Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Locali WCAY's Ben D MARSHALL SWANSON Contributing Editor "George Orwell has written this novel called "1984." He predicts surrender to govern ment masters, and folks, we're well on our way." According to Ben Dekle, WCAY radio personality, what we're well on our way to is communism and socialism in the United States. That and what Dekle deter mines to be other topics of public interest, are the subject of his own brand of criticism, advice and prognostication Monday through Saturday from 6 - 9 a.m. No topic of current interest, be it world, national, state or local in scope, is off-limits to Dekle. More often than not, national and state politicians come in for the worst tongue lashings. "We're in the clutches of unscrupulous politicians at all levels," said Dekle. "It's all right for the politicians to raise taxes but we can't complain. Those fat cats in Washington raise their own salaries $12,500 in one year but we're not supposed to criticize them." According to Dekle (pronounced deek.el) the idea of limiting politicians to two terms in office isn't a bad one. After two terms, says Dekle, politicians lose touch with the people. But politicians aren't the only ones that come in for criticism from Dekle. The people who return ''unscrupulous politicians" to office are just as responsible as far as he's con cerned. Dekle entered broadcasting in July of 1945 two weeks after his army discharge. He first began broadcasting on the air while working at WSBC TV in Greenville. The program director, Andy Scott, and another staffer named Mackie Quave, encouraged Dekle to pause at the end of the news he was taping and express his opinions after doing it once as a joke. In 1962 Dekle signed on with Columbia radio station WQXL where he continued to comment Plain Cloth< Patrol Cam Four USC students dressed in jeans, carrying walkie-talkies and flashlights patrol the University campus every evening to discourage crime. Directed by graduate student Ben Feldman of Charleston and undergraduate Eugene Glover of Orangeburg, the Student Security Division, was established three years ago by Student Government. Members of the patrol act as ob servers reporting any suspicious activities to the Campus Police. "Our purpose," Feldman ex plained, "is not to harass students but to help protect them. We feel that, if it's known that students dressed in plain clothes are patrolling the campus, then someone will think twice before stealing a bicycle or taking a tape player out of a car."~ The 20 students selected for the patrol, he said, are under the work DJ Sour ekle Says Commur on public - -st issues. After a few : ekle moved over to WCAY. A sampling of his views: --on the Senate Watergate Hearings: "A panel being used to dismantle the confidence of the people." --On the rise in the price of milk in South Carolina to 75 cents for a half gallon: "The only ones that can afford milk now are those on food stamps." --On the NAACP boycott of predominately black schools in Bowman, S.C. because white school administrators have their children in private school: "The blacks will pitch a fit if a white public official sends his younguns to a private school but they won't pitch a fit if a black public official sends his child to a private school. "Why I know of a Black government official right here in Columbia that sends his children to private school. Do the blacks in Bowman say anything about that? Nooo! I don't blame people for putting their children in private school. The only thing a person'll learn in public school today is how to survive." --On charges that he (Dekle) is a racist: "We're not being racist, we're just being truth ful." Dekle stands so resolutely on the strength of his convictions they sometimes get him into trouble. Such was the case last May when he was brought up before a Federal District Court judge on a charge of refusing to file income tax returns with the IRS for three years in a row. Dekle maintained that the tax was unconstitutional, and charged over the air that the government was responsible for misuse of the taxpayer's money. On April 18, 1973 Dekle filed a plea of not guilty, but then turned around and filed his returns anyway on May 8. In early May, Dekle changed his plea to guilty when the U.S. Attorney's office agreed to drop two of the original three counts against him. On June 11, U.S. District Judge J. Robert Martin, Jr. gave Dekle ad Students pus Nightly study program. Four students, working in teams of two, patrol the campus every evening, and each student on the patrol works five nights during a two-week period. Activities done by the patrol members have ranged from discovering a fire in a classroom building to spotting two suspects who had just robbed a cab driver and were hiding on campus. The patrol members. Feldman ex plained, immediately call the campus police if they see a suspicious person and do not get physically involved themselves. Feldman, who says the patrol is helping to build a better un derstanding between students and the University police, said that his division has also established a student feedback system to facilitate order in the case of unrest. ids Off iism On The Way a one year suspended sentence. Public reaction to Dekle's commentary is mixed, he said, noting that while most people approve of his comments, he~ does get an occasional call or letter from irate listerners who disaree with him. Dekle has also tangled with the powerful Federal Com munications Commission (FCC), the agency empowered to revoke WCAY's license if it determines that the station is not operating in the public interest. "I talked on the air once en couraging the local school board to let children out of school half a day so they could go to the state fair," Dekle said. "A school board member taped my show and sent it to the FCC charging me with contributing to the delinquency of minors. The station had to answer the charge but nothing happened. "Every man, woman and child owes something to his town, county, state and country. We owe something to this com munity." Grar Hap 0( 0 0 Bu 9 S* Un ** 1 * - Instant R 1OpE q H our Au oz. cups 24 itcher 1. d and Michi limited Fool ootsbalI 922-24 MAIN STREET (NEXT TO DAIRY BAR) 'eploy hfllflg1 S S ! Week S S S S S S S S S S ~Iob S S S S sball S S S S S S S S S S S S S L S S S S S S S .1