Unknown Speaker 0:00
Hi, this is John VanLunen, and you are listening to Treasures of the Outer Banks. In this podcast we talk to people who live on the Outer Banks and through their stories, we'll explore what makes this place so special. So if you downloaded this podcast to find out where the gold is hidden, my apologies. But if you want to meet the people we treasure on this sandbar stick around. I'm sure you'll enjoy their stories of history, local personalities and community. In today's episode, I had a great opportunity to talk with Sam Walker of Currituck County. Sam Walker works for OBX Today, which is kind of the mothership for several radio stations. One in particular, he has a news radio show every weekday from 7am to 9am. That is on 92.3, WZPR. You can also find him on Twitter @SamWalkerOBX. He is a seventh generation Walker. So he's been here a long time and his family runs deep and wide. He had a great time. On the show, we talked about some of the really interesting people that he's met along the way. And we talked about his start in news and radio, which was good as well. Hope you enjoy it. Sit back and have a good time. Sam, good to see you. How you doing today? Good.
Unknown Speaker 1:13
John's good to be happy. Yeah. No, I don't talk every day on the radio. Okay. Yeah, don't edit this. Many people realize we do this live. Hey, sometimes you know what, that's the fun thing about live is if you screw it up. It's good to talk with you, John. Glad to be on your podcast.
John VanLunen 1:30
And by the way, that's the reason why I'm not on live radio. I would fail in the first day. But um, yeah, I appreciate you joining me. Obviously, this is one of our earlier shows. But you're you're probably the perfect person to talk to because I know you've come in contact with so many people based on your business. So I'm excited to hear more about the people and places you've seen while you're here.
Sam Walker 1:54
Well, it is crazy. The experiences I've had and doing this since I was I mean, on the air on the radio in northeastern North Carolina since I was 13 years old. So 34 years. Yeah, it'll be 30 Well, actually, it'll be 35 years this fall. Now I think about it my freshman year in high school, but it has been a weird, long, strange trip. It has been for the last three decades natural
John VanLunen 2:23
Perpetual evolution?
Sam Walker 2:24
Yeah. Yeah. That's a good way to put it.
John VanLunen 2:27
And how did you get to the Outer Banks?
Unknown Speaker 2:30
Was born well, okay, so I wasn't born here. I was born in Elizabeth City. I'm a Currituck native. I'm a rarity. I'm someone who grew up in the 90s and the 80s and 90s. From Curritcuk and I didn't leave right. Or I did for a little while and came back. So I'm a native seventh generation. Wow, native of Northeastern North Carolina, that history
John VanLunen 2:50
do you know much about that history?
Unknown Speaker 2:51
A lot of it is commercial fishing. And you know, my grandfather was one of 13 so the Walker family has a huge branches and you know, we joke about how we're all related to each other this was a grew up here we are can all related because we only either eight or marry some way other in Currituck across the sound. My my dad's mom's is from Pasquotank County, Winslow's. So, it's a huge family tree here and just about everywhere I go, I'm going to run into a cousin at some point. Which is a good thing and a bad thing.
Unknown Speaker 3:28
You might be on the side of the road with flat tire. But then again, everybody in Currituck County knows you so you can get a lot of help.
Unknown Speaker 3:36
As a kid you couldn't get away with anything as a teenager. And as a 20 year old you couldn't get away with anything and now 48 And you know, being on the radio definitely can't get away with it.
Unknown Speaker 3:46
Watch what you say. I know you know a lot of people just because you're kind of the heart and soul of Currituck athletics is one of their P.A. announcers and you've been doing that forever. If they don't know your voice there, they know it on the radio and, and all the other stuff. So you keep you just keep spreading yourself out, they won't be able to get rid of you.
Unknown Speaker 4:06
No they won't think about careers, I actually have stepped away from that. And part of that is now with what I'm doing with radio side of things is really taking shifted my time my day has shifted, where many times it was I worked until 2, 3, 4 in the morning, and people would hear me on the radio Well, I You're still asleep in your own radio. Well, that's some of the magic that we're doing. Just like the podcast, it kind of works the same way. But having to do now with this new talk show that I'm doing over on Newstalk 92.3, having to drive down here every day now and be in the studio by 630 that shifted things and being able to do athletics like I've done my entire life. That's I've had to make some changes and one of the things was retiring from doing P.A. Currituck but it's not to say I'm not still involved in high school athletics, obviously with your you know, officiating lacrosse and that's one of the things was too was just that takes up so much time that just you know won't be able to concentrate and this crazy year with our schedules all overlapping between football, basketball, and lacrosse now it's gonna be different but um yeah and that has been a fun experience for me having all three kids playing sports and Currituck but then playing, whether it was you know in the field travel football here with baseball tournaments and being able to provide something that these a lot of these kids will never get. That was one thing about doing PA for so long. Randy Jones late Randy Jones one of the best officials I've ever worked with as from a Scores Table and never got the privilage. I actually did get the ref some basketball with some some adult league basketball. Now I think about it, but you know, we lost Randy a couple of years ago. Volleyball, basketball, one of the best softball umpires. Did state championship softball, got the golden whistle award, Randy said something to me one time and it still has stuck with me to this day. What I do for PA for those kids, whether it was the nine year old football games up to the high school state tournaments, a lot of these kids will never have their names announced in public in their lives. That's the only opportunity they might have had to hear their name announced in a large, filled room, or on a PA system. And it's always stuck with me that you know, give everyone as kids one respect to to do to do it to the top level. So they feel like they're special. Yeah, making special feel like that they are, you know, playing the NBA Finals. Feel like they are playing the Super Bowl. That's why I've always done it that way. And I know a lot of people wish I could duplicate myself and replicate myself and do it for every school year. I'd love to do that. So that's always been a passion of mine. And again, that goes back to being a freshman High School. Currituck I'm 13 years old same time I got on the radio started doing P.A. there. So, long history.
Unknown Speaker 6:58
Well, I'm glad you worked my daughter's basketball games because you were probably the only person that could pronounce her name, correctly.
Unknown Speaker 7:04
Yeah, that's what I will say this pronouncing for me have always been trouble. And it's funny when you do that. And you talk to the scorekeeper. Usually I talked to the coaches, half the time coaches wouldn't know it. Just go to the kids, if you got one, you look at the roster. You're like, Okay, I just walk out there on the court. So, alright, how do I say your name? And then spell it phonetically. But yeah, I know, you've heard that name said in so many different ways around this
John VanLunen 7:32
Even by their own coaches.
Sam Walker 7:35
Exactly.
Unknown Speaker 7:36
It's not Von Lunen. We're not German. So yeah, we dealt with that. But you obviously in your, in your field, you've met a lot of people, and you've been here forever. I mean, any few individuals you can talk about that just you know, are just really have an amazing personality or just make you just, you think of the Outer Banks and what makes this place so special,
Unknown Speaker 7:59
you know, the long career and so many different people that have gone around that and whether it was doing the radio thing, whether it was being involved when my parents were a political act, and my dad ran for the State House twice. You know, it's there's a few people that I have run in to but the one thing about it is, everybody that's from here is special in some way. And I know sounds corny, hack, whatever. But there's something about here that makes people different and you know, it, you know, when you go somewhere else, and you run into somebody that whether they're from Currituck, or whether they're from Dare or whether they're from Hyde counties, is always but there are a few people I mean, everybody, Mark Banight. I mean, obviously, you know, we lost Mark just a couple of weeks ago. If you talk about someone who probably best represented us, not just in Raleigh, but as North Carolinians, that he would be, and we never really got a chance to talk directly. I shifted to news right at the end of his time in the legislature, so I didn't get really to do the conversation I wish I would have been able to do I mean, you know, for last 10 years doing what I've done, the way we were doing news, but I there's so many, I mean, you know, we talked about, you know, we talk about Omie Tillett, you know, my love for fishing, and those guys, all the different charter captains....
Unknown Speaker 9:28
What did Marc Basnight do that was and I've heard good things about him, too. So but what did he do that just really, you know, made him special?
Unknown Speaker 9:37
You know what, it's it This is no joke and this is, we've heard this story now since he passed away and so many people share it. It was the governor who shared about stopping at every country store on US 64 between Raleigh and here and getting a pack of Nabs and a drink and a Diet Pepsi. That was Mark. But that's, you know, he was doing that not just to do it just patronize what he was doing because it was a way to interact with his constituents. It was to find out what every person and this the biggest district in North Carolina, it's bigger than the state of Connecticut? People don't realize it is bigger than the state of Connecticut, this first senatorial district. What area does that encompass? Well, at the time, it went all the way to Northampton County. So it went Northampton County across the state line down to and when Mark was there, I mean, down to the Beaufort County, or at least or Eastern Beaufort County. So you're talking about from the Pamlico river to the state line to the Roanoke River. I mean, that district is massive. Yeah. And he made sure to stop in every country store was I mean, that was one of the things my parents had one of those stores where he would go and it wasn't just to get hooked up with them and talk about what was going on. While I was county commissioner at the time when he was first starting in the Senate. He would relate he would take this, take that information, talk to his constituents, take it back to Raleigh, because he knew that's what they needed. But at the same time, he knew what the entire state needed. And he was as much as he turned on that hoi toid accent when he needed to turn it over and talk with him. But he turned it off when it's another times and you know what it was time to get things done for the UNC system. If somebody needed something to Boone, it was just as important as somebody needing in Baumtown. So that was what made Mark so special. Eddie Greene, another person, so many of these people who were business and government leaders, that's who I was exposed to as a child, mom and dad again, because they own a business with, you know, what Eddie Greene did with his life as an example of how you should lead a life here. And so many people follow that. I mean, I think I think about flat the wheel. He's right next door to our studios here. Same thing. I mean, there's so many people here in Dare County and Currituck that I've had an opportunity to talk to him with me, they're probably the two that stand out more than anybody else.
Unknown Speaker 11:58
And if you were if you were to give a tour to one of your friends, you know that there's a distant relative there in Ohio somewhere they're coming down for a week, where would you take them on the Outer Banks? What special place would you show them?
Unknown Speaker 12:12
You know, I would load him up and if it was 1995 I would load him up in my truck and drive out Ramp 2 and go down there up underneath the Bonner Bridge. That place because that's where all my kids learned to swim in the bait pond. Yeah, and you can't do that anymore. So it's now it's it's drive out to the point there's that place means a lot more than I can even relate without you know, totally getting the blubbery mess Sure. Um, you know, and that's even growing up in Currituck and having Corolla and having the wild horses and you know, getting married and Currituck Beach Lighthouse, which I wake up seeing every morning now. The the point, driving on the beach here, that's what I've always said, if you're going to bring somebody from out if you have that opportunity, you drive them out on the beach, because it's a unique thing, but it's somebody with you know, it's because if you can't do it pretty much anywhere in the country or there's a lot of places still can but there really is Ramp 2 because we I mean, our kids learn to swim there. The bait pond, we spent every Sunday, we could sitting there around the bait pond.
Unknown Speaker 13:22
So here's something you might know a lot about. I missed this totally because I didn't come down here until '97, full time, but the dirt road in Duck. You got any good stories? Okay.
Unknown Speaker 13:35
Yeah, well, I can tell you this. I talk about the, you know, Highway 12 being a sand road. I can tell you this, my mom is one of the people responsible for the gate that was at the county line no longer being there. That was one of the first things she did was negotiate with Mr. Slick, who owned all the land with Audubon property, where the little airstrip is, Pine Island, the one in Corolla, he owned all that property between Duck, between Sanderling at the time, and the village of Corolla, or well, really Ocean Sands. And you had to be a property owner to go up there until 1980s. Early 1980s, one of the things before she became a county commissioner was she worked. That was one of the things when she ran in 1984 was getting that open so people could have full time access to Corolla. So I can remember, I can't remember it. I mean, I'm born in 73. So probably at some point, when it was still, before it was paved, but I do know pictures, but like I said, going to Corolla. You had to know somebody that lived up there. You couldn't go across through the gate where the S curve is and it widens out at the county line. There was an arm, there was a manned gate there. So I kind of sorta remember. I don't have enough to say, yeah, when you had to drive through Duck and it was all sand it was paved to there. But my memories are of going up Corolla and going up there and watching and helping pull nets and like six years old. Pulling in mullet nets in the fall. And, and you know, having to go through the gate. That's cool. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 15:22
There's a guy named Wikey Wise and he's, he's about 80 or so. And he tells a story, and I'm going to get him on the show, right? Sooner or later, but he tells a story about the bombing region Duck. Mm hmm. And I guess you used to have sentries on the north and the south end, they'd shut it off, let people bomb and then they'd open it up and let people drive through again. Well, for some reason, there wasn't a sentry on this particular day, and he was in the backseat of a station wagon or something with his aunt. And they started bombing all around him. And lived to tell about it, but right, I'm gonna get him on the show. And he's gonna tell that whole story and it's gonna be awesome. Oh, yeah, he would be a great one. I need to steal some of these guests. Okay, so we talked about some locations. That was pretty cool. What else we want to talk about any, any historical stories, um, you know, whether interesting or factually. You know, one thing that kind of runs through my mind is the the bales of marijuana that floated? Yeah, beaches. I mean, that's just a crazy story. But if you've got any stories, I'd love to hear.
Unknown Speaker 16:24
Yeah, that that one and Captain Marty, who I get to work with every day now, which is such a great privilege. And he talks about that, you know, going out there and seeing bales of cocaine and bales of marijuana that were floating. I mean, literally. He grew up in Florida. You know. Yeah. So you can imagine down there before he came up here seeing things like that.
John VanLunen 16:46
There's legend that some people made some money. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on?
Unknown Speaker 16:52
Yeah. Not as long as you think it is. Or not as short as you think it is? Uh, you know, the, the funniest one, probably for me would be I want I always go back to the Doritos thing, you know, I remember being gosh, I would probably have been five. You know, there's so many people with pictures of the tanker. Yeah, that washed up at Rodanthe. And, you know, we're out there. So. So I would've been six years old in 1979 1978? Maybe even earlier that I'd have to go back that Liberty ship that run. There's pictures of me pulling on the ropes. You know, that's probably the coolest thing that I've seen here. Historically. Obviously, being at the hundredth, the centennial flight.
John VanLunen 17:41
Did you get to meet anybody. There was a lot of dignitaries here.
Unknown Speaker 17:44
Yeah, funny, I missed all the really cool people. Because I told him I was working at stations over Elizabeth City, and had driven and got here late, and I'm not here got what I'm sorry, did not realize that you had to go through security. You didn't have to go through security get to the media tent. Not knowing that the media tent was on the 158 side of the property. And I parked over at the high school, went through the Secret Service Security to get over there and found out I was outside the perimeter. So I wasted an hour and a half to go through to get checked for nothing. You
John VanLunen 18:21
You broke in to the public.
Unknown Speaker 18:24
broke into but I mean, I just didn't know. So I missed out on getting to see everybody that came through the media tent during the centennial, so it would have been what John Travolta. President didn't come over there. Uh, Chuck Yeager. All those, you know, those folks how amazing that was? It was a great experience to be here for that. You know, and, and to see it take place. It's a shame that things didn't go well with the weather. That we didn't get to see the the flyer, the flyer actually try to fly. But that was a great experience. And probably one of the coolest things we've had here. But I'll tell you what, you know, even the little things I mean, like being at last year when we commemorated the 20th anniversary of the year before last the 20th anniversary of the move of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, right being there for that and hearing the stories and no, I was, you know, in college at that time. So I wasn't here as I were at Campbell. Well, no, actually, no, I take that back. We were we moved back because I remember Emily was still pregnant with Jonathan at the time. And I took her mom, her mom from Ohio down there to see it move. I was back here. But I have to say, you know, going back and remembering those things and being there with the folks that pulled that off.
Unknown Speaker 19:40
Yeah, I was I was up to my eyeballs with work in the middle of summer when they did that. But I remember there was a lot of controversy of whether or not to do it. I mean, there's there's people thinking this thing is gonna fall over and crumbe in to pieces.
Unknown Speaker 19:51
Yeah, both locally and around the state. I mean, Hugh Morton a great photographer and owner of Grandfather mountain, you know, he was one who was opposed to it, and he's one of the loudest voices you could have in North Carolina in terms of influence. And there, you know, there's another thing where people came together and realize it was the best thing to do. And it turns out it was the right thing to do. And it worked. And it was, you know, monumental, but it was a ch--. It's a, it's a credit to those guys who pulled that off.
Unknown Speaker 20:42
Yeah, I just posted something on the blog site at Treasures of the Outer Banks. And it's about the Norris Baum Cemetery in Nags Head Woods. And there's a slave a former slave is buried there. Yeah, and and so I posted something on a local Facebook page, it's called the Vintage Scrapbook. scrapbook, which is pretty cool, you know, Facebook page, I highly recommend it. And I posted a little essay, just you know, you know, just finding this place and gather some information. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, everybody had a little story about this guy in the cemetery, and added a whole lot to it, which shows you the power of the oral history. Yes. Like, this isn't in a book. This can't be Googled. But there's people here that know a lot of stuff about it. So yeah, it's just, it's just amazing. And going back to your Southern Shores thing is I remember the first year I started really spending time here more than just, you know, little vacations. And I went into you know, the neighborhoods in Southern Shores and realizes this looks nothing like the beach. Like I had no idea. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 21:45
So yeah, the ones you don't realize I mean, people talk about all the houses here being on stilts and then you go back in there and it's one story brick ranches right, which looks just like I said, any other part of the country you don't realize it except for the wind blowing 40 miles an hour. That's the only difference. Yeah. And the live oaks I love live oaks pretty cool. They are they are it's one of those things where my my house over in Coinjock now, which I wish I could probably I need to start planting them. And maybe by the time the kids are all you know, we've got great grandkids, they'll be up and running. You know what the way I live oak should look. But that is one cool thing about, that's one of those things that people don't see it. don't realize you forget that you are, you know, on a little sandbar right out in the middle of the ocean.
Unknown Speaker 22:33
Yeah, they definitely nestle from the wind too. If you live in a grove of live oaks you'll never know there's a hurricane. Yeah, they're designed for that. Yeah, they're tough as nails. I've tried to split that wood too it just will not break. No, you know. So, you know, we've had a great conversation so far. If you were in charge of the podcast, and you know, I might give that to you at any point. Who would you you? There's got to be somebody on this beach. You're, you're just thinking to yourself, Man, I wish we you know, I wish I'd really love to talk to that guy. Or I'd really wish I learned more about whatever.
Unknown Speaker 23:12
Well, I mean, now you're just gonna start stealing my guests. Just one. Um, wow, you know what? It isn't any of these old, call them old heads, but any of these old timers in Wanchese on the island. That's where you need it. Those are the ones you know, the oral history of the Outer Banks that we're losing every day and we talk about that. I mean, there's some people who have done a great job of preserving that makes History Center has done a good job of preserving that. But we're getting now to that point where all those folks have all gone. I mean, we're talking about people or my parents age now who have stories that we're not talking about the early 1900s We're talking about the mid 1900s. And and you know, even up until the bridges were opened and the roads were paved. There still all those people around you remember that that may have been kids but or teenagers, the the casino era, but there's so many of those. Yeah, the casino era, I mean of the Outer Banks. That's what my parents that was, you know, my dad grew up and grew up that the casino was that was the place that you went. And you know, in those, those are the people that you want to talk to because there we're lose, we're starting to lose them, you know, and there's a little piece of our history. You know, it's funny, I'll be the foosball pal-- I guess will be the foosball palace era you know cuz that was our hangout. And I guess they'll be talking to us in 40 years about when Tron came, the Centipede, Yeah, I don't know we remember Dowdy Park being not there. They remember as a bowling alley. I remember it as video game roomt. You know, those are those things that, that, that there's a group there, um, you know, any one particular person, I couldn't just like drop a name right now, but, you know, there's a lot of them. You know, and there's a lot of folks that it's their parents and grand--, you know, their parents. Yeah, that's what we need to be talking to. Right. Right. Those are those are some folks, as far as you know, what your talking about doing with this podcast?
John VanLunen 25:23
Right. Right. Okay. Any questions for me?
Unknown Speaker 25:26
NO I think that's good. I mean, it sounds like you know, you get there. Well, the cool thing about pod--, I'll say this, wrap it up. The cool thing about podcasting is now where I started out with a tape recorder, and an eight track player and record that record player, my cousin, she had a recordable eight track player. I mean a recordable eight track, which was cool. So I mean, and we call those in our business carps, that's what they were, you know, eight tracks were what the consumers had, we use these things are just like that there's 70 seconds of audio tape, spun around in an eight track, it's the same shape, same same concept. But that's what I got started with that, six, seven years old, playing radio, reading and writing my own commercials, and had the opportunity to start in that era, with records and magnetic tape and razor blades and grease pencils, and carp machines to go into CDs. I mean, I was in radio, at the beginning, you know, the in the late 80s, not really working in the studio. And really the first time I got work in the studio was in college, we were we were taught do all that. We came in with the digital era started with radio, and be able to digitally edit, and then, you know, now of course, we're in 2021 with podcasts, which is how radio is another way we're evolving. Yeah, you know, it's because, I mean, honestly, commercial radio still works and over the air over FM over even AM still works, it's still the primary form of communication that when something happens, we're here to be able to do what you know, to tell people what's going on. You know, you know it, everybody here knows that when the power goes out, wherever they go, they're coming to our radio station, right? Because we're going to be on the air, we got a generator, we've made sure that we're on the air, we got generator here, that generator transmitter, we're gonna make sure, but that's the cool thing about podcasts that go from, we're sitting in our Beach 104 studio right now to go from all these mics set up and all this wiring to be able to literally plug in two mics into a computer. Yeah, and talk for an hour. That's the coolest thing ever. And it's great. And I've been fortunate enough to be in this era where I can do that. And now everybody can do it. So I get to have that experience that I had as a kid and how much I love radio. And you know, I've had opportunities to do TV, still get some opportunities to TV right in the air every now and then. It's not really for me. I mean, I got a face for radio. I proudly admit, I've got a face and body type for radio. But more people getting to experience and that's what's cool about podcasting now is that everybody's getting a chance to be able to do radio and not have to have the booming DJ, the radio DJ voice to do it. It's it's it's really cool to be a part of this right?
Unknown Speaker 28:18
Well, you know, I'm not a big speaker, but I've enjoyed listening to all the stories. You know, I appreciate your time. Thanks for taking the time out to talk to me. Of course. Thanks, John. I want to thank Sam Walker for taking the time out of his schedule to talk with me for Treasures of the Outer Banks I thought we had a great conversation. I learned a lot about his beginnings, and some of the interesting people that he's met along the way. Hopefully you enjoyed it as well. If you did, stop by Treasures of the Outer Banks dot com. Leave a comment, leave your email, we can send you some more information about how you can keep up with us. I hope to get another episode out here as soon as possible so that you can enjoy more Treasures of the Outer Banks. Have a great day.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
