Telliga, 78, lost his battle to cancer early this morning.
Monday, First Media Radio will honor the man who was a mentor to many in the business and was affectionately called Uncle Earl.
The tribute will air on three stations — WPTM, WTRG and WDLZ beginning at 6 a.m.
The call-in line numbers for those wishing to share their memories are 252-536-3115 or 252-536-3116.
“I learned from Earl to be honest, to be fair,” said Al Haskins of First Media Radio. “I learned from him relationships mean everything. From sports to news to selling advertising, he showed a passion for radio.”
Haskins first met Telliga in 1968 when Haskins went to WCBT for an interview. “He always taught me to be on time, to do things the right way, to be passionate. When you did play-by-play you had to prepare for it in so many ways before you got there. It was just the love and he passed that onto me.”
Telliga’s voice was unique. “If you heard it, you knew who it was. He used to say he had a face for radio,” Haskins recalled.
His voice echoed throughout the gridiron at Hoyle Field, where the press box is named in his honor, as he served as field announcer for Roanoke Rapids High School for more than 40 years. “He had distinctive voice for that. He was the voice of the Yellow Jackets.”
Born in 1938, Telliga was a 1956 graduate of RRHS and served as its senior class president. He attended East Carolina from 1956 through 1959. He started in radio his senior year in high school at WCBT, where he was an announcer and then moved to sales and news. He was promoted to assistant manager and then manager and also worked in Raleigh and Richmond as well as manager of stations in Reidsville, Sanford and Murfreesboro.
From 1964 through 1968, he did play-by-play on WCBT for RRHS football and basketball, both home and away games.
In 1968 he did play-by-play in Kinston before coming back to Roanoke Rapids.
In 1973 he became field announcer at RRHS and never missed a game, Haskins said.
His last position was in Murfreesboro where ran the station there since 2004. “Murfreesboro absolutely loved him,” Haskins said. “They’re absolutely going to miss him down there.”
Haskins said the best times with Telliga was when he talked about radio stories of the past. “That void can’t be replaced, his friendship with his customers. There will never be another Earl. He’s a pure legend in radio.”
WPTM personality Charlie Beaver first met Telliga while Beaver was working his first part-time job at Timberlake Drug Store, slinging sodas. “I always remember Earl getting coffee several times a day. I always had a great admiration for Earl, the camel hair coat he always wore with the blue shirt. As far as having an influence, he was a radio guy you recognized. I always felt like he was a celebrity.”
Beaver said Telliga was always kind. “I learned from Earl how to treat people. He always impressed me.”
It became ritual for Beaver, the late Cousin Slick and Telliga to greet one another with a call of “young man” and when departing saying to each other, “Love ya boy.”
Said Beaver: “Earl was a unique individual and certainly an icon.”
Telliga took Les Atkins under his wings when Atkins first came to the Roanoke Valley to do news. “Earl had been doing news for a long time. Earl took me under his wings like a son. He told me to forget what they taught you in journalism school. He would look over my stories. There was a person who died and he said don’t say passed away. He said the audience has one opportunity to hear. There is no rewrite button. He grew up in the Golden Age of radio. He had this knowledge that was just incredible. He never saw a young person coming in as competition. Other people who came, he took everyone under his wings and would mentor them the best he could.”
While Atkins has been out of broadcast journalism for 10 years, he and Telliga talked every day. “I’m going to miss him terribly. He was just a great dear friend and mentor. He loved everybody and treated everyone the same.”
Behind all the news stories, Atkins said, Telliga would always say people were at the heart of them. “You have to be sensitive. You don’t learn that in school.”
Telliga would never let his cancer diagnosis define him, Atkins said. “He would always say ‘that cancer they say I have.’ He never took ownership of it. He told me he had to stay positive, that he had to live life with an exclamation point.”
Even when diagnosed with stage four cancer, he continued to work and called all the RRHS home football games, Atkins said. “I don’t think anyone knew what that all entailed. I think it was his passion for life, he just loved life and loved people. He never met a stranger, never let anything keep him from having a smile on his face. He always said ‘everything’s OK,’ even when he was in the hospital.”
Before football games, Telliga would talk to the players and encourage them, Atkins said. “The football players came to the nursing home and gave him a signed football and a team jersey. I think he was just an icon for the school district.”
