Gazette, February 19th, 2014
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The Gazette Celebrates a 36 Year Family Tradition
(Pictured Above): The Island Gazette is located at 1108 Bennet Lane Suite F in Carolina Beach. We can be reached by calling (910)458-8156, you can find the Gazette online at www.IslandGazette.net and on Facebook! To email the editor, Willard Killough use editior@islandgazette.net, any other email can be sent to islandgazette@aol.com. Office hours are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8:00am until 4:00pm and Wednesday and Friday from 9:00am until 4:00pm closing for lunch each day from Noon to 1:00pm.
(Pictured Above): Since 1978 The Island Gazette has been Published by Roger and Beattie McKee. By: Jasmine K. McKee Staff Writer On the second day of February, 1978, the first issue of the Island Gazette rolled off the presses, beginning a thirty six-year tradition of local coverage and community involvement. In a garage on Hamlet Avenue, the Island Gazette was born, risen from a small printing company and magazine, Carolina Coast. Publisher Beattie McKee, along with her husband Roger, started the magazine in 1975. After several years of publishing the magazine, the McKee’s were approached about turning their publication into a full-fledged newspaper. Political unrest was at its peak in the late 70’s, and there was a real need to get the news out and that is just what the McKee’s did. “It’s always been a circus, no matter who’s in office,” McKee said of the local political scene that she would start to cover more in depth. “A lot of people would say we were stirring up trouble. But we didn’t make it up. They
made the news, we report it.” From that time forward, various public officials have been charged with everything from fraud, to embezzlement, to destroying political signs. Early front pages included such events as a 421-pound lemon shark being caught off the Kure Beach Pier. According to a July, 1978 issue, Stanley Seawell, of Robbins, NC, walked the length of the pier, coaxing the shark to shore. But, seemingly more often than not, the front page was graced with a doozy of a story about the latest political faux pas. As the paper became more established, it grew to include local fishing news, a steady stream of letters to the editor, numerous local tidbits, and, of course, the stinging editorials. And it was more often the editorials that drew the most attention, as the McKee’s scolded politicians for not doing their jobs, and took sides on local issues. In a May 17, 1979 editorial, McKee wrote, “We fully intend to continue printing our columns regardless of the presSee Island Gazette, page 5C
(Pictured Above): The Island Gazette’s website is islandgazette.net. (Below): The Newspaper gets printed every Wednesday.