“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” William Arthur Ward
When a leader passes, the entire industry feels the loss. Lowell “Bud” Paxson, passed recently and I joined many of his old radio team last week to remember and honor him.
Let’s set the stage first. Bud Paxson is a radio guy. He told me stories about when he was on WOLF in Syracuse, where everyone was named “wolfman.” He was Wolfman Bud, and he was followed by Wolfman Jack. Yes, that Wolfman Jack. He was talent, a manager, and an owner, all before he used some radio experience to create a TV network you may have heard of, the Home Shopping Network.
One of the important principles I learned from my time with Bud was leading by vision. He would give us his vision – the big picture – but not tell us how to do it. I remember once talking with him and he said he wanted all his stations number one. Since consolidation had just started then, I reminded him that we had two or three stations in a market. He just smiled and said, “Well then, I guess you’ll just have to tie.”
For Bud, vision always came with passion and enthusiasm. There were a lot of stories going around the industry in the day, about how Bud would yell at people. It frightened some of them, but I realized it was just his passion going out of control. It was never personal and usually followed with an apology.
When Bud sold the radio division to Clear Channel it was to pursue another vision – a TV network that was “family friendly” and Christian inspired. Unfortunately network TV is a very different beast, and I know he didn’t have nearly as much fun doing TV as he did radio.
Our radio “Band Of Brothers” will always be joined by the experiences of Paxson Communications. I have dozens of Bud Paxson stories showing both his strengths and weaknesses, but they are “you had to be there” stories, that you had to know Bud to understand.
Thank you Bud, for always keeping me in learning mode. I’ve adopted the “vision thing” and understand why you were so passionate about it. You pushed me to be better than even I thought I could be, and that taking a risk was an important part of true leadership.
As Bud would say, “Friend, you’ve made your point, and you’ve made it well, now move on.”
He’s moved on to the angels now.
