Joe Lackey, Oral History
Title
Joe Lackey, Oral History
Subject
Broadcast History
Description
Joe Lackey (b. Aug 3, 1922, d.May 29, 2009), General Manager at WENN 1958-76. Part owner, WATV Birmingham. Joe reflects on his early career and on the 1963 Civil Rights Movement.
Creator
Bob Friedman
Joe Lackey
Publisher
Birmingham Black Radio Museum
Date
December 13, 1993
Contributor
Emily Bibb
Alissa Matheny
Carlena McClain
Format
WAV
JPG
PDF
Language
English
Identifier
LackeyOH
Interviewer
Bob Friedman
Interviewee
Joe Lackey
Transcription
Transcript of audio snippet:
Joe Lackey: Course during that month I was riding the streets looking for a place… found that one in 5 Points West
Bob Friedman: Umm great location…
JL: moved in there and did just little bit of remodeling and uh moved in there and uh we moved overnight. We signed off at the hotel …signed on the next morning out there…been there ever since ’76.
Bob: umm
JL: But you know it’s been a lot of fun… a lot of umm… during the 60’s it was kind of rough we were right there in the middle of it and it was a lot of activity and the night that they bombed the hotel umm… the blast shattered our front window because you know we had that fish bowl thing
Bob: umm hmm
JL: all of our
Bob: Was that on facing 5th Avenue?
JL: Yeah
Bob: the fish bowl
JL: the glass went… umm nobody touched the building the only thing we had a flood light on the parking lot in the back and they broke that out so they put it in the dark and they broke in the whiskey store and cleaned the whiskey store out…didn’t touch our building. And I was at home on the telephone, Paul White was in the studio giving me a blow by blow description of what was happening… next thing I knew the phone went dead. Cops had come and jerked him out…
thought he had broke in. It took me ‘til 4o’clock the next afternoon to find out where he was and get him out of jail cause they had just hauled him off
Bob: Umm hmm
JL: and when I finally found out where he was and get someone to talk to him and get him out, it was about 4 oclock Sunday afternoon we got him out. It happened on a Friday night I think, best I remember, and uh but you know Monday morning when I came back …
Bob: That’s when they blew up the Gaston Motel?
JL: When I came back downtown monday morning …I did not
try to come in on the weekend…I came back in the morning… downtown looked like a war zone
Joe Lackey: Course during that month I was riding the streets looking for a place… found that one in 5 Points West
Bob Friedman: Umm great location…
JL: moved in there and did just little bit of remodeling and uh moved in there and uh we moved overnight. We signed off at the hotel …signed on the next morning out there…been there ever since ’76.
Bob: umm
JL: But you know it’s been a lot of fun… a lot of umm… during the 60’s it was kind of rough we were right there in the middle of it and it was a lot of activity and the night that they bombed the hotel umm… the blast shattered our front window because you know we had that fish bowl thing
Bob: umm hmm
JL: all of our
Bob: Was that on facing 5th Avenue?
JL: Yeah
Bob: the fish bowl
JL: the glass went… umm nobody touched the building the only thing we had a flood light on the parking lot in the back and they broke that out so they put it in the dark and they broke in the whiskey store and cleaned the whiskey store out…didn’t touch our building. And I was at home on the telephone, Paul White was in the studio giving me a blow by blow description of what was happening… next thing I knew the phone went dead. Cops had come and jerked him out…
thought he had broke in. It took me ‘til 4o’clock the next afternoon to find out where he was and get him out of jail cause they had just hauled him off
Bob: Umm hmm
JL: and when I finally found out where he was and get someone to talk to him and get him out, it was about 4 oclock Sunday afternoon we got him out. It happened on a Friday night I think, best I remember, and uh but you know Monday morning when I came back …
Bob: That’s when they blew up the Gaston Motel?
JL: When I came back downtown monday morning …I did not
try to come in on the weekend…I came back in the morning… downtown looked like a war zone
Duration
Full Interview: 106 minutes
Audio Snippet: 2 minutes
Audio Snippet: 2 minutes
Files
Collection
Citation
Bob Friedman and Joe Lackey, “Joe Lackey, Oral History,” The Birmingham Black Radio Museum, accessed October 22, 2024, https://thebbrm.org/item/24.
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