Time and Chance Read Free Page B

a gem. Anyway, I conjugated two plus two. It came up
three. Berry didn't work in the business all his life. His mother, Libby, had
brought him in just a year ago, after his father's death. Then, this past
January, his mother died. Before that, Lamar had actually thrown Berry out.
That was the scoop anyway, pretty much confirmed by a couple of people, one
being my right-arm assistant, Joy Lambert. Joy had been with the station for twenty
years. The way she put it, Berry worked in the family business, part-time,
while he attended high school. Then, when he flunked out of Memphis State, he
took over as General Manager. Then, ten years ago, in her words, “The you-know-what
hit the fan”. Evidently Berry had gotten himself into, in Joy's words, “a pinch
with gambling”. Turns out, somebody was putting the pinch on Lamar to pay off
Berry's gambling debts. The payoff, Joy said, was reported to be “a pretty big
wad … in the neighborhood of a million” (she said she heard some days he
wagered thousands). She also said, it was rumored, about the debt, that Berry
might find himself the ingredients in a can of Puss & Boots cat food. She
explained that Lamar and Berry argued off and on for weeks over the payoff.
Then, Joy said, Libby told Lamar to pay the debt or else. At the last family,
what Joy called, “come home to prayer meeting” in Lamar's office, Berry threw a
coffee cup at his father, called him a dumb hillbilly. Lamar booted Berry out,
paid off the debt and that was that. Joy could not know for sure, but she had
heard, after that, Lamar disinherited Berry but, her only son, Libby never did.
    I believe Joy. What
she said coincided with what I, in my six year stint at TV12 (Lamar had hired
me, liked me, promoted me to News Director, we saw eye to eye on many things),
had read between the lines.
    To wit, I knew that
Berry, before his father died, had been selling cars at Bobby B's Ford Auto
World . Berry would come to the station when Lamar was out of town, pass out
his business card, and relate how he left the family business so he could be
his own man, strike out on the world. He related that it was the best thing he
ever did; around the showroom of Bobby B's his nickname had become “Close
Frazer”.
    I sipped some black
coffee and again conjugated two plus two. Came up five this time. I thought,
newspaper is wrong or Berry lied, or both. And, one other thing the newspaper
forgot to mention: the rumor that Berry was looking to unload TV12, as in sell
the farm. One company said to be interested in purchasing the station is
S&W Broadcasting, a media giant out of Denver. The deal is reportedly for
about fifty million, plus a contract for Berry to stay on as General Manager
for, sources said, five years at $200,000 a year plus goodies. The negotiations
had started last month, would need to be finalized, then get FCC approval. From
what I had heard, a goodly chunk of the fifty million would cover Berry's
venture into the hotel business. You see, his new hotel, The Berry Inn, is
reported to be in a red hole falling in on itself.
    I took a puff, flipped
back to page 1, and pondered another Tennessean news story:
    RAIN RAIN RAIN
    Nashville has been hit by the
worst deluge in recent memory. Some predict thirty year flood levels. Many
streets are impassable. On the brighter side, ever optimistic TV12's senior
meteorologist, Luther Mays says the worst is over, his left shoulder is back to
normal. Luther added in one of his patented remarks, “We only had five days a’
rain and people are starting to build arks.” He chastised other Nashville TV
weather casters for spreading what he called “Giddy rumors of a thirty-year
flood to fetch a rating point or two”.

 
    * * *

 
    FYI, Luther reports
our Monday through Friday 5:00, 6:00 and, 10:00 P.M. weather casts. Nashville's
native son and TV12's granddaddy weather person emeritus, Luther attends every
PTA bean supper within fifty miles of Nashville and some beyond. He