“Goood morning, O Great One! Hello everybody!”
For three decades, BPR listeners tuned in on Friday mornings for the Tony Kiss Weekend Update to get the latest "what's happenings" in WNC, along with a dose of witty banter between the longtime Asheville Citizen-Times reporter/editor and BPR’s former news director David Hurand (aka ‘O Great One’).
News of Kiss’s passing last week triggered a flood of memories and stories at BPR.
“Tony’s ‘O Great One’ on-air greeting to David and listeners was expected, anticipated, and even mimicked by listeners,” BPR Associate Director of Development Michelle Keenan said. “He was full of old timey sayings that you’d expect your great aunt Mildred to say."
“'Saints preserve us,' was the one I remember hearing most," she said.
“Have you been to see a movie, David?”
“Saw a double feature, Snow White and Pinocchio.”
“That was playing in your brain somewhere, wasn’t it.”
The weekly segment made its debut in 1986, at a time when the public depended on traditional media outlets - radio, print and TV - for news and information.
"In those early days, BPR(WCQS) had a very small staff and relied on local print and broadcast journalists to volunteer their time and talent behind the scenes and on the air," David Hurand who was hired that year as the station's first news director, said.
Tony Kiss had just been tapped as the Citizen-Times entertainment editor, and Hurand reached out to him about a weekend update segment.
"Tony was a big fan and very knowledgeable on a variety of subjects. He loved old radio shows - ones that were popular in the days before TV. And he had an encyclopedic knowledge of music and movies."
“Other films playing this weekend David, include A Little Chaos – that could be the name of this radio program, couldn’t it?”
The segment soon became a Friday morning fixture.
“Tony would often tell me he heard more feedback about our conversations than he did from any column or story he wrote," Hurand said. "He would be in the checkout line at the grocery store or in a restaurant and the cashier or waiter would respond to the sound of his voice and say, 'Are you the guy I hear on the radio every Friday morning?’"
“I don’t think I know anyone who didn’t like Tony, and for those of us who got to know him more through work, he was so dear,” Keenan recalled. She has fond memories of Tony’s weekly station visits.
"He’d stop by to talk to everyone, always making sure to greet David with some fictitious rumor about him just to get his goat!"
Former classical music host Chip Kaufmann remembered Kiss' regular presence in the station.
“Tony and I talked movies and baseball, especially the Tourists. It was if he was a regular staff member," he said.
Before they turned on the microphone, Hurand said they would talk about what was happening around town, with the discussion often moving onto hard news - local, regional, state, and national stories.
While much of what they covered off-mic was serious, some was silly.
“On many occasions we would agree it was too bad we couldn’t share our pre-recorded dialogue.”
“The Symphony is performing Romeo and Juliet, your kind of Romeo aren’t you David?"
“I’m not a Romeo, but I do consider myself a romantic.”
“Our ‘banter’ was just that: it was ‘shtick.’ It developed over time. It was as if we became a comedy team. I was the straight man and Tony - was Tony," Hurand said.
"For those old enough to remember perhaps we became a version of Abbott and Costello or Martin and Lewis. Before we would record the program the two of us would laugh about how common it was for each of us to be asked, ‘Do you guys get along?’ The answer was always an emphatic yes.”
“Tony, any truth to the story that the late great Mike Nichols wrote a play for you?"
“No David, I don’t believe he ever wrote a play for me. I haven’t had much experience on the stage, just at the paper and behind this microphone each and every Friday morning for the past 30 years.”
In March 2016, the two recorded their last“Weekend Update” in the historic WWNC radio studios on the top floor the Asheville Citizens-Times building, shortly before Hurand's departure. Kiss left the paper that fall.
"Tony wasn’t your typical reporter. He wanted everybody to like him," Hurand said. "He was sensitive, kind, a gentle soul. He loved being a reporter, and he loved being heard on the local public radio station. We had fun together. I will miss my friend."
“Tony, it is always a pleasure.”
“Sooo long everybody!”
