From WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made in high school classroom in Brooklyn in the 1970s.

That's where a young Randy Gordon got his first taste for radio.

The now WXXI news director got his start in this over the air English class.

And new journalism was his calling.

When the Watergate scandal broke.

Fast forward more than 50 years and our connection comes full circle with Randy Gordon preparing for retirement.

Tomorrow is Randy's last day at Sky.

After 12 years of service here and an impressive 47 years in the business, this hasn't been an easy week for all of us.

Sky news because I got to tell you, Randy is going to hate me saying this.

And this is not going to be like, Randy's not going to love this hour.

It's too bad.

He's the best boss I've ever had.

He is beloved here.

He's an award winning journalist who in recent days has received the key to the city of Rochester from the mayor and a proclamation from the US House of Representatives.

Last year, he was named employee of the year, according to the New York State Broadcasters Association.

Randy is one of the longest serving news directors in the state.

But despite his many accolades, colleagues and listeners alike know him as a down to earth, kind hearted person whose passion for journalism is rivaled only by his passion for NASCAR or antique radio or Star Trek.

So this is it.

Live long and prosper.

Evan, I've tried to teach you this before.

Okay.

Live long after the show.

Randy is the first to answer the newsroom phone.

He's the last to leave the office who oversees the operation of the newsroom files his own reports on radio and online.

Plus, you've often heard him on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

I think we all know he's got one of the most recognizable and best voices in radio.

And the staff around here call him the goat.

He's the goat.

The greatest of all time.

This hour we sit down with Randy, talking about nearly 50 years in radio, how he's covered some of the heaviest stories and half a century of news, what it means to work in this sort of weird and changing industry.

All of that, even now.

I got to say, your last week here, if anybody would have just dropped in here to observe, nobody would have known that this is your last week.

You've run through the finish to do the job.

I mean, it's very impressive.

Do you want me to keep talking about you?

Do you love this?

I don't love it, but it means I have to talk less.

I'm happy for you to continue.

As long as you show me as it.

Yeah.

Live long and proud.

What do I do with my thumb?

The thumb is actually supposed to be out more.

I kind of like to keep it in, but.

Yeah.

Live long and prosper.

Live long and prosper and versus, say, peace and long life.

Live long and prosper is a kind of call and response.

So I'll do this at the end of the hour to you.

Feel free.

Okay.

Yeah.

Randy is, willing to take some of your feedback.

Listeners be nice to him.

It's the second to last day.

but if you want to share some of your thoughts about what you think about Randy Groban, I already have some emails connections at WXXI.

Your phone lines.

we're going to do a little we're going to have some fun this hour with Randy.

I don't know if you know what we have planned, but we're going to I don't, but, this has been one of those weeks, especially when you had t shirts with my face on them yesterday.

We did station.

We had a cake with your face on cake, which no one will cut into my face, which I find kind of, touching in some way.

What year was the picture on the cake?

It was, I want to say it was.

I was still in college, just about, 76, 75.

In that area.

I was like a 20 year old, not knowing what the heck was going on person at that point.

We're going to have some of the photos and some videos for you to see this hour, so be sure to tune in to the YouTube channel if you want to see some of that.

As we.

Doctor Randy, how are you feeling about all this?

yeah.

And I know that it's a kind of cliche, but a bit on the bittersweet.

side.

only.

And that.

Oh, there's my t shirt coming into the room.

I should have probably worn it today, but I wasn't sure that would be a little bit too much.

yeah, it feels a little weird.

You know, I've been doing this for so long, and as you know, I don't really like talking about myself too much, but I, I realized why.

You know, we're kind of chatting a bit today because I've been been around for a while, and the business has changed so much.

I will miss, the people.

It's again, it sounds cliche, but it's true.

The people here have been great.

the best place I've ever worked.

you know, in this business, which is what I've been doing for so long.

But I will miss that.

I will miss the daily grind to some extent.

But on the other hand, you know, I'm often working, you know, 11 hour days on a, on a regular basis.

I do some weekend work and that's kind of on me because I just things I want to catch up on.

but I intend to do some freelance.

I've already kind of signed up to do some of that in the future.

So we'll continue to hear your voice occasionally.

Yeah.

but it'll be good to do it more or less on a schedule that, you know, is partially determined by me and won't involve constant, you know, having to to just grind it out.

I love this quote that you told, our colleague Brian Sharp because I did not know this.

You wanted to be an electrical engineer.

But you told Brian, I figured out quickly I had no aptitude for math.

And it's hard to be an engineer without AI.

And it was, you know, Brooklyn Tech grade school, you know, specializes in why I wanted to go there.

I know a lot of my friends were going to go testing and entrance exam to get in, and, they had some, you know, just really great stuff.

It's a huge building.

You know, thousands of students there.

and so, you know, I was like, the electronics.

Let me try that.

And halfway through the program, my advisor said, Randy, what are you thinking?

Maybe just doing, like, a more general college prep kind of thing?

why would you say that?

Because I'm flunking at a, you know, calculus or whatever.

So, luckily, they they were the home for New York City's, educational station, which, yeah, both radio and TV and for the radio program, you know, back then again, pre-Internet days, they had, different classes that they would do on the air for kids who, for one reason or other, couldn't come to school on a regular basis.

So just maybe 5 or 6 of us in an English class on the air, and the teacher let each of us host it, you know, for a day, whatever.

And when I got to do that and be in front of the mic, you know, being the the ham that I am or later would become, I said, boy, this radio stuff is kind of kind of fun.

And again, it was the same time Watergate was was percolating.

I was watching a lot, of news coverage again.

It kind of had gripped the nation then, it was big event television wise.

And I thought, hey, maybe I can kind of combine my love of broadcasting and my burgeoning interest in journalism.

And there you go.

Who is the first journalist that really made a dent in your consciousness?

I would have to say only because he was around for so long.

And I know very old school, as a, as I guess I am to some extent, Cronkite because I remember him, you know, black and white set, you know, growing up in Queens, my parents had, we were CBS family, watched the local Wbz-tv and, followed by the national news from Cronkite every night.

So I would say that had probably the first kind of impact on me.

but also I was listening and I think Brian's article mentioned this, I remember when WCBS radio had moved from Arthur Godfrey, who was more of a kind of, you know, general entertainment show to all news back in the I was a little kid, obviously early 60s or whatever, mid 60s.

And when they went all news, my mother just kept that frequency on the radio.

So I'd be getting ready for school, listening to, you know, to news in the background while I was having breakfast.

And that kind of got me into the radio bug.

Also, by the mid 80s, you were working.

I was just a young boy, and I remember one of my first memories of news was we had one of those televisions that was like in this wooden frame.

We all did.

Yeah.

I think what I remember of that room was there was the Davenport, and we were having heard a while, we had an Afghan, they had this wood paneled TV.

I mean, it was like, I'll take a meet.

My kid would not recognize.

Right?

I was gonna say, you could say what?

Yeah, he would say a Davenport.

Yeah.

Get off the Davenport.

And I remember getting off the Davenport and going over to the TV because I was like, well, I don't want to watch Oliver North.

And so I turned the channel and it was on every channel.

And I just remember thinking, why is this guy, sitting and talking to the government on every channel now?

And of course, it was the Iran-Contra hearings.

And, and so that's when, like, even as a little kid, my consciousness was, oh, news coverage.

Interesting.

you mentioned Watergate.

What I'm curious about is if there will be anything that could rise to that level where it sort of stops everything.

We almost this week with the signal gate stuff.

Yeah.

I mean, that really broke through for a moment, but there's so much fragmented media and people are literally consuming media all the time now that it's hard to get everybody to stop and watch the same thing.

Very difficult.

And, and, you know, because again, and, you know, holding my phone here, of course I have to have it near me.

And because, you know, God forbid, something, something I don't know about.

That's right.

because it is so fragmented and I think, you know, the Trump folks to some extent, you know, there's been some chatter about this in, in, very said, you know, media sources, they're figuring, hey, this thing is going to blow over at some point.

And a lot of times it does.

You know, what it's like.

Things are the flavor of the day, or if you're lucky, if you're trying to get attention, maybe for a few days.

But the attention span is very short.

Back then you had 1 or 2, you know, actually back I guess three networks, but except for like places where I grew up in New York, weren't that many channels to even watch.

So.

Sure, things run on, you know, one channel or every channel.

I'm going way back when I was a little kid, you know, Kennedy assassination.

These things were huge events.

We've had some huge events.

But back then, it was very easy to grip the nation with that kind of coverage.

those days are not going to be the same again, Evan.

Well, there's a lot that is not going to be the same.

I don't think people hitchhike anymore.

You hitchhike to your first job?

My first job.

I was a student at Sjsu.

you know, work, study and whatever.

I mean, you know, we all, a lot of us try and work through school.

I didn't have parents enough money to have a for me to have a car, you know?

so I was, getting up early a few days a week y, which was doing more classical music, but had a morning variety show, which is a weird thing to say, but woman who did, Joan, I forgot her last name.

Did a show in the morning, and they did news where we use some clips from the BBC and Associated Press, other things.

And it took too long.

There weren't that many busses running at that hour of the day.

So, you know, stick out the old thumb.

And back then we didn't really think twice about doing stuff like that.

So it was downtown.

I'd kind of walk down the hill from Syracuse to downtown, Syracuse.

And they were in Liverpool, which is a suburb of, of Syracuse.

And, hopefully I got a ride and, I didn't get killed.

It was great.

How often did you hitchhike?

Back in the day?

Oh, pretty often, because, again, I was living after the first two years, living on campus.

Lived off campus in about a mile away.

I didn't mind walking, but sometimes, you know, you were in a rush and very often, didn't think about it just.

Just yet.

Yeah.

My father in the 1960s, he said he he grew up in Jamestown, New York, went to school at Miami, Ohio.

He said that's how they got back and forth from Jamestown, New York, to Miami, Ohio, southwest Ohio, via hitchhiking.

And he said it was pretty common.

Yeah, that's just how they truck truckers would stop sometimes.

Not not the big truck, because it's hard to, you know, slow down a big rig and get going again.

But, you know, smaller commercial trucks and, yeah, I mean, I suppose bad things happen occasionally then.

And I suppose it was more males and females that were, you know, hitchhiking for safety reasons, but, you know, just didn't think about it.

I remember I don't know why I'm thinking of this.

I was, didn't put this in the articles, not relevant to being a journalist, but I was a part time job.

I was a foot messenger back before, again, internet days in, high school.

So I used to deliver things all over Manhattan.

But you were a foot massager messenger.

So what?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So let's be very careful how we say that the other job might have been a problem for me later.

Later life.

but in any case.

So I used to deliver parcels to different offices, things like that.

mainly in Manhattan.

But once I had to go out to, Moonachie, new Jersey for the people in new Jersey, residents and I hitchhiked to get out there, too.

So, you know, so much has changed.

And what I hope hasn't changed is I it sounds cliche and it sounds sort of romantic, but what I hope is that as Randy Gorman retires at the end of this week, that his legacy ensures that the high level of journalism is is not going away.

That is certainly our intention.

That is the intention of XI.

but before I start bringing in some mystery guests here, I just want I want to ask you how worried you are about the future of journalism.

I'm worried, and I guess the thing that worries me the most is, And I'm not.

I'm trying to, you know, avoid getting real political here, but there is a very general feeling sense and caused by a whole bunch of different factors that, you know, the term fake news has become a bit too, and dynamic to society, where people do not trust, you know, maybe they trust the very narrow channel of news, whether it be a website or, or some blogs or, you know, something on TikTok or whatever, that they follow a regular basis.

But they're in general, they're very quick to think, and it's not everybody but a certain segment of the populace, very quick to think that, news is either biased or wrong or they don't have the facts right, or they're purposely, you know, distorting the facts without that sense of trust, I don't know that we are going to be able to, you know, we certainly don't enjoy the kind of maybe, popularity, so to speak, that, or trust that, journalism had for a number of years.

it's our job to keep doing our job and, and hopefully, and do it well, but that's the future is a little bit cloudy.

And I do talk to you, to classrooms occasionally.

I mean, you know, college type things.

Come on, journalists, associations that I'm involved with and go to talk at, at various colleges, universities, sometimes high schools, but, try to get them to, if they're interested in this profession to realize it's going to be a challenge.

It's a worthwhile profession, I think, and I think you probably would agree, but be ready to, to be able to have to answer a lot of questions and take a bit of grief from folks who think, you know, no matter what you say, you don't know what you're talking about.

Joel writes in to thank you for the work that you've done.

He says, does he know how to say no?

All the retirees I know are more busy in retirement than they were while working.

Randy mentioned freelancing, but, hope he can learn how to say no.

No.

And says, can we also, can we get a narrative of his career from college to now?

So what's the quick timeline?

Okay, go real quick.

First job, station is no longer on the air.

in Ticonderoga, New York, 1000 watt station with, Brian talked about.

We're near a dairy cow pasture, no insulation.

How to keep the window open, no air conditioning.

So occasionally, cow would blow my window while I was doing the the new news and the and the Amtrak whistle would go off the same time from there.

after a year, I went to, wvas, which is in Liberty, Monticello in the Catskills, I think of the old Borscht Belt.

Have you heard about those areas?

A lot of the hotels were gone by that point.

from there I went to Utica for several years, with, and was news director and reporter there.

And then I went to Connecticut.

That was my only time out of state.

Stamford.

So you got to think all these call letters for about a year.

And I was well to stay there for a while, but I had an offer to be a news editor, basically.

duct tape editor.

back in the days of tape at NBC Radio Network in New York.

So I always wanted to work in New York for a bit.

So I was there a little bit less than a year.

They moved to Washington.

I didn't at the time for personal reasons.

They want to move down there.

went to Albany to another station which is 50,000 watt station, but is off the air now.

They eventually went dark.

That's a whole nother story.

and then I came here, Rochester in 94.

I went to Wham!

I was away briefly back to you to for a cup for a couple of years, but then, came back to Rochester.

So I've been here more or less on for about 17 years, at least in the last 12.

Nice.

12 here, last 12 here.

Do we have some of his first report from Wham!

Can we just listen to a little bit of that now?

Randy Gibbons first, 1994.

Yeah.

Let's listen.

when Rochester's race riots began, one hot summer night on July 25th, 1964, the Reverend Raymond Graves, who now heads the Rochester United Church ministry, was living near the area where the trouble broke out.

But he wasn't the first to find out something was wrong.

Things enough.

I was in the bed when it broke out, and, and my bishop called me from Washington, DC.

Well, know what was going on.

Roger.

That was what's going.

Oh, that's.

I'd love it.

So yes, it is is rioting up there.

There are all kinds of reasons.

Some have speculated were the cause of the riots, but Reverend Graves believes he knows what sparked the melee.

One of the biggest problems we had in Rochester at that time was the slum landlord.

And he says that years after those three days of destruction, people were still worried about another riot, saying it didn't end, that some because every summer thereafter, for a long time, people would get frightened when the weather started getting warm.

Do you think we're going to have a long, hot summer?

The riots of the 1960s may seem like a long time ago, but the Reverend Graves believes that with the problems society faces today, it could happen again.

The riots, sent a signal across this country in a send it to America, and that signal is still waving at them.

And that somebody better take a long, hard look at it.

Because if we have right next time, it's not going to be a black white situation.

And the Reverend Graves went on to say he hopes and prays that they will never come tomorrow.

As we wrap up our look at remembering Rochester's race riots, we'll hear from a reporter who covered the events as they unfolded.

I'm Randy Waterman, NewsRadio 1180 Am.

Wow.

That brings me back.

And you know, we did 31 years ago.

It's hard to leave.

It was that long ago.

And we did a recap here when I came to, Zee.

And I'm trying remember what the anniversary was, but we did something similar, you know, multi-part thing.

And unfortunately, you know, some of the same causes and reasons and issues involved, you know, didn't change all that much.

And many, by the way, may rest in peace.

Reverend graves.

You know, he was controversial at the time, a bit of a firebrand, but I always appreciated anybody I could talk to in this town who was willing to talk.

I mean, rarely ever shied away from, you know, responding.

If we called him for something, he'd been an interview and, had some strong opinions, but also had that lived a lot of that.

And, his perspective was, was, really important part of that piece.

David Donovan, president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, said Randy Gorman set the gold standard for news directors.

There are very few that can compare with his service record.

Tomorrow is his last day at six.

I although as he said, he's going to freelance, you'll hear his voice here and there.

But, he has earned a retirement and we are reluctantly agreeing to that.

Yeah.

If you guys are just going to chain me to my desk.

Well, yeah, but before we.

We got a long way to go in this hour.

So this is your life, Randy.

Girl, you're.

You ready for this?

This is going to be you.

Remember that show?

It was an interesting show because sometimes they bring somebody out of the guest.

Didn't really want to talk to me.

That won't happen.

So I'm trying to think of who that could be.

Okay, Randy Garvin, this is your life.

We're going to hear from some people from your past.

You may not know who some of them are right away, or maybe you will love this music, by the way, let's see.

Let's bring on our first mystery caller.

Are you there, caller?

Do we have him there?

Hello?

Hello?

am I am I on the air?

On, Hello.

Hello there.

Hello.

Randy Goldman.

yes.

There's, I first met Randy Goldman.

That's in 1994.

So that was the, the same same year you came that, w a, there, wasn't it there, sir?

yeah, it was a long, long, long, long time ago.

My first real news director with the messiest desk, you know.

Come on.

I had ever seen it was cast against that desk.

Well, it was it was absolutely incredible.

But I had I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and, I was I was fortunate, to have to have been blessed to work alongside him and, at a primetime capacity for, oh, some 20 plus years in the afternoons of, as he read the news, I would try to make him laugh on the other side of, on the other side of the microphones.

And, maybe I, maybe I gotcha once or twice there.

Randy Goldman, Joe Lomonaco, one of the and I'm saying this, one of the all time best production guys still works at Wham, of course, but is got an incredible range of voices.

Oh my goodness.

I mean, just amazing.

He could have chosen any one of a thousand characters.

Delmonico.

Thank you for for being on with us.

how you doing?

Joe Lowe?

I'm doing good.

I'm calling in from my basement studio.

I now have the privilege of working from home, and, and doing that that production work for for iHeart radio nationally as well as in Rochester.

But I'll tell you just a quick thing.

And this is not to pump any sunshine up Randy skirt, because I enjoy doing that when I'm in person.

But anyway, you know what?

What?

I mean, when I came to, in 1994 as my second job in radio out of college, I had no intention of doing news at all.

It was not the path I thought I was going to be on.

because of working alongside of Randy, I don't know whether I necessarily became enamored of news, but I came that enamored of the of the culture and the newsroom that he created and what it was like to be creative in going out and finding stories to tell, interesting stories to tell and ways to tell it.

And that is probably the best part of my time with him in a professional capacity is that even though I wasn't a news guy and I never considered myself a news guy, it was just a privilege and pleasure to be able to work alongside somebody who was so good at it.

Finding stories, finding angles on stories.

And we just had this incredible entity that was built in that newsroom, and it wouldn't have been built if Randy hadn't been there to run it.

Joe, nice of you to say, but the 5:00 news hour, which is still on the air.

But when, Joe Lowe did it, Joe.

Joe Lowe, who people don't know.

Joe a moniker, that's his nickname.

yeah.

He was a superb afternoon host, and he actually was pretty easy to crack me up at times.

But I always try to pick a kicker.

You know, it's so funny little story that you do at the end of a newscast.

And Joe usually, often would say something.

I try to make him laugh or vice versa.

But that hour used to sing Joe and I know you did it for so many years, and that was one of my most enjoyable, I guess on air experiences is working with you on that hour?

Yeah, it was, it was just a fantastic experience.

Like I said, you didn't make me a news guy, but you made me enjoy being part of the newsroom.

And I think that's that's quite a thing, Joe, I got to say.

I mean, I, I listen to that 5:00 news hour many times driving either back to the newsroom myself or out in the community.

yeah.

Joe's.

Joe's vocal talent is about as good as it gets.

Oh, yeah.

I also know that everyone who's going to be coming in appreciates you.

And, I'm glad to start with you, Joe.

Anything you want to add before we let you go, Jeff, on the stories, Joe, some things are, you know.

Yeah, I know.

Well, I'll always remember because I don't know if he still does this.

Randy had a way of working with people on the phone.

If he would leave a message and he would always spell his last name.

And this is the thing that's always in my head.

It's like it's Randy Gorman, GRB, as in, boy, yeah, man.

He would always put the BS in boy.

So there's always there's always that little boy that's still with Randy.

Yeah.

Every time he spells his name, it's just that little boy right there in the middle.

Yes.

People on Saint Patty's day, one guy said you must be enjoying it.

Is, are you one of the O'Gorman Gormans?

I said, no, I quite different, different side of the, European continent there, so to speak.

Joe.

Hey, thank you and much respect for the work that you do as well.

Thank you very much.

Thank you as well, Eva Dawson, thank you for having me on the, Thank you.

Joe, I'm gonna go and work with Randy for 20 years.

I'm.

I'm leading this off with this is your life.

All right, you're ready for round two here, Randy Gorman.

This is your life.

And let's see here.

Who else could we have on the line?

Caller, are you ready?

We got him.

Go ahead.

Next guest.

Let's see here.

See if he knows he's on.

Hello, Randy.

Oh, there he is.

You know, speaking of gold standards and hard hitting journalism, as you and I are out in a snowstorm.

Oh, my.

March 22nd.

Best guess for a second I was like, what?

On Facebook Live?

That was one of my most all time fun things.

One, and I was one of those, you know, used to be more typical of Rochester, but it was snowing like a son of a gun and and one and I here and one I think we had the old.

Yeah, like an iPod at that point.

Did you hear something like that or, that I forgot or whatever.

I think it was.

It was an old iPod, I believe.

So what we had.

So we walked down.

Go out there.

Yeah, go down State Street and, yeah, we go down here, downstate to mean there's not many people out.

And it's not I mean, we're just we're bundled up like crazy and we're.

There wasn't even wireless.

One had, like, a cable attached to me.

I, I tried to stand up.

I had my hat in the parka, but it's kind of embarrassing.

So we're sitting there and, you know, of course, who do you find that, you know, snowstorm.

Couple of characters came up.

They were they were good natured guys.

We did some stuff.

And while I'm there and I'm look like, you know, typical reporter.

I've got the thing in the weather and across the road, if you look in the video, which is with the posted somewhere across the way, you see this guy in like, a jogging suit, like just a polyester jogging suit with no coat, and he's just jogging along, so it makes me look like a fool like you.

I am in this coat, and this guy's just like, don't worry.

I think we actually have the audio, do we?

Let's let's, let's listen a little and you can watch on YouTube as well.

We've got video for you to an audio from.

Let's listen, this is exciting news.

Director Randy Workman, who had made the somewhat decision, I think, to come out here to Main Street and, see what was going on with the snow Facebook Live video with, my friend, my colleague Warren Vazquez.

Sir, how are you?

What's what's your name?

John.

We're doing a Facebook Live.

John.

I where are you going?

John?

Us far to the library?

Yeah.

How are you?

How are you dealing with this weather today?

Some don't.

Yeah.

We're.

You have to be, you know, prepare for days like this.

It sounds like you're taking it in stride.

yeah.

You know, you have to always keep gratitude and your attitude.

So, like this guy that you have a better attitude than me right now?

Well, yeah.

Absolutely.

You know, it's all about, you know.

Pretty.

He made you look pretty soft.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now the people are very casual.

I'm like here like.

And you know, it's like I'm used to.

I've been upstate for a long time, but.

And I'm all bundled and these guys are like the owners come.

And of course, by the way, it was Juan Vazquez with you, the jack of all trades.

Oh, my God, this guy too.

First of all, people don't want when you came here, I know before I did Innovation Trail was a prior initiative that we used to have and one kind of shepherded that, you know, from editorial standpoint, but one, how many jobs did you have here?

You were a reporter.

You were producer on the talent producer.

We did some stuff for our television help show Second Opinion.

I think probably the only thing I didn't do was actually host anything on classical.

Yeah.

So, yeah, he definitely could have that guy can do anything.

Yeah.

This guy and one actually came back with us, did some TV updates on site for election night.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So one, a little bit like Randy, we can't let him go fully.

and we're going to try to keep Randy in the fold here.

If listeners are just joining us here, Randy Gorman retires tomorrow after a nearly 50 year career and 12 at 61, what stands out to you most from this guy as he gets ready for his well-deserved retirement?

You know what?

What really stands out for me about Randy is just the expertise that he brings, and especially when he came to see, you know, we're, well, sort of newsroom.

But when Randy stepped in, it just he, he elevated it and brought, certain elements to the newsroom that we had been missing for a while.

That just, you know, brought us on to the map and and, you know, we can I can't thank Randy enough.

And I hope that the listeners and the folks that excited, you know, obviously with a t shirt that says the goats, we, you know, we can't thank him, enough, but but, Randy, I got to ask you this, because knowing you so well, are you sure you want to retire?

I mean, you know, our executive editor, Denise Reed.

You can you can blink.

Blink twice, if that is.

It's that's the the hostage symbol.

Yeah.

No, I actually it was not an easy decision.

And and I was talking about all the, you know, time I put on a daily and I'm not bragging, but just the way the job is.

But I will be glad to be able to, to kind of work a little bit at my own pace.

And by the way, one just such a fun guy, you know, he was at some function we had for one of our employees recently.

And I told one, you know, I'm looking for coffee and, and lunch dates now, so, I'll be glad to meet you in Ithaca.

We'll have to find a place to, to chow down.

We're going to be much closer now than we were before.

So there you go.

Juan.

Thanks for making time for our friend Randy Gorman.

Very nice of you.

And I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Here.

You're always welcome back here.

All right, Will, I will see you soon.

So it's been a pleasure, Randy.

You deserve it.

I try to sleep at least more than three hours a night.

Yeah, and maybe four if we'll see.

All right.

That's the great one.

Vasquez, former WXXI employee joining us as part of This Is Your Life.

As we go to break here, I want to remind our listeners that, our news director, Randy Gorman, our friend, is retiring, tomorrow, his last day.

You would never know it.

You would never know with the work out.

But he's done this week that this is the last week he's going to be full time here.

And we're glad to be talking about this remarkable career.

We're going to continue after this.

Our only break of the hour.

Tune in Friday for Environmental Connections with me.

Jasmine singer.

In our first hour, we're diving into the fight for climate action.

Despite growing governmental opposition.

Then, in our second hour, we're tackling the hottest local climate issues affecting Rochester today.

From climate anxiety to the green job market.

All that and more coming up Friday on environmental connections.

Supporting your favorite programs on Sky TV and radio is just a click away when you go public.

At Zorg, it's a convenient and secure way of supporting an important community resource WXXI York.

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All right, this is your life, Randy Gorman.

And what we've been hearing from people who have worked with you, who got to know you have appreciated the high standard.

You have set in your journalism career.

As you get ready to wrap up and head into retirement here, let me welcome our next guest who's on the line now.

Caller, can you hear us?

I think we've got him.

Okay.

If he's ready.

Look what we've done here, Randy.

We did all this work to get them all here, and now they're too shy to talk to you.

After all that, do we have them?

Caller, are you there?

I'm here.

Are you there?

Oh.

I'm here.

Go ahead.

Caller, I can't believe after that big build up that I'm going to be on this program for this guy.

Randy, do you know who you're here?

Got to be Chet.

He was a he was a goat before I knew goats.

Shit.

Jack Walker, my Star Trek buddy.

Much to, his former co-host.

Beth.

Adams, you know, chagrin because, Chet would often talk about star, and we'd start talking about the same thing and episodes and a little bit of Klingon mixed in there.

And Beth would roll her eyes to the ceiling.

And, you know, we still do that.

Chet and Beth, two of the very, very best.

I, by the way, superb combo.

I listen them for years.

How are you doing, Chet Walker?

I'm doing great.

I'm doing great.

I'm very honored to be on the show.

I can't believe I live long enough to see how they come.

I don't believe it.

I haven't either, because, Kobe, more rouge or something like that.

I changed the rules of the game.

you want to share anything with our listeners about what stands out to you most about this guy?

Well, you know, all the accolades you've heard already, but, let me just tell you about how I remember him back in the day.

He would he would come busting through the newsroom door, which was if you worked in the newsroom or was in the rooms room, was dangerous because the door didn't have a window.

So he can bust intuit.

If you were standing there, you are in trouble.

And he come in and he pick up a bag with, you know, recorders and mics and wires and cords and mold box and, you know, batteries, all the tricks of the trade back in the day.

And, you know, this bag was about the size and half to Danny DeVito, and he'd go running out the door to cover whatever he had to cover.

And then he'd come back a little while later and he would sit down and he would, you know, go through, and he would, type up the whole thing.

He would do a couple of cuts, whatever was available at the time, it could have been tape and splicing, tape and, and, or it could have been, you know, downloading it from a cassette or a mini disc or a dad or eventually, you know, an MP3 and such around with the equipment which you always had to flex around with.

But he had the ability to actually make it work.

Everybody else would, like, be waiting for something to happen, and he'd make it happen.

And then, you know, it was really important.

He dash into the main control and he'd have a couple of, you know, things written down on a small piece of paper that a pharmacist couldn't read with his handwriting that's so bad.

And he would bust off, you know, a clear a comprehensible, concise report and then go back in and do three wraps, throw it up online, and then, you know, he'd take his coat off.

I mean, it was it was the job, I mean, and doing this with tape and again I it sounds ancient to old people never worked with tape.

If you're in the, in this kind of business.

But, it was a challenge.

I mean, I still have the scars to prove it.

Using single edge razor blades to splice tape from a reel to reel tape.

and Chet remembers Cartman machines, which, if you are old enough to remember.

Or maybe your parents or grandparents had the old tracks kind of worked like that, but even worse, and those things could get jammed.

And more than a few of those, hit the wall in frustration by some reporters who go nameless.

Randy Gorman.

Yeah, you you do all this work, right?

Yeah.

And then, yeah, then the technology, which wasn't all that great.

Right?

But you know what?

It's what every you know, you did what you had to do.

I mean, channel tape, you know, and he did the same kind of thing.

I mean, he's being modest here I think just trying to, to talk about me.

But it was something that he did every day.

And morning radio was a whole different animal.

you know, you have a producer, but basically you are on your own in a lot of ways and trying to get Ahold of people.

And it's important.

It was especially pre-Internet or early days of the internet.

You know, it's crucial to what this I mean, Chet was there before I came to town, right before I came to town with the ice storm.

And those guys were on, including Chet and Beth and everybody else.

They were on for hours and hours and hours.

And, I mean, it was it was a real service for for this area.

Chess.

I had Evan on speed dial back in the day when I was like, oh, man, I got to get somebody to call Evan.

Here he comes.

Well, Chet, before we let you go here, you know, when you said that you never thought this day would come?

Is that because you're among the many people who've worked with Randy Gordon who thought this guy's never leaving his office?

He's not going to retire.

He's going to do this forever, because this is so much in his blood.

Oh, that's absolutely.

And here's the thing.

I don't believe it.

Because if he still has a scanner under his bed, he ain't going anywhere.

I'm not going to answer that question.

Okay?

Hey, Chet, I want to thank you for giving some of your time for this hour.

It means a lot to us.

I know it means a lot to Randy.

And I've been a big fan of your work and your voice.

So you and Beth, I love to listen to you guys.

when when you guys were doing your thing.

Thank you for for sharing your voice with this hour with us, Chet.

Thanks.

And, we, owe a lunch to each other, so we'll we'll do that soon.

Oh, no.

You want lunch to me?

Wow.

Look, pretty quickly.

Just like that.

Turn that turn very fast.

Thank you.

Chet.

Thank you everybody take care guys.

Yeah, that's that's Chet Walker.

I want to say before we bring in our next guest here.

Chet did host, of course, with Beth Adams, and they were wonderful.

Oh, other.

Beth Adams said recently she listened to that tape of Randy from 1994 that we played earlier this hour.

I love what Beth said.

She said, I'm not noticing much difference in his voice.

Most of us, I'll speak for myself, she said.

My voice has changed in the last 30 years.

I hear it, it's thinner.

There's a lot of things I don't like about it.

But Randy, he could have recorded that a week ago.

I know about that, but I appreciate it's very nice of her to say, but, you know, it's kind of like use it or lose it kind of thing.

So I think just being on the air all the time has helped.

And here's a comment from, another one of your former colleagues, Sherry Voorhees.

Vincent Sherry Smith from the Wham days.

she says, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts on Randy Gorman.

I had the incredible honor of working for and with him for many years at ham radio.

As a leader, he was tireless and devoted, even when it wasn't easy.

He made sure we had all.

We all had what we needed in order to do our jobs.

He always supported me and helped me to grow as a writer and a journalist.

I can't push more in my life professionally than I ever thought possible.

Largely due to his influence as a friend.

He is tireless and devoted.

He is also hysterical.

I can't remember a day when we worked together that at some point we weren't laughing over something.

When our paths cross now, it's as if no time at all has passed.

We pick up right where we left off, wisecracking and laughing.

Randy, this community is so much better off having had you around for all these years, and so am I. I wish you the very best of luck in your next adventure.

That is Sherry and she's such a such a good and a nice person and a huge radio talent.

She started out with, Peter King, who is still working for CBS radio.

you know, the old.

But she worked with us for years, was also, you know, helping to host and do news on the on the morning show.

Incredibly talented On-Air person, writer, journalist.

And I still see her.

She works for the state now.

I see her occasionally.

You know, I go out to events or whatever, but such a great person to work with.

And again, it's people like her, and and Chad, Angela Monaco that made those days of radio just some of the best.

And, by the way, she says your next you good luck on your next adventure.

Are you going to go to more NASCAR?

you know, I, I really yeah, I used to just go to Watkins Glen and really haven't been to a lot of tracks to, to, I guess you could say bucket list things.

I want to see Daytona, and I want to see the Indy 500 going to do it.

yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, those are two, two different kinds of racing, but, two huge events I had not attended before.

But more immediately, what are you going to do on Monday morning?

That's a good question.

I, you haven't planned out your Monday yet.

Your first Monday.

I know, I know, it sounds weird, but, I'll probably still listen to.

I listen to NPR in the morning, but not worry about.

Oh, do we have this story?

Do I have that story?

I won't have my my business report, which may come back in some occasional fashion.

We're still kind of discussing that kind of thing, but, it'll be weird not to be worried as much as what?

What's on the air right now?

What do we miss?

How do we get it right?

Yeah, right.

Well, we have one more guest to bring in.

Who's going to tell you that?

Maybe more quickly than you think you'll be able to disengage.

Okay.

And I told this guy, I told him you don't have to disguise your voice.

Your voice is not disguised, Bill.

Randy will know it right away.

So let me bring on our next guest.

It's Bill love.

Hello, Bill.

Hey, there.

How are y'all?

Is.

You can't mistake that.

He's the best voice in Rochester.

I mean, really a great a great voice.

It's true.

Oh, come on, man, bill had a wonderful career in news himself, and worked, and had the chance, I think.

And he was one of the ice storm mainstays during 1990.

Oh my word.

Yes.

Was that many how many days were you on?

Like straight where?

Hours where you're on street?

Randy I tell you, Randy, I honestly don't know how many days it was.

I, I do remember that we do the walk in there.

I know I personally and everybody else who sat in that chair after and around me, I'd walk in there, would just some scribbled notes made, maybe we're going to talk to this guy this time and that and that and no script.

And you would do three hours straight on the air with no commercials, nothing, just you and talking to whoever was on the phone.

It was it was the greatest form of radio.

It was also one of the most exhausting experiences of my.

There's a really classic photo.

I think it was in the DNC bill, right where you had just taken your glasses off to try to rest your eyes, and you could just feel the, you know, probably the exhaustion, but yet you were still going day after day after day.

Oh, I it was it was the purest form of radio and the greatest service that we could possibly render to our listeners.

And that's why we were all there, you included, because that was the thing.

That was one of the things I wrote down here.

We had better be prepared for a cosmic shift in the universe, because Randy's retiring.

I think you're going to have to change on a grand scale because he's taken himself out of the mix, and that really is not I never in all those years, for the almost 50 years in broadcasting, almost entirely in news, never in all those times can I recall somebody is dedicated to his youth.

I swear to God, I. I don't think you ever saw it.

Great.

It's true, it's true.

And I'm still hungry.

But that's very kind of you to to say, possibly to this day and beyond, you know.

Well, here's another guy I got to go to lunch with, but and by the way, my best to, to your lovely wife Nancy, as well.

And, wanted to get together with those guys.

Soon she would have joined me here, but she's in Florida right now.

Give him an old one.

And.

And, Bill, before I let you go, can you tell Randy a little bit of what you told me yesterday on the phone, which is that when you stepped away, you know, you were able to disengage and you think Randy might actually be able to find, his his time for with other things.

And, well, first of all, I didn't step away.

I was told to step away.

And for a while, I was trying to euthanize Bill.

Well, no, I don't you know, I don't play around on stuff like this.

They they throw me and 1500 people out in the clear channel.

Then I heard radio in the blood that the dead, Obama was in 2009.

Yeah, yeah.

And, I, I found that idea, and I hope you find this to, for the first two days, let's say I was still in radio mode because it had been my life, too, for all those years.

So I ate, slept and drank radio and did some other stuff when radio was a major theory.

and for the first couple of days, I still woke up early.

and kind of you did that mindset.

And suddenly I think it was about Thursday or Friday.

I forget the exact weekday.

The third day I slept in, for the first time in I'm in two years.

And I woke up and I got up and I thought, My God.

So this is how people feel?

Yeah.

And I have to I have to tell you, spent at least 15 years now, after all.

But I have to tell you that I essentially walked away from it.

And don't miss it.

So that the time that I had been expanding on that my work, I now had time to do many other things.

And I was fortunate to fall in to some volunteer work and and do a side business, which I never did.

And Bill does amazing work with model model cars and wiring them with things like that.

I probably red light in the dark as cars and people put on the train layout.

That's about it.

They are sold all over the country about 100 a year, but I had no idea I knew how to do that and I never would have had the time.

Or I was what?

All I'm trying to say is, I know you as I do.

First of all, you will not be able to just sit around in a recliner.

You go, well, I guess I'm done.

That's gonna happen.

So you'll find it and it's amazing.

I had no idea.

I couldn't predict, neither could you.

You will find something that you will be more than willing to dedicate your time to, and love and enjoy every bit as much as what you've been doing for all these years.

That said, everybody, everybody you ever heard you on the air, every one of us who ever worked with you is so much enriched by your dedication to the job, your professionalism.

And as Sherry said, it also is a hoot to work with you.

Well, Bill, you said way, way too many kind things, but I appreciate it.

And I got to say, I learned so much from Bill, mainly how to do news in a conversational manner that people want to listen to.

And Bill worked with a lot of young reporters and said, you know, people don't talk like that when they wrote something that was really obtuse.

And I took that to heart and still to this day, remember that.

Thank you.

Bill.

Wow, I appreciate you.

I can't thank you enough for making time for this program today.

And I know it means a lot to Randy and all of us, and we miss your voice on the radio to Bill law.

I do not miss me on the radio.

Go!

And Randy death made me lunch.

And probably more than that.

Yeah, well, we'll get together.

Thanks, Bill, for, for all your comments for calling in, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Bill.

God bless you man.

Happy birthday man.

Yeah.

Thanks a lot.

Okay.

That's Bill.

Wow.

And, just we couldn't find anybody who didn't love Randy Grubman, who worked with him.

here's our friend Tom petty writing and saying, if there, he says Randy is the best of people.

And he said, if there is anything Randy could do better than news that was teaching.

Excellent.

Professor Adam did some adjunct work, which I. I'd like to do again, but, could you do it again?

I've, I might possibly.

And Tom was like my mentor there, so to speak, of when I started to want to do some adjunct teaching.

And he was, you know, always involved in broadcasting and communications world and, great advice from him.

And, and he was a superb teacher and still when I would be out at events with him or whatever, so many students, former students, some at work, this, these stations here would come up and say, Tom, I remember, you know, he just had a really great impact as an educator and as, somebody involved in journalism.

Well, our colleague Noel Evans writes in saying the newsroom has been glued to the screen watching transformative energy.

This man, genuinely, he has made this newsroom better with his humor and dedication.

And he consistently shows he cares.

And even the smallest ways, great generosity of spirit.

And she's grateful and she's really speaking for all of us.

And let me just add to Noel's comment, the reason I said that Randy is the best boss I ever had is, my impression of you as a, as a leader is that you have to work so much on what you're doing.

You want people who are pretty self-sufficient.

You want people who are have really high standards, really high ethical standards for the work.

And then you want to give them the space to do what they do without right, without micromanaging, because frankly you don't have time to micromanage now.

You never did.

And people I have to tell you, I've been in the business a long time, and people don't learn if you try to micromanage everything.

Sure, they need guidelines.

They need somebody they can come to, with questions about whether it be writing or ethics or things like that.

But if you don't give somebody some space to do the kinds of stories they want to do, they're not going to advance.

And not going to help your organization.

Well, there was nobody, because we appreciate the fact that there's so much autonomy, but there is nobody that producer Megan Mac and I would have turned to first.

When there's a hard question, we would often say, all right, let's see what Randy thinks.

And because we knew we were going to get a really well-grounded, journalistically based ethical answer on everything we needed.

but apart from that, the reason that I think you're the best boss I've ever had is the culture is so good under you.

People feel like they've got room to be themselves as long as they are producing and working hard.

You want people to feel free to to do that work and you actually cared about them personally.

I mean, when my son heard you were retiring, we're driving a baseball the other night and he goes, whoa!

He's like, he's turning 13 at the end of this week.

He knows that you're a big deal because you ask about people in small ways.

To Noel's point, you have always cared about people without trying to insert yourself too much or micromanage.

That's not an easy thing for any boss or any leader to do.

And I just want to say that when you look back at your career, be proud of the journalism, but I hope you're proud of the culture that you set, because that's rare.

You know, it's being a person.

I mean, not to simplify too much, but I've worked, as we all did.

You know, you come up through the ranks and some people who are station owners or managers probably shouldn't have had those jobs.

And I didn't want to treat people in that way.

And I thought, people don't produce well.

If you're not treating them well, it doesn't mean you don't have high expectations.

But if you're not treating your staff well, if they're not having fun because it's such a tough business, able to laugh every once in a while, you're not going to stick with that business or that station.

So if I've had any kind of small impact like that, I'm really happy about it.

All right.

Last minute or so, and I and I could have just read emails all hour from listeners who appreciate you, listeners.

He hates that stuff.

So.

But let me just read one, Laura.

And Victor says in these terrifying times when the free press is under attack by those in power, we do need independent investigative and editorial journalism and local journalism.

Any thoughts on how to support this essential function of the press locally going forward?

Yeah, I mean, and I'm not going to lie, I'm not a great fundraiser or sales person.

And, you know, we have those those drives from time to time and people when they can be are very generous.

But I would just say, you know, as you look at things online and, and maybe see the press under attack, you don't have to engage in you know, people who have nasty comments, but just say supportive things.

If you do appreciate what you've heard or read, online and, and when you're meeting people, just face to face, you know, talk about stories and encourage people to, you know, it's kind of like what I do.

I say, hey, I'm glad you listen or watch or read WXXI, but choose a variety of sources.

Don't just stick with one thing.

Yeah, try to, you know, have a full menu of things that you engage with and do it in a respectful manner.

I mean, it's all you can do is just kind of say it's important for us to know what's going on if we're going to have, this democracy, this republic.

And I hope people continue to do that.

Well, thank you, thank you.

I want to tell you, as we get ready to go hear all the notes you've left me, I've never been able to read them.

So I've always acted like I knew what you wanted me to do.

Your handwriting is terrible.

The one about the 20 bucks I.

It was never written.

Please work on that in retirement.

Okay.

Otherwise, please come back around.

Of course.

Because I know you will.

You're going to freelance.

You're going to be there.

I'll probably be pitching here at some point on the, pledge weeks.

Bring Norman the shirt that's in the newsroom that a lot of our colleagues were wearing yesterday.

Those go our all time embarrassing Randy's face on shirts that not a lot of bosses are leaving, and and they get that kind of treatment.

But thank you, sir.

Thank you sir.

Randy's the best.

tomorrow is his last day.

Listeners, if you're so inclined, find a way to salute Randy Gorman and support public radio.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for watching.

And from all of us at connections.

We love you, Randy.

We'll talk to you all tomorrow on member supported public media.

Oh.

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