Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1284350
4 UCW SEPTEMBER 2-8, 2020 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Stephanie Crider editor@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR April Olsen april@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING ASSOCIATES Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, Karl Merritt, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Prudence Mainor, Avery Powers, Crissy Neville ––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: 910-484-6200 FAX: 910-484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2020 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. PUBLISHER'S PEN We seldom get to acknowledge a journalistic colleague that has come to mean so much to our organization and to the entire Fayetteville community. is is why we have chosen to recognize Jeff ompson, a dedicated and talented news media profes- sional whose journalistic talents and expertise have touched every aspect of the media industry. Truly, Jeff has forged his way through decades of an ever-changing media landscape, forcing him to recast and reinvent himself umpteen times to succeed in the highly competitive and cutthroat industry of radio news broadcasting. Fifty years! Jeff went from spinning records at Steve's Tower in the Sky as a rock n roll disc jockey in the 70s to mastering almost every aspect of media. Radio, TV, and yes, in his later years, even daily and weekly newspapers. Margaret Dickson, Up & Coming Weekly's senior contributing writer and one of Jeff ompson's biggest fans has written a wonderful and heartfelt feature introducing our readers to Jeff and honoring him for his 50+ year career in the media industry. To infer that Jeff 's style of news reporting was "old school" would be an understatement compared to the coverage we have today. For de- cades, as WFNC's news director, Jeff would tackle the most critical, spirited and controversial issues facing Fayetteville, Cumberland County and North Carolina. However, the difference between then and now was Jeff meticulously made sure the subject matter was covered fairly and accurately. If Jeff reported it, you could rest as- sured you had the whole story. is was Jeff ompson's legacy. Full disclosure: e Up & Coming Weekly newspaper is celebrat- ing its 25th year serving Fayetteville, Fort Bragg and Cumberland County. Our mission in January 1996 was the same as it is in 2020 — to showcase, accentuate and promote the assets and amenities that make the Fayetteville area a great place to live, work and play. In other words, if something was good for the Fayetteville com- munity, we were going to support it, write about it and promote it. If something was not good for Fayetteville and we perceived it as detrimental to the community, we were going to take a stand against it. By 1998, our biweekly publication had been accepted and welcomed by the community, and it successfully took root — especially with the neglected cultural arts community. To this, the daily newspaper, e Fayetteville Observer, adamantly objected. Admittedly, as hard as I tried, I was no match for the multimillion- dollar publishing company and resolved that I was defeated. So, in a final act of defiance, I contacted Jeff ompson, who at the time was news director of WFNC — Fayetteville's local and most trusted voice in news media — and Margaret Highsmith Dickson, who at the time was at the helm of the WFNC editorial board. e intrepid request I made to them when we met for lunch, and to which they reluctantly agreed, is why Up & Coming Weekly exists today. I asked if I could appear exclusively on ompson's radio show the day we pub- lished an explanation as to why we were being forced out of business, along with an article on e Fayetteville Observer's surrepti- tious tactics used to undermine our newspa- per to eliminate competition and maintain its media monopoly — to the detriment of local businesses, organizations and com- munity agencies. Jeff and Margaret allowed us to tell our story on the air to the adamant and arrogant denial of Fayetteville Observer management. But it was too late. Jeff ompson and WFNC's local audience, at that time, was the heart and soul of the Fayetteville community. Despite e Fayetteville Observer denials, Fayetteville residents and businesses were aware of the tactics and knew the allegations had substance. e community rallied in support of our newspa- per. Twenty-five years later, and without changing our mission or mandate, we are extremely proud to include both Jeff ompson, as our senior news reporter, and Margaret Dickson, as our senior and longest-running contributing writer at over 19 years, as part of the Up & Coming Weekly family. Both have made significant contributions to the success of our organization. Enjoy Margaret's feature about Jeff ompson, as she introduces you to one of her dearest friends and mentors. Continue to follow them both each week in Up & Coming Weekly. Neither has shown any sign of slowing down any time soon. ank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly. Please join our staff and me in congratulating Jeff ompson for his first 50 years in media and his service to the Fayetteville community. Jeff Thompson: Celebrating 50 years by BILL BOWMAN BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COM- MENTS? BILL@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. HIGH 87 LOW 71 HIGH 85 HIGH 94 HIGH 86 HIGH 87 LOW 70 LOW 71 SEP 7 SEP 6 SEP 4 SEP 8 SEP 3 THURSDAY FRIDAY SUNDAY MONDAY HIGH 94 LOW 76 LOW 69 TUESDAY LOW 73 Mostly Sunny Mostly Cloudy SEP 5 SATURDAY Isolated Thunderstorms PM Thunderstorms Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Jeff Thompson