NOEL MANNING

TRANSCRIPT %u2013 NOEL MANNING
[Compiled January 26th, 2011]

Interviewee: NOEL MANNING

Interviewer: Andrew %u201CDrew%u201D Ritchey (DR)

Interview Date: August 11th, 2010

Location: Boiling Springs, North Carolina

Length: Approximately

DREW RITCHEY: This is Andrew Ritchey here at Noel Manning%u2019s office at Gardner-Webb University. It is August 11th, 2010, and would you just mind introducing yourself?
NOEL MANNING: I am Noel Manning and I have been living in Cleveland County since 1988, born originally in Pitt County, North Carolina.
DR: Okay. And where in Pitt County?
NM: Greenville, and lived in Ayden, North Carolina for quite a while. Actually lived in Raleigh for a while too--fifth grade year--Crabtree Valley.
DR: And when were you born? What date were you born?
NM: Oh, sorry, March 15th, 1965.
DR: So you moved to Cleveland County in %u201988, but before then, when you were growing up in Greenville and Ayden and Raleigh, what did your family do?
NM: Let%u2019s see, my dad was a magazine editor and my mom was involved in radio sales, so early in my life; really, when I was fourteen was when I got my first job working radio, was an AM station in Wilson, North Carolina. WGTM, I think, was the name of it. It was a block format station, so you would have country, you would have rock, you would have R&B, you%u2019d have a news block; you know, blocks of programming and so that%u2019s how I cut my teeth in the radio world, which was, for me, really cool because my mom working in radio--she would always bring home demo albums--music for us to listen to. So, my taste in music then and even now is varied. I listen to everything from Kansas to Elvis to even some blues and it was very varied. I mean, I loved the fact that I was getting a taste of all these different kinds of music, so it wasn%u2019t pigeon-holed so much like it is today.
DR: Do you remember any specific demo albums that you got that you were really excited about?
NM: Yeah, the first one I ever remember getting was Point of No Return by Kansas, and I just loved that, and Boston%u2019s first album; I remember that one quite well; Linda Ronstadt, an early Linda Ronstadt album. I don%u2019t remember the name of it, but it had %u201CPoor, Poor Pitiful Me%u201D on it, and I just remember the cover; she%u2019s sitting in a dark room and she%u2019s putting on hose or something. But I was also introduced to a lot of acts that didn%u2019t make it, and I just remember some of those that may have made the Top 100 chart, but that was kind of the extent of it. Also, this radio station had a really big country music following, and so there were times they would put on concerts, and I would get to go hang out and meet some of the artists that would come through. There was a guy named Roddy McDowell, who, right after Elvis died, was pretty big on the country charts and actually had a song called %u201CThe King is Gone,%u201D and it was about Elvis. I remember, just as a kid, going to that concert and meeting him and watching live music, just a love for live music because it was something that started very early on as well. I was not a musician--always loved it--I was more of the guy who ended up hanging out with a lot of friends that were musicians growing up, but I was the guy that always introduced them; I was the emcee kind of guy. I would even help get them booked, get gigs for them and stuff like that, so I was always on the other side of it, but never the one actually playing.
DR: How old were you when you booked your first gig?
NM: Let%u2019s see, I was probably--I was sixteen or seventeen, so I was in high school at the time and had some friends. Now of course, you know, we%u2019re not talking major dollars, but still, getting some of my friends booked to play some local places in high school.
DR: That%u2019s pretty wild. And how much time did you spend at the radio station growing up?
NM: Oh, growing up, wow, I was there pretty much every weekend from the time I was fourteen to the time I was sixteen, and then I actually started working, getting paid to be in radio when I was sixteen, on weekends. So, weekends, I spent just a lot of time working in radio and just seeing how it operated and getting a taste for what it takes to make things happen and why certain things work and why certain things don%u2019t work.
DR: What was your first paying gig? What were you doing?
NM: In radio?
DR: Um-hmm.
NM: Well, the first paying radio gig I got was an AM station in Goldsboro, North Carolina doing the Saturday morning shift for a beautiful music station. Beautiful music format was Perry Como, Andy Williams, the Guy Lombardo kind of stuff--the kind of stuff that my grandparents listened to in the forties and then in the fifties. I will say this about that particular format: I had a hard time staying awake on Saturday mornings, listening to it. There%u2019s a place for it, absolutely, and I appreciate it, but it%u2019s not my first choice when I turn on my iPod nowadays.
DR: So all your friends tuned in then, I%u2019m sure.
NM: [Laughter] No, my friends didn%u2019t tune in, but I did have a lot of friends that said, %u201CHey, man, you%u2019re working in radio!%u201D you know, and they would call in to make requests that they knew I would never be able to play, just to give me a hard time. From there, I ended up doing some more radio and working in some other stations that--top-forty type stations--and able to play stuff that my friends wanted to hear. There was a call-in show that I was a part of during that time as well, and pretty much every morning I would call in, and I was kind of a regular, and they would always have me calling and have conversation about whatever pop culture topic was going on. That wasn%u2019t a paying gig, but it was just a regular thing that I did and I got to know the morning guy really well at the station. It was another AM station, WRNB. I can%u2019t believe I remember all these call letters, but that was in Goldsboro, North Carolina, as well.
DR: Did you have any brothers and sisters?
NM: Nope, grew up an only child. My parents split up when I was young, five or six, so lived in Greenville, in that area, %u2018til I was about fourth grade, fifth grade. Went to Raleigh; we stayed in Raleigh for a year and then moved to Goldsboro, North Carolina, and it was Goldsboro that really kind of became my home for the next six years. We did move away for a year to Atlanta. My mom got a job--probably the only mom I know I%u2019ve ever met that became a professional woman%u2019s football player. They used to have a professional women%u2019s league that was a seed league for the NFL back in the--let%u2019s see, this would have been eighth grade, so this would have been late seventies, early eighties, I guess. My mom looks more like a cheerleader than a football player, but she heard about this start-up league, and they were paying women to play football; she loved football. I grew up going to every ECU football game there was. There was a time my mom was dating one of the coaches, so we would go to away games; we would go to home games, and I%u2019d get to run out on the field and hang out with the players. You know, as a small kid, looking up and seeing these players, six-foot-eight; they looked like giants. They still look like giants today, but we moved to Atlanta, Stone Mountain area. When I was in eighth grade, my mom played professional football for a year while she was also doing some other odd jobs. The league folded, so we came back to Goldsboro and that%u2019s where I spent the rest of my formative years growing up in high school. I graduated from Rosewood High School just outside of Goldsboro. I worked in radio--moved to New Bern, North Carolina--worked full-time in radio for a year, and then moved back to Goldsboro, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Worked in some video stores, worked in--used to have a music store where they used to have music stores where you%u2019d go and buy music, a place called Camelot Music, and worked there for several years before moving to the Bahamas for a year, and worked with a missionary there. It was there that I decided--this was from %u201986, %u201987--decided I was ready to go to college. I took kind of a five-year break between high school and college. My uncle was very big on education, and out of high school I had a scholarship to what used to be called Atlantic Christian College. It%u2019s now Barton College in Wilson. But I just wasn%u2019t ready, so decided I%u2019m not going to waste my parents money and my time. I%u2019ll know when it%u2019s ready, but when the time was ready, I was ready. So, while living in the Bahamas and sort of applying at a lot of schools in North Carolina for that in-state tuition--state schools, some private schools, but Gardner-Webb was the only school that actually called me in the Bahamas, and that kind of left an impression on me that they tracked me down. It wasn%u2019t just a form letter that was %u201CDear, Noel, thank you for applying.%u201D It was like, %u201CWe%u2019ve got your application. We%u2019d love to talk to you a little bit more,%u201D and they kind of went into it and invited me to visit. I came to visit--this would have been, probably, spring of %u201988 that I came to visit, and literally, I set foot on this campus and just fell in love with it. I knew this is where I wanted to come. I came here--what I didn%u2019t realize, though, is that my grandmother was actually born down at the Broad River, which is here in Cleveland County. I had no idea, so I had these roots here that I didn%u2019t even know about; I had never even heard of Gardner-Webb; never even heard of Boiling Springs, North Carolina until I came here to go to college back in %u201988. What I discovered early on in my time here at Gardner-Webb and in Boiling Springs and in Cleveland County is that it finds a way to grab hold of you, and also discovered that you can become very active in the community, kind of beyond campus life. So that%u2019s one of the things I%u2019ve tried to do and continued to do over the past twenty-so years is really just embrace this community and I have been able to get involved in things like the Chamber of Commerce, the Arts Council, the Broad River Greenway, Destination Cleveland County, the Salvation Army here. I%u2019ve just discovered that this community embraces you if you embrace it as well, so that%u2019s been an amazing thing to see happen. I had no idea when I set foot here in %u201988 that I%u2019d decide to raise a family here. I had no idea that I would come back to work at Gardner-Webb, and so I worked in TV broadcast after Gardner-Webb for seven years, and then got a chance to come back here and work in public relations and video and photography, and that%u2019s kind of grown into a lot of other things.
DR: Going back a little bit--you had said your mom played professional football, and I see a football on your desk back there.
NM: Yes.
DR: Did you play any sports when you were--?
NM: Yeah, I did. I played football back in high school, junior high. I played my--let%u2019s see, I played through my junior year, and for some reason between the time I was in eighth grade and until my senior year I didn%u2019t gain any weight. I was six feet tall, like a hundred-and-twenty, a hundred-and-twenty-five pounds, and so my senior year I didn%u2019t play football. I sat out because everybody else was a lot bigger than I was, and I decided you know, I think I%u2019m just going to sit on the sidelines. I was involved in basketball as kind of the manager, managed the team, but football was my first love as far as a sport.
DR: So, six foot, a hundred-and-twenty pounds?
NM: Yeah.
DR: Defensive lineman, I%u2019m sure.
NM: Oh, yeah, yeah. No, safety and split end were the positions I played.
DR: Okay. Now what was it like when you were in the Bahamas, applying for colleges? Like, you just kicked back in the sand, seeing, you know, just like, %u201CYou know what? I think I want to go to college.%u201D How did that come about?
NM: The way it happened, pretty much every summer from the time I was sixteen until I came to school here when I wasn%u2019t in the Bahamas, I was working for a Salvation Army youth camp in a little town called Denton, North Carolina. They had these big events that you would go to. It was kind of a territory youth camp, so you would have about seven or eight states represented at this camp and you%u2019d have people from all over. This was %u201987, summer of %u201987 that I went there. After the Bahamas, I went there and attended this camp, and they wanted me to walk around with a video camera and a microphone and do some interviews with people and just have some fun. So at the end of the week they put together this %u201CWeek in Review%u201D video they showed everybody. I saw myself up onscreen and it was the first time I%u2019d seen myself doing something like that. I%u2019ve always been able to have conversations and do interviews and just have fun with people, but the first time actually seeing it onscreen, I said, %u201CI could do that. I could do something like that,%u201D and so it was at that point that I started thinking seriously about okay, I really do want to pursue the communications field, whether it%u2019s radio, whether it%u2019s TV, whether it%u2019s film. I don%u2019t know, but I want to pursue that. So it was at that point that I really started thinking about it, so that next year when I was in the Bahamas I said, %u201CThis is the route I want to go.%u201D I knew I wanted to look at schools that had a pretty good communications studies program, or one that would afford opportunities, and Gardner-Webb just happened to be one of them. Also, while I was a student at Gardner-Webb, I got a chance to be the first intern at a Headline News affiliate in Shelby, North Carolina, so that%u2019s where I did my TV broadcasting after college. Also, back in the summer of %u201990, they were shooting a movie in the western part of the state called Last of the Mohicans, and a friend of mine, Brian Nicholson, we were both students at Gardner-Webb and we found out where their production office was in Asheville, so we drove up there one day. This was after we got out for the spring semester and drove up there and said, %u201CWe%u2019re college students; we want an opportunity to intern. We%u2019ll sweep floors; we don%u2019t care. We just want a chance to work on a movie set and be a part of it, so it was the attitude that we went in that we would do anything that really got our feet in the door. We didn%u2019t have resumes; we had nothing except just who we are, and our license. We got a callback from the assistant director%u2019s office, and they brought us in and said, %u201CWe%u2019d love to use you as interns.%u201D We basically both had part-time jobs back here working at a movie theater, so we ended up switching off; I would work at the movie theater three days a week; he%u2019d work on the set three days a week; then I%u2019d go three days a week, so we would split it off. After about two weeks of that, where they saw that we were willing to do whatever, they actually hired us both to full-time positions on the movie set, so we got to work on that movie throughout, I guess, mid-September, so when the movie finished shooting, we were there for the duration, so that was an incredible experience. Back in high school, I was really involved in drama; that was really the big--if you%u2019re going to look at something academically that I was really good at in high school it was drama, and I knew that one day I was going--I remember saying--I was sitting in drama class--%u201CI%u2019m going to work on a Hollywood motion picture one day, one day,%u201D and while this wasn%u2019t in Hollywood, it was a big-budget picture. I think, a fifty-seven-million-dollar film, and at that time that was the biggest film ever shot in North Carolina. When I worked on it, it was like okay, that%u2019s one of the things on my bucket list that I%u2019ve done. I had opportunities after that to do a couple of other films, but what I realized while working on that movie was I did want to have a family; I did want to be settled down somewhere. I didn%u2019t want to have this nomadic lifestyle, and that%u2019s what working on a movie crew really is; it%u2019s a nomadic lifestyle. If you don%u2019t have family; if you don%u2019t have things that are tying you down or things that you want to root you in an area, it%u2019s great, because you go four months here; you go four months there, a lot of traveling, a lot of great opportunities, but I knew that it%u2019s not what I wanted for my life. After that I got a chance to do some independent things; I started my own independent business as well, and did some documentaries, so I got a chance to do that, but kind of in my own terms and under my own umbrella.
DR: You mentioned that Gardner-Webb called you when you were in the Bahamas, which really made you interested in the university. Then you visited and just fell in love. Do you remember that moment where you came here and you were just, like, %u201CThis is it!%u201D Do you remember what you were doing or what you were looking at?
NM: I remember coming on the campus and I just loved the beauty of it. I got a chance to meet some professors and that really helped me because here I am, a student coming to a college five years after high school graduation, with all these fears. Can I study? Do I even know how to study any more? Will I be able to cut it in college? So I had a lot of fears, a lot of uncertainty coming in, but having the time to speak to professors, and sharing those fears with them, I was reassured. They said, %u201CYou%u2019ll be in small classes; we will work with you. If you have concerns; if you have challenges, we%u2019ll work with you. We%u2019ll get to know you. We want to get to know you.%u201D I remember that just thoroughly impressed me that here are these professors, caring about me as a student and caring about me succeeding as a student, and I didn%u2019t expect that. I really didn%u2019t expect that. I expected to come to college and to just be a name in a grade book and nothing more than that, but what I did discover is that exactly what they told me was true. I had professors that would let me call them at home if I had questions or problems or something I didn%u2019t get. The cool thing about that is I%u2019ve been able to do that now because I get to do some adjunct teaching, so I carry that forth with the students that I have now. I give them my cellphone number, my home number, my office number. I say, %u201CIf you%u2019ve got problems, let me know. I want to know about it. I want to help you succeed.%u201D I%u2019ve also been able to look at students, and when they%u2019re--maybe they don%u2019t do so well on a test, I%u2019ll say, %u201CLook, this is not the end of the road for you. There are going to be other opportunities for you to succeed in this class. I%u2019ll always give you chances for extra credit if you want to bring your grade up. It%u2019s up to you to do them, but you%u2019ll have those opportunities,%u201D so the same things that I remember being told to me and shared with me meant a lot to me as a student, so I%u2019ve been able to share that same thing. I also remember talking to current students at the time when I came to visit, and they shared with me what made Gardner-Webb special for them. I remember them saying Gardner-Webb is not for everybody, but for those that discover their place here, it%u2019s the perfect place for them and they were right. It really did work out for me. I was able to get involved in student government when I was here. I was able to get involved in some plays; I was able to do some drama again after all this time; I was able to succeed as a student much better as a college student than I ever did as a high school student. I was just kind of an average high school student because I didn%u2019t really apply myself, but once I got here I was determined--okay, I%u2019m going to do my best, and I did, and ended up graduating with honors. If somebody had told me that first year when I came to visit, %u201CWhen you graduate in a few years, you%u2019re going to graduate with honors,%u201D I%u2019d say, %u201CYeah, right. I%u2019ll just be happy to graduate,%u201D but I discovered that you can%u2019t do it all, but you can do a lot of it. You can get involved socially with the activities on campus; you can build great friendships while you%u2019re at college, and you can do well in studies. I discovered that you could do all those things and do them all well if you balanced it.
DR: Do you remember any favorite classes that you had, or maybe--?
NM: Yeah, during my college experience at Gardner-Webb, there were only two classes that I got C%u2019s in--the rest of my classes, A%u2019s and B%u2019s. The first one, a college professor by the name of Bill Stowe, he was an English professor, but he was also the chair of the communications studies program. Well, I knew if I was going to be in the communications studies program, I needed to get to know this guy early, early, so I said, %u201CWhy not get to know him my freshman year?%u201D People kept saying, %u201CThis is the most difficult professor that you will ever take in your entire experience,%u201D and I said, %u201COkay. Well, let me take him my freshman year. Let me see if I%u2019ve got it.%u201D I remember going into the registration. That%u2019s when we used to have to line up and you%u2019d have to stand in lines to register. I sought him out; I knew he taught he taught a freshman 101, an English class, and so I went to him and introduced myself. He remembered me because I had met him during the visitation. That kind of impressed me because this guy remembers me? I had said, %u201CI want to sign up for your freshman English class,%u201D and he said, %u201CWell, it%u2019s full.%u201D I said, %u201CI still want to sign up for it.%u201D He says, %u201CBut have you heard the stories about me?%u201D I said, %u201CYes, I%u2019ve heard the stories about you.%u201D He said, %u201CAnd you still want to sign up for my English class?%u201D I said, %u201CYes.%u201D He said, %u201CYou know what? You are the first person who has heard the stories and still wants to be in my class. I%u2019ve had people beg to be taken out of my class, but never somebody beg to be put in my class.%u201D So he allowed me to go in there, and that class I got a C in, that freshman English class, but I worked my tail off for that C. What it did is, it prepared me for his upper-level classes and prepared me for what was to come, and then when I took him later on I ended up getting A%u2019s in his classes, but that class will always stick with me because it was an incredibly difficult class because he didn%u2019t just approach it as a freshman English class. He approached it as a study of the English language and rhetorically going back where it came from, the history of it. He made it come alive, and I just remember just the love of that and the love of working so hard and being happy at the end for that C. The other C I got was in marriage and family, so I did okay in the actual real world of it. My communications classes, once I got into the core, there were great friendships, great projects that we did. There was a radio class that I really enjoyed the professor. We got to do some great projects, a video and film class that I took that I thoroughly enjoyed, and then some outside my major. There was one that studied world religions that opened up a whole new world for me of religions and studies within those religions that I had never even thought about, so it wasn%u2019t the typical thing that people may learn at Sunday school or Vacation Bible School. It was much more in-depth but it allowed me to appreciate what else was out there.
DR: And you said you did some plays while you were there. Did you have any favorite plays or any of their exciting things outside the classroom that you remember?
NM: At Gardner-Webb?
DR: Gardner-Webb, yeah.
NM: Yeah, there was one play called Letters From War, and it was actually an original play that I helped to do the research on. We had a professor here who was in charge of structuring drama, and this was during the first gulf war so this would have been %u201991 time period. He wanted to go and find actual letters that were written from servicemen and women throughout the history of wars in the U.S. and present that in monologue settings. I remember, we went to UNC-Charlotte to the library there and researched and found just tons of incredible information. There were two roles that I played. I played a Civil War--let%u2019s see, I think it was a Confederate Civil War soldier who was writing his last letter home to his family. He was preparing to be hung, so it was the letter to his wife and children. That was very emotional because it was a real letter that we found, and then the other one was a Vietnam soldier, so that was one play that I did, and the other was [pause]--you know, I don%u2019t even remember the other one, but that%u2019s the one that stands out the most because I got to be a part of the research and putting that together as well. I became really involved in a program on campus called the Student Entertainment Association. Some campuses have, like, a student activities council; they put together all the concerts, the comedians that might come to campus, the dances. From my sophomore year throughout my senior year, I was the chair of that, and that was under the student government arm, so a lot of my fondest memories of activities involved the core group of people that we got together to serve on those committees and to play activities and concerts, getting concerts to come here. I was in charge of making sure the concert riders had everything they needed. If they needed green M&Ms, you know, we had to make sure they had green M&Ms, and stuff like that. One thing we didn%u2019t have to worry about because we were a dry county is that I didn%u2019t have to worry about any of the alcohol requests that some bands may have. I said, %u201CSorry, guys, you have to take care of that on your own.%u201D You know, that put me back in a place I felt very comfortable because I remember doing that kind of thing, booking and stuff like that, back when I was a teenager, so it was kind of neat to be doing it again in a different kind of capacity.
DR: So what was it like going to college in an area where you can%u2019t readily walk across the street and buy beer or something like that?
NM: It never bothered me. I was always the designated driver--always. I went to a lot of live concerts growing up, and especially the years I was working at Camelot Music right out of high school, not long after high school, every weekend I was watching live music, either going to Wilmington or Raleigh. There were some places in Goldsboro too, so we were always traveling around, but I was always the designated driver so I never drank, so that never bothered me.
DR: When you were bringing people to campus for shows and things like that, do you remember--you mentioned green M&Ms, which is sort of like a famous little thing. Do you remember any specific ones that you dealt with that were--?
NM: There were never any that were just way out there with the people that we brought in. The most difficult challenge we had is we%u2019re a Christian campus, so you would have--we would go to these--let me back up. Part of the Student Entertainment Association group, as a group, we would go to these conferences where you would see these lineups and so you%u2019d see live acts that you might want to book, or comedians or some novelty things, whatever. So you%u2019d get a chance to taste-test them, so after that you%u2019d come back and say, %u201COkay, we want to book these events.%u201D The most difficult challenges that we faced is the comedians. There were some comedians that may give you a clean show at these conferences, but when they come to a college campus they think oh, it%u2019s a college campus, so I can be a little more risqu? with what I say, more raunchy and more dirty, and that was always the challenge. We would always have in our contract rider with the comedians: %u201CWe%u2019re a Christian campus. Please be aware of that. Please stay away from these kind of things.%u201D There%u2019s one comedian that came here; his name was Anthony Clark. He did very well on the stand-up circuit and then also ended up having a sit-com for several years. Yes, Dear was the name of the sit-com, and he was hilarious, a great guy, but his agent forgot to remind him about the Gardner-Webb policy and he starts letting some things fly, and so I started pulling the mike down, flashing the lights a little bit, and after a while he gets it, but not after half the audience left. So, those were some of the challenges that I faced. We always had a budget that wasn%u2019t a budget set on return; it was a budget--okay, you%u2019re able to spend this money. We%u2019re not expecting you to bring any money in, so it was cool to try to get some name acts or some acts that were breaking for a little bit of money but also to get our students some good opportunities. There was a band called The Hooters back in the eighties, a really big band of the eighties, and we got them on campus and got to really get to know those guys pretty well and enjoyed that. That was a big act that we brought when I was a student here. I remember, it was for the most part for the students, anybody else that wants to come, but it was more about the students providing opportunities for the students to have entertainment. We had a lot of people from the community that came and took part in that one as well.
DR: You mentioned you didn%u2019t do so well in your Marriage and Family course, but you did get married. How did you meet your wife?
NM: My wife, Beth, I met her toward the middle of my freshman year at Gardner-Webb. She was a senior; I was a freshman. I always start that off when I%u2019m telling people--%u201CYeah.%u201D She was robbing the cradle! Well, I%u2019m actually a year older than she is because I waited five years, but she was the daughter of the divinity school dean, so the daughter of a preacher, a professor here at Gardner-Webb. The first time I met her was, I was with another girl outside of a dance, and we were just kind of sitting outside Bost Gym where we had the dance, and she walked up with somebody else, and right away I just--I was just blown away by her beauty. She was just stunning, and just right off the bat I was, like, %u201CWow! She%u2019s beautiful!%u201D This was probably, like, in October of my freshman year, and by early December I really got to know her well. I would go into her dorm because I was involved in the student activities, started getting involved in that. We would have our meetings, and I lived in a small duplex just off campus and her dad lived at the end of that street, so I would see her in her little orange Toyota pass by quite often. The first time she spoke to me I was in the lobby of a residence hall, and she said, %u201CMy dad lives on your street,%u201D and then she just kind of walked away. I%u2019m like, %u201CWhat? What was that? My dad lives on your street? What was that all about?%u201D So we got to really got to really know each other over Christmas break and became best friends that next semester, and we just maintained this incredible friendship through the rest of my experience. She went on to grad school in Spartanburg at Converse College, but stayed around here, and we just--you know, every chance we got to be together we could, even if we were dating other people. It kind of all came back to who do you really want to spend your time with was each other, so it was during working on Last of the Mohicans that I said, %u201CThis is crazy. This is crazy.%u201D When it gets right down to it, who do we want to be with? Each other, so I remember, I called her. I would always call her from the set, and on the set of the movie I was surrounded by beautiful women, but all I could think about was Beth. She was Beth Lamm. I would call her, and I%u2019m like, %u201CI haven%u2019t wanted to admit this because I came to college, not to get a wife; I came to college to get a degree. You know, %u201CWhy can%u2019t I do both?%u201D So, I remember that summer, saying, %u201CLook, I don%u2019t want to date anybody else. I want to date you. I understand if you don%u2019t feel the same way, and she did, but there was always this reluctance because we would go out a little bit and then we would see other people, so it was never a commitment on my part, but once I decided to commit, there was nothing to change me and I said, %u201CLook, if you need to go out with somebody else, that%u2019s cool, but after she realized I was for real--I guess that was %u201990, %u201991, we dated, got engaged in %u201993 and then got married in %u201994. She%u2019s still by far the best thing that%u2019s ever happened to me, and she keeps me grounded. Even today, when I get a little too big for my britches, as they say, she keeps me grounded and lets me know who I really am. She%u2019s always been an encourager to me. You know, always been there to help me through whatever I%u2019m going through. If I get job offers or if I%u2019m looking at other opportunities for jobs throughout our time, she was always there to encourage me and walk me through that. We%u2019ve got two kids, both redheads. Katherine is fourteen, starting high school this year, and Thomas is ten, and he is a huge football fan as well. He%u2019s got a love for the game and he%u2019s got an eye for the game too.
DR: How is it, raising kids in Shelby? Is this a good area?
NM: Yeah. Oh, it%u2019s wonderful. We live here in Boiling Springs, so we--for me to be working at a college campus, it%u2019s an incredible environment for them because we get to come to athletic events; we get to come to fine arts events. They are getting a taste of college life, growing up, so when the time comes for them to choose where they want to go and see college, they%u2019ve already had a taste for some of the things happening. I mean, Thomas and I went to see Gardner-Webb play Carolina in Chapel Hill in the Dean Dome, and you%u2019re close enough in Cleveland County to a lot of stuff. You go to Charlotte, the Charlotte Bobcats, we%u2019ve been to some Bobcats games. We%u2019ve been to the Carolina Panthers games. He%u2019s been able to meet Carolina Panther players, and so has my daughter, Katherine, so it%u2019s really--we%u2019re away from the chaos and mayhem that a lot of people might experience in big cities, and I%u2019ve lived in big cities, so I know what some of that chaos and mayhem is, but for me, I love being able to raise my kids in a community that I feel they%u2019re safe, but at the same time they get a taste of the other.
DR: After college, you said you got a job doing some TV work. Could you tell me about that?
NM: Yeah, I worked in Shelby at a Headline News affiliate called Cleveland Headline News. I started out as an intern and eventually they hired me as an associate producer, editing and producing shows part time while I was still a college student. That became a full-time position and I would produce two shows per day, and I would go out in the field with reporters and help them as well. Let%u2019s see, I was there seven years. About four years into it--actually, let me back up--right off the bat, they gave me a chance to do movie reviews, a weekly segment even when I was an intern, so I would do movie reviews every single week. I would always go out and about; I would never just sit in front of a desk, so I was the guy that was always talking to people on the streets or doing some kooky stuff. If there was a movie about vampires, I would go in a really dark basement and then we%u2019d have a fog machine, so I would kind of go all out, and I would get very creative about my movie reviews. I did that for my entire seven years.
DR: Was the vampire one the pinnacle of it all?
NM: Oh, no, no, there were others.
DR: Tell me.
NM: Well, there was one movie, a really bad movie called Dr. Giggles, and it was, like, this serial killer move; it was really bad, and I dressed up in the doctor gear and had blood smeared all over my gown and I had this gas mask over my head and I pull it up. We had a mannequin that was like a dead body that I was working on. Several of them are on Youtube, so you can check them out on Youtube, but I did some crazy ones. That was something I always enjoyed and that didn%u2019t take a lot of time each week. I would just go see a movie each week, and either review it, or sometimes I would preview a film if I hadn%u2019t already seen one. I did that for the duration, and people even today, and that%u2019s been a long time, but even people today will still say, %u201CMan, I used to love your movie reviews that you would do.%u201D Now, that%u2019s translated over into what I do now. I still do movie reviews on radio, and Headline News will call me about twice a year to come back and do specials, so I%u2019ll do an Oscar special, and then I%u2019ll do a summer blockbuster kind of special as well. [Recorder is turned off and then back on] So the movie reviews, that was a lot of fun because I got to be creative in ways that I had not been able to do previously. A few years into my work at Headline News, they offered me the opportunity to not only produce a couple of the shows, but to also go out and write these features and do these weekly features, profiles on someone or something in the community, and that is where I really just developed this love of short documentaries because I%u2019d go out and I%u2019d find somebody unique in the county. One week it might be a working blacksmith that still did it the old-fashioned way. You know, get to know their life, why they did it and why they continued to carry on these traditions. I interviewed Earl Scruggs one time and he shared with me his life, and that was an incredible opportunity. Also, because of that I got to meet people who were traveling through the area. There was a guy named James Cromwell who%u2019s an actor, Academy Award nominated actor for the movie Babe and he%u2019s done just tons of other movies. He was traveling through Charlotte and I got to go interview him and write a piece on him, and I remember sending him a video of it. I wanted to know his whole life; I didn%u2019t want to know just what he%u2019d just tell me about this movie. I wanted to know about his life, so he shared about his family growing up and the movie business and literally, when it switched from silent to sound, so he shared all that, and so I put together his life in, like, a five-minute piece. I remember getting response from him that nobody had taken the time to cover his career in a nutshell, but do it an a way that presented truly who he was because of the influence his parents had. Getting a chance to go out and meet people, interview them, stories on their lives, and stories of what they were doing was unique. That really prepared me later for things for my Gardner-Webb job. Some of that was because I got to meet a lot of the non-profits, so I got to know the non-profit community leaders, the civic leaders and stuff like that, so all of those opportunities at Headline News prepared me for what I%u2019ve continued to do here at Gardner-Webb in a lot of ways.
DR: So, the shorter interviews you were doing, and doing movie reviews and things like that--did the reel-to-reel--?
NM: The Reel-to Reel Film Festival.
DR: Yeah, how did that come about?
NM: I did, back in ninety--wow, what year was it? While I was working at Headline News, there was a filmmaker in this area called Earl Owensby. I don%u2019t know if you know about Earl. Earl was an independent filmmaker, still is, who made his home in Shelby, and had such an incredible impact and influence on independent filmmaking that a movie studio opened in Wilmington. Dino DeLaurentis came. James Cameron, who a lot of people have heard of, with the Titanic and Avatar, came here to film a movie called The Abyss. It was done in Gaffney at Earl%u2019s studios. Well, Earl was just this cult legend and he was celebrating twenty-five years of being in the business, so one of my profiles was on Earl Owensby. I got to know him and I got to be friends with him. We hit it off right away. Back in, I guess, %u201996 or %u201997, I kept asking him, %u201CWhy has no one ever done a feature-length documentary on this guy? He%u2019s amazing with what he%u2019s done.%u201D So I took it on myself and I did a feature-length documentary, a full-length documentary on Earl, interviewed former wives, former cast and crew members, the North Carolina film commissioner--. I interviewed a lot of people who knew him and they told his story, so I did this piece on Earl Owensby, and was really pleased with what I was able to do with that. Earl and I have continued to be friends even today. A guy at the arts council in Shelby by the name of Will Eskridge saw this documentary, and he was working in marketing there. He called me and said, %u201CNoel, I%u2019d really like to meet with you about--I want to get your ideas on something.%u201D I said, %u201COkay, well, sure.%u201D He said, %u201CI saw your documentary on Earl,%u201D and he says, %u201CYou know, I%u2019d love to see us put together some kind of film festival in Cleveland County, maybe for people in the Carolinas.%u201D So we started talking about it and then before you know it, we were kind of the founding members of the Reel-to-Reel Film Fest. We did all the leg work; we were the screening committee. That first year, I think we had eighty films that we screened that first year. We brought in some people to come and watch as well, but we were the ones that kind of pulled it all together, and that was twelve years ago, eleven years ago, and it continued to grow, but even that first year we had international films, and the first year was all done through trying to get listed in film magazines, trying to get listed on film websites, independent film sites, and it%u2019s been pretty amazing to see the quality and the caliber of films that have continued to come through. Will has gone on. You know, I have left the committee and come back to the committee, left the committee, depending on what I%u2019ve been able to do, but it%u2019s pretty amazing to see something that you were a part of that birthing process, to see that it still has merit even years later, and that%u2019s how it all started, was just a couple of guys with their love of movies, talking about movies and, %u201CHey, wouldn%u2019t it be great to do something for the Carolinas?%u201D but early in that process of talking about a film fest for the Carolinas, we said, %u201CLet%u2019s just open it up to anybody. Why not?%u201D So it did start with a focus on Carolina filmmaking, but it expanded really quickly, really quickly.
DR: That first year, did you ever hit a roadblock or anything where you just wanted to throw up your hands and say, %u201CAll right, let%u2019s not go ahead with this.%u201D
NM: No, we didn%u2019t, because we didn%u2019t know what we were doing, so it was pretty easy to not even worry about if we were doing it wrong or not. You know, let%u2019s just do it; let%u2019s see what happens. There were things that we tried to do that first year that I don%u2019t know that we%u2019ve done a lot since, like we tried to have some seminars for writers. Other seminars were for filmmakers, so things like that, that took a lot of time, and it started out, I think we were doing a whole week, and that took a lot of effort to try to put them to doing stuff the whole week. Now it%u2019s more of a half week; it%u2019s from a Wednesday through a Saturday, and you know, kind of push the seminar things out the door because that takes a lot more time and a lot more effort.
DR: How did you go from TV and doing movie reviews and things like that to radio, or back to radio since you were doing it when you were fifteen, sixteen?
NM: Back here at Gardner-Webb?
DR: Yeah.
NM: Okay.
DR: Or, I mean you guys, after you said you spent like seven years or so.
NM: Seven years working at Headline News. There was a job opening here at Gardner-Webb for public relations, and one of the key things they wanted was somebody who could do video and photography. Since I had a background in video and had a love of photography, I was able to come in and fit that mold and do some things video-wise that they had not done--commercials, promotional pieces, things like that that I could produce. Also, it was around that same time, and that was the summer of %u201998, that they started talking about %u201Cwe would really like to see some things happen with our radio station.%u201D We had a fifty-thousand-watt radio station that hit sixteen counties in North and South Carolina, but nobody%u2019s listening to it. It was a jazz and classical station at the time. The students didn%u2019t really get it and we really didn%u2019t want them talking about the songs. You didn%u2019t want them saying, %u201CThat was Beethoven (sic), Beethoven%u2019s (sic) Symphony.%u201D True story. Okay, you didn%u2019t want those kind of things happening, so they started asking me my thoughts, and knowing that I had some background in radio, they wanted to get some thoughts on what I would do. I said, %u201CWell, you would go out and do some surveys with survey folks. That%u2019s an easy thing to do, but also you%u2019ve got to have a buy-in with the community.%u201D I said, %u201CThat%u2019s your first thing. One of the ways you%u2019re going to buy into the community is to go to the non-profits and say, %u2018Look, we can be a voice for you. If you%u2019ve got events going on, if you%u2019ve got activities, you%u2019ve got news happening, let us know about it and we can share that,%u201D so we developed relationships. So I came in as kind of an--within my first six months of working at Gardner-Webb in PR, came in as kind of an interim general manager to look at what we could do, so we did; we went out in the community; we got them involved; we got them to buy into what we were going to do. We looked at what music was out there. We contacted music promoters and record labels, and what we found out in that process early on is that record labels don%u2019t care about you as a station unless you can help them, and just by playing the music is not going to help them. What%u2019s going to help them is your impact on charts. Well, there weren%u2019t many formats that we could impact charts on because non-com, non-commercial stations don%u2019t really have a lot of impact on that, but eventually we discovered some formats that we could impact--the Americana format, the AAA format, and that was an evolutionary process, the way we got there.
DR: How did you, I guess--?
NM: How did we get there?
DR: Yeah, yeah.
NM: Well, the surveys that we came back with kind of--overwhelmingly, people liked the popular type music, but not necessarily just--they didn%u2019t want to hear just the singles, and they were open to new artists that they hadn%u2019t heard before that they fit into that pop-rock format. So we were sort of reaching out to independent artists, independent musicians, and we said, %u201CLook, if you fit this style of music, send us your music and we%u2019ll listen to it.%u201D If it%u2019s good, we%u2019ll play it, but we%u2019ll give you an opportunity to be heard on the radio, so we started getting tons of music. Some independent promoters started contacting us. There was one out of Detroit that contacted us, and we had a really good relationship with him for several years, and he said, %u201CYou know, you guys really need to be reporting some charts,%u201D and we were like, %u201CWe%u2019d love to, but how? Where? We%u2019ve tried.%u201D Like, %u201CLook, you guys are playing--sure, you%u2019re playing stuff like Clapton and Paul McCartney and bands that people have heard of, but you%u2019re also playing a lot of independent artists, and there are independent charts.%u201D I%u2019m like, %u201CTell us about this.%u201D So we called the Music Journal; we began reporting to that. This guy got us set up with a few other charts. We submitted music that we were playing to them, and then they said, %u201COkay, you can be a member.%u201D The guy%u2019s name was Dave Mack; I%u2019ll never forget his name. His was kind of this angel for us, but he told us, %u201COnce you start reporting, you%u2019re going to have more music than you know what to do with. You will never be able to listen to it all, never,%u201D and he was right. Once we started reporting, we started getting music. We%u2019d get probably seventy-five CDs a week here--a week. You could never listen to all of it, so it becomes triage. You start looking at maybe names you know, or maybe you see a cover that appeals to you, or maybe there%u2019s a little note on it that says, %u201CTracks one, three and five are recommended. If you like this artist, you will probably like this artist.%u201D So that%u2019s how that process started kind of where we are today. We%u2019ve also been very open, really since %u201999, to local musicians, and have encouraged them to submit their music to us, and we%u2019d give them a forum, give them an opportunity. For some of these artists, some of these locals and these regionals, we may be the only station ever to play their stuff, but still they can say, %u201CHey, I was played on a radio station.%u201D They can call their parents or their friends or whatever and say, %u201CI was played here.%u201D To some, you might hear a local artist played right beside a number one song that%u2019s out there, so for them to say, %u201CHey, I%u2019m heard with the likes of this artist, this artist and this artist,%u201D it%u2019s pretty good stuff for them.
DR: You had mentioned earlier you%u2019re a champion of a dance-off or something?
NM: Oh, yeah. [Laughter] DR: What%u2019s that?
NM: Oh, I was at a Charlotte Bobcats game and they had a Bojangle%u2019s Dance-Off competition. They%u2019d grab people out of the crowd, and they grabbed me and so, I%u2019m the kind of guy, if you turn a camera on me, I%u2019ll just be an idiot. I don%u2019t have a problem singing like no one%u2019s listening or dancing like no one%u2019s watching, so I get out there, I%u2019m just, I%u2019m this middle-age guy out there dancing with all these young kids. Then all of a sudden, I end up being in the final two. They%u2019d get the crowd to cheer to see who survives, so I%u2019m in the final two of the dance-off, and then I end up winning, so I%u2019m an award-winning Bojangle%u2019s dancer. They gave me a year%u2019s worth of free chicken and t-shirts and stuff, so I had more Bojangle%u2019s than I knew what to do with, so%u2026
DR: %u2026That%u2019s a good deal%u2026
NM: %u2026That%u2019s the story. [Laughter] DR: Just going back a little bit, you said that you had met Earl Scruggs.
NM: Right.
DR: How was that? What was he like?
NM: He was incredible. I met him through his brother, Horace Scruggs. I got to know Horace, who was also a musician, and Horace, you know, I told Horace what I wanted to do. I wanted to do a historical, small documentary, a little four or five-minute piece on the roots of bluegrass music in Cleveland County, and interviewed Horace as well as several other musicians in the county. I really wanted to get Earl%u2019s take and Earl%u2019s--it wouldn%u2019t be the same without Earl, so Horace gave me Earl%u2019s phone number, and talked to Earl and said, %u201CNoel%u2019s going to call you. Would that be okay? and he said, %u201CYeah.%u201D I talked to Earl for probably about an hour the first time we talked, and I felt like I was talking to my grandfather. He just made the conversation literally feel like it was just a conversation. I asked him questions about his childhood, growing up here, and about his love for music and how that started and he shared all that. He shared that music was always a part of his life. There was never anything else but that music. That was a continuous part of who he was. You know, there%u2019s other things--family--everything kind of went back to his music that kept people together. You know, when you%u2019re poor, you might be wondering okay, where%u2019s that next meal going to come from? There was always that music to kind of take people away. That was an amazing experience just to be able to talk to him and hear his stories and his thoughts. Then I got an opportunity to meet him a few years later when he came here for a couple of concerts, been able to spend some time with him, but not as much as a lot of people. A lot of people have really been able to spend some great time with Earl over the years, but I just really appreciated the fact that Earl Scruggs just gave a regular guy a chance to just jabber on and on about music, and just have this great conversation.
DR: You%u2019ve been here in Cleveland County for a good while now.
NM: Twenty-something years now, yeah.
DR: What%u2019s kept you here? What%u2019s special about the area to you?
NM: When I say I fell in love with the area, with Gardner-Webb, when I stepped on campus I mean that, and it was the community feel that I gained, and that community feel, to a larger extent, with Cleveland County. The fact that I%u2019m able to be in a place that I feel comfortable, working a job that I love, being married to a woman that I love, and being able to be an active part of the community, you don%u2019t get that everywhere. Currently, I serve on the Salvation Army Board of Advisors, Arts Council Board of Directors, and I%u2019m involved in some other committees as well. That%u2019s just an amazing thing to be connected to a community, and Cleveland County has a way of allowing you to do that. Maybe I%u2019d be doing the same kind of stuff in another county, I don%u2019t know, but the fact that I was embraced by the community, I just kind of keep going back to that. They really embraced me for who I was, and they saw in me some talents that maybe I didn%u2019t know existed, and have encouraged me to use those and have asked if I could use those to help them in certain ways, and I%u2019ve tried to do that, so I think that%u2019s what it is about this county and this community that I love is the fact that they embrace this guy that was out of high school five years and not knowing if he knew how to study and find a way to encourage him to be the best that he could be. I still sense that with this county, this community, and with people like Brownie Plaster and J.T. Scruggs and others that I%u2019ve grown to really admire over the years. They%u2019ve always kind of come back to me to encourage me and ask me to be involved in stuff, and I appreciate that.
DR: Over the time you%u2019ve been here, what%u2019s changed?
NM: Well, growth. I%u2019ve seen incredible growth in the community businesses, new businesses coming in. I mean, I look just at Boiling Springs. When I came here, there was Hardee%u2019s, the Snack Shop and the Quick Snack. Those were the only food establishments you had. You know, a couple of mom and pop%u2019s and then one chain. Now you have several fast-food restaurants, you have Mexican, you have Italian, you have Greek cuisine, you have Chinese. You know, all that in this small college town, so I%u2019ve seen growth in business. In the smaller community of Boiling Springs it%u2019s very visible, the growth there, but I think I%u2019ve seen--and also, I think about things like the Broad River Greenway. I know the Broad River itself used to be a hangout for people to go get drunk or people to go cause trouble. That was the reputation that it had, and it%u2019s not that way any more. With the efforts of people like Brownie Plaster, you%u2019ve got this public/private partnership down at the Broad River and it is a beautiful place for families to go now. That wouldn%u2019t have happened had it not been for people like Brownie Plaster. You look at what%u2019s happening with the Don Gibson Theater, the Earl Scruggs Center; all those things are happening because of people in the community that care about it and that want to go forth with this flag of saying, %u201CLook, we%u2019ve got something great here, but if you don%u2019t buy into it and if you don%u2019t support it, it%u2019s not going to happen.%u201D I think that having champions for this community, you continue to see new things happen, new growth. You know, we%u2019re not just a little pit stop on Highway 74 any more; there%u2019s a lot more to offer.
DR: So where do you think Boiling Springs and Cleveland County is going? What sort of place do you see your kids returning to in ten years, twenty years?
NM: Wow, that%u2019s tough. I think a place that still holds on to its culture, that remembers where it came from; I think that%u2019s always going to be those traditions. I think you%u2019re always going to see those here. I haven%u2019t seen those things leave, but at the same time, I do see a progressive community that%u2019s open for new technologies, for new developments. We%u2019re trying to embrace those kind of things. I see a community that can be the best of both worlds. You can have one that does hold true to who it was, but also whatever the next new thing is, you know, not afraid to say, %u201CHey, let%u2019s see what%u2019s out there for us.%u201D So, specifics, I don%u2019t know, but I have seen very progressive people of this community not just sit back. You know, it is great to be able to sit on your front porch or sit on your front porch swing and look out and love the community that you%u2019ve got with the wonderful oak trees, but that%u2019s not all there is. Don%u2019t forget that, and still have that, but there%u2019s a lot more out there, a lot of other opportunities out there too.
DR: Thanks so much for taking the time, talking with me. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about, either want to talk more about the station, or more--?
NM: Yeah, I don%u2019t know that we--you know, specifics about the station, but I do think that one of the things that Cleveland County and this region has is just a wealth of great music, local music, and talented musicians. While Earl may have been one of those years ago, that tradition of talent has continued and it%u2019s varied in styles and in genres. You%u2019ve got people that are just pure rock and roll, and you%u2019ve got some great jazz musicians around here; you%u2019ve got some great classical performers; you%u2019ve got the roots artists. That%u2019s something that%u2019s continued to amaze me is that every time you turn around, there%u2019s somebody now that%u2019s putting out music. One of the things that we%u2019ve seen change in the music and the radio industry since %u201999, these past ten years or so, is not just the talent of the local musicians, but the way they present that. Now, if you have a great computer and editing software, you can create your own demo. That wasn%u2019t the case ten years ago, not to the extent that it is now. We get some productions that people will give us now that they%u2019ve done in their office or in their bedroom, and it sounds like something they might have done in a full-blown production studio, so that%u2019s something that I think has really impressed us from that listening side. You know, there were times that we got some local demos and we couldn%u2019t play them because they were really bad local demos. Stuff now, you self-produce your own album and you can get copies made, and you%u2019ve got stuff to sell at a show, and that%u2019s been pretty incredible to see happen. For somebody who loves music and loves local and live music, to see that happen--.
DR: What about Cleveland County do you think supports local musicians?
NM: I think it really does go back to the roots of Earl Scruggs and the knowledge of what he did: local boy made famous, didn%u2019t forget where he came from. I think you can go to any other community and you%u2019d probably have people saying the same thing about that community, not necessarily with Earl Scruggs, but the fact that there%u2019s talent out there, and now there%u2019s opportunities to capture that talent and to share that talent to a world through the internet, through things like youtube or myspace or other avenues; there are a lot of avenues out there creating their own websites. So, the universe, that music universe just got a whole lot smaller, and the relationships that musicians are able to build now are a lot easier than they used to, so being able to connect with musicians in Bangladesh from Cleveland County is pretty dang easy now.
DR: Do you have any sort of personal goals? You were involved in a lot of different things in the community. Do you have any specific thing you%u2019re really championing and hoping to see to completion?
NM: I%u2019m happy to see things that I was involved in like Reel-to-Reel continue to succeed. I%u2019m very happy with what%u2019s happening with Destination Cleveland County, the progress they%u2019re making in a lot of areas. I want to continue to be involved in that in whatever small way that I can. I think, for me, really, it really is all about what the community needs and if there%u2019s something that I can be a part of that helps, I want to be there. If I%u2019m just serving on a committee because they just need a committee member to say yes or no, I don%u2019t want to be part of that; I want to be a part of groups and organizations that are forward-seeking, that are making a difference. So, for me, whatever it is that%u2019s making a difference, I want to try to be a part of if I can help, so none specifically.
DR: Did you want to talk about anything else this afternoon? Can you think of anything?
NM: We could spend all day talking about stuff, but unless you%u2019ve got anything specific--I will say this about having a radio station like WGWG in Boiling Springs, it%u2019s one of those stations that probably doesn%u2019t get the appreciation it deserves, and of course I%u2019m biased because I%u2019m a part of it, but we bring live musicians through here a lot. We bring musicians through here that you might end up hearing on NPR, being featured, or musicians that have won Grammys or musicians that have written songs that have gone on to be recorded over and over and over again, but because we%u2019re--and its little point of a community in Boiling Springs and Cleveland County, a lot of people don%u2019t realize that, and when people start looking at the list of artists that have come through here and start really digging into it, they%u2019re like, %u201CWow! You mean they came through here?%u201D There%u2019s a band called Men At Work, back in the eighties, huge band from Down Under, from Australia. Well, Colin Hay is the lead singer and is on his own now, and he%u2019s in the Americana-AAA circuit. Well, I got a chance to do a radio interview with him last year, and the interview went well enough--we did it by phone--that he told his agent, he said, %u201CWhen I come through Charlotte, I want to stop at WGWG.%u201D So he came through here, so I got to interview him through here, so I%u2019m sitting here across the table from another Grammy Award winner, a guy who had the number one album for several weeks in 1983, only to be knocked off by Michael Jackson%u2019s Thriller. You know, to talk to him about his life and about what he%u2019s doing and why he%u2019s doing it, that was pretty amazing, even coming to Boiling Springs. Artists like that have come through here and spent time with us and played live in the studio. We%u2019d get shots, get stills of that and get to talk to them. That%u2019s one thing I love about having a radio station that embraces talent past, present and future, and does it in a way of saying, %u201CHey, we%u2019ll interview the local guys just as well as a guy who%u2019s won Grammy Awards. That%u2019s something that I really appreciate about this station, about what we%u2019re able to offer.
DR: So is interviewing Colin Hay like the coolest moment for you here?
NM: It was one of the cool moments. I mean, there really have been so many. That was definitely a recent one. Chip Talyor is John Voight%u2019s brother, also the uncle of Angelina Jolie, and he%u2019s a singer. He wrote the song %u201CWild Thing%u201D and %u201CAngel of the Morning,%u201D and he said those two songs--he doesn%u2019t have to write anything else but he does. He%u2019s doing the Americana stuff, but he looks just like his dad. I mean, he looks just like John, his brother. He came through here, and he impressed me probably more than anybody else I ever met. The reason he did is because he made the point to get to know everybody by name and remembered those names, so he%u2019s got this incredible memory. I don%u2019t know how he does it, but he would meet you--you know, he%u2019d say your name and get to know you, do the interview, then he%u2019d come back and he%u2019d say, %u201CHey, Drew, thanks so much for taking the time to spend with me; I really appreciate it.%u201D He did that--impressed me. Well, when he left, about three days later, he sent this incredible email to all of us, just thanking us for our hospitality and--all by name--and one of the things--my mom was a huge fan of the song %u201CWild Thing,%u201D so I told him about that, and he said, %u201CGet your mom on the phone; I%u2019ll talk to her,%u201D so he talked to her on the phone that day, and my mom was just really ecstatic, really happy. So in the email that he sent, he even mentioned my mom. He said, %u201CNoel, it was great to meet your mom, Joyce, and I just want to thank you guys.%u201D That impressed me, and that%u2019s one of the things these artists, they%u2019re just regular people. They%u2019re just real people just like any of us. There have been a few over the years that I met that have that, that ego mentality that some people may associate with musicians or with movie stars, but that%u2019s not the case with most of them. On Mohicans I got to know Daniel Day Lewis very well, an Academy Award winner, and just really a kind of guy that you could hang out and drink coffee or drink sweet tea with, and would just carry on conversations, and he would want to know about your life, want to know more about you. He doesn%u2019t want to talk about his life; he wants to know about who you are, and so, for me, I%u2019ve been very fortunate over the years to get to know some great people that are famous, but more than that, to get to know people that may not have the fame, but maybe somebody like a working blacksmith in Cleveland County doing it the old-fashioned way. Those are the people that, really, I probably remember more than the others because they%u2019re the ones that have this life story that maybe other don%u2019t really know about or get a chance to get to know about, and so, for me to get a chance to share that with others and introduce them to others has been pretty amazing.
DR: So do you have a favorite local musician right now?
NM: No, I%u2019m not going to say anything. There are a lot of musicians I like, but I%u2019m not going to say any favorites.
DR: All right. Great. Well, thanks so much.
NM: Absolutely.

END OF INTERVIEW
Mike Hamrick, January 26th, 2011