A ‘peace baby’ and journalism innovator dead at 86

By Tom Bennett

     Atlanta, June 27, 2005 – Elmo Ellis “knew how precious language was,” said Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin of The Temple as he eulogized the former editorialist and general manager of WSB Radio AM-750.

     “There’s a theory that every radio wave ever sent exists somewhere in the universe,” said Salkin, who became The Temple’s senior rabbi in 2003.  “If that’s true, then Elmo Ellis in Heaven is able to hear every word he ever said on the radio, and if so, then that famous smile his will light up the universe…  “This may be the law of life too, that everything we’ve ever said exists somewhere. In Elmo Ellis’ memory, let us remember everything we say to others.”

     Elmo Ellis is “the only person ever to edit three different student journalism publications at the University of Alabama,” Salkin said. The broadcasting pioneer is a member of the journalism school’s Hall of Fame.  Ellis was born in Birmingham on the day of the armistice ending World War I in 1918.

     “So he was a peace baby,” Salkin said. The rabbi then placed his tongue squarely in his cheek when he added, “Elmo grew up in West Blockton, Alabama, one of the principal cities of the American diaspora.”  The son of a merchant in the mining town near Birmingham was born Elmo Israel, “but it was not conducive to his ambition,” the rabbi said.  “I’m grateful to God that he lived long enough to see a world in which people do not have to change their name to succeed,” Salkin said.

     Ellis helped launch Atlanta’s WSB as the first television station in the South in 1948. Four years later, with permission from Cox Broadcasting’s J. Leonard Reinsch, Ellis returned to the older medium.  “Elmo wanted to remove the rust from radio,” Salkin said. This he did and more.  “There are so many things we take for granted in media journalism that he invented, for example helicopter radio reports – think of that when you are on the Atlanta freeways in the morning – and live news reports from the field.”

     Ellis could be firm but stern when scolding a newscaster about an error on the air.  “When a memo came down to someone and it was headed ‘E.E.,’ hearts started to tremble,” Salkin said.  “Ellis believed in integrity, quality, and that radio is for the listeners.”

     Elmo Israel Ellis died of cancer at 86 on June 24, 2005, at his home in Sandy Springs in north Atlanta. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery. 

     WSB Radio AM-750’s emphasis today is talk radio, and in the hour before the Ellis eulogy, it was locked in a vigorous exchange with listeners about the issue of carving the Ten Commandments upon a stone at the Alabama law building in Montgomery. There also were calls and ripostes about the high court’s recent ruling condoning what, for lack of a better term, can be called private-developer eminent domain.  At one point  during this hour, the host announcer said, “And the next time you call in, Buddy, I get to finish asking the question!”

     Rabbi Salkin said that a former teacher of his at a seminary once e-mailed him “and bemoaned the state of talk radio today…  “I called the station and complained about this. The answer I got was, ‘That’s what makes money today.’ That comment would nauseate Elmo Ellis.”  The impact was considerable upon a city by one man with a standard of quality for journalism.  “Elmo was one of the great men of Atlanta,” Salkin said. “When he died something good, something valuable, something sacred departed from us.”

As Elmo Ellis visiting professor at the University of Alabama, Tom Bennett of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution joined his wife Lorraine of CNN to teach in 10 Alabama newsrooms in 2003 how to survey the quality of open-government compliance. One-hundred, seventy-eight volunteers for the Alabama Center for Open Government visited 610 agencies. A second goal was to “remove the rust” from the 1915 meetings law. This year Gov. Riley signed the Alabama Open Meetings Act.