If you don't have a favorite story about Tack Nail, you haven't lived life to the fullest. Hear these:
One year at a NATPE convention, Nail, scheduled to appear in a skit, secretly shaved his beard and replaced it with a fake. In the middle of the skit Nail stopped, turned to the audience, said he was tired of his beard and yanked it off.
He once called a National Association of Broadcasters official to point out typos in his report to the NAB board-- before the board had received a copy. (The NAB's front-desk receptionist had standing orders to alert key officials as soon as Nail entered the building.)
Then there was the night he pulled the late Robert E. Lee into a swimming pool, leaving the commissioner (who couldn't swim) limping for weeks.
One former NAB P.R. staffer recalls: 'When he would start a press conference question with 'Sir,' I would hold my breath. You never knew what would come next.'
It's been 40 years since Nail arrived in Washington as a rewrite man for BROADCASTING magazine. He was a former Perry, Okla., high school history teacher fresh out of the Korean War and journalism graduate school. It wasn't long before Nail was an established reporter covering what was still a relatively young radio industry and an infant TV business.
Today, Nail is executive editor of Warren Publishing, which produces Communications Daily, Television Digest and 10 other newsletters. He's widely recognized for his dogged and thorough coverage of the FCC and Congress, as well as the inner workings of the NAB. This week in Las Vegas, Nail will receive the NAB's 'Spirit of Broadcasting Award.'
'Tack is the guy who gets the story. He always knows what's going on,' says former FCC Chairman Richard E. Wiley, a Washington communications attorney. Indeed, it was Nail who in 1970 broke the story that Wiley was coming from Illinois to be the next general counsel for the FCC. 'He was the first to call me,' Wiley says.
'Tack is the consummate insider's reporter with a unique ability to ferret out stories,' says NAB President Eddie Fritts. And the 66-year-old journalism veteran gets high marks as a straight shooter. 'He's totally trustworthy and accurate,' says former FCC Commissioner Margita White, president of Maximum Service Television.
Nail got his first taste of journalism in college. He was sports editor for his college paper at Southwestern Oklahoma State University and had a weekly sports program on KWOE(AM) Clinton.
After graduation, he spent two years in the Army, including a combat tour as an artillery forward observer in Korea. After the war he went back to Oklahoma and to graduate school on the GI Bill. Not only did he teach history and journalism but he served as an assistant football and wrestling coach.
One of Nail's trademarks is his Oklahoma accent; he's been known to come off as a naive country boy. Don't be fooled, says Warren Publishing's Al Warren. 'Underneath is a very shrewd mall.'
Warren attributes Nail's success as a journalist to his ability to 'develop a rapport with everyone. He knows their spouses, their children and their pets. He has an extraordinary affinity for people and the industry.' Warren also considers Nail 'a modern Job---he's had a tough personal life.' Nail grew up an orphan; he lost a child in infancy and later his first wife, Joye. Nail himself is recovering from a recent bout with cancer.
It was Warren who hired Nail away from BROADCASTING in 1964, intensifying a journalistic rivalry that continues to this day.
'I just love it,' Nail says of the people in the broadcasting business as well as his job as a reporter. While some express doubts about the future of broadcasting, Nail does not. 'I feel very comfortable that my grandchildren will be able to go into the free, over-the-air TV business.'
'Tack's taught me a lot about journalism and how important personal relationships are,' says Mike Feazel, a senior editor at Warren Publishing. Nail taught Feazel a lot about generosity, too. He gave his colleague frequent flyer miles to bring back a baby girl he and his wife were adopting in China.
'Tack is a real character,' says DickWiley. 'A four-star character with a heart of gold.' --KM
Dawson B
'Tack' Nail
Vice president/executive editor, Warren Publishing, Washington; b. Aug. 4, 1928, Greenfield, Okla.; BA, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, 1950; MS, Oklahoma State University, 1955; U.S. Army, 1950-52; teacher/coach, Perry (Okla.) High School, 1954-55; reporter, BROADCASTING, Washington, 1955-64; current position since 1964; m. Patsy Joan Cummins, Aug. 4, 1972; children: Charles, 37; Cynthia, 36; Thomas, 36; Norman, 35; Penny, 29; Gaye, 26.
