The number of television broadcasters that I’ve met and worked with personally over 30 plus years in journalism, who I consider to be first-rate journalists, can be counted on two hands with maybe a finger or two leftover.
WYMT General Manager Neil Middleton is near the top of that very short list.
I first got to know Neil when I broke into journalism locally after college. At the time Neil had already been the Cumberland Valley bureau chief for WYMT for a few years.
Neil was probably about 30 years old or so then and “the veteran” of the fairly young contingent of journalists that covered the local area and a guy that we all respected.
When there were a number of us somewhere to cover something, the rest of us usually let Neil take the lead when it came time to do interviews. He was one of the best that I have ever known at getting someone to talk to the press, who one didn’t really want to talk and two didn’t really want to talk on camera.
Somehow he managed to pull it off pretty much every time.
Whether it was a fatal car wreck, a bank robbery, an election or a court trial Neil was down here on the ground getting the information, talking to the people involved and telling it accurately to his audience.
It was only when Neil got off the ground that I can ever remember him having difficulties as in the time he went up in an airplane with Mountain Lifeline owner Larry Robbins about 29 years ago.
At the time, Whitley County emergency officials were searching the Cumberland River for the body of a drowning victim. Larry was going to take up Emergency Management Director Craig Vermillion and someone from the rescue squad, I think it was, up to search the river from the air.
Neil was going to tag along in order to get some footage. Larry factored in the weight of everyone and Neil’s camera equipment, which back then was pretty bulky, and determined it was too much weight to get the plane off the ground.
What Larry decided to do was to take Neil up first to get his footage and land back at the old Williamsburg Airport, drop Neil off, and then take up the other people up to search the river.
While up in the air, the engine on Larry’s single engine plane shut off. As the story was told to me, Larry was frantically working to get the engine restarted and had sent out a broadcast that he might be going down. Neil told Larry that if it was OK with him, he was going to put the camera down and start praying.
Larry, who was apparently having thoughts about crash landing on I-75, thought it was a VERY good idea to pray at that point. (Had I been in that situation, I like to believe that I would have kept the camera rolling while I prayed, but that is neither here nor there…LOL.)
Fortunately, before they hit the ground, Larry managed to get the engine to restart and land the plane in one piece.
With the exception of a couple of years when he was in Tennessee, Neil spent his entire career at WYMT.
He returned to WYMT in 2002 after the untimely death of his good friend, Tony Turner, from injuries he sustained in a car crash that happened in Whitley County.
Neil became general manager at WYMT in 2012.
After nearly 38 years working in television covering the mountains that he loves so much, Neil retired Friday.
He was one of the great ones, and I wish him the best in whatever his future may hold.
(If you are reading this Neil, let me know how retirement from journalism goes. I might want to do it myself one day…LOL).
Speaking of people leaving, let me wish Corbin Arena Manager Kristina Balla, who announced Thursday that she had resigned her position after 8.5 years.
Between 2009 when it first opened and 2016, the Corbin Arena lost over $2 million.
This prompted then Corbin City Commissioner Suzie Razmus to note during a 2016 city commission meeting that the Arena was never expected to turn a profit but that the city should at least find a way for it to break even.
Kristi took over as Corbin Arena General Manager in August 2016.
I’m not sure about the status of the Corbin Arena today in terms of making or losing money. I can say that losing money isn’t something that city leaders are talking about much less complaining about on a regular basis.
Today, the conversion isn’t about how little is going on at the Corbin Arena, but rather how much is going on there.
Between June 2021 and June 2022, the Corbin Arena hosted 50 total events.
During that time, the facility had gross ticket sales of $3,943,599.95 with 101,622 ticket holders, and this only reflects 35 out of the 50 events that utilized the facility’s Ticketmaster system.
Those other events, including private events, graduations and the SOAR Summit among others, easily accounted for at least 20,000 additional guests, Balla noted during an interview a few years ago.
You have to give credit to Kristi and the crack staff she put together for the turn around. Hopefully, her successor at the Arena can build upon the foundation she has created.
