James Wilder - He is one of the many people who parade
through my life that I found amazing. He
owned WBIE Radio Station, which was a walk up to the second floor, on the first
block of Atlanta Street. He was an
indebt reporter of local news and was a hands on operating owner of the radio
station he owned.
He drove a two-two baby blue and white Ford, something like
a 1956 model. It had emergency lights on
it which helped him get through traffic to a fresh accident. I was told he made a lot of money being the
first photographer on hand at automobile wrecks, not for the news for his radio
station but to sell the photographs to insurance companies involved.
At times he would work endless on his prerecorded radio
program and lie down on the floor of his office, take a brief nap, then, get up
and back at it. I have heard Jim giving
the time and the whole show was recorded days ago. I guess he had a system or a formula by the rolling digits on the tape recorder
that he could translate into minute and seconds, and if the tape started
playing the exact moment it was suppose to, then the time of the day could be
accurately said.
WBIE played country and western. It also played lived Rock-a-Billy. True,
Billy Joe Royal and his band performed live for a short time on a week
day (after school. I forgot the exact
time of their show, I think it was something like 5:00 pm, I think it was
either a 15 or 30 minute show. Which, I
was fortunately enough to attend several of the live shows.
At the time we lived on Richard Street in Marietta. Jim and his family lived on the street behind
us on Toliver Street. It was not a
pretentious house at all. It was a house that could have very well be the
farmhouse of a poor family. The type of
house with big rooms with high ceiling - like a 4 room house.
When he died in the 70s his station was worth millions. His son was a musician with the Atlanta
Symphony Orchestra. I don't know, but I
doubt if country and western music was his son's forte'.
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