Earning a civilian paycheck again

This publicity shot of me was taken in the WTVR news studio in 1970, just weeks after I returned to Richmond from Germany.

Even though I had voluntarily left WTVR TV, WMBG AM and WCOD FM in 1966 to join the Air Force, I was fairly certain that I'd have no trouble getting a job with the station group when I got out of the service. I had the power of the U.S. government behind me in the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act.

The law, which was enacted the year before World War II began, protects the job and benefits of a service member who leaves his or her civilian job because of military orders for training or active duty, voluntary or involuntary, in peacetime or wartime. When service members return to their civilian jobs, they're entitled to pay raises, promotions, and other seniority benefits, just as though they had been continually employed.

Six months before I was to get out of the service, an Air Force "separation counselor" gave me a copy of the act and told me to send it along with a letter to my former employer saying I'd be coming home soon.

I wasn't too concerned, but there was one complication. Wilbur Havens, who owned the station group, retired and sold the three stations to Roy. H. Park Broadcasting of Virginia in 1967, while I was in Germany. Park, who had been the man behind Duncan Hines cake mix, was then building a broadcast and publishing empire, and WTVR TV was to be his flagship station.

There was also another catch: I wanted to switch jobs. In my letter from Germany to Bruce Miller, WTVR TV's news director, I told him I'd like to come back as a TV news reporter, not as a radio deejay. He wrote to tell me to call him when I got back to Richmond.

When I reported for my Monday morning appointment with Bruce, he offered me a job as a TV news reporter. I didn't know it, but my return coincided with the station's plans to beef up the news department. "Can you start tomorrow?" he asked. "Sure," I said. I couldn't have been more delighted. My civilian career as a broadcast journalist was about to get under way. To this day, I have no idea of whether the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act played any role, but I suspect it did. There was no shortage of applicants for any TV news job.

Although the station group now had a new owner, I was happy to see most of the old familiar faces that had been there when I left. But much had changed. In 1966, the station had broadcast only the occasional show in color. Now it was all color. The evening newscast had been 15 minutes long when I left. Now it had a new name, "News/90," and it was beating all competition in the ratings. WTVR TV's local news now aired from 6 to 6:30 p.m. and from 7 to 7:30 p.m., with "The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" sandwiched in the middle. The WTVR TV late news had expanded from 15 minutes to a full half hour. And while I was gone the station had added a half-hour newscast at noon that was pulling 70 percent of the TV viewing audience, thanks to the strength of the CBS daytime lineup of soaps and game shows.

In short, the airtime to be filled by the news department had quadrupled. As a reporter, I'd have no trouble getting lots of exposure.

That meant I had to scramble to get some new clothes. Everything in my closet was four years out of date. If I was going to be on TV every night I needed dress shirts, ties, sports coats, pants and a couple of suits. The first order of business was to head for Miller & Rhoads department store downtown to buy some new clothes.

The next morning, I reported to work in WTVR TV's newsroom in a new coat and tie, ready to work in commercial TV journalism.

I also started to grow a mustache -- not because it was trendy (and it certainly was in 1969) -- but because I had always been plagued by a tendency to break out in a sweat on my upper lip under hot TV lights. There was nothing I could do about it in the Air Force except to keep a clean handkerchief handy, but in civilian life all rules prohibiting facial hair were gone. This was a good thing, because color TV needed even more lights, making the studio that much hotter.

When my mustache started to grow, my grandmother Nichols told me it looked exactly like her father's. Although my hair was brown, my mustache was ginger -- just as my great grandfather's had been.

It would not be until 33 years later -- long after I left broadcasting -- that I shaved off that mustache for good.