Charles A. Hicks (January 4, 1939,

Marion, North Carolina Marion is a city in and the county seat of McDowell County, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1844, the city was named in honor of Brigadier General Francis Marion, the American Revolutionary War Hero whose talent in guerrilla warfare ...

– May 12, 2015), also known as "Charlie B", was an American broadcaster familiar to listeners in radio markets throughout the southeastern United States. He worked in the field for 55 years. Hicks got his start in 1954 as a late night

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

at WHBT in

Harriman, Tennessee Harriman is a city located primarily in Roane County, Tennessee, with a small extension into Morgan County. The population of Harriman was 6,350 at the time of the 2010 census. Harriman is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statis ...

, at the age of 16. He did a stint as a reporter and sports anchor for

WLOS-TV WLOS (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Asheville, North Carolina, United States, broadcasting ABC and MyNetworkTV programming to Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which pr ...

in Asheville, North Carolina, where he covered the fatal crash of

Piedmont Airlines Piedmont Airlines, Inc. is an American regional airline headquartered at the Salisbury Regional Airport in unincorporated Wicomico County, Maryland, near the city of Salisbury. The airline is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Airline ...

Flight 22 on July 19, 1967. In the early 1960s Hicks was working at radio station WSEV in

Sevierville, Tennessee Sevierville ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sevier County, Tennessee, located in eastern Tennessee. The population was 17,889 at the 2020 United States Census. History Native Americans of the Woodland period were among the first human ...

when a then-unknown and teenage

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...

began singing live in the studio to launch her career. In April 1963, while working as a reporter for WGAD in Gadsden, Alabama, Hicks interviewed civil rights activist William L. Moore minutes before the latter was murdered along rural U.S. Highway 11. Afterwards Hicks gave testimony before a Federal grand jury in Gadsden. Documentary filmmaker Keith Beauchamp interviewed Hicks about his recollections of the incident for a segment of the

Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Amer ...

television series ''The Injustice Files''. Later in his career Hicks held positions of vice-president and general manager with Suburban Radio Group and Capitol Broadcasting Company, both headquartered in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

. He was general manager of radio stations WEGO in

Concord, North Carolina Concord is the county seat and largest city in Cabarrus County, in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 105,186, with an estimated population in 2021 of 107,697. In terms of population, the cit ...

, WKEE in Huntington, West Virginia and WABZ in Albemarle, North Carolina. Hicks retired from broadcasting in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hicks, Charlie American radio DJs American radio reporters and correspondents American male journalists Radio personalities from North Carolina Radio personalities from Tennessee 1939 births 2015 deaths People from Marion, North Carolina