In Black America; Bryant Gumbel

Okay. From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin, this is in Black America. I guess deep down, I'm enormously proud of the Frederick Patterson Award from the United Negro College one, which is their highest honor that I've won twice.

I don't know how I wound up winning it twice because it's not a competition, it's just something that's awarded to someone. And I guess I'm proud of it because among the things I'm proudest of is the fact that I've raised over $8 million for black education, that every year I'm able with the help of so many others to put about 80 African-American students through college and have for about 12 years now. Every single year we put about 80 kids through college. And I'm enormously proud of that. I really am, and I don't talk much about it, I mean I venture to say probably less than 1% of the population even knows about it. And that's fine, but it's just that I'm a very big believer in education. Brian Gumbo co-hosts The Early Show. In 1981, the Today Show promoted Gumbo from a regular sports contributor to co-anchor with Jane Polly.

With this position, he achieved nationwide fame as a television personality. And he began hosting for The Today Show, he seemed like a long shot. Gumbo had no news experience and was following me in the footsteps of former early morning anchors, John Chancellor, Tom Brokaw, Udowns, and Barbara Waters. It was impossible to predict that Gumbo would one day become one of NBC's most valuable newscasters. Gumbo has won Emmys and high ratings for his smooth and incisive interviewing skills. In 1996, after 15 years with NBC, he left a network for an attractive contract with CBS. I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America and the beginning of our 30th season on this week's program, The Early Morning Co-host, Brian Gumbo, In Black America. I don't think there is anything that happens in this country absent of race. I really don't. I don't think there is a thing that goes on that happens absent of race, whether it be judgments or decisions or anything else.

And so I think it's absurd and naive to think that judgments or opinions about Brian Gumbo happen absent of race. Need somebody who dislikes me, do they necessarily have a racial act to grind? Absolutely not. You could be the most objective person on earth and not care for the way I do things. That's fine. But I do think some of the opinions about the way I am are strictly race-based. I mean, I think there are a great majority of people. There are a lot of people in the majority, should I say, who are uncomfortable and always have been uncomfortable with the idea of an articulate, intelligent, confident, outspoken African-American male. As a member of the post-World War II baby boom, Brian Gumbo was born in New Orleans and raised in Chicago. His parents were both active in the Democratic Party there. In 1970, he graduated from base college where he was one of three African-Americans in a

student body of 900. He played baseball, football, and major in Russian history. In 1971, he began his journalism career as a freelance writer for Black Sports Magazine. After eight months, he was promoted to editor-in-chief. In 1972, he moved into television as a weekend anchor at KNBC television in Los Angeles. Four years later, he became the sports director. Between 1976 and 1980, he commuted from Los Angeles to New York on weekends to anchor NFL football, major league baseball, the NCAA basketball championships for NBC sports. In 1982, Gumbo joined the day show becoming the first African-American host in the show's 30-year history, recently in Black America, traveled to New York to speak with Brian Gumbo. You know, Hyde Park is a very different kind of community. I don't know how familiar we are with Chicago. Hyde Park was, I always used to say, it was like the 60s before the 60s.

It was kind of a strange community in that, while Chicago was and remains in many respects a very segregated town. Hyde Park was always an unusual place because it was dominated by the University of Chicago. And as a result, it was a very eclectic group of people. There were probably, I would guess, a third of Hyde Park were first generation from all around the world because there were academicians. Probably a third of it was black. But the other third was Jewish, some white. It was just a very strange place to grow up. I mean, it was a place where you were very conscious of who you were and you took a great deal of pride in who you were, but you really didn't have a great deal of great idea of what it meant once you were out of Hyde Park. And so it was always kind of a shock when you'd leave Hyde Park and you'd realize the rest of the world wasn't quite as as as as as blending as as as Hyde Park was.

Yeah, it's different. How did you happen to attend Bayes College? It's a real long story. The short version is I was a decent high school athlete who was broken hearted when he was hurt. And I got a letter from a football coach at Bayes College in Lewiston, Maine said, look, you'll never play in a bowl game here. You'll never make the cover of SI here. We don't even give athletic scholarships, but if you'd like to play small college football, we'd dearly love to have a player like you. And it was enough to explore, and I wound up going there, and I have no regrets about it. I mean, for me, it was a wonderful education. It really was. You were one of three African-Americans in the class of 900, and you made it in Russia? I don't even think there were three of us, to be honest. I mean, I think it was one of three in the entire school at the time. In all fairness to Bayes, thank God. Now I would venture to say the school is probably 1400, and there probably are, I don't know, 150 African-Americans there now. So I mean, thank God it's caught up.

For me, it was a question of doing something different than what I had in high school. I had gone to a very large, urban, Catholic, all-boys institution, and I don't think it an accident that I wound up at a small, rural, non-denominational, co-educational institution. I mean, it was just a case of my wanting something different than what I had in high school. Once you graduated from Bayes was the freelance job at Black Sports Magazine, your first professional job? No, no, no, no. When I first got out of school, see, I had always kind of thought that I was going to go to my undergrad, get my degree, and then move on, go to law school, come out, become a lawyer, become a judge, become president, and then see around. But what happened was, I was only going to go to law school, A to please my father, and B to stay out of the draft. And when I was declared 4F, I no longer needed my 2S deferment, and I'm not sure people

who didn't live through Vietnam understand what a tormented time it was, and how preoccupied we were with staying out of the draft. So I suddenly then said, you know what, I don't want to go to law school, what can I do? And I really couldn't do anything. And I got help from another African-American who had graduated from Bates, got my name Dave Boone, who had set up a black placement firm here in New York called Boone Young and Associates. And they placed me with a folding carton concern, a paper company. And that was my first job. I was a paper salesman. And I was not very good at it, and I'd really didn't enjoy it, and then I quit. And I hung around for a while, and then I took a job as a freelance writer, and then I hooked up with Black Sports Magazine and became their editor, yeah. And from there, we can anchor it at KMBC. Yeah, it was very strange. I mean, what happened was this resulted in being a young magazine editor, I started congregating in those places where people in this business are, press conferences and the like. And they got to know me. And so when a position became open in Burbank, somebody called up and said, you know what, we hear you know sports, we hear you can speak carefully decently, and you're not disgusting

to look at, would you mind doing an audition? And I said, sure. And they signed me, and I started in September of 72, and by 74, I think I'd gone onto the network. And once you arrived here at the network, you did sports reports for the today show or other ones. Well, what happened was, I started coming back and forth. I commuted from LA to New York. I worked five days a week in LA, and then I'd worked two days a week in New York, and I commuted every weekend for about seven years. And in that time, I became the host of everything NBC sports did. I hosted all their football, including about four or five super balls. I hosted all their baseball, including several World Series. I hosted their NCAA basketball, including about four championships. I mean, I hosted their Olympic trials. I was supposed to be the 1980 Olympics host. So I had become the host of NBC sports, and you know, in terms of making the switch, I had always said, and no offense to those people who do it, but I had always said that

I didn't envision myself saying Dodgers 3 giants to the rest of my life. There's no shame in it. It's just not something I felt I'd do my whole life. And so when somebody came to me and said, look, would you be interested in being the host of the day program? It wasn't something I thought of, but I wasn't repulsed by the idea either. And I thought about it a long time. I mean, quite frankly, I had a wonderful job. I mean, I was 32 years old. I was making as much money as a guy could make doing sports. I had a great future ahead of me. People thought I did it well. I don't know. I just needed to challenge myself. So I said, yeah. Is it a lot of preparation that goes in to those sports program other than just reading the box scores? It depends on what you're doing and how you want to do it, quite frankly. You know, I always laugh, I always say, if all you're going to be is the kind of guy, what pitch did you hit Joe and, you know, wear a loud sport coat and yell, oh my, then,

you know, then that's, you don't really need to prepare to do that. On the other hand, if you want to bring a degree of dignity and intelligence and style and wit to it, then yeah, it requires a little more work than that. I mean, these days, particularly, I think the job has changed enormously. You know, when I started doing sports, now almost 30 years ago, the next day, whether the game was good, bad, indifferent, whether the broadcast was horrible or wonderful, there wasn't a word in the paper. Nobody cared. Nobody cared. Now it's a whole different matter. Now you're under a microscope and everybody's second guess is everything. So the smart people do their homework. What was it like that first day on the day set, considering that you came from sports and now the news background? It was strange. It was very strange. I mean, I think people tend to forget how different it was. I mean, you got to remember, I was, I was 33 years old.

I was a sports guy coming into a news area. Everybody else had been there forever. I was a black guy coming and taking charge of the program. It wasn't exactly a recipe for tremendous success. I think the people associated with the program up front, and I'm talking about Jane, Jean, were very, very kind to me. I mean, there was no animosity there whatsoever, but within the organization there was considerable problem. I mean, you know, we heard all the time that people would refuse to talk to me on the air that, you know, they would walk off, that stations would pull it, that America wasn't ready for a black guy sitting next to a white woman. I mean, there were a lot of concerns at the time. It was different. It was different era. Did you feel any antiprecious being in that position in the first blind coast of the day show in 30 years, and your success of failure may depend on other African Americans having an opportunity?

You know, I'm probably a bad person to ask that of. I really am, because I'm not a guy who's terribly conscious of pressure. I mean, it's not to say that it doesn't exist. It's just to say that my father raised me to believe that you do things to please yourself, and that if you can feel pride in what you've done, then whether somebody else thinks you succeeded or failed is really pretty irrelevant. And I've always felt that way, and so to the extent somebody else might be concerned that I wasn't this or I wasn't that, they could never judge me as hard as I judge myself. I was preoccupied with trying to be as good as I could be, and making sure that I did what was essential to do the job right. And if somebody else didn't like it, well, that's fine. Working at NBC for 15 years, now you at CBS, 25 years, 15 years at the day show. Why are the morning programs such an integral part of the network system in which we have?

That's a good question. I suspect it's because they are, and there's a lot of reasons for that. I mean, number one is, we're a global community now. We operate on a 24 hour clock. So when people get up on the morning, the first thing they want to know is, is there world in one place? What happens with their world? So they flip it on. That's number one. I think number two is at a time when the audience in television is pretty fractured. That if you like sports, you're watching ESPN, if you like money, you're watching something else. If you like music, you're watching VH1 or MTV. If you like movies, you're watching Cinemax or HBO. It's pretty fractured. It remains a time period that people do turn to the networks. There's nothing else going on at that hour. They watch the networks. And I think also it's one of the last of the live broadcasts. It's kind of a town meeting. You know, it's very much a town meeting. So I mean, I think people gather to see what's going on in their day. It's one of the few places where you get an exchange of ideas that run the gamut of

Mitty's politics to tomorrow night's football game, to the latest bestseller, to the hottest movie, to tips for your garden, to how to cook. It really does run the gamut. And so to that end, I think it remains a very unique institution. How does Brad prepare himself, mooring in and mooring out? It's hard. I mean, it's hard. I can't lie to you. It really is. I think it's like anything else. Some things you can prepare months in advance, others weeks in advance, and some of them you just have to fly by the seat of your pants. I've always been a bit of a preparedness freak. I'm not sure you needed as much as I do. But I've always been a preparedness freak. And so as a result, my typical day, I get up at four o'clock. I'm in the makeup chair by five. I do a lot of things prior to the show in terms of rewriting and last minute adjustments or anything else. We do the show from seven to nine. I generally work off from about 10, 30 noon.

Then I come in here in the office, and I do some of the work attendant to the program from noon till about 2, 30 or so. Then I'll go home and try to live pretty much a normal life until the evening when I'll study, read, and that'll generally take me till about midnight, and then I'll sleep four hours and get up and do it again. Speaking of the normal part of Brian Gumball, living here in New York City, being recognizable everywhere you go, handling that or just being Brian Gumball, quote, unquote, all the time. It's, you know, it's funny. I've kind of gotten used to it. I mean, you got to remember, I've done this now virtually all my adult life. I mean, it really, I really have pretty much my adult life. I started when I was 22, I'm 52 now. So I've never gotten quite used to it because I'm self-conscious. I'm despite nobody wants to believe it. I'm a pretty shy individual in that I keep to myself.

What happens when people kind as they are when they come up and say they'd like your autograph? By signing you, you pretty much validate their opinion that you're somehow special. And I don't think I am. I really don't. I happen to be on television for a living. It's what I do. And so I'm pretty self-conscious about it. But at this point in my life, it is what it is. I mean, there's no sense running from it. There's no sense trying to say it isn't something that is. So I just live with it. It's okay. I mean, most people are very kind about it. Are there two standards for African-Americans and maybe for the majority in your position? There has been criticism being arrogant. But it's from your standpoint, it's just being professional. I think in every single business. I mean, I think if you talk to any athlete on any team, they'll tell you they are judged by different standards and their white peers.

I think if you talk to folks in the business arena, they'll tell you the same thing. In my arena, it's certainly true. Yes. Yes. Look, I don't think there is anything that happens in this country absent of race. I really don't. I don't think there is a thing that goes on that happens absent of race. Whether it be judgments or decisions or anything else. And so I think it's absurd and naive to think that judgments or opinions about Brian Gumball happen absent of race. Need somebody, you know, does everybody who dislikes me, do they necessarily have a racial act to grind? Absolutely not. I mean, you know, you could be the most objective person on earth and not care for the way I do things. That's fine. But I do think some of the, some of the opinions about the way I am are strictly race-based. I mean, I think there are a great majority of people. There are a lot of people in the majority, should I say. People who are uncomfortable, and always have been uncomfortable with the idea of an articulate, intelligent, confident, outspoken African-American male, did just, it just makes

them uncomfortable. They don't like it. They don't like it. They don't like it much better if you just kind of went along and pretty much said, thank you for letting me have this job. I'm so happy. I'm so lucky. I'm not that kind of person. I'm not. That's fine. You haven't completely devoted yourself from sports. You with HBO, real sports. Did you come up with that concept? No. Ross Greenberg and Seth Abraham at HBO came up with the concept. And there are friends of mine from a long years back, and they called me and said, we'd like to talk to you about something, and we had several lunches over, and I'll be quite honest with you. It's a show that I'm as proud of as anything I've ever done. I love the program. I think it's a serious look at some real sports issues. It's a very, very honored program. I think there's nothing like an on television, and I'm flattered to be fronting it. I really am. I do an awful lot of work with it, besides hosting it in terms of story assignments and editing and writing.

And I'm enormously proud of the show. I really am. I also see you've given some newcomers an opportunity to be a part of the staff. Yeah. I'm very happy to have taken some people onto the program. People who I have a lot of faith in, and people who I think do a wonderful job. I just think it's a great experience, I really do. Public eye with Brian Gumball, what happened? I think a lot of things happened. I think we rushed it on the air. Number one. We tried and did do a live program in a medium that is much more comfortable with tape. I think we didn't have the resources to do it effectively. But having said all of that, having said all of that, the programs, numbers, and performance, are pretty much in keeping with what first-year news magazine programs generally do. Our numbers were very competitive with the history of what news programs are about in

their first year. They chose not to exercise the same amount of patience as some others. And you know what? I've never second-guessed them because it's their toy store. They're free to do what they want with it. But I'm certainly not ashamed of the program, no? Any accolades you're particularly proud of achieving, you have Emmys, you won the NABJ Journalist of the Year Award, you won the Air in our Murrow Award? I think, you know what's funny, I mean, awards are the kind of thing I think when you're a little older than I am when it's all over and done, you look at them and you go, wow. I don't know. I guess deep down, I'm enormously proud of the Frederick Patterson Award from the United Negro College one, which is their highest honor that I've won twice. I don't know how I wound up winning it twice because it's not a competition. It's just something that's awarded to someone. And I guess I'm proud of it because among the things I'm proudest of is the fact that

I've raised over $8 million for black education, that every year I'm able with the help of so many others to put about 80 African American students through college and have for about 12 years now. Every single year we put about 80 kids through college. And I'm enormously proud of that. I really am and I don't talk much about it, I mean, I venture to say probably less than one percent of the population even knows about it. And that's fine, but it's just that I'm a very big believer in education. I think ultimately, if we're to achieve the dreams we envision for ourselves, education is the key to that. Being here at CBS, are you finding other African Americans being a foreign opportunity to move up from the ranks, are we somewhat stagnated? It's hard.

Right now, I think we are somewhat stagnant. I think CBS is as guilty as NBC and ABC in terms of their inability to expand and reach out to try to make their newsrooms and their front offices more diverse. Frankly, network television is doing a terrible job of that, whether it's because of motivations of race or motivations of economics or fear, I have no idea. But the reality is, the reality is, we're doing a horrible job. Speaking with some of my friends and colleagues this past week over the Maurice Green, Michael Johnson, can it, can it, in fact, and feel can the participants ever live up to the hype? No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. And you know what? And I'm kind of amused by Michael's reaction afterwards, I mean, he said, you know, the Wolfon didn't get him anywhere. That basically all, there was pisser everybody else off and those guys went and ran fast. I mean, I don't think it gets anywhere, I mean, I don't know how we avoid it, but it would

have been better served if neither one had come to that. Being an avid golfer, as you are, the Tiger Wolf phenomenon, he's phenomenal. He's phenomenal. I mean, I never thought I would see the day when I saw someone who made the game look so easy. He is so dominant that it is, you almost wonder sometimes if he didn't make a deal with the devil because some of the things that he's able to do statistically on the golf course, it just can't be done. I mean, I was trying to explain to someone who didn't play golf. I said, if a guy wins in major, he's average winning majors by nine strokes now. I said, it's a little bit like getting to the Olympics among the world's best sprinters and winning the 100-yard dash by 40 yards, it just doesn't happen. Just doesn't happen. You may win it, but you'll win it by a fraction of a second. You don't win it by 40 yards, and that's what he's done now in four majors.

That to me is incomprehensible. I just cannot imagine that. Part of the CBS deal was your own production company. What are the projects that you currently working on? Actually, I'm glad you're asked because part of the company is called Dunbar, and part of our mission of Dunbar was to broaden the exposure of the business to include young people in African-Americans who otherwise wouldn't get an opportunity. To that end, we have a program called the Reading Club that is on about, well, I don't know, 50-some stations across America, and it's a show we're doing conjunction with the people at Howard University and the people in their communications department. We've worked out a partnership where we bring our professionals down and work with their students to do what is a reading club program that is directed towards African-American women.

We're also doing some freelance projects for the Learning Channel and some other things for the Discovery Channel. We remain pretty excited about some of the things we're doing. Final question, Mr. Dunbar. Looking back over your career, is there anything that you have done, would have done differently? Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. But you know what? I'm not given to looking back too much. I'm really not. I know Satra used to say, don't look back, somebody might be gaining on you. I just think it doesn't do a lot of good. The reality is you have made a decision, and you have to live with it, and you move on. You waste your energy, and you waste your time, and you make yourself an emotional wreck, trying to second-guess yourself. You try to make good decisions, you try to do the best you can, but your problems are in front of you. If you spend a whole lot of time bemoaning what was before, you're only going to screw up what happens to come. I'm just not one of those people, I mean, maybe what I'm old and much older, and gone from this business, I'll have a chance to look back at it, but I'm not given to post mortems,

I'm really not. I remain excited about tomorrow. Brian Gumbo, host, the early show, and host of HBO Sports, real sports with Brian Gumbo. If you have questions, comments or suggestions after the future in Black America programs, write us, also let us know what radio station you heard us over. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. Until we have the opportunity again for technical producer David Alvarez, I'm John L. Hansen Jr. Thank you for joining us today as we began our 30th season at my 21st year as host, and please join us again next week. From the University of Texas at Austin, this is the Longhorn Radio Network. I'm John L. Hansen Jr. join us this week on in Black America.

Frankly, Network Television is doing a terrible job of that, whether it's because of motivations of race or motivations of economics or fear, I have no idea. Television Personality, Brian Gumbo, this week on in Black America.