Cum Laude B.A. in Speech-Communication (concentration: Mass Communication) I got a job on the WPTF-TV 28 news crew. I worked on the studio floor, usually either as a camera man or as the Floor Manager. The on-air talent there at the time included Terry Thill, Val Holley-Dennis, Chris Thompson, Mike Fuller, Ben Garrett (no relation), Joan Murray and Ben Woods.

I can tell you some stories about the kinds of things that go on behind the scenes of a television news broadcast. I particularly loved working with Val who was a good person and friend. I believe she went onto be the anchor at KSTP-TV in Minneapolis then at a station in Charlotte, NC before taking a job as a corporate PR person. Another good friend was Chris Thompson who now can be seen occasionally on WRAL-TV in Raleigh.

In the above photos, top left is Val doing a news update (the camera man is Bob McKinney and the floor manager is Al Nibbs). Top right is Chris doing the weather in front of the green board (this is how the weather guy really looks in the studio without all the fancy graphics chromakeyed into the picture). The rest of the shots are me, one as a cameraman and the others just goofing around on the news set.

Harry Nilsson, February 1992. After hearing about them for several years, that year I decided to drive to New York and go to the Beatlefest (now called "The Festival for Beatles Fans" for some unknown legal reason). Mary couldn't go so I just drove all the way up there by myself. A fun, "deep thought" kind of trip where I went across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel then up through Delaware then onto my room at the Red Roof Inn in East Rutherford, NJ.

While on this trip I spent days in New York City and visited The Dakota (former home of John Lennon) and The Cafe La Fortuna (a few blocks away, John's favorite coffee shop). The Beatles festival was cool, especially the flea market where I bought a few books and bits of memorabilia.

One of the guests was Harry Nilsson. Harry is known for his hits Without You and Me And My Arrow also hits for other artists. At the flea market I had just bought a copy of Harry's LP Pussycats which was produced by John Lennon and, for a $5.00 donation to "Citizens Against Handguns" he signed it for me. He wrote his typical "H" then looked up and said "And here's a joke..." then he wrote "RUG" on top of the rug in the picture. Honest. Do you think I could make this kind of stuff up?

Ron Francis, October, 1999. I'd been a hockey fan since 1970 and had started going to Hurricanes games during their first season in 1997-98. The following year they acquired Ron who had been with the franchise when they were in Hartford then gone to Pittsburgh. When Ron first came to the Hurricanes, most people in the area were so ignorant of hockey that Ron could have walked through the Cary Towne Center mall and nobody would have known who he was. But to the roughly 6,000 or so "die hard" hockey fans and early supporters of the team, this was a BIG DEAL. On this particular day Ron was making an appearance at the big white Nortel building in RTP (known to us who worked for the company as "The Big House").

I had grown dissatisfied with Nortel by then and was actively looking for another job and on that particular day had an interview at a small RTP firm named Tekelec. I went to this interview and was immediately handed a copy of their draconian "official drug policy" by their HR guy and after reading it—before I even talked to any of their managers—had decided "there's no way in hell I'm going to work for these people." At about 2:30 the HR guy said "Now you're going to go talk with the senior manager you may be working for" and I looked at my watch and said "No, sorry but I have to leave."

The HR guy got all indignant and appeared to be shocked at my disdain for their company. He told me "He won't like this! He is a 'very important person!'" I told him "He's not as important as Ron Francis!" and walked out the door. I got to the car, put a Hartford Whalers jersey on over my interview clothes and headed to The Big House. Ron was every bit the approachable, nice guy everyone says he is. He posed for these photos then signed an 8x10 of himself for me.

Sami Kapanen, Tommy Westlund, Sean Hill, Martin Gelinas, January 2000. These pictures were taken at the Hurricanes "Team Skate" event on January 23, 2000. The very next day was the day that the Raleigh area got the 18" snow storm. I'd collected hockey jerseys for years and on this day stuffed my Vancouver Canucks Martin Gelinas jersey and my Detroit Red Wings Paul Coffey jerseys in a bag and went to the Raleigh ESA (now the RBC Center).

Marty Gelinas was one of the nicest guys I've ever met, seemed honored that I had his old jersey and signed it for me. He and Sean Hill, then Sami Kapanen and Tommy Westlund posed for these pictures. Note that at the time we shot these, I was walking around in my hockey skates with the skate guards on the blades. This is why I appear to be as tall as these other guys who were just standing there with their shoes on.

After these photos I stood in a line for 20 minutes to get Paul Coffey to sign my Detroit jersey. Coffey left Detroit a few years earlier, apparently he did not get along with Coach Scotty Bowman. After trading him, Detroit won the Stanley Cup and Coffey apparently felt they'd denied him another chance to win it and held a grudge. He saw my Detroit jersey and started yelling "I'm not signing that damn thing!" right there in front of all the fans and the kids. What an asshole.