Waggener High School - RingBrothersHistory.com

The Voice, July 25, 1974:Under Oglesby, The Voice won many state honors, by Joseph OglesbyI was the editor of The Voice and its sister publications from late August of 1965 until Februaryof 1970.When I first joined the St. Matthews paper, it was called “The Voice of St. Matthews.” Its publisher,Alden J. Schansberg, also owned “The Jeffersonian,” Jeffersontown’s own weeklynewspaper, one of the oldest in the state.In October of ‘65 the two newspapers merged to become “The Voice-Jeffer-sonian.”About that time, David Schansberg, who’d been business manager of “The Jeffersonian,”joined “The Voice-Jeffersonian.” Together, we mapped out many of the changes in format andtypography that gave the paper its new look.My first few weeks on The Voice were, in many ways, idyllic. The pace was slow. And human.Not much happening. The only big news was that Anthony J. Eline wanted to rezone somemore property. A citizens’ group immediately protested.We had time on the newspaper staff to swap stories and sandwiches.25th Anniversary IssueAl Schansberg used to hang over my desk nearly every Monday morning with some fishingstory -- much to my dismay, since Monday and Tuesday were the only really busy days, ‘approachingnews deadline. And I didn’t have much help.Stella Thomas, who also was the circulation manager, edited church news and correspondents’ copy for me. I did the rest,writing all the major stories, taking all the photos -- anything and everybody from Eagle Scouts to tree plantings by theBeautification League -- developing and printing them, as well as writing headlines and doing makeup. But I loved it.Fred Eads, who must have worn size 13 shoes and heavy, black brogans at that, and suits that always seemed baggy, wouldshuffle in around noon every day. Fred was the ad manager.He’d smile broadly if he saw the “boss” -- Al -- and retell a joke. Then he’d shuffle to his desk, making sounds like theFrankenstein monster scraping across the moors - and check with some accounts by phone, while he propped up his heavyfeet for a deserved rest. Usually he used the phone for small ads for the church page or some such thing.Somewhere in mid-afternoon, Roger Gernert, something of a black humorist, and I, would drink a Coke together and discussbooks or stamps or take a peek at the new Playboy centerfold.The soft day around the office was Friday. A slow day. The paper came out on Thursday. Friday was anticlimactically, but,it was payday.Later on, Paul Jenkins, who’d been “The Jeffersonian’’ editor, became my assistant. Paul, trained on “The Herald Post,”was an old-school journalist who wrote dryly but completely accurately, a stickler for getting the facts straight.The Voice office was as democratic as you can get. No cubicles or barriers. The circulation manager (also my assistant) satthree feet away. Also, I could turn my chair around and talk to Al, if he happened to be at his desk, without raising myvoice.If Geneva Bossung, a doll of a woman, the classified advertising manager, got swamped with calls or ‘walk-ins” we’d allpitch in and help. Al especially, I think, enjoyed writing classified ads. I didn’t mind it either. There’s a certain clean simplicityabout them.And since most of the staff hadn’t been reporters or even gone to journalism school, for that matter, they didn’t always getthings right. I didn’t always catch their mistakes either. So we ran some boo-boos, occasionally. But we were sincere, and, Ibelieve, honest.My feeling then, and now for that matter, about a newspaper is that it should be its community’s protector and its conscience,its super ego.It must constantly watch the maneuvers of government and the elected representatives of the people, always seeking fulldisclosure of public business.I didn’t always have an easy time of it, keeping “The Voice” on a crusading path. For one thing, the news staff was neverlarger than three full-time persons during my editorship, even at the time when we were publishing four newspapers: ‘TheVoice,” the Jeffersontown edition of “The Voice,” “The Lyndonarean” and “The Middletown Mirror.’’Back then I felt city government should be covered more thoroughly in St. Matthews and Jeffersontown, in particular,where tremendous growth had imposed many decisions on the city councils of those cities -- decisions that could be criticalto the future.