DATE: Saturday, October 11, 1997            TAG: 9710110041

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NIA NGINA MEEKS 

                                            LENGTH:  147 lines

CHARLES PUGH: BROADCASTER REFUSES TO LET PAST TRAGEDIES DETER FUTURE SUCCESS

LITTLE CHARLES heard a noise in the room next to his, the room his daddy and stepmother slept in. It sounded like something gushy, like a watermelon exploding. He trotted down the hallway of his Detroit apartment to his daddy's room to investigate. He didn't see his dad. He searched the room.

Then the 7-year-old boy found his daddy on the floor.

He put his lips to his daddy's mouth, trying to blow life into him. The bullet had already taken it away.

``I knew it was over,'' a 26-year-old Charles Pugh says now. His steady baritone wavers. His eyes grow red. ``It still bothers me as an adult, not knowing why he killed himself.''

Pugh, a WAVY anchor/reporter, encounters plenty of violence, death and grief in the course of his work, which includes TV-tabloid-style crime coverage. Still, he says, his mind often returns that childhood scene.

``I tell the story,'' Pugh says, pinching the water gathered in the corners of his eyes, ``because I want everybody to know that you may have it bad, but there is always someone who has it worse. That should not sidetrack your goals.''

It's a message he will repeat as host of Monday's ``Youth Celebration Summit'' at Virginia Wesleyan College, where about 400 young people will talk about making life better for themselves and their peers. Pugh was a natural choice to be the host for this summit as Oprah Winfrey was for the Presidents' Summit for America's Future held in Philadelphia in April.

``He has a dynamic personality,'' Dorothy N. Barber says. She works for the Virginia Beach School District and was a local delegate to the April summit. ``He is the perfect role model for kids. His own background is an inspiration.''

It's a Wednesday morning. Pugh is warming up a crew of students from the Norfolk Preparatory School, his audience for this taping of the ``Kidtalk'' program. The topic is volunteering.

He dances, jokes and grins. The kids crack up.

``Everybody seems to love him,'' says Connie Allen, executive producer of the show. ``He's excited about life. He's in there living every moment of it.''

Part ``Teen Summit,'' part ``Montel Williams Show,'' ``Kidtalk'' allows young people to discuss problems and solutions on the air.

``A lot of young people are maligned in the media, what dysfunctions they have, what crimes they commit,'' Pugh says. ``It's nice to give them a forum to show that they are like anybody else, with goals, values, fears and morals.''

The kids relax. The cameras roll. Pugh is on, and all about business.

He has spent years practicing. He used to preach, sing and dance in front of his stuffed animals. The late ABC World News anchor Max Robinson made Pugh realize that he could perform and inform.

``Max was this, this force,'' Pugh says. ``Here was a black man, in a suit and a commanding voice, that told the world what they wanted to know. I was like, `Wow.' That's when I knew what I wanted to do.''

Pugh studied journalism at the University of Missouri via a godsend: a scholarship package from Ford Motor Co. He took a part-time job in Topeka, Kan., then finished his degree. He later worked at an NBC affiliate in Fort Wayne, Ind., before landing in South Hampton Roads in 1995.

``I've loved it here ever since,'' he says.

Still, Pugh yearns to anchor back home, then leapfrog to MSNBC, onto ``Dateline'' and finally land in the cushy seat on ``The Today Show.''

Along his trek to success, he often turns to his VCR and his idol, Oprah Winfrey.

``She's somebody else who's been through a lot,'' Pugh says. ``But she kept a greater vision of self. She is a lot of the reason I've been able to keep a positive attitude for this long.''

He has had his struggles.

His parents divorced when he was 3. His mother was killed after she was called to testify against her boyfriend. She had been running heroin for him.

His father had remarried, but the suicide split the family. His dad's mother won custody of Pugh. Bitterness arose. Family visits were cut, including those to his baby stepsister.

He turned to books. He turned to Oprah. He would watch hours of taped shows after school.

Taping for ``Kidtalk'' takes a little more than an hour. Afterward, the kids huddle around, asking how to break into the business.

``I don't have the power to hire, but I have the power to inspire,'' Pugh says, handing out cards.

They all laugh.

Pugh's main TV job, the one for which he's best-known to Hampton Roads viewers, is quite different.

Monday through Wednesday, Pugh reports for the 11 p.m. newscast. On Saturday and Sunday, he anchors the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. shows.

Many of his reports have centered on the grief of people who've suffered the very sorts of difficulties he did. Oftentimes, the distraught faces caught in his camera's lens were those of teary children, like one of Candace Arnaud's daughters weeping for her missing mother. The Norfolk woman was later found murdered.

It's all part of the job, he maintains.

``Facts alone are sometimes boring and uneventful,'' Pugh says. ``Facts plus the real emotion of what happens, told in a compelling way, is a better story. That's what makes my stories memorable, whether someone is upset by it or not.''

At his desk, he sorts through a stack of messages. A maelstrom of paper, notes, half-empty jars of Ben Nye bronze-tan foundation and six bottles drained of spring water loom. A framed issue of The New York Times Magazine featuring Bryant Gumbel sits amid the mess that is his desk.

On Pugh's computer is a cap-and-gown shot with his grandmother, Margaret Pugh. One snapshot is of him, his half-brother, Almondo, and half-sister, Geoye. After years of separation, the trio are now ``tighter than woolen rope.'' Pugh, who is single, dotes on Geoye like a daughter. They talk nearly every day.

Another picture is of his best friend, Adolph Brown III and Brown's wife, Leah, and their two children. It was Adolph Brown, also a local delegate to the presidents' summit, who encouraged Pugh to host Monday's summit at Wesleyan.

Pugh gets a call from a woman who wants him to speak at an upcoming function. He glances at his calendar, already filled with such engagements.

He juggles more calls, takes tips from sources and listens to a yelping assignment editor. He also fields questions from Lamont A. Ferguson, a May graduate of Lynchburg's Liberty University.

They had never met before this week. A mutual church friend in Detroit told Ferguson to look Pugh up because he was looking for a television production job. Pugh put Ferguson up, made some calls and arranged interviews.

``I feel responsible for him,'' Pugh says. ``After the Million Man March, I felt energized. I wanted to help every young black man this side of the Mississippi.''

His reach is not that wide. But it was wide enough to find 12-year-old Danny Nixon Jr. - D.J. to pals. They met while Pugh was in Chesapeake reporting a story last year.

``He just asked me if I wanted to hang out some time,'' D.J. says. ``He'll call and ask, `Hey, man, what do you want to do today?' ''

The duo hit arcades or the TV station or just go to Pugh's place in Norfolk and talk. Debra Nixon, D.J.'s mom, is glad Pugh puts school first. He and D.J. study together. D.J.'s grades are up, behavior problems down.

``I knew that if I changed, Mr. Pugh and I could hang out more,'' D.J. says. ``He's a lot of fun. He's down-to-earth. He talks to me like I talk to my best friend.''

For Pugh, it's more than a friendship. It's an honor, a responsibility, like his role as host of the summit.

``So many young brothers out there are hopeless and don't know why,'' Pugh says. ``When I see D.J., I see me. I want to protect him and take care of him. I'm looking at myself, really.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Vicki Cronis/The Virginian-Pilot

Besides his newsroom duties, Charles Pugh is host of "Kidtalk"...

Photo

Charles Pugh tapes a "Kidtalk"

Color photo by Martin Smith-Rodden/The Virginian-Pilot

Pugh will host Youth Celebration KEYWORDS: PROFILE

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