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Reid and Steele: i
By AUDREY L. WILLIAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
t I
Two of the more listened to people in the Winston- ,
Salem community are probably two of the least recognized.
It's the voices of Pat Reid and Jim Steele that local
residents are more familiar with, although Steele says
there have been times when people have recognized his
voice off the radio.
Both Reid and Steele cover local news. The only difI..
. Atftwem the two is. that Reid works for black
years now as a member of the WSJS-AM radio news
team, whose audience is primarily white.
WAAA's Pat Reid
Reid, a former member of the WSJS news team, went
aboard WAAA in 1983. Because the station is smaller,
Reid, who has a straightforward and earthy appeal, is the
station's news and public affairs departments.
Her mornings begin at 6:15 and the newsmakers have
known that for quite a while now.
"Most of the people I call for my morning broadcast
are very cordial," says Reid. "All my news is important
but the early morning news is very important. So a lot of
times 1 have to call folk and I know they don't like it, but
I always ask, 'Did 1 wake you?'"
A Burlington native, Reid says she ventured into the
broadcasting business on the advice of her brother, a
communications graduate student at Howard University,
who thought she should capitalize on her talkative
nature.
Reid studied at Elon College and the Technical Institute
of Alamance (now Technical College of
Alamance) and earned a degree from the Carolina School
of Broadcasting in Charlotte.
In 1977, she landed her first radio job at WBBB in
Burlington.
* l naa to learn to oe nosey ana it reany usea to nurt me
when people said 'No* to me," she says.
A year later, Reid was in Winston-Salem, and it was at
WSJS that she and Steele formed a friendship that still
exists, even though they now try their best to beat each
other to a story.
"When I first came here 1 had to work hard to build
the confidence and trust of certain leaders in the black
community," she says. "They used to tell me, 'WSJS
doesn't report black news.'
, "But the really fun thing about this business es breaking
news and scooping other reporters," she says.
Heading WAAA's public affairs shows and keeping
abreast with local news keeps Reid on the go, but she says
her 13-year-old son, Trince, understands.
"He cooks," she says. "I can come home tired and
prop my feet up and just wait for him to finish dinner."
A Talker
A tangent talker, Reid moves about from one subject
to another of her broadcast career. One of her recollec
tions sends her into frenzied laughter.
"I wrote for the school newspaper (at Technical Institute
of Alamance)," she says* "and I wrote an editorial
about the instructors showing favortism to the black
students. Nobody talked to me. Everyone thought I was
. militant."
Because radio news is so immediate, Reid says she has
to keep her creative juices flowing and works hard to inform
the black community, especially about the events
^I
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MiiMHHBnMBHf' -itfc f%ii" '1M
*?
Preparing To Lift
Jerone Lovelace: Making the points In athletics
(photo by James Parker).
iMagazir
Adding a persona
that affect their lives.
"There's a misconception that the broadcast media i
rip and read," she says. "I used to do investigative repor
ting and now 1 cover the meetings.
"I've never been a person who liked to just pull out
newspaper or pull something off the AP wire," say
Reid. "This is% community station and I like to be out i
the community. I like to be there."
Reid tries her best to keep the phones ringing a
WAAA on Fridays at 11:30 a.m., when she and her gue<
discuss subjects such as blacks' attitudes toward othe
service on the popular call-in show ' 'Talk At>owtrTow?r
Another popular show, "Personalities in the Con
munity," which Reid both produces and hosts, is wha
she calls "a program about people who are really work
nig in me LUiiiinuiiiiy.
WSJS's Jim Steele . .
Jim Steele tried to put himself in the place of an inte
viewee.
"I stuck the microphone in my face," he says, "ar
now I know why people don't like it."
Steele, who has mellowed since his days as t
outspoken Afro-American Society president at Wa
Forest University five years ago, knows what it's like
be backed in a corner.
After being elected president of AAS at Wake, Ste<
was interviewed by a member of the student newspap
and an off-color remark he made about the organizatii
aaooDA. * I
I B |[| fflTMill
I m & I m
I -
' "
was used in the story.
"I said that it wouldn't be just that 'niggah' organiz
tion," says Steele. He found himself having to expla
himself and make amends with the black alumni of Wa
-- which is why he says he has an honest sympathy f
Jesse Jackson, who took a blistering for referring to Je
as "Hymies" and New York as "Hymietown." Ste<
then grimaces at the mention Milton Coleman, t
Washington Post reporter who disclosed Jacksor
remarks to the public.
An ultimate goal for him once he landed his first j<
Hp halar
RBy AUDREY L. WILLIAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
k Fifteen.-year-old Jerome Lc
Mid defensive back:, gave meint
High'T<56WS1I team quite
:oached lined each of them u|
report cards.
"People looked at me at F
ninth-grader "and thought, 4C
pr ^ac^' p!ays ^?otPa^- H'
IMi When it was Jerome's turn ti
Hf ? what his report card looked 1
I A's and B's in all of his coui
among his peers and any otr
I might have doubted his ac
before.
Albert Nesbit has no doubt
ability, and he refuses to bte
people who typecast others
Jerome's academic talents
I overlooked.
"He's so low-keyed," says
1 you spend a lot of time with
1 never know about his grades.
1 and he doesn't push for the h<
does it."
Jerome was inducted into th
Scholars Program this yc
and academics nominated by his guidance
Suitt.
I
I
le Section
il touch to reportin:
rr To R**#
Ml
Lj|a
P* jp KIP
was to fine tune his writing, and after shadowing Reid,
a- she soon became his mentor,
in
ke It's the personal touch that Reid helped him to
or develop, he says, the personal touch that local black
ws leaders feel more comfortable with.
?le "In the black community people conceive you as workhe
ing for the white station/' says Steele, 26. "I could be
i*s wrong but you would probably be more apt to talk to the
station that relates to you, and Pat taught me to be in
3b contact with the black community.
ices athletics and a
"Jerome doesn't sacrifice one for the othe
she says. "He excels in academics and athlet
I think Jerome is a young man with goals, h
>vclacrt,^rrc;ri^L^. 3 ptoruiw*
tcrs of the Hanes
hock when the "Teen-agers live very much in the presen
p and asked for sayS Suitt, "while Jerome manages to live in
present and set goals for the future. Most of
,, . he's a thinker. In class discussion, he's the <
anes, says t e whQ asks the penetratjng questions."
)h, Jerome, he s
e doesn t make History is at the top of his list of favorite s
jects and math ranks a strong second,
o show the coach career goal is aimed at computer technology.
ike, he had only ?rnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmimmmmmmmmmmmmm
on him respect I ' - ??~r??ter
students that I YOlfflQ & GlftOCl '
;,:! ;j. ,'. *-Lt Lta
s about his son's VT . , ... . o , . - ? ..
,m? __ North Forsth High School next fall, Jer
ime prejudice or ... , .. , . ,.
oo w,n be enro^ed in his first computer class,
as the reasons t4T ... . . , . . ,
?? I hke math and working with compute
are sometimes . ... ,, ... , . :
says Jerome. "I really like working with c
puters for the challenge and I think the
Nesbit. "Unless fascinating."
i him you would Recreation for Jerome is playing basketl
He doesn't boast skating at one of the local rinks, talking i
anor roll. He just girls on the phone, bike riding and listenin
the radio.
le North Carolina But a lot of his time is spent alone.
;ar after being "I think a lot," says Jerome, pausing fi
counselor, Jane moment to think about the next question.
"Let me think about that," he answers.
Section B
Thursday, May 31, 1984
g the news
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Still Friends
Probably the reason Steele and Reid have continued
their -friendship is -that -the -WSJS reporter-is just -as
outspoken about issues as she is and whatever else the
subject may be.
"I say what's on my mind," Steele says. "I don't hold
back."
Steele, who lives 26 miles away in Mocksville, arrives
for work at 11 a.m. His most ready memory perhaps was
when he was a newcomer at WSJS and a news story broke
in a neighborhood somewhat foreign to him.
"Somebody got killed at the Dungeon (a now-defunct
local nightclub)," he says, Mso I just flew over there with
my tape recorder and got my interview with the cop. I
was just standing there listening to the witnesses and this
guy walks over to me and asks for my tape.
"I told him that I hadn't taped anything, but he insisted
that 1 give him the tape," says Steele, "so 1 gave it
to him and he just tore it up."
He says that incident taught him that respecting other
people's rights is important, and exercising that respect
has become his way of curbing the paranoia many may
have of the media.
"It's not that you're catering to anybody, but to
everybody," says Steele, "and since blacks are the
minorities, it may seem as though you go that extra mile
to reach the black community."
That added mile is when he opts to go and talk with
people face-to-face rather than using the telephone to get
his questions answered, he says, which he considers a plus
because he feels it helps to be visible.
Both Reid and Steele are in a constant race against
time. The added pressure of getting a story finished in
time for the news, whichever broadcast it may be, seems
to be their fuel for existence.
"That's what gets you going," says Steele, "that
pressure. Racing back with the tape. Writing it in your
head. You're thinking 15 seconds of good material.
"It's a game," he says. "It's a sport. Racing against
time."
cademics
x," Jerome has a very broad view of most things,
ics. Whether the subject is positive or negative, he
j?'? onp? hpvnnH fho intitiol
ig ^ w?iM tiiv Iiuiuax I VO^UII5^dt
t > '*<1
"Somc of my chases are a challenge^ says
vumm iyj'?i? huh n i t > 2=? ? ^ ^> r%-..nwr**-**
j' Jerome. "Science usually is. But I enjoy history
the because when you find out about what happenall
ed in the past, it may help you in the future.
3ne
"Lots of people ask, 'Why worry about the
past?' I just think it's good to know.''
ubHis
Like most young men, Jerome has a lot of
At admiration and adoration for his father, whom
he says he looks to whenever he needs help.
Although Hanes had a 2-4-1 football record
this season, it hasn't discouraged Jerome,
who's already preparing to tryout for the team
VI V- T? 4.1- /A * ^
i^l ?ii ixurin ru^ym. une or nis major projects tor
the summer, he says, is to build his body for the
ome team. He works out every other day and
presently bench presses 155 pounds.
rs ''
"I can be very prejudiced," says Jerome's
mother, Kamonia, "but I think Jerome does
;y re very well in school. He doesn't do the boasting
- I do."
?all,
*ith This summer, Jerome will have another
g to challenge: his baby sister, Alvernita, who is a
toddler and eager for her brother's attention.
"I've been an only child for so long," says
or a Jerome, "that I got used to being myself,
especially on rainy days. On rainy days I like to
play Atari, but she can't play."
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