Farewell To A Friend I Never Met

One of my good friends, former Dickson County Cougars football coach Jerry Pearson, once told me that there was no good reason for the phone to ring late at night. I have found that to be a fact that rings very much true. Last Thursday, April 9, was one of those mornings. Though the kids were already on the school bus, 7:30 is not the time of day when the phone typically rings around the Dauphin household.

I answered the phone and it was one of my friends, Bo. He asked me if I had heard who had passed away. Working in morning radio for the bulk of eighteen years, I was always on top of these stories, and as morbid as it might sound to some....you kind of have a list as to who you might expect to pass away----it's never that way. I asked "Who," thinking that I would hear the name of a Country Music star, and he told me "Dan Miller." Needless to say, there was a wave of shock that still is running through me....five days later.

Dan Miller, for those that don't know, was one of two dominant news anchors in Nashville during the past four decades, with the other being Channel 5's Chris Clark. Back in the days when Middle Tennesseans only had three television channels, Miller was one of the biggest stars in local TV. His low-key, relaxing way of giving viewers the news made him one of Nashville's most beloved public figures. Though I will admit to being a Channel 5 viewer more than Channel 4 growing up, "The Scene At Six" was must-see TV, long before NBC coined the phrase. Whether it was talking about the issues of the day, or cutting up with fellow personalites like weatherman Bill Hall or sports anchor Rudy Kalis, he was always a joy to watch.

In reading many of the tributes to Miller over the past few days, many have brought up his Sunday night program MILLER AND COMPANY. Each week, he would interview a local celebrity, whether it was a music star or a local legend, like Nashville's "Mr. Television," Jud Collins. That same style of anchoring also led to some of the more memorable interviews I watched anyone do growing up. He brought that same format to TNN for a time in the 1990s, as well.

In 1986, after seventeen years, Miller accepted a job with a station in Los Angeles. You would have thought people had lost a son or a brother. A few years later though, he was back---staying until passing away from a heart attack last week in his hometown of Augusta, Georgia--while showing longtime friend Kalis his stomping ground growing up.

For a lot of reasons, his passing has affected me very much. There's people that you take for granted----that they will always be there. I felt very much the same way when Conway Twitty or Waylon Jennings died. A few years ago, I had the idea to invite all three of Nashville's top anchors on my radio show----but I simply lost the nerve. "Why would Chris Clark or Dan Miller want to talk to me," I reckoned. Even though I had interviewed many Hall Of Fame members or Entertainers Of The Year....these men were stars...that came into my home every night, like they did yours.

With that said, I never met Dan Miller--though I did see him one time. I was eating lunch at the Pie Wagon, close to Music Row. He came in with his wife for lunch that day. Even without meeting him, you just could sense the kind of person he was----which is why so many Middle Tennesseans have been hit hard by his passing.

I close this introductory blog by inviting readers to log on to his blog:
http://www.wsmv.com/danmillersnotebook/index.html.

Many times I have read and been entertained by reading his thoughts about random subjects....though it will be with somewhat a tinge of sadness. Hopefully, Channel 4 will keep it up as a tribute to the man who helped to define the station since arriving there in 1969. Dan Miller was 67 years old, which I'm quickly finding isn't as old as it used to sound......