Exemplary
rural broadcasters recognized by colleagues
September 2006
Don Neagle of WRUS Radio in Russellville
and Jim Freeland of WCBL AM-FM in Benton received
the Kentucky Mike award for outstanding personal contributions
to Kentucky broadcasting at the fall 2005 conference of the Kentucky
Broadcasters Association. Both are great examples of good small-town
broadcasters (Freeland said "I have lived the dream"),
but Neagle is an old friend of Al Cross, director of the Institute
for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, so this report
focuses on Neagle.
Francis Nash of Grayson, the recognized historian of Kentucky
broadcasting, introduced Neagle as "a very historic radio
figure." He said, "Don Neagle . . . has become a true
household name in Western Kentucky, and I think Don certainly
epitomizes what a small-town broadcaster is supposed to be, wearing
every hat you can think of – announcer, salesman, news reporter,
sports commentator and manager, and I’m sure probably swept
a few floors, too. Folks in Logan County have been waking up to
his smooth delivery, his sharp insights and his jovial manner
for half of a century. His ‘Feedback’ show has served
as a platform for local, regional and national figures. He’s
earned the respect of the community there, and that respect has
certainly gone beyond the boundaries of that community and the
radio station."
Neagle, said, "This all I ever wanted to do. My mother made
a picture of me at four years old talking into a little headset
on my uncle’s crystal radio, pretending I was on the radio."
Neagle, 68, started broadcasting in 1954 from a remote studio
in his hometown of Greensburg for a Campbellsville station. He
moved from Campbellsville to Harrodsburg to Glasgow to Bowling
Green before going to Russellville in 1958, shortly after the
arrival there of print journalist Al Smith, whom Neagle said "taught
me something about integrity in reporting news." Cross, who
worked from 1975 to 1977 at the newspaper Smith owned Russellville,
writes: "Don Neagle is a shining example of the essential
role that small-town journalists must play in their communities
-- trusted reporters, valued commentators, active citizens, community
builders and conveners of civil, public discourse."
Other award winners were: Nash, the Al Temple Award for service
to KBA; Greg Stotlemyer of WTVQ-TV, Lexington,
Kentucky Farm Bureau Communications Award; J.B.
Crawley of Campbellsville and Roger Jeffers of Hopkinsville, J.T.
Whitlock Life Member Award for retiring broadcasters; and Jack
Crowner of Farm
Service Radio Network, Ralph Gabbard Distinguished
Service Award. Crowner, who retired in January from Clear
Channel in Louisville, is a familiar name in farm circles;
he was president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters
in 1970, its Farm Broadcaster of the Year in 1990 and inducted
into its Hall of Fame in 2004. Stotlemyer, who won the Farm Bureau
award for coverage of big changes in tobacco, told the crowd he
"thought tobacco was cabbage" when he moved to Kentucky
years ago, but "I really enjoyed telling the stories of the
farmers around the state, because they are the backbone of the
state."
