News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 44

4C Fort Myers News-Press, Sunday, June 30, 1985 Ukee From page 1C take a lot of heat for that. "Ukee is just 'Mr. Nice Gray, 28, also does the breakfast and lunch speaking route, but does not believe news of his public ap-' pearances belongs on the "The one thing that troubles me -most about this whole thing is that a lot of people in the area have the Impression that he is absolutely ev- erywhere and I'm not," says Gray. "I go out a great deal in this community, but I don't talk about it on the sports- cast. "The first story on my sportscast will generally be the lead sports story of the day," Gray says.

"The first story of his sportscast could be him been a victim of racial slurs or discrimination while in Southwest Florida, he wouldn't be surprised if there are those who dislike him because he is black. One thing is certain, he doesn't worry about it. "I just can't get over the fact that a lot of people look at color, that they don't look at someone as a human being first," he says. "That's the only thing that gets to me. I want people to look at me as a human being, not a black man who's successful." He dates both black and white women.

Again, when he first came here, he was concerned about walking into a nightclub or restaurant with a white woman. Now he doesn't think twice about it. "I don't think people care who I'm With as long as I look happy," he says. Still, there are some who might frown at Washington's "mixed" dates. "But that doesn't bother me, either," he says.

"They have their own minds. I know what's best for Ukee Washington and what makes Ukee happy. "I'm image-conscious, but I'm also Ukee-conscious." Marc Blaine, WBBH's sports reporter says, with tongue firmly in cheek, "I've got a scoop Ukee's white." Washington laughs loudly at Blaine's remark. But ultimately the boss gets the last laugh. i As a child.

He was born Ulysses Samuel Washington III, but that was a mouthful, so his mother, Ruth Helen, decided to give her only son a nickname. Ruth Helen had a friend whose husband's name was Ulysses. They called the man Vuck for short, but Ruth Helen didn't want a child called Yuck, so she modified the nickname to "Ukee," and it stuck. Now, if he wanted to, he could drop his surname and be known simply as Ukee. As a youngster, Washington was a member of the All-Philadelphia Boys Choir.

Each week he would ride the city's buses and trains to attend the choir's practices and performances. Usually he was accompanied by other choirboys, but that didn't discourage the young predators who chose robbery victims from among the transit systems' patrons. Washington says he was robbed an average of twice a week. He began carrying money just to oblige his tormentors. First, he carried the money in his pockets.

Then he got the idea of stashing it in his shoes. But the young thugs started checking them, too. Yet Washington never was roughed up. Even then he had a gift of gab and used it to save his neck. As his friends stood shaking, Ukee would drone on about his lack of money, how far away he was from his neighborhood anything to keep the would-be assailants at bay.

"Finally," Ukee says, "they'd get tired of hearing me talk and say, 'Just take the kid's shoes and let's get out of The voice Don't get the idea Ukee Washington, born and reared in the outskirts speaking at the Kiwanis Club doing something at the Moose Lodge, which is fine. That's his style. My style is different." But which style is working? The ratings are in Gray's corner. According to the May Arbitron rat- ings of Southwest Florida's three 6 p.m. newscasts, WINK was well-ahead of the pack with a 26 percent rating and 46 percent share of the viewing audience.

WINK reached 58,000 homes. WBBH was a distant second with a 16 rating and 29 share 32,000 homes. But it is when the ratings are broken down into age groups that WBBH shines. According to the Arbitron ratings, WBBH Is by far more popular with the younger audience, ages 18-34. Gray says Washington's populari- ty might have something to do with that figure.

But, he adds, "The risk TV-20 is taking in promoting Ukee is that some day he is going to leave and they will have promoted him and not the consistent sports product. They have it all now, but when he leaves I think they'll fall flat on their faces. "The guy that replaces Ukee is not going to be Ukee and they're going to have to deal with the fact they've promoted Ukee to the hilt." Indeed WBBH Vice President and General Manager Howard Hof- fman calls the prospect of life with- out Ukee "scary." And that's speak- ing from experience. WBBH has lost Ukee before. In 1 983, Washington accepted a job with WSB-TV, an ABC affiliate in Atlanta, where he worked for five months before returning to WBBH.

At WSB, I Washington had been promised a sports anchor spot on an expanded noon news cast, but budgetary prob- lems wiped out the station's noon show expansion plans and his job was -reduced to reporting and weekend anchor. Washington was unhappy and WBBH was more than happy to I negotiate a deal that brought him back. In Ukee's absence, however, re- placement Mark Lewis, unable to capture the public's attention, was a failure. "Ukee's a tough act to follow," Clement says. "When he left, every- body at the station thought that was it.

The one strong peg we had in the viewing market had been pulled out. And that's not to downgrade the oth-er people. It's just that in terms of personality acceptance, Ukee was it. I "Again, the guy is phenomenal." Washington has one year remain- ing on his current contract with WBBH. Hoffman vows that he will do everything he can to re-sign the sta- tion's rising star.

Washington isn't sure what his future plans are, al- though he has received several of- fers from major markets. "I'm not where I want to be right now," he said, "but I really don't know where I want to be. I'm still setting goals." So is WBBH. The NBC affiliate's promo people currently are working i to get Washington a bit part on an episode of the smash TV series "Mi- ami Vice," and there are plans for Ukee to cut an album of pop and religious music to be sold in this area I for charity. "The Packaging of Ukee" contin- ues, and if, as Gray says, WBBH is i taking a risk of blowing it all, so be it.

i Says Channel 20 News Director Jerry Fisher, "I think it's a risk we'd be foolish not to take." of West Philadelphia, had to fight his way out of the slums. As he says, "I'm not one of those ghetto stories. I was lucky enough to have been born into a middle-class home." Washington's father holds a doctorate in agriculture and natural resources and teaches at Delaware State, where he also coached football from 1960-'69. His mother recently retired after a career of teaching high school biology and science. Washington, 26, has a 32-year-old sister who has a degree from Temple University.

Washington describes the pre-teen Ukee as a short, chubby kid. "I was a wimp," he says. But the chubby "wimp" could belt out a tune. In 1969, Washington was among some 500 boys chosen from the Philadelphia public school system to form a choir, a number that turned out to be too big to handle. So the choir director decided to handpick 60 of its best voices and form the All-Philadelphia Boys Choir.

Washington was among those selected and in 1971 was named the group's first Choirboy of the Year. He remained a member of the elite 60 singers until his voice changed, performing in Russia, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark, Mexico and all over the United States. Then, after singing with a men's group that sometimes accompanied the boys choir, he got burned out on singingand discovered sports. To Washington's advantage, from the time he entered middle school he began to grow like a weed. He now stands 6-foot-4, although he weighs a slim 175 pounds.

Washington's father never liked the city, choosing instead to commute on weekends from Delaware State's Dover campus to his family's Asked what comprises Blaine's duties, Washington pauses and says, "I have him come over and do my dishes. "Oh, shoes." and, he also shines my Marketing Ukee He is creative. But is he a journalist? Washington will say hello to a class of 5th-graders he might have visited that morning before he tells you about the teams that have made it to the Super Bowl. It's show biz. But is it professional? Says Clement, "From a journalistic standpoint, you can say things like that hurt Ukee's credibility.

But you have to remember that television isn't strictly journalism. It's a real strange blend of show business and journalism." Washington considers himself a journalist first, TV personality second. But how serious can a journalist be when his face has been covered with fruit during a pie-eating contest? It is during such silly events that he considers the television market in which he works. Fort Myers is the 112th-largest market in the nation. Because it's a small, folksy area, Washington can get away with talking about pancake breakfasts on the air, something he knows wouldn't work in a big city.

Even knowing this, Washington isn't concerned he has hurt his credibility. "I think most of my colleagues respect my work. They know I do a good job," he says. "I put a lot into my sportsjournalism. "I think that my popularity comes from my sportsjournalism first," he said.

"People had to see me on TV first before they would invite me to these different affairs. "But you're assuming I'm popular. I don't know if I am. I just want to be known as friendly." Washington's main competition comes from Walt Gray, sports director at WINK-TV, the CBS affiliate in Fort Myers. Gray and Washington are friends.

Gray calls Ukee "an absolute gentleman, one of the nicest people I've ever met." Ukee's down-home approach is not for Walt Gray. But to compare the style of these two sportscasters you first must consider their attitudes. While Ukee's view of the sporting world seemingly is through glasses of a slightly rose-colored hue. Gray manifests a telltale streak of cynicism. "He comes off as beinga real nice guy and I'm not as nice as he Is," Gray says.

"I inject more opinion into my sportscast. I'll be a little quicker to knock someone than he will, and I WASHINGTON (RIGHT) STARRED IN TWO SPORTS went on to captain the University of Richmond's IN HIGH SCHOOL basketball team Philadelphia home. When Ukee was ready to start the seventh grade, his father suggested he attend school in Dover. Realizing that trouble often stirred in some of Philadelphia's public schools, Ukee decided on Dover and finished his schooling there. He excelled in track and basketball, becoming a state champion in the high hurdles and mile relay and accepting a four-year basketball scholarship to the University of Richmond.

At Richmond, he suffered a knee injury as a freshman that greatly curtailed his mobility and thus his playing time. Still, because of his leadership qualities, he was the team's captain his junior and senior years and a favorite of Spider fans. A print journalism major, Washington became interested in television broadcasting when he began hosting a weekly Richmond basketball highlights show. He also interned at a CBS affiliate in Richmond. In April of 1981, he took his first full-time broadcasting job at WBBH as a sports reporter and weekend sports anchor.

Two months later, when then-sports director Ed Murray left to join a station in Oklahoma City, Washington got the top job. No calls The first night Ukee Washington anchored a WBBH sportscast, Miriam Thomas was the news anchor. Miriam Thomas also is black. Washington was worried what the public's reaction would be. After the telecast, he rushed to the switchboard and scanned the lights in anticipation of calls of protest.

"I expected it to light up like a Christmas tree," he said. It didn't. Washington never wor-riedaboutsuchthingsagain. Was there reason to worry? Apparently not. Viewers embraced him.

On the flip side, could it be that there are television viewers in this predominately white area that like Ukee Washington not only because he is a personable guy, but because he isa personable Wacfcguy? "The Uncle says Clement, thought. Tom syndrome," disgusted at the "I think people who think that way are a bunch of asses," Clement continues. "They tend to view the world with a racial bias. "Of all the people I have ever met, inside and outside TV, Ukee is the most race-less person I know. You think of Ukee first as Ukee, and then about three or four shots down the ladder as being black.

And that says a lot for the person. He has so much charisma that people see right past his color." Washington admits that when he first came to Southwest Florida, the racial issue entered his mind. That is why he bolted from the news set to the switchboard that first night. He was glared for controversy. When none came, he dropped his guard and now feels right at home.

"I found out that as long as you prove you're professional, that you're no slouch, you'll be accepted," Washington says. "No matter what color you are." Although he says he has never News-PressGartn Francis WINK'S WALT GRAY CONCEDES UKEE'S STYLE HAS DENTED HIS IMAGE "People have the impression that (Ukee) is absolutely everywhere and I'm not" 'UKEE'S FAN CLUB' AT RICHMOND Spiders were 12-14 during his senior season.