Lesson in 'urgency' is as valuable now as it was 40 years ago

As the news format evolves on dailyherald.com, I'm reminded every day that it's urgency that drives it all.

When I'm down, you always comfort me

When I'm lonely, you see about me

You are ev'ry where you're 'sposed to be

And I can get your station

When I need rejuvenation

Van Morrison, Wavelength

Van Morrison could hardly have had all-news radio in mind when he wrote that song in 1978, but the sentiment certainly applies to me as I reflect on the celebration this week of WBBM-780 AM's 40th anniversary in that format.

I had limited formal training in journalism and even less in broadcasting when I took my first news job for a small radio station in Clinton, Iowa, in the fall of 1976. So, I had to find a model from which to learn. Turns out 'BBM had lessons to send across the plains that were valuable not only for a young broadcaster in the 1970s but also for a middle-aged (ahem) newspaper editor in the Internet Era.

If there is a word that describes news coverage on radio, it is urgency. If there is a word that describes the urgency of radio, it is fun. As a one-man operation in a small town, I had the constant fun of filling five minutes every hour with all the tension, excitement and consequence that government and human activity could produce in a small Mississippi River town. News had to be gathered in minutes, complex decisions made on the fly and stories written sometimes seconds before they were delivered, often edited as they were being read on the air. It was a demanding journalism boot camp, and WBBM Newsradio sssssssssssseventy-eight, as the grizzled voice of John Madigan would report it, became my drill instructor.

For while my deadlines arrived by the hour, 'BBM's came by the minute. Though the politics, crime and disaster of Chicago had little to do with my world three hours and a vast chasm of culture west, it was inspiring to follow reporters like Bob Crawford, John Hultman, Don Mellema and so many others, to hear how effortlessly they presented the drama and import of the news.

In whatever medium, Election Night is a newsperson's Super Bowl, and, when I wasn't in the game myself - sometimes even while I was working my own election stories - WBBM's Election Night coverage became one of my greatest pleasures. What could be more exciting than to listen to every nuance and twist through hours of anticipating whether Jane Byrne would sweep in to change Chicago politics or Jimmy Carter to change the country?

If you wanted to follow as a mystery evolved, WBBM was the place to turn. Long before CNN brought us unfolding war in the Persian Gulf, how well I remember following along with WBBM and CBS radio the morning it was first learned that a U.S. congressman and TV camera crew had been chased down and ambushed in Guyana, leading to the discovery of James Jones' bizarre mass suicide.

My journalistic dreams would take me into the deeper storytelling of print and out of range of WBBM for a decade, but when I returned to the Midwest, one of my first and favorite reunions was with the familiar voices and faux-teletype clatter of Newsradio 78. By that time, CNN was hatching the all-news format on television, Al Gore was inventing the Internet, and journalism was set on a course that would blend the depth of print, the visual excitement of television and the urgency of radio into a single format. As that format evolves on dailyherald.com, I'm reminded every day that it's the urgency that drives it all, a lesson charged by a wavelength WBBM began beaming out 40 years ago this week.

So, happy birthday, WBBM Newsradio ssssssssseventy-eight. And thanks.