Bill Leslie: 20-20 News

“You’re not ready for this,” said the little voice. “Oh, yes, I am!” was my audible answer as I approached the huge microphone in the WTOB newsroom for the first time. The year was 1970.

Rick Dees was on the radio in the room next door playing “The Letter” by The Boxtops on WTOB Radio in Winston-Salem. More than anything else I didn’t want to disappoint Rick.  He had stuck his neck out for me.  

Rick talked WTOB news director Wayne Ashworth into hiring me with no experience as weekend newsman for the popular station. I had worked part time at three radio stations as a DJ but not as a newsman.

Rick told Wayne I had a “nice deep voice and would work hard.” Rick (whose real name is Rigdon) and I were best of friends at UNC. We were juniors majoring in radio-television and motion pictures. We both knew we wanted to be broadcasters for life. We thought it would be neat to work together on the weekends commuting from Chapel Hill.

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The song leading into my first radio newscast was less than two minutes long. The ending with its waves and bird sounds began to fade and Rick punched up the WTOB news jingle.

“It’s 3:20. This……is Bill Leslie, WTOB 20-20 News!”

It was called 20-20 News because the newscasts started roughly 20 minutes after the hour and 20 minutes before the hour.

When I woke up this week on the first day of the year 2020 my first thought was my original 20-20 newscast, which actually turned out pretty well. I thought about Rick Dees who would later help me get another 20-20 news job at WKIX in Raleigh for my senior year at UNC. I also thought about how I helped John Tesh settle into his first 20-20 news job. Our news director back then was Scott White.

This week Scott, who now lives in Charlotte, texted me.

Here’s what he said: “Happy New Year, Bill! Don’t you think sometime in the next 366 days there should be a resurrection of 20-20 News?”

I would love to get all my old radio news pals together in a room and listen to each one announce their names and their “20-20 news open” into a vintage microphone. People like Doug Limerick, Scott White, John Tesh, Stephanie Bass, Don Grady, Steve Shumake, Mike Blackman, Katy Hooks, Joe Goodpasture, Peter Dean, Ken Prewitt, Ed Faircloth, Wayne Ashworth, Ray Snider, Bill McQuaig and others. I would love to hear each one talk about the excitement and anxiety of doing their first newscast.  We could probably fill a whole weekend with great stories. 

That would be so much fun — especially in the year 2020!