Guest columnist Arthur Booth graduated from Ball State in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in radio and television. Booth has spent more than 30 years working as a television editor on reality, comedy and game shows as well as documentaries, TV movies and daytime talk shows. Currently, he edits on the “Dr. Phil Show.”
When Darrell Wible, the retired professor emeritus from the Department of Telecommunications, passed away Aug. 4 at the age of 88, a distinguished page of Ball State history passed away with him. I remember him well from when I was a Ball State broadcasting student in the late 1970s.
Wible was the first faculty member hired for the fledgling Center for Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures at Ball State in 1966 that offered only a few initial courses.
He was a 17-year seasoned broadcaster who produced thousands of programming hours for radio, serving as a sports director and a news director as well as an account executive for numerous stations throughout Indiana. He wrote weekly newspaper columns, voiced basketball play-by-plays and first broadcast from the Indianapolis 500 mile race in 1953. He earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Indiana State University and his doctorate from Ohio State University in 1968.
Wible was an extremely talented individual who always had a keen perspective on the industry. His was a “no-nonsense, by the book” approach to academia, not always an approach popular with students. Yet one of the 73 students in his first class in took a liking to him. That student was David Letterman and over the years, Wible would become a mentor to the up-and-coming television comedian.
In the mid 1980s, conversations between Letterman and his former professor would lead to the establishment of the Letterman Telecommunications Scholarship. Wible also started the student-run radio station WCRD.
And while he was extremely proud of Letterman’s accomplishments, Wible was equally proud of all his graduates’ achievements. I recall many times during class when he would read letters aloud from former students, updating him on their current jobs, career trends or just to thank him for his guidance and advice during their Ball State years.
If there was one professor who expected his students to adhere to the highest academic standards, it was Wible. I remember several times in his FCC Rules & Regulations class where if students were seen chatting at the beginning of class as he walked in the door, the first words out of his mouth would be: “Take out a sheet of paper!” He would then give a pop quiz because he felt if students were talking before class, they obviously had reviewed all of the class material and could competently pass an surprise quiz. Unfortunately for some students, that was not always the case.
In the late 1970s, when university budgets were tight and the Center for Radio and Television looked for ways to attract more students, Wible initiated a scholarship named after his father and funded through a radio series he produced chronicling Indy 500 drivers called “Profiles Of A Champion.” He sold the series to Indiana radio stations.
The Indy 500 seemed forever a part of his DNA. In 1977, Wible returned to the speedway, broadcasting for the IMS radio network. It was his first time back to the 500 in more than a decade. I specifically recall listening on the radio from home after spring quarter. At the race conclusion, anchor Paul Page summarized the race events, talking to all the track announcers. When he got to Wible on the backstretch, he complimented him on catching a couple yellow flags before the flags were displayed and told him to remove the “rookie stripes” on his microphone because he was now a “veteran” announcer on the speedway network.
Wible’s enthusiastic reaction surprised me, since his classroom demeanor was usually reserved and unmoved. It was the first time I heard him get really excited over something. That was not the button-down, business-only professor from Ball State who retired in 1991 — that was a guy who truly loved the business of broadcasting.
He will be missed.
