Hall of Famer stayed close to his local roots
Lead Summary
By
Rory Ryan-hcpress@cinci.rr.com
Chuck Collier’s voice left the airwaves way too soon.
The Hall of Fame radio show host and New Vienna native passed away Sept. 22, succumbing to a heart attack at the age of 64. Cleveland area listeners knew Chuck from his country music program on WGAR, where he also served as the station’s music director.
Some of us weren’t so lucky as the Cleveland radio audience. The city once called the “mistake on the lake” has lured a couple of Highland County’s own to the more metropolitan microphone. Chuck Collier and Lynchburg’s Bill Wills, of course, come to mind.
Longtime local radio personalities Will Parr and Herb Day introduced Chuck and me on the morning of July 4, 2010 during the Festival of the Bells.
Earlier that week, the Highland County Board of Commissioners had proclaimed the 4th as Chuck Collier Day in Highland County. Chuck was not able to attend that week’s commissioners’ meeting. But as I recall, Highland County Chamber of Commerce President Katy Farber graciously held the commissioners’ proclamation in Chuck’s honor at the request of a certain newspaper owner.
I presented Chuck with a few copies of The Highland County Press last July and he was more than generous in mentioning this fact on one of the HCP’s Festival of the Bells videos by Brandy Chandler, which you can see on our website.
Chuck also pointed out that Katy “takes a better photo than I do.”
Our good friend Bob Hodson recalls “the old days” when Chuck started out on WSRW radio in Hillsboro.
Bob and Dorothy Hodson spent time with Chuck just before he suffered his heart attack.
“During our-two hour conversation last Wednesday, he was telling us about his retirement plans,” Bob told me earlier this week. “He said his retirement would be March 23, 2013, exactly 50 years to the day since he visited with me on The Community Bulletin Board. I later took him to WSRW and introduced him to Willard Parr, and that started his career on radio. He never forgot his broadcasting roots.”
Chuck’s own biographical information at his WGAR website includes this down-to-earth passage: “I’m a small-town Ohio boy at heart. I was born May 6 in Greenfield and raised in New Vienna. I had the early need to talk, and there were only 800 people in my town ... so I had talked to all of them before I was 6. That love of getting to know people is one of the things
Dorothy Hodson stopped by The Highland County Press this past Tuesday and reflected on Chuck’s impressive career in radio broadcasting. She and Bob were at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Chuck.
“We remember Chuck as the small boy who loved radio,” Dorothy said. “He would practice his radio voice in the garage with a ‘microphone’ he made out of a broomstick. His mother told us that he knew that was what he wanted to do, be on the radio. And one day, almost 50 years ago, Bob introduced him on the air. He wanted to retire 50 years from that date.”
Art Vuolo, Jr. has put together a wonderful online video tribute to Chuck at: http://ohiomediawatch.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/reflections-on-chuck-col…
In his Hall of Fame induction speech two years ago, Chuck shares the story of his “broomstick microphone.” He also thanks Bob Hodson for coordinating his first visit to a radio station and his first professional interview. “Bob, I love you,” Chuck said during his speech.
Chuck mentioned several Highland County area friends who helped launch his Hall of Fame career, including Gary West, Will Parr and Tom Archibald.
Tina Kaufmann, writing for newsnet5.com in Cleveland, reported that “A loyal listener and friend, Jim Roberts, said the loss of Chuck Collier is spreading across Cleveland.
“I wanted to cry when I heard it...He was always smiling and happy to see me. It just makes it so unreal since he’s gone. That is hard to believe.”
After hearing so many wonderful tributes in honor of Chuck Collier, I’m even more sorry that we just met a year ago. Without question, he was a good man and certainly “never forgot his roots.”
Godspeed.
* * *
• A few friends (yes, I have a few) have brought a recent online column to my attention that was just too good to ignore. Plus, it’s certain to generate the usual responses from the usual suspects. What more can any newspaperman ask for?
The column is available for your reading enjoyment at www.townhall.com. It’s written by Peter Ferrara, director of Entitlement and Budget Policy for the Institute for Policy Innovation and general counsel for the American Civil Rights Union. Mr. Ferrara does a pretty fair job of debunking the tax fallacy of the Magical Mystery Re-election Campaign Tour of the Community Organizer in Chief.
Mr. Ferrara points out a recent disingenuous Obama-ism.
Campaigning for re-election, Obama said, “Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher tax rates than millionaires and billionaires. That’s pretty straightforward. It’s hard to argue against that. Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett.”
Mr. Ferrara continues, “Let me educate you, Mr. President, even though I am quite certain you are not interested in hearing any answer that contradicts your beliefs. But the truth is that the unfairness you discuss is a fantasy. The facts are just the opposite. Even before you were elected, under the tax policies adopted by President Reagan, House Speaker Newt
Gingrich, and the much-vilified President George W. Bush, official IRS data for 2007 showed that the top 1 percent of income earners paid more in federal income taxes than the bottom 95 percent combined!
“Either you don’t understand the basics of America’s tax policies even after you have been president for three years, or you are engaged in calculated deception thinking your fairy tale will fool enough gullible people that you can be re-elected despite an economic record so bad that it is threatening to rival the Great Depression.”
Of course, politicians who engage in “calculated deception” have been around forever.
It’s up to voters to separate candidates of fact from those of fantasy.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]
The Hall of Fame radio show host and New Vienna native passed away Sept. 22, succumbing to a heart attack at the age of 64. Cleveland area listeners knew Chuck from his country music program on WGAR, where he also served as the station’s music director.
Some of us weren’t so lucky as the Cleveland radio audience. The city once called the “mistake on the lake” has lured a couple of Highland County’s own to the more metropolitan microphone. Chuck Collier and Lynchburg’s Bill Wills, of course, come to mind.
Longtime local radio personalities Will Parr and Herb Day introduced Chuck and me on the morning of July 4, 2010 during the Festival of the Bells.
Earlier that week, the Highland County Board of Commissioners had proclaimed the 4th as Chuck Collier Day in Highland County. Chuck was not able to attend that week’s commissioners’ meeting. But as I recall, Highland County Chamber of Commerce President Katy Farber graciously held the commissioners’ proclamation in Chuck’s honor at the request of a certain newspaper owner.
I presented Chuck with a few copies of The Highland County Press last July and he was more than generous in mentioning this fact on one of the HCP’s Festival of the Bells videos by Brandy Chandler, which you can see on our website.
Chuck also pointed out that Katy “takes a better photo than I do.”
Our good friend Bob Hodson recalls “the old days” when Chuck started out on WSRW radio in Hillsboro.
Bob and Dorothy Hodson spent time with Chuck just before he suffered his heart attack.
“During our-two hour conversation last Wednesday, he was telling us about his retirement plans,” Bob told me earlier this week. “He said his retirement would be March 23, 2013, exactly 50 years to the day since he visited with me on The Community Bulletin Board. I later took him to WSRW and introduced him to Willard Parr, and that started his career on radio. He never forgot his broadcasting roots.”
Chuck’s own biographical information at his WGAR website includes this down-to-earth passage: “I’m a small-town Ohio boy at heart. I was born May 6 in Greenfield and raised in New Vienna. I had the early need to talk, and there were only 800 people in my town ... so I had talked to all of them before I was 6. That love of getting to know people is one of the things
Dorothy Hodson stopped by The Highland County Press this past Tuesday and reflected on Chuck’s impressive career in radio broadcasting. She and Bob were at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Chuck.
“We remember Chuck as the small boy who loved radio,” Dorothy said. “He would practice his radio voice in the garage with a ‘microphone’ he made out of a broomstick. His mother told us that he knew that was what he wanted to do, be on the radio. And one day, almost 50 years ago, Bob introduced him on the air. He wanted to retire 50 years from that date.”
Art Vuolo, Jr. has put together a wonderful online video tribute to Chuck at: http://ohiomediawatch.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/reflections-on-chuck-col…
In his Hall of Fame induction speech two years ago, Chuck shares the story of his “broomstick microphone.” He also thanks Bob Hodson for coordinating his first visit to a radio station and his first professional interview. “Bob, I love you,” Chuck said during his speech.
Chuck mentioned several Highland County area friends who helped launch his Hall of Fame career, including Gary West, Will Parr and Tom Archibald.
Tina Kaufmann, writing for newsnet5.com in Cleveland, reported that “A loyal listener and friend, Jim Roberts, said the loss of Chuck Collier is spreading across Cleveland.
“I wanted to cry when I heard it...He was always smiling and happy to see me. It just makes it so unreal since he’s gone. That is hard to believe.”
After hearing so many wonderful tributes in honor of Chuck Collier, I’m even more sorry that we just met a year ago. Without question, he was a good man and certainly “never forgot his roots.”
Godspeed.
* * *
• A few friends (yes, I have a few) have brought a recent online column to my attention that was just too good to ignore. Plus, it’s certain to generate the usual responses from the usual suspects. What more can any newspaperman ask for?
The column is available for your reading enjoyment at www.townhall.com. It’s written by Peter Ferrara, director of Entitlement and Budget Policy for the Institute for Policy Innovation and general counsel for the American Civil Rights Union. Mr. Ferrara does a pretty fair job of debunking the tax fallacy of the Magical Mystery Re-election Campaign Tour of the Community Organizer in Chief.
Mr. Ferrara points out a recent disingenuous Obama-ism.
Campaigning for re-election, Obama said, “Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher tax rates than millionaires and billionaires. That’s pretty straightforward. It’s hard to argue against that. Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett.”
Mr. Ferrara continues, “Let me educate you, Mr. President, even though I am quite certain you are not interested in hearing any answer that contradicts your beliefs. But the truth is that the unfairness you discuss is a fantasy. The facts are just the opposite. Even before you were elected, under the tax policies adopted by President Reagan, House Speaker Newt
Gingrich, and the much-vilified President George W. Bush, official IRS data for 2007 showed that the top 1 percent of income earners paid more in federal income taxes than the bottom 95 percent combined!
“Either you don’t understand the basics of America’s tax policies even after you have been president for three years, or you are engaged in calculated deception thinking your fairy tale will fool enough gullible people that you can be re-elected despite an economic record so bad that it is threatening to rival the Great Depression.”
Of course, politicians who engage in “calculated deception” have been around forever.
It’s up to voters to separate candidates of fact from those of fantasy.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]