Joe Gracey

11/14/1950 - 11/17/2011

A voice from beyond greeted me.

“It’s your turn!”

It took me a moment but I finally recognized the deep resonant voice I was hearing belonged to Joe Gracey, who had come to the production room where I had “crashed” on the floor for a few hours sleep before my overnight air shift on KNOW.

I slowly made my way to the control room, attempting to make myself coherent enough to function on the air and not sound completely “out of it.”

I walked into the control room, grabbed the transmitter log and started taking the required midnight “readings” and entering them into the log. Out of my fog, I suddenly realized that someone new was doing the news and they sounded very professional.

A pause between news stories occurred just as I finished my transmitter log entries and I rotated around toward the control room console. As I turned, the new news guy looked up and saw me. I nodded toward him in greeting and acknowledgement and continued toward the console.

Suddenly, rather than hearing news, all I heard was gales of uncontrollable laughter. I immediately scanned the newsroom in an attempt find out who had cracked up the newsman. I didn't see anybody. It was only he and me and I didn't think that I had done anything funny. The newsman finally got enough composure to go into the commercial before the weather.

By this time Joe came rushing into the control room.

“How did you do it? I’ve been trying to crack him up all night.”

Joe flatly refused to believe I had done nothing other than nod in greeting to the newsman.

Soon I saw Joe in the newsroom in an animated discussion with the newsman. A few minutes later, Joe returned to the control room to inform me that the newsman had told him the same thing that I had. However, Joe refused to believe both of us.

Many years later at the KNOW Reunion, Joe and I got to re-live the moment from many years past. Joe still refused to believe that I had done nothing that night to crack up the newsman.

Paul Kirby

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