On the air this week, WLOSers gave a weak goodbye to Jack Lawrence, a 49-year employee who served as director on the set. Diva Darcel and Larry “Gloryhole” Blunt never actually said what his day-to-day job was, and they only quoted him as saying something about the old ghost that supposedly haunted the old Battle House studios.
Here’s a much more eloquent goodbye, from someone writing Ashvegas as “formerwlos-er:”
Jack Lawrence is one of the few rare and incredibly gifted people who literaly put WNC’s local TV news on the air long before we bloggers existed. He is the consumate professional, who rolled with – and mastered – all the bizillion technical changes in TV news over the decades. Jack – I hope you read this. You are irreplacable. One of a kind.
The thing about Jack – is although he directed the LIVE tv shows that WLOS calls news – day after day, show after show – he never lost his very-cool, southern, bad boy edge. As snooze13 has slipped more and more into silliness over the years – Jack simply always did his job with perfection, and got whatever ridiculous bells & whistles of the day ON THE AIR — day-in,day-out – always with that sneaky, bad-boy smile on his face. He is the heart and soul of what TV news is all about – the technical part I mean. Too bad he didn’t get involved in the content. I bet he could have infused that place with a lot more creativity. But then again – why bother? Jack is not only smart as hell – he rolls with the punches and knew how to run those shows better than anyone. And I am proud to say I worked with him for many, many years.
Here’s wishing all the best to Jack from snacking cakes.
1 Comment
Jack may have lost a step or two (or whatever the appropriate phrasing would be to describe not being quite as skillful punching the buttons on the control board) over the past few years, but he’s still just about the first person who comes to mind when I think back over my years there. A ray of slightly off-kilter sanity in a way off-kilter business. As intimated by "snacking cakes," Jack’s nicknames for the people of News 13 often became the way we referred to each other and ourselves. For better or worse, Tex, Billy Bob, RF, Puddles, Neon, the Goob, the VI, Scoot, My Friend, Rooster, Patch, Do Little and many more will always bring up fond (or otherwise) memories. More often than not, we were in "extreme heads-down mode," but usually got it together when we heard the most famous words in behind-the-scenes broadcasting: "Smile, prepare to do well. Here we is going." Let ‘er rip, Jack, you harmless refined old gentleman.