The video here is posted in tribute to my friend Jim Russell (1946-2022)
What do you do when you lose your oldest and best friend?
You shed a few tears and if you are a writer, you pen a tribute that comes truly from the heart.
Jim Russell, who died in Chapel Hill North Carolina in September 2022 - age 76 - was a great broadcaster and an extraordinary friend - smart, kind, funny, and generous.
Our friendship went back to school days 56 years ago.
During my sophomore year in university, we were roommates in Virginia.
He helped me land my first job in radio in the Washington DC area. He and I spent our college days at America’s first all-news radio station - WAVA in Arlington. We were attracting minor attention in days before better known outfits like WINS 1010 New York proclaimed - “give us 20 minutes and we’ll give you the world.”
Jim sent me off to the Pentagon in 1967 with a Motorola two-way radio to broadcast live during the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations of October 21, 1967. 50,000 people marched across the city to the Pentagon and sparked a major showdown with paratroopers on guard.
The following year Jim and I roamed the city as rioters took charge of swathes of the District of Columbia. Angry people vented their outrage in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King.
As rocks were thrown at our car racing through the city, Jim and I argued as to whether in a riot it was better to keep the windows open or closed
I followed Jim to Cambodia and Vietnam in 1970.
Jim had gone to Vietnam in early 1969 for UPI (United Press International) radio.
Listen to the audio I have posted here 53 years ago this month. Jim was 24 years old.
The audio report is remarkable for its length. More than 4 minutes. Won’t find such in-depth radio like that today.
I chose Jim’s report on the death of Ho Chi Minh. There are many insights in it. The victor of the Hanoi power struggle was the hardliner Le Duan who swayed Vietnam policy even after unification in 1975 and on to his death in 1986.
When Jim Russell came home from Vietnam and his stint with UPI - he became the first anchor of All things Considered at NPR in 1972. He went on to create the still exceedingly popular MARKETPLACE radio program.
Later in life he was an experienced broadcast consultant.
I invited him to Washington in 2014 to provide advice to a China business show I helped produce.
Jim was a great broadcaster, a great friend, smart, decent, kind, funny...
I will miss everything about him...
even the bits of pizza he left behind the sofa cushions at our apartment in Virginia.
26 сен 2022
