- Hello, I'm Dwight Davis.

As you probably know by now, we have recently lost a leader, a colleague, a friend in by and Webb Bayan was many things to many people, a leader, a friend, a teacher, a mother.

Her spirit touched the lives of many people who knew her personally, and thousands who did not.

What we intend to do in this program is to talk to some of those people who will remember Ian's life, celebrate her spirit and share in some things you may not have known about a woman whose vision continues to motivate us.

Vian Bryant was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia.

In 1938, her father worked in ship building.

Her mother was a woman ahead of her time, working as an executive with CNP while raising a family.

Bain's home life was like that of many young women raised before and during World War ii.

- She was born in the Portsmouth area and her family and our ancestors are from this area.

And there'd be some times that she'd tell us stories about when, when she was young, - She was an adorable baby, beautiful little curl type curls and everything.

And as she grew up she was sort of a wanderer, very much like a Arab away from place to place.

Sometime we didn't know where she was.

She didn't wanna like a dirt to get on her.

Soon as little dirt would get on her socks and anything, she'd come in and change her clothes.

But she loved to read, be one to find and buy in, look in your bedroom with a book or something.

But she never did read much trashy stuff.

It was always the classics.

- She very involved in music when she was even a very small child.

That was something that she just dearly loved, I believe.

Something that she was born with.

- I don't know how old she was when she started taking music, but I think she was about six or seven when I took her to at Hampton.

They had triviata.

That's one of my favorites.

And I think it was one of hers too.

And she really got interested in the classical side of the music - That Vian loved.

Music from an early age is evidenced from the school pageants and performances she was involved in.

After high school, Vian attended West Hampton College and the College of William and Mary.

It was there that she met Howard Webb from Newport News.

They married, attended classes, worked and started a family.

- When I think of, you know, talk to friends and you're or other mothers now, and you're talking about nursery rhymes and fairytales, I know every single nursery time rhyme, every single fairytale, I think every children's book that was ever written because of my mother.

- And she used to sing to me all the time.

She had just a fabulous and a beautiful voice and she would always sing to us.

There was always music playing in the home.

- I would come home from school or I'd come into the house and the windows would be open and the opera would just be blaring, blaring out the windows.

And I was almost embarrassed at that age to walk into the house 'cause it was so loud and she'd be singing along and, and and doing quite a good job.

I mean, she had a beautiful voice.

- The needs of a growing family soon created a need for Ian to find work outside the home.

Her love of music and her musical background, coupled with a ous voice soon helped her locate what was to be the chance of her lifetime.

- I remember at first when we were in Williamsburg that she was home pretty much all the time.

And I remember her talking to me, speaking to me about going to work and she was gonna go to work at a radio station and my father was working there at the time, and I was old enough at that time to recognize this is around 19 60, 61, I believe was old enough at that time to recognize that was something exciting to have your mother on the radio station.

My understanding is to what actually happened is there was a party that she and my father were at, my father being there, of course being employed by the station, and she was walking through the room and somebody was talking about the fact that they needed a record library, but they also needed somebody to fill in part-time on weekends, on the air.

And my mother at the time, not knowing why she said it, said, well, I can do that.

- Diane had an absolutely wonderful time getting that thing in order.

And it was very, very quick when I knew that, you know, we're wasting, we are wasting an asset here with Vian Webb.

She needs to be doing something on the air that Marvel's voice and that presence.

- So she started as the librarian and, and part-time things.

And of course that's the story about the famous story that people close to her know about everyone, assuming that she knew how to run the board and she was supposed to take an air shift from noon till two, and they took her into the studio and said, well, you know, here's the board, here's the records here, the turntables and everything, and we'll see in a couple of hours.

And they left her and she didn't know how to run the board.

And so after the few initial seconds of panic, very typical of Vian, she really studied it.

She really looked around at it, studied it, and figured out what you did and did it.

- Radio appealed to her because it challenges stimulates, provides companionship and informs the listener simultaneously.

The medium fed her inner life and she found the lives of her listeners, - She understood the audience and she made all of it come alive for them.

I truly do believe that she was their intimate companion for a good part of the day when she was on the air and they were very grateful to see her on the air whenever she came.

- I remember when she first started at the station, I was about four or five and I remember going over and watching her on the air and watching her at times being nervous.

But what was so remarkable about her is you could tell she was nervous, especially being one of our children, having a real feel for her.

But of course on the air she had that, that special voice and that carriage, and she was always very smooth and comfortable.

- In the mid 1960s, W-G-H-F-M made the decision to go all classical and they just did it and they did it with a sense of style that was more than anything via an listeners were drawn to her and the music.

She made connections, connections between music, theater and literature and dance.

She believed in radio as an art form and May W-G-H-F-M, an arts organization in itself, the station became an advocate for and a partner with the arts organizations of Hampton Roads.

She became the station's program director in 1970, - But AM radio was owned the world and FM was the new entity on the block and was not a welcome neighbor on the block, WGH fm.

Then going to a highly specialized format, targeting a particular segment of the market was very innovative.

Being FM was innovative.

- Vion Webb was personally responsible for turning that station into a classical station.

She knew that there was a need in the community, which could be served by a classical station and that there was far greater interest in such a station than anyone believed.

She did it overnight.

She took the station from jazz, I think primarily jazz and just made it classical and it was a wonderful boon to this community.

You can't imagine what it was like for classical music people to be able to turn on the radio and hear classical music.

- In retrospect, I don't think we knew we would ever have gotten where we got in later years, both economically and artistically, if you will.

If it hadn't been for VA's - Expertise.

Vian had a distinctive on air sound.

She believed that radio was an intimate medium.

When she was on the air, she pictured a person with whom she was sharing the music and spoke to that person alone.

The magic of Ian's technique was that each of her listeners believed that she was speaking directly to him or her.

- In Japan, when they present a gift, this is a, it's almost a holy moment.

Well, her presentations of works to people got just the labor, just the person on the street interested just hearing this music marvelous musical voice with a warmth and a sense of love and and purpose behind it.

You just couldn't turn the dial when she was on, and that's a gift - She drew you in.

I know she always drew me in.

If I'd hear her voice, I'd want to listen.

Ian's - Voice gave the personality to the station its particular personality, and that was, that was the anchor.

The many, many programs that were put on the air around the arts certainly would have worked far less well had it not been for that voice.

- I had heard Vian for a number of years through W-G-H-F-M when I was in Greenville, North Carolina, then working at a TV station and I heard one of my musical mentors, Jim Reese, said, Taylor, Taylor, come over here, listen to this station.

It's our kind of music.

And then Ian's voice came on and I thought, here's someone talking to me, not at me.

And I was vastly impressed with her personal one-on-one approach to the music and that she was enthused and shared it with you.

It's like she was like, she was in your living room saying, listen to this, listen to this.

It's wonderful.

- And she did it with a very light touch, I think.

I mean, it was never preachy.

It was never pedantic, but always interesting.

And I think presented with enthusiasm.

I think that's the thing.

- She had that exquisite voice, that God-given beautiful voice that seemed to be almost pied Piper in its quality.

She could draw people in to what she loved, to what she felt passionately about and converted them.

- Wit's, intelligence, whimsy, imagination and passion were all elements of her personality and all were evident in the radio programming that she created - When she would introduce, she had a way, just a flare for getting some of the more personal characteristics across rather than the professional ones.

And very often these personal characteristics are foibles that made her wit and let's say her, her flail for introducing persons.

I think that much more enjoyable.

- She had a way of making things seem very tactile, that you could reach out and touch the music, reach out and touch the person behind the microphone.

That's something else she taught me.

She was a great teacher about that.

Always make it sound real for your audience.

Make it seem as if you're speaking to them one on one behind that microphone.

Make it come alive.

This isn't television you have to make and create the pictures for them with your words.

Be evocative.

- The best thing that ever happened to her, whether she knows it or not, it's when Ray Bottom hired her in 1965, she had a medium she could use to promote the thing she loved best.

The arts vc, Dante I, the mind boggles at how many arts institutions would not be in existence today without her enthusiasm and drive and love and it was genuine.

- Vian became a writer and reviewer for the daily press.

Times Herald and brought to her reviews the level of creative thought and sensitivity that people had come to expect from her persona on the radio.

The breadth of her interests and the depth of her knowledge were assets in taking local criticism to a new level.

- She approached reviewing the way she approached everything else with a great deal of study scholarship.

She brought all of the connections she made in her own mind to the art that she was reviewing.

- My first encounter with Vian was as a critic for the daily press.

She'd reviewed some of my shows and she came to speak with me and she told me I had a lovely singing voice and a lovely speaking voice.

And of course I was terribly impressed with this lovely, sophisticated, educated woman who was just so wonderful.

And of course I read every single review that she wrote after that, whether I was in it or not.

- Reviews don't have to be all glowing for an artist to really feel appreciated.

As a matter of fact, it's very good to get knowledgeable criticism.

It's what you want.

It's what we give each other as colleagues in the field.

But what Vian had as a critic was the love of the art form, which a lot of critics don't after all.

And you wonder why they are really even coming to the performances other than it's a paid job.

But for Vian, music was her life and she gave that to the community.

She gave it to us.

- She wrote with such enthusiasm for music, not just for the performance that came through in the critique.

I think she found it difficult to say anything bad about her performance because she loved the music so much.

But she was very fair.

- Vian connected the arts community with the radio station, not only through programming, but through direct advocacy.

It was her theory that if you enjoyed listening to the Beethoven symphonies on the radio, it followed that you would support the live performances of them in your community.

Vian became a member of the boards of arts organizations and an effective advocate.

- Vian was a regionalist, and I can remember when the new Newport News Arts Commission first began to function and she became its chair and many of its policies in trying to support regional endeavors grew out of her, her advocacy for the thought that we could have better arts and more of them if we all pitched in together.

- There are certain realities of life in the arts and Vian knew them as well as anyone else.

And she worked to surmount the same barriers we all do working in in the arts, and she knocked a lot of them down.

She was a great supporter - Of the symphony and she was, she, she played my recordings, Royal and London Philharmonic recordings, but she would also do the program that we were going to do.

She'd play the works and the, with various different conductors doing this and doing that.

And it made it very, very interesting for the people out there waiting to come to a concert.

- But I think as an eloquence spokesperson for the arts, that no one has ever touched her.

That, as I say, that beautiful voice.

And she had a logical mind, which would knock businessmen over, you know, they would say this lovely creature with this beautiful voice, and she's a radio personality.

And then she'd talk to them in business men's terms, and they were absolutely fascinated and they usually gave her what she asked for.

- As W-G-H-F-M grew in stature, it garnered a claim from radio professionals in the world of concert music broadcasting.

Vian was elected president of the Concert Music Broadcasters Association and became active at the national level for setting standards and style for classical music broadcasters across the country in broadcasting.

As in so much of life, good things come to an end.

WGH was sold and the new owners decided to turn the format to pop and rock.

Vian accepted an offer to participate in a new project for Parkway Productions, a classical music program service being produced for National public radio.

- It was a real challenge to formulate something that would be listenable and not just listenable, but compelling, and yet you couldn't tailor it to any particular time of the day, of the week, of the month of the year, nor any place nor any, you know, just it, it was truly generic programming.

And she, she was really ambivalent about taking the job, but she went ahead and, and kind of took the leap.

And along with the people at Parkway, she kind of led them into a format that was very successful.

- And one of the most exciting things for me was to go across the country and, you know, search on my car radio as I would drive hither and y in Mississippi or really anywhere.

I was in Denver at one point and I turned on a program and there was Vance's voice once again persuading people that, that the music you were about to hear was important, that it was significant, that it was of great interest and that you were going to love it.

- Meanwhile, the NPR affiliate in her hometown was undergoing growing pains and looking for new leadership.

Not surprisingly, they looked to Vian Webb.

- I got a call one day from one of our board members who said, you remember Vian Webb?

I said, of course.

And in fact, we have her on, on the satellite with classical music programming through Parkway.

And she said, well, I think she might be interested in coming back to Hampton Roads if there was something worth her while, so would you be interested in talking to her?

I said, absolutely.

And we met, we talked probably for two and a half hours one day down at Waterside, and that led to are developing a program or a, a position in cultural programming and offer her the job.

She came back and it was the beginning of a wonderful collaboration.

- One of the ironies is that when the old commercial radio station died, that WHRO almost became that reincarnated in a, in a, in a different guise, but one by one, the same announcers, one by one, the same staff, people, programmers, and so on came here.

I think that's wonderful because there was something really wonderful going in that, and I know what a very sad day it was when that stopped.

- If you have a taste for either classical music or jazz, you will soon have some new alternatives on the FM dial.

WHRO staffers started celebrating a little early today in preparation for tomorrow's debut of a new public radio station, WHRO, which will broadcast the classical music, will now move to 90.3 on the FM dial and add 89.5.

You will find a new station, WHRV, an eclectic mix of jazz, light, classical, and even use of public affairs.

The two stations hit the air on their respective frequencies at noon tomorrow, and no doubt that celebration will continue.

- Planning two new radio stations was a test of energy and will, the task was to create two discreet stations, each serving a particular audience with specific needs and high expectations.

One of the things that might surprise people who didn't know Vian personally is that the same hand that shaped the classical music station also shaped the public affairs eclectic music station.

Ian's taste and knowledge of the audience embraced alternative rock, folk, jazz and blues.

- People would be very surprised at how conversant Vian could be about rock and pop music because she listened to it, she listened to it with her kids.

- Every decision she made was intended to satisfy out her own personal interest or taste in, in, in programming, but an audience out there - That was really, I think her ideal for both stations is that there is no limit.

You don't limit, you don't narrow the field.

Good music is good music, whether it's John Prine or whether it's Mozart.

- People might also be surprised to know that Vian was a funny lady.

Anyone who lives a full and dynamic life suffers a full measure of slings and arrows.

And so it was with Vian, her response was generally laughter.

She possessed a keen sense of the foibles of human nature and an appreciation for the absurdities of life.

- I remember one time I was 16 years old and I came down the stairs.

It was my birthday and my boyfriend was there and it was gonna be a, you know, 16 type date.

I didn't want my mother around.

I came down the stairs and she had the dining room table set with like Mickey Mouse birthday plates and balloons and party hats and little streamers.

I was horrified, but that's the kind of thing that later I really, it's the kind of thing I to my kids now, it's like, it's later.

I really appreciated that she was like that.

- She was rather earthy sometimes very mischievous.

She had that great little grin.

Grin and one of the things, she's probably one of the few women in the world as wonderfully sophisticated as she was that could say t he and you knew something was going on and then the, the eyes would slide from side to side t he, my dear, I have something to tell you.

Then she'd take you by the hand or the arm and take you back into that room and share these, these wonderful pearls of wisdom, these little gems that would have you laughing for just ages.

- Anne was down to earth, God, some of the best stories we could tell about her, we cannot tell now the stories she would tell and she was very earthy and she was very, very approachable.

But I told her I think earlier this year that I always thought she was the little girl inside who wanted to have a good time and very much presented having to be an adult.

She said, you are right.

I don't like being an adult.

I'd stop it now if I could, but I can't.

- In 1986, WHRO TV created a program to celebrate the cultural life of Hampton Roads.

Our place, our time was W'S flagship program for five years and it reflected the regional vision and the Catholic tastes of its spokesperson.

Baan was chosen as the host because she embodied the qualities.

We wanted our program to have an advocacy for the arts, an acute wide ranging curiosity and a credibility with the audience we wanted to serve.

And when she talked, we listened.

- We're beginning a new adventure tonight.

This is the first program of a cultural magazine.

We're calling our place our time.

We're going to look at here and savor the people, the places and the things that express and give shape to the arts and to the character of our region.

We'll do that with interviews, essays, performances, features and briefs that will describe and reveal our region while they celebrate it.

Our place, our time will be about us, about the adventure we share of living in Hampton Roads, - The producers and crews of our place, our time range throughout Eastern Virginia and North Carolina.

To cover the cultural beat, their understanding of what culture means reflected by ants.

It was inclusive and wide ranging.

- The reason that I decided to learn how to weld was because there was a piece of Holocaust sculpture that I just had in head and just decided I really had to put into, into form and therefore I welded for a couple of years and learned the technique and therefore felt ready to tackle the task.

- Perhaps the most visually striking aspect of the society is the fighting.

It's a full contact martial art governed by strict rules.

The fighters, both men and women do battle with a variety of weapons made from the pliable wood ratan.

- After five sessions of workshops creating, composing and collaborating, the production takes shape and moves out of the classroom and onto the stage where it is almost ready for opening night.

- What happens with this is it in the beginning, you know, there some, sometimes they're a little reluctant to, to throw out ideas, but by the end when they've had all their ideas, like either seriously addressed at least, or, or actually put into the play, then they see that process working.

It makes them somehow more aware of what goes into performing arts and makes them better audiences.

- Joanne Fileta is already the conductor of three orchestras in California and Colorado, and she's very much in demand as a guest conductor.

No woman has ever been the music director of a major American symphony orchestra and no woman has ever been the music director of the Virginia Symphony.

And so we wonder whether Joanne fella will change these things.

Tim Morton pursued the question.

- I was really very young.

I was about 10 or 11 when I began to formulate in my mind that the idea that I would want to be a conductor.

I had been studying music since I was seven.

I realized that the repertoire written for Symphony Orchestra was to me a repertoire that was not equaled by any single instrument.

And the idea of so many people, different people from different backgrounds, men, women, old, young, coming together and making music as an orchestra was thrilling.

- Some of the early origins of that, of, of our place, our time came out of listening to the professionals in the cultural community and many of the people who serve on boards Concern about why the media didn't pay more attention to the cultural life of the, of the community and showcase some of these, these resources, which was not an easy task for the media and I, and, and but seemed to me that it was the kind of thing that public broadcasting could do.

- Welcome back to our place, our time.

- We saw the composed professional vian on camera.

What we never saw were those moments behind the scenes with the producers and crew.

- Hello, I'm Vian.

That's not it.

I thought the hunt was ready.

Hello, I'm Vian Webb.

Hello and welcome to our place our Time.

I'm Vian Webb and I have forgotten what I'm supposed to say.

Next pause.

Please use it.

We have one other on there.

Please use it.

- You said innovative was - You must not pay such close meticulous attention.

Alright, - It is our job for water.

That's our job.

- Okay, Billy, here comes number 27, call it out the seduction Oreo chere la I need to take it again.

There's a bug going in my mouth.

We are testing bill to his mathematical limits today.

- I want you to know, make it right.

- I don't know which number this is Liz four already my how time flies when you're not getting it right.

This is intro two, take four.

Ch go ch go ch go.

You know the potential destruction of a building, this handsome.

We're also preview the forthcoming visit to Norfolk of the great Martha Dam.

Grants, grants company.

This is take number two.

Easy for you to say - One.

Damn.

- I know.

Well, right.

I had, I had no idea.

The the our place, our time is, is a typical example.

I didn't know my mother was the host of a TV show for five years.

People always would say, I saw your mother on tv.

I saw your mother on tv, I saw your mother on tv, but I didn't know she was the host of a TV show for five years.

Now why wouldn't your mother tell you something like that?

And that's so typical of my mother.

- Our place, our time is gone now and so is Vian Webb.

She leaves behind two successful public radio stations and a tradition of local responsiveness for our television station.

She also leaves behind an unforgettable legacy best expressed by her colleagues and friends.

- What she leaves behind is a memory which will always be alive memory.

We'll still think of Ian as is.

- And those are the things that I remember the most.

The warmth, the love, the humanity, the making of everything come real and alive.

The educator, the mentor who was not ever, ever removed from you, she was always with you.

She worked with you.

And that's a, that's a great facility to have.

Very few people have that.

- You can write a job description, but if someone doesn't bring their own commitment and energy and skill and talent and sheer genius to it, it won't work.

And Vne brought that - Well, she leaves us stronger because we had her voice speaking for us for so long.

- I would say her legacy is excellence and love.

- If we could touch the lives of others as she did, the world would be a very different, different place.

- I think that her being here and and with you and with us all has made, has helped to project classical music in which I also have been so interested all my life to our wider audiences in a way that I could never succeed in doing it if I, if I lived to be many years - Older.

I think she's left us a, a legacy of, of seeing two wonderful radio stations on the air and a staff of people who are, who share her passion and her high regard for the audience.

- I think the thing that I would like to say about her is that she suffered fools gladly.

She, we would often talk about people that we all know and love who did not suffer fools gladly.

And that always really bothered her.

She suffered fools gladly because she realized as she herself and everyone else were all fools from time to time.

And that's what makes us really human.

And that's what I remember the most.

- Now that's in the hearts of every single person.

The thousands of people over 20 years time that loved, have loved classical music radio in Hampton Roads.

That's this delicious celebration that just will go on and on and on.

And that's, that's a life to celebrate, isn't it?

- If I ever meet a lady like Byan Webb again, I will be more than lucky.

I will be blessed.

But by the way, I don't expect to meet anyone like that again.

We are all my much, much better off and richer.

I certainly am for having known someone like that.

The music now and the memories I can carry with me for the rest of my life.

She did a damn good job.

I guess that's it.