I thought I knew a lot about Nick Clooney. Maybe you did too, particularly if you remember him anchoring WKRC-TV's Eyewitness News, covering the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, or hosting variety shows on Channels 9 or 12.
But Nick tells some wonderful stories on our WVXU-FM Cincinnati Edition tribute to Nick for his 90th birthday (Saturday, Jan. 13) that I've never heard in the nearly 40 years I've known him and written about him. Here's a link to the show, "Nick Clooney talks about his broadcasting career, turning 90 and his new project."
It's also great to hear his former colleagues Ira Joe Fisher, Deb Dixon, Dennis Janson and Howard Ain; son George and daughter Ada; and some wonderful WKRC-TV audio from the 1970s and '80s. Fisher calls Clooney "our North Star." I agree.
Here are my Top 10 reasons to listen to the terrific Cincinnati Edition birthday tribute produced by Selena Reder and Marshall Verbsky and hosted by Lucy May:
1. His broadcasting career traces back to calling Bingo at St. Seraph School in downtown Cincinnati.
"What I learned in a hurry is that I had to be right. Those tough mamas who were coming down for the coverall on Wednesday night, that was a $5 coverall, that was a week's groceries, it could be, you know. Don't be wrong. So the nuns probably started me on my broadcasting career."
2. The best advice came from his first radio boss at Maysville's WFTM-AM while a student at St. Patrick High School in Maysville.
"He said, 'Remember one thing. It's the only thing you have to know about broadcasting: You're not speaking to Ladies and Gentlemen! You're always talking to one person at a time. You're always talking to one person.' That's the best advice I ever had, and the only advice I ever needed.
"It was great fun. I got to do news. I got to introduce live programming. Do sports. I did everything. And they expected me always to be on time. Always to be well informed. And never to embarrass them. That was my job."
3. The background music for the show are selections featuring Rosemary Clooney, his older sister.
You'll hear Rosemary sing "Nice 'n' Easy Does It," "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and other songs by the singer and actress, who died in 2002 at age 74.
4. Nick reminisces about his dear friend Glenn "Skipper" Ryle.
The versatile WKRC-TV announcer hosted a children's show (The Skipper Ryle Show) and a bowling show; was the studio announcer/sidekick for Clooney's 1972-75 variety show (the WVXU special has a clip of him introducing Nick); and ended his career as a Channel 12 weatherman.
"Glenn Ryle, God bless him, Glenn Ryle. 'Skipper Ryle,' they called him. He had a children's TV show. He was wonderful at it. He was great. He was a tough old Marine. He climbed our tower for fun! Just because it was there! He had a show called Bowling For Dollars ... so we had to have a bowling alley. And had to have seats so people could sit and watch the show and react to the show. And he would MC it. But that same set — that same set — that's where I did the news!"
5. Not long after his WKRC-TV variety show was canceled, the station hired him as news anchor in 1976.
His Eyewitness News was broadcast from the Channel 12 newsroom, which was revolutionary for Cincinnati television. At the time of his hiring, WKRC-TV's news was in fourth at 11 p.m. behind news on WCPO-TV and WLWT-TV, and the Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman sitcom on WXIX-TV.
"I said, 'I want to broadcast the news from the newsroom. I want to see the reporters. I want to see what they're doing. If they're answering the phones, I want them to come up to me and tap me on the shoulder and say, No, it's changed!' So we did. We made it different. We made it from a newsroom."
6. WKRC-TV's coverage of the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire began the shift in news viewing from WCPO-TV's Al Schottelkotte to Clooney's team on WKRC-TV.
Many viewers watched WKRC-TV that night because Channel 12 had superior video. Channel 9 parked its remote truck close to the fire while Channel 12 parked on a hill to beam the signal back to the station. Howard Ain, Kyle Hill and Nick Clooney reported from the fire.
"We just got our live truck. It was literally used four days before the Beverly Hills fire. And we had tested it on Wednesday. The Beverly Hills fire was on Saturday night."
7. By 1982, Clooney's WKRC-TV news beat WCPO-TV at 11 p.m., ending Schottelkotte's 22-year dominance of the local news ratings.
Clooney says coverage of the Beverly Hills fire, which killed 165 people, set a high standard for the Channel 12 newsroom.
"We knew we had to live up to that moment. We had to do as well on every story we did as we did on the Beverly Hills fire. We had to be just as good, and complete, and as competent that we were when we were all out (at the fire), and all scared, and all terrified, and all crying, and all the things a great news story does to you. The great news story made us a good, solid newsroom."
8. Cincinnati Edition includes a WKRC-TV on-air promotion touting Clooney's reporting.
Unlike Al Schottelkotte and other Cincinnati TV news anchors, Clooney routinely went out to nighttime suburban government meetings and reported stories for his newscasts.
"Only one anchorman in the Tri-State actually covers the news. Only one anchorman isn't anchored to his desk. Every day, every night, only Nick Clooney goes out to get the news for you," says the WKRC-TV promo.
Dixon explains how a very empathic Clooney would ask the newsroom if any of their stories that night could hurt any viewer.
"He would help you see the story in a way the viewers needed to see it," Dixon says. "You cannot do a story without knowing how they're feeling and seeing the story."
9. George Clooney talks about growing up at Channel 12 and his father’s integrity.
Cincinnati Edition includes clips from George’s interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air in 2005 near the release of his Good Night, and Good Luck movie about CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, his father's hero, and his trip to war-torn Darfur with his father.
"Broadcast journalism was a big part of our lives. Growing up, I spent most of my life, as a small child, on the floor of the WKRC-TV newsroom, watching my father put news shows together. He was the news director, he wrote the news …
"I think one of his great qualities is that integrity has been sort of the thing that has always lasted — and has lasted well into his 70s. He's been the same guy.
"It's an interesting thing: It's more difficult being the child of someone with that kind of integrity than — it's now a thrill — but when you're a kid and you're in a state that is still dealing with its problems with bigotry... We'd be out at a dinner and you'd hear someone say, 'Well, that's about those people!' knowing that they were talking about Blacks. And my sister and I knew that my dad was going to make a scene and walk out. So we'd eat as fast as we could because my father's going to make a scene. And I remember as a kid always wishing that maybe that just one time he'd pretend not to hear it.
"And now I couldn't be more proud. Because he taught me those lessons that are: Every time you let that go — or you purposely ignore it just to make it easier for yourself — you are doing a disservice. And that's why you have to fight this fight."
10. Clooney seems amazed at all he accomplished in 60 years.
The jam-packed hour also includes Clooney's work for the Armed Forced Network after high school; his brief fling after the Army auditioning for movies in Hollywood in the 1950s (including I Was A Teen Werewolf); and his current effort to restore the 130-year-old St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church in Augusta.
The show barely mentions hosting the Money Maze game show on ABC in 1973; his six years hosting movies on AMC; his trip to Darfur with George; his documentaries for the old American Life TV cable channel; his books and Cincinnati Post newspaper columns; or his work on WLW-AM radio in the 1960s and on WSAI-WCKY in the 1990s.
"What a great run I had. Think of that! Listen to what these brilliant people are kind enough to say about me. Wow! This is not a bad way to go!" he says with a laugh at the end of the hour.
John Kiesewetter's reporting is independent. Cincinnati Public Radio only edits his articles for style and grammar.
