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71 isn't too old to*tstart a new careerBy CAROL REEDTry to tell Elyrian Charles Gates you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and he won't believe yoiTomorrow,Gates, 71, is leaving his time-consuming job hosting, onWZLE FM, one of the nation’s first radio programs for senior citizens,And he is . embarking on a renewed career as musician and inventor.Gates began the program in January, 1976 as a weekly 15-minute radio show for Lorain County senior citizens. Listeners tike his approach so much that after three shows, Gates was able to par-lay his 15-minute slot to a half hour.EVERY SUNDAY from 6:15 to 6:45 p,m. for almost two years, Gates kept senior citizens up to date on news of their groups’ activities, hosted noted guest speakers, reminisced with tidbits of Lorain County’s • history and played nostalgic “music of the past.”But enough is enough, he says. Tomorrow, the senior citizen program will go on a brief hiatus, according to Gene Sens, WZLE station owner, and reappear in early January under the tutelage of someone else, “hopefully, someone with the capabilities of Charles.”Sens says he searching for someone to take the reins so the show can continue, because he received “so many letters and good comments, I hate to abandon it.”After Gates’ two years of spending 20 to 30 hours a week just preparing the program and another two and half at the station Sunday nights, he wants to cut hack.“I WAS PRODUCER, editor, announcer, reporter, script-writer, everything,” he says.“It tied me down quite a bit on Sundays. I couldn’t, take a vacation, and I couldn’t evenvisit my son in Troy, Michigan without rushing back to be here Sundays.“It was taking up a heck of a lot of time that I want now to devote to developing ideas I think are good, Gates says.In addition to the time it devoured, the program caused other headaches.GETTING INFORMATION on the 27 senior citizens groups in the county was difficult, he says. “Some didn’t care if they got publicity or not.”Luring speakers every week who had something relevant to say for senior citizens was no mean task either, he says.Every fourth week Ray Kepner, district manager of the Social Security Administration , appeared. For the weeks between Gates was able to arrange appearances by scores of other notables such as Henry Jenkins, member of the national Council on Aging.Despite the headaches. Gates finds leaving his show a sad event.“HAVING BEEN sort of the father, having built it from infancy to adulthood, there is a sadness in leaving it, says Gates.What will he do now? Plenty.He wants to develop several inventions he’s been mulling over for year. He wants a renewed career as a pianist. He wante, perhaps, to open a music studio. And he wants to catch another big one like the 436-pound marlin he caught in 1968 while deep-sea fishing off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.Inventing is nothing new for Gates. He's been doing it since a child and holds at least 15 patents from his long-time employer, Beitdix-Westinghouse in Elyria. Now he wants to develop patents that will “not be the property of Bendk.”THE FIRST invention he wants to tackle is a solar heating system which he estimates will more than double efficiency from the current 30 to 75 percent.He also has an idea for a pin-point fire extinguisher which won’t cause water damage. A flask filled with fire-extinguishing liquid , mounted on a gun, could be targeted directly to the fire. It would be so small “every policeman could have 50 in Itis trunk.”Then there’s the new musical instrument which would enable musicians to play anything on a xylophone or marimba that is now played on the piano or organ. The invention would permit playing more chords and producing more discrete phrasing on these instruments.It’s natural for Gates to think in terms of musical instruments. He has played the piano since the tender age of six.AT 15 he played on the second radio program ever broadcast. By 18 he had his own orchestra. When only 19, he was playing with the Ted Newlin and Fred Waring orchestras. And at 20 he was playing the Loew’s Theatre circuit with his own orchestra of eight musicians.By 23 it was ail over. A tragic auto accident sapped the dexterity from his fingers, and he wasn't able to play for years after thatNow, he says, after 48 years he againwants a vigorous schedule of musical engagements. He’s looking for a business agent, so that he can devote his time to arranging engagements where he will play “nostalgic music in a sophisticated style.”Perhaps, he will open a music studio, too, he muses, concentrating on teaching children the rudiments of music in general and piano in particular.CHARLES GATES has plenty to do. He knows where he is going every minute.Now that he’s reached 71 he’s even begun charting his here-after.“When I was 19, T literally drowned off Conneaut. There was no breathing or heartaction. I had died.“I saw a Jong, long, endless hall. I was walking down it by myself. The sides were glowing so softly and I had this marvelous sense of peace and contentment.”' “When my time comes, I expect to goback to that hall.”
Newspaper Details
The Chronicle Telegram
Elyria, Ohio, US
Sun, Dec 18, 1977
Page 72
Full Page
Clipped by
Nathan O.
OH, USA 28 Mar 2022
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