Everyman with gravitas and a microphone

For years, each time I’d see one among Gurspan’s reviews on the information, I’d make a psychological be aware to trace him down, introduce myself, and take him to lunch. I meant to make that occur however by no means did, and now I can’t. Gurspan died this week at 66, a scant few weeks after being recognized with glioblastoma, a very insidious mind tumor.

Nevertheless, I can solely think about that my mom is monitoring down Gurspan proper now. Mom died a number of years in the past, and if there’s in actual fact life after dying, then she’s going to make a chance to chew the fats together with her favourite reporter.

After my father died, my mom bought their home in Baton Rouge and moved again to Dothan. One night within the mid-Nineties, we glided by to select Mom as much as go have some Mexican meals. The tv information was on, and Gurspan was in mid-segment, reporting from some far-flung nook of the Wiregrass space.

“He’s my favourite,” she stated, gesturing towards the tv set. “You would possibly assume he’s drunk, however he’s sober as a decide. He’s one of the best reporter they’ve bought.”

I haven’t paid a lot consideration to tv information for a very long time. When one works within the information enterprise, the very last thing on their thoughts once they depart work is extra information. Nevertheless, after Mom’s pronouncement, I started protecting an ear out for the Gurspan reviews, and shortly discovered precisely what she meant. Gurspan wasn’t a type of reporters who’d primp earlier than the cameras got here on. The creases on his jacket weren’t sharp sufficient to attract blood, his hair didn’t have the blown-dry-and-Aqua-Netted look, collar unbuttoned, and his tie, as a rule, was loosened, if it had been there in any respect.

In different phrases, Gurspan’s look was that of Everyman — his presentation on-air gave the impression to be what one would possibly count on of him off-air, and that lent nice credibility to his reviews. His supply could effectively have been utterly unscripted and ad-libbed, as a result of getting the information from Gurspan was like listening to somebody from the group with distinctive powers of recall who witnessed an occasion after which stopped for a second to inform others about it with out adornment.

In a phrase, Mike Gurspan exuded gravitas, and that’s a uncommon trait today.

A couple of years in the past, Gurspan left one native station for one more, and the brand new scenario gave him the chance to come back in from the sphere and work within the studio on-air. His final task was as anchor of the night information – a seat and slot many within the enterprise would contemplate the apex of a broadcast information profession. As a viewer, I used to be saddened to see one among our market’s most tenacious and dependable reporters get off the beat and into the seat on the night information. Gurspan knew the Wiregrass space, the folks to speak to, the rocks to show over. His longevity gave him a body of reference for absolutely anything that may have occurred, and he was capable of ship his report like a forthcoming neighbor on the opposite facet of the fence.

Maybe that’s why I really feel like I’ve misplaced a longtime neighborhood wag who may all the time be counted on to inform us what’s occurring with out hypothesis or conjecture. Gurspan was the man from down the street with a microphone and entry to the airwaves, and he used that energy respectfully and judiciously.

I’ll all the time remorse not having advised him that, however maybe they get the Dothan Eagle in heaven.