Editors note: This Modesto Bee article appeared on November 21st, 1968. Later, Bee Photographer Al Golub added follow-up commentary. Special thanks to Al, a friend of the Museum, for permission to archive his story.
November 21, 1968
Wellesley Richard “Dick” Boynton was the news editor at KBEE AM, The Modesto Bee’s sister radio station. In November 1968, Dick volunteered to be my subject for a day-in-the-life-of-a-radio-reporter story. My goal was to improve my story-telling skills.
I asked Dick to just do his job and ignore me. We met at 6 a.m. at the Stanislaus County jail to get booking information.
Then we were off to Modesto Police Department to read the police logs.
At MPD, we discovered a big story was unfolding. Stanislaus County Superintendent of Schools Fred Beyer and his deputy Joseph Howard had died the night before in a plane crash coming back from Fresno.
Making images was easy under these circumstances: I just followed Dick as he worked. I moved in and out while Dick ignored me, just as I had asked. When he finally sat down to write copy, he talked aloud and banged away on his typewriter. Next thing I knew, he was on the air broadcasting the news.
Boynton worked as the news editor for KBEE for nearly a decade under managers Roy Swanson and Ed Boyle. Earlier in his career, his deep, resonant voice was heard on the airwaves at KWG in Stockton. Boynton had also worked as a newsman for radio stations in Salinas and San Diego. Among racing fans, Dick was known as a winning driver of dragsters and super-stock cars.
