Talbert Gray, a veteran journalist and photographer, recounts growing up under Jim Crow in 1960s Memphis, becoming Florida's first Black television news reporter, and later managing radio stations across the South. He interviewed KKK Grand Wizard Robert Shelton on camera, became Louisiana's first Black radio general manager, and published his memoir First Through the Fire.
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This is Author to Author. I'm Tim Trott, and this is the channel where I introduce you to authors I think you should know. I first ran into Talbert Gray in a hallway at WESH-TV Channel 2 in Orlando in the 1970s. We shared interest in broadcasting and music production. Through the years, we lost touch, as things happen. As people sometimes do, I wondered, whatever happened to Talbert Gray? Well, in 2023, I went to Google and discovered an online memoir, a flip book. I had been writing for a few years and offered to edit his memoir. In 2024, we recorded an interview to promote that book. In just a moment, that interview. As an author, you know you need a website. You know that because everybody says so. You need to have an online presence that you control, not somebody else, and not Amazon. Free site builders? They're all the same. That's why you need WordPress. Oh, it's too expensive? It doesn't have to be. Oh, but WordPress is too complicated? Ah, you could say I wrote the book on that, because I did. WordPress has thousands, really thousands of designs, and most of them are free. But if you want more, it's not expensive at all. But where should you put your website? Cybershoot Web Hosting, starting at $10 a month with WordPress all set up and installed for you. Do you always remember to back up your website? No? Well, you don't need to. Cybershoot does that automatically. Security? You know, the HTTPS thing? With Cybershoot, it's free and automatic. Does your email address hand in Gmail or Yahoo or EarthLink or Eeks. Anybody still using AOL? Haha. You need a professional email. You need you@yourwebsite.com. Great support? Of course. Got that covered. Did I say extra? No, I did not. It's all included in the $10 monthly basic package. WordPress, hosted email, security, backup, and support. Where do you go? CyberChute.com. Go where I host my website. Cyber like the truck, shoot like the parachute. CyberShoot.com. So let's meet Talbert Gray. Hello, Talbert.
Hello there, how you doing?
You grew up in Memphis, Tennessee in the '60s. I'll let you describe that experience.
Well, during the '60s, It was highly segregated. The rule of the day was equal but separate and equal in all phases of that particular era. Growing up in Memphis was, I think for me, the best times of the worst of times. You had the Jim Crow law, which had you separate but equal. Uh, that was not necessarily true. Uh, our school received the worst books that you could possibly have, uh, torn and, uh, ripped apart, but they were supposed to have been equal to the education that the white schools had. We had, uh, in Memphis we had 11 Black high schools and 11 white high schools. Everything was still separated. For instance, going downtown to see a movie, we had to go upstairs and sit in the balcony way in the back. Going downtown for a bite to eat for lunch, there was the regular store. Well, in my case, it was Goldsmith's. The regular store upstairs where all of the people could eat. Except for Blacks, and we had to go downstairs. But still, the education that I received being separate but equal outweighed the bad parts about growing up in the South.
You got your start in photography in the military, is that right?
Yeah, I was a member of the 1365th Photographic Squadron. Squadron. My job was a combat documentary photographer. Through that job description, I had a chance or an opportunity to travel around the world at least once. And we took a lot of pictures of air-to-ground missiles being shot. We, we, I flew in every plane necessary necessary for the military to conduct all the business that it had, everywhere from helicopters to fighter jets. So the military was good to me.
Then you came back and you wound up at Channel 2 and you became the first Black television news reporter in Florida. Kind of, kind of set the stage for how that came about.
When I first got out of the service, I went to Memphis looking for a position. I showed all of my tapes, my writings, and everything else to the owner or the president of Coles Communications out of Memphis. I did not know that Coles Communications was also the owner of Channel 2. In Orlando. When I left Memphis and came back to Orlando to start working for Proud Film Productions, uh, the owner or general manager and vice president of Coles Communications, which was Channel 2, called me and asked me if in fact I would come and have lunch with him. I did, and, uh, at that luncheon he asked me if in fact I would like working with them. That was a dream come true to me. And I followed up with interviews by his manager, station manager, and his news director. I started there doing production first and doing commercials for many of the clients that Channel 2 had. But then news director Dave Walker asked me to come become a part of the news team. So I did. And, uh, the, the everything started happening at that point in time.
That news director sent you on an assignment to the sheriff's office. Uh, how did, how did that turn out?
When I first moved in to Orange County, uh, news department, uh, newsroom, the, uh, all of everybody in news department or newsroom got up and left. And my partner was hurt more than I was because he was a part of the news department, news feeling of the city for a long time. The next time I went in, Sheriff Dave Starr came in and questioned my— why I was there and questioned my authority to be there. Uh, he kicked me out. Uh, I did not go back to Orange County for quite a while. I would go in every— uh, all my meetings would be in Orlando City Hall. The news departments across city found out about it and requested that, uh, the sheriff apologized to me, uh, or none of the news of the Sheriff's Department would be would be handled or filmed. He did, and I got in there without any more problems.
Well, there was one obstacle you overcame. There was another one you had to deal with that kind of took you by surprise. Was a— the news director, what was his name?
Dave Walker.
Dave Walker sent you— Dave, Dave kind of sent you into the, into the woods in Leesburg to do an interview.
I went to, I had a night interview with, in the woods of Lake County. The roads were dark and I got to, saw a light and went to that light. And on the grounds were armed guards. After the, The interview or after the sight of seeing armed guards there in civilian clothes kind of shook me up a little bit, but I went on in and saw another light, which was a tent. At that light, there were armed guards again and they questioned who I was and I told them who I was with Channel 2 News. And they allowed me to go in at the same time. Well, setting up my equipment, this well-dressed man, gentleman came in and asked who I was. And I told him who I was, told him all, you know, told him all about the questions I was asking. And he said, okay. Well, I didn't know who it was still. He introduced himself on camera as Robert Shelton, the Grand Wizard of the Klan, a branch of the Ku Klux Klan. We did the interview. The guys were sitting behind me and they had guns. And when the interview was finished, Robert Shelton got up and walked out. I got my equipment, put it all in the car, and sped out of Lake County. Nobody stopped me. The sheriff's department did not see me speeding through the city and got home. When I got back to the office, everybody was laughing. It was funny. It was not funny to me.
Another unfunny situation after you left Channel 2 happened when you went to the grand old town of Kissimmee. Let's live that adventure.
The job was paid for by the Kissimmee Chamber of Commerce. Well, we went into this one place, this last place for our finishing shots, and it was the bar in town. Beautiful bar. It had a long, long bar and plenty of stools beside the bar. One of the shots that I took was the bartender the people drinking the beer and the beer coming down right in front of the cameras as my staff pulled me down the line on the bar. I shot from the chandeliers, shot through, you know, this is great Hollywood stuff. We got finished shooting and we sit down to have dinner, or some of the guys said, well, let's eat before we go back. So we sat down to have dinner. The waiter came over and took the orders of everybody except me. He also— all the guys had beers, and again, everybody had beers except me. We asked what, you know, what the problem was, and he told the guy, one of my crew members, that they didn't serve Negroes at that bar. So I left.
Well, that was an interesting adventure, but from there you left television and straight into radio. And what was your position in radio?
I was station manager at WORL. I had presented a proposal to the owner of the station, Emil Corona, and he passed me around to Rick Naimi, his vice president, and Lee Arnold, his vice president. We waited a couple of weeks and they called me back. They were proud to do a change there, a big band sound radio station to an urban radio station. And Lee Arnold helped me find the staff members that we had, which were were excellent, excellent, excellent jobs. We took over the market. And during that time with WOKB being the center of attraction for all the Black advertising dollars, we were able to squeeze in there and put them, well, kind of move them to the back of the line, and we were the strongest station in the market at that point in time.
A little bit of alphabet soup went from OKB to BOK. BOK is in New Orleans.
Went to, well, let's go even further. We left Orlando and went to Savannah at WSOK. Then I went to, I got a job offer at WBOK BOK in New Orleans. And that was a thrill and a treat at that point in time. BOK was the, well, it was one of 5 Black stations in the market, but we had, and that was during the time that people were switching over to FM. They had not gotten there yet. So we were, had a chance to be very strong in the market. I left BOK in New Orleans. By the way, I became the first Black general manager in the state of Louisiana at that time. Left BOK and went up to WILD in Boston.
Well, let me see, we've gone from television to radio, to video production. What's left after that? Maybe publishing?
I published, I had an opportunity to publish a newspaper, the Weekly Observer. At that one time we were there to, and I think I started publishing that paper because there were no outlets that would give Black entrepreneurs or Black business people or Black professionals a platform in which they could be congratulated for the good works that they were doing in Central Florida. Uh, I left there, uh, well, I left the, uh, Weekly Observer to go into radio, and, uh, from there I came back to Orlando and started publishing, uh, BA Magazine again for the purpose of highlighting the good works of Blacks in the community. And we were, we were award-winning publication.
You had an association with, back into photography again, you did something for the Navy, the ROTC, kind of an historic event there.
I, when the Navy took over Orlando, Orlando Naval Training Center, I had an opportunity to, and the honor of being the first Black to watch them with passing review. Passing review is when the graduating class were to march and leave the base at that point in time. I had an honor, it was a chance to,, uh, the Weekly Observer to be a part of that great ceremony. At the end of the— when the base was closing, I had the honor of being the last Black to look at a passing review for the closing of the base. So I was the first and the last, uh, to review the troops as they were going off to their different basis.
There's a lot more in the book, and we won't, we won't give away anything, but there was a time when you bought a radio station for $4 and several other adventures.
But I, I had a— I found a radio station that was in, uh, deep, deep trouble, and, and, uh, what I did was when the Mesbic came to me and said that, uh, they were helping me or would help me buy the station. I saw all the problems they had and I went through all of the finances that they had gone through and I made a deal with all of the debtors that if I took over the station, I would pay that particular debt and we were able to pay it nickel on a dollar or whatever it was. So it was almost nothing. But I had to give the— I couldn't just take it over. I had to give the owners of the station some kind of dollar figure. So I gave each of the owners, all 4 owners, a dollar.
Well, it's not a legal sale until something of value changes hands. You can't just—
That's exactly right.
That's what makes it legal. Talbert, I appreciate it very much coming and visiting with us, and I'm very, very grateful also that you've allowed me to edit your memoir into an inspiring book, First Through the Fire, which catalogs his impressive firsts and challenges, which serve as an example to what can be achieved by anyone who is willing to accept the challenge, even if you are the first through the fire. And you can order your copy now at amazon.com and other bookstores. Sellers. The interview you just saw was recorded February 11th, 2024, after the book was released to coincide with Black History Month. On Friday morning, July 26th, Talbert called me to say he was looking forward to a reunion celebration at WILD-AM radio in Boston, where Talbert had been station manager in the late '70s. A few days later, I got a call from Talbert's daughter. Talbert did not get to attend that reunion because he passed away just after he called me. Talbert was 71. You can find First Through the Fire at Amazon.com and Barnes Noble. If there is an author you think I should invite to be on this channel, let me know in the comments. Be sure to subscribe to the channel and click the bell so you'll be notified when it's time to turn the page to the next chapter of Author to Author.
