THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140035
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
THE MYSTERY POET? Jack Ankerson's best guess is it's one of the shrinks in a neighboring suite. Each morning, since the first of the month, someone has tacked a sheet of verse to the door of Benchmark Communications.
With a skipjack,
you can dredge for Chesapeake oysters.
With a hijack,
you can get an airplane to go somewhere else.
With a lojack,
the police can find your stolen car.
With nojack,
you can ... well ... uh ... what can you do with nojack?
Listeners will be asking likewise Friday when the Coach, the longtime sports and program director at WTAR-AM (790), hangs up his headset. Ankerson is taking a front-office job with the Norfolk Tides, as director of broadcasting and sales for the Triple A affiliate.
It's a plum opportunity, one where he gets to keep a thumb in radio, sports and sports administration.
Ankerson will still be the color man for Tides' broadcasts, something he's done since 1993. He'll also be involved in advertising and promotion. He asked for two guarantees: that Tides owner Ken Young would keep the team in Norfolk and that he'd get a crack at moving up the administrative ladder.
Otherwise, Ankerson, a good-natured, 6-foot-4 bear, wouldn't even consider leaving WTAR, where he's manned the mike for 12 years.
``Those summer nights get kind of short,'' he said earlier this week. ``You're on the air 3 1/2 or 4 hours. (After the game) you have to pack up the equipment. Most nights, you don't get home before midnight or 12:30. And after talking that long, you can't get to sleep right away.
``On those long homestands, you start to feel it. I won't have that problem starting Monday.''
No more 4:45 reveille. No more hustling between WTAR, WKOC-FM and WLTY-FM, the three Benchmark stations, five times an hour, five mornings a week, to talk sports. No more ``College Football Scorecard Show.''
If WTAR still covered prep football and ODU men's basketball, or hadn't dropped its Admirals pre-game show, Ankerson would be giving up those duties, too.
And he'd be doing it reluctantly.
``I'm not leaving on an ill note,'' said Ankerson, 53. ``I really do enjoy radio because I've had the chance to work with all three stations and get to know a whole lot of people - the oldies and alternative audiences.
``We go out to various events and people I wouldn't have met in a hundred years say to me, `You're the Coach. I hear you every morning on The Coast.' It's a new audience. Hootie and the Blowfish? What do I know about Hootie and the Blowfish?''
About as much as knows about the Meat Puppets. Ankerson laughed when he was asked about his favorite gaffe. He'd finished a report on The Coast and ex-deejay Eric Worden had him introduce a track by the Arizona alt-rockers.
``I said, `And now we're going to hear something from the Meatball Puppets.' That one kind of stuck around here.''
Ankerson off the air is pretty much the same as he is in the studio: loose.
``What you hear is what you get,'' he said. ``It's my natural way of doing things. I try to be a little loose, a little light. If somebody doesn't like it, I'm sorry. But I have to be myself.''
He was in his first-floor office on Business Park Drive in Virginia Beach. On his desk were a baseball autographed by Mark McGwire and Greg Jefferies, and a picture taken 20 years ago, when he was general manager of the Virginia Squires of the old American Basketball Association. A satin Tides jacket was slung over the door.
The new job brings him full circle, in more than one way.
A native of Neenah, Wis., he lettered in football, basketball and tennis at tiny Ripon College (one of his classmates was Harrison Ford). After a brief football career with the St. Louis Cardinals, Ankerson worked in the front office of the ABA's Kentucky Colonels. He was later hired as GM of the San Antonio Spurs; in 1974, the Sporting News named him executive of the year.
He left Texas that year to take over the struggling Squires in the waning days of the ABA. About that time, he met Dave Rosenfield, general manager of the then Tidewater Tides. The two have been close friends since.
``Sports and announcing. I feel like a kid with a whole new deal,'' Ankerson said. ``This job combines the best of both worlds.''
The Coach is quick to admit, though, that adjusting to his new schedule - beginning Jan. 2, he'll report to work at 8:30 - might take time. A biological alarm clock just isn't reset overnight.
Not that he's planning on sleeping in. His oldest daughter, Allison, is going to see to that. (Ankerson and his wife, Ellie, have another daughter, Courtney, a sophomore at Radcliffe.) A two-time soccer All-American at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C., Allison is working on her teacher's certificate at ODU. She'd like to coach collegiate-level soccer.
``She's told me I have no more excuses for not getting up in the morning to take a walk with her,'' Ankerson said. ``I'll probably read the entire paper before going to work. That will be a change.
``And I'll probably stay up a little later to encourage the change.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot
Jack Ankerson (seated, center) with the Squires in 1975.
JACK ANKERSON AT WTAR
by CNB