Sep 15, 2010

Jack Shelley of WHO

The TMR morbidity content is elevated this evening, but another man from the era  when broadcast journalism contained journalism has died.

Jack Shelly, 98, was a fixture on 50,000-watt WHO for decades.  In 1944 at Bastogne he interviewed Iowans in combat. A year later in the Pacific he was the first to record interviews with B-29 fliers returning from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It is stretching things only a little to say that for some 30 years, Iowa and much of the Midwest stopped whatever they were doing at 12;30 p.m. to listen to a deep, melodious voice reporting the news of the day and resisting every urge to report his opinion of the news.

It was a  lucky young reporter who had the privilege of knowing him.

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