Kids need inspiring icons

Jim Tilmon is an intelligent, eloquent, polished and confident television weatherman with a rich voice -- A perfect role model for the young.

His overall persona conveys nothing less than the truth spoken properly. If Tilmon says its going to rain tomorrow morning, you confidently go to bed prepared for bad weather the next day. If it doesn't rain, well, the Gods have a right to change their plans.

Not only is Tilmon an excellent communicator, he is a veteran commercial airline pilot. Don't take that last line casually.

The streets are full of young and old people who can't imagine Black men and women flying commercial planes. Yet. Tilmon flew for American Airlines for over 22 years while appearing on WTTW-TV for four years and 22 years on WMAQ-TV. He has been an aviation expert practically on every major network television system.

Recently Jim has come out of an eight-year retirement in Phoenix to return to Chicago as a flight expert and weatherman at WBBM-TV, Channel 2. He reports the weather on the 4:30 p.m. Channel 2 News.

That's another way of reporting that veteran WLS-TV manager Joseph Ahern has returned from San Francisco to take the helm at Channel 2. Ahern was one of a string of pro station managers who guided Channel 7, to its current long run as the top news station in this city.

Channel 2 already has a very likeable and skilled Black weather forecaster in Steve Baskerville, a talented Philadelphian. But what's wrong with having two Afro-Americans doing the weather in a city with a majority-Black population?

Wednesday night I had the honor of presenting a welcome-back award to Tilmon during a reception sponsored by the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Tilmon was honored with Bob Petty, veteran reporter for WLS-TV, who recently retired after 31 years.

As both were cheered by their media friends, it struck me as to what wonderful male role models these two men represent. Both speak well, enunciating every word with clarity and precision without appearing the least bit affected. Both always evince confidence while reading the news or reporting ad lib.

That kind of confidence is crucial to what young students need to understand as the basis for real professionalism. Both men first pursued a proper education before they ever thought of television. Both sought and earned a college education.

I especially reviere my experiences with Petty with whom I worked at WLS-TV for close to 30 years. I especially recall him being there 26 years ago when Chicago's Black journalists came together and finally created a formal organization in my home.

But one experience above all proves my point about the mutual roles of preparedness and confidence. Several years ago Bob and I covered the dedication of the famous memorial to the heroes of the civil rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama. After the ceremony, I suggested that Bob take his cameras to the site of the first Confederate White House near Dr. Martin Luther King's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

While, I, a former college history teacher, began to lecture Bob on where Jefferson Davis mapped his strategy for the Civil War, Bob smiled and ad libbed the rest of the story. He had read much on the Civil War. Therefore he reported with maximum ease and confidence.

Bob, who spent much of his youth in Arkansas, learned early the value of reading. He is a real role model for Chicago youngsters who, though educationally shortchanged, have more learning tools than Bob ever had in Arkansas. I've always considered Bob Petty one of the most underrated reporters in Chicago television.

But in a sense, both Tilmon and Petty could be considered among the relatively underrated. That's why the NABJ's Chicago Chapter has adopted my Freedom Readers program, through which Black and white media stars are presented in our schools as inspirational examples of what an education--especially reading--can do.

The Tilmons and Pettys of our society deserve as much public recognition and respect from our children as do athletes and hip hop stars, particularly those celebrities who have difficulty completing a sentence.