watt station. The stations today, like WABC-AM, are limited to 50,000 watts. We were heard behind the Iron Curtain, in North Africa, and halfway out into the Atlantic.” Because he had gained much experience writing and doing newscasts for the AFN, when Homcy returned to the states, he contacted New York and New Jersey radio stations about a job. He was told he needed “commercial broadcasting experience” and received only one offer from a New Brunswick station. Now living in Clifton and not wanting to move, Homcy turned it down. The Herald & News was waiting. Both men thrived in their jobs at the Herald & News. Anderson again worked as a freelance photographer, making $40 for every ten photo assignments, $5 for every extra one. Homcy started as a $65 a week reporter—the paper beating the $50 offer he got from the Paterson News. “We had a lot of fun,” says Homcy. “I worked with a lot of great people—Al Smith, Art McMahon, Joe Lovas, and the publisher, Dick Drukker, a fair man and wonderful guy, as is his son Austin. There were great reporters, like Maurice “Mickey” Carroll, who now runs the Quinnipiac College Poll, Gordon Bishop, John
Reilly, and Ford Baker. Other great ones included Art Lenihan, Leslie Davis, Boley Schwartz, and Kent MacDougal, who went on to work for the Los Angeles Times. “We covered Clifton like a blanket. We were on call 24 hours a day. I had a good deal—I’d go in from 6 am to 1 pm, get the final edition out, then go home or go down to the Y. Then we went back to work at night. We covered every board meeting—planning boards, board of adjustment, board of education, and the city council. “Nobody assigned us to cover these events—as reporters, we knew it was our responsibility to do so.” Anderson also loved his new life. “We had three photographers when I joined the paper,” he says, “Roger “Flash” Terhune, Tommy Lynch, and myself. They worked 7 am to 3 pm and 3 pm to 11 pm I worked 3-11 and weekends, and was off Mondays and Tuesdays.” But, because of their jobs as newsmen, readers thought they worked round the clock. “People had our home phone numbers, and they would call us—even at 3 am—to let us know about a story,” says Anderson. “One night, Roger Terhune heard a tremendous crash near his house, grabbed his camera, and ran out in his bathrobe to take pictures
Clifton Merchant • November 2012
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