My 19th year with the Park Companies was rewarding in two respects:
I enjoyed helping Roy, Jr. restore respectability to the outdoor division. He
won back many key customers.
During a year that was grim for radio generally, it was pure fun to work
with Bill Fowler as he restored profit growth to radio, including a
spectacular fourth quarter.
Roy Park is building a newspaper business that may one day rival
broadcasting in volume, if not in profitability. You are part of a
communications group that continues to grow at an impressive rate.
Probably no individual can match Mr. Park’s record of achievement. I
shall continue to cheer him on from the sidelines just as I did directly as a
member of his line management team.
I intend to stay extremely active in broadcasting, and hopefully my
future endeavors may make it possible for our paths to cross. I surely hope
so, for my association with you is one treasure no one can take away. I
could not leave the active ranks of the Park Companies without thanking
you for your personal contribution to whatever track record I leave behind.
Good luck to you and all the Park Companies for 1983.
He signed it, “Warm Regards, John Babcock.”
CHAPTER 25: DARKENING OUR SHADOWS
Years after Johnnie Babcock resigned, my mother told me that things
didn’t work out because he wanted to take over the whole broadcasting
operation. I asked her what she meant, and she said Johnnie wanted to be
the head of it. Of course, she was right, since he was already the man
running Park Broadcasting for my father and had been promised the
eventual title of presidency, in writing, over the years. That commitment
was not honored and Johnnie left the company. I don’t know if my father
ever realized the magnitude of that loss of talent and loyalty.
My father explained to my mother that the reason Babcock did not get
the presidency of broadcasting was because all of his managers said they
would quit if he were given that position. The very position he had been
in, effectively, from Day One as he undertook the duties and
responsibilities required to oversee operations during the building of Park
Broadcasting. Johnnie hired the managers, fired people on demand for my
father, set the salaries and budgets and managed the entire operation.
That’s when I realized that the story my mother heard from my father
was the one he wanted her to hear. I’m sure he was shocked when
Babcock resigned, but in his version of events he painted Johnnie with the
same black brush he had used to keep me in the shadow with my mother.
