KASU radio news director William Greg Chance once covered a groundbreaking ceremony at Arkansas State University, giving Tom Moore, the director of university communications at ASU-Jonesboro, reason to wonder.
"I remember thinking, 'Why would a radio reporter cover a ceremonial event designed mostly for visuals of people turning dirt?'" Moore said.
Chance -- who friends say often exhibited quirky behavior -- held his microphone close to the ground to pick up the sounds of shovels digging into the dirt.
"He mixed that with his story to create a very effective audio 'picture' of the groundbreaking," Moore said.
Chance, 63, who covered news for ASU's public radio station for 30 years, died Tuesday night.
Authorities said he suffered a heart attack while driving on Arkansas 91 about 10:30 p.m. He died later that night at a Jonesboro hospital. He is survived by his wife, Cindy Chance.
Chance graduated from ASU-Jonesboro in 1974 with a degree in radio-television. He worked as shift announcer, sportscaster and copywriter for Arkansas Ozarks' broadcast stations for four years before taking a full-time news reporting job at a Hope radio station.
He later went to KLCN-KHLS in Blytheville and became the KASU news director in Jonesboro in 1984.
He won more than 25 broadcasting awards from The Associated Press, United Press International, the Arkansas Farm Bureau and the Arkansas Education Association for his news coverage.
Chance was best known for his gruff voice, the scooter he used for years to travel to news events, and his microphone and recorder.
"We used to think of his coverage as 'Greg Chance C-SPAN,'" said Mike Doyle, KASU station manager, referring to the cable channel that covers live political events. "He'd put that microphone of his out there and catch everything."
Chance's 15- to 20-minute program of local and regional news came on KASU at 3:06 p.m. each weekday.
"His favorite things to cover were government, education and civic organizations," said Doyle, who graduated from college with Chance before working with him. "He was an old-school newsman.
"His shows were nothing like what you typically get on radio now. Greg didn't see himself as a star, like some do now. He was just a reporter."
Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin has been on the other end of Chance's microphone for years as the mayor, a Jonesboro alderman and a member of the ASU board of trustees.
"We were at a council meeting, and an alderman was speaking," Perrin recalled. "We all heard a click and knew Greg's tape recorder had stopped. Greg just walked up to his recorder in front of the alderman, switched over the tape and sat down. The man talking just stopped and waited until Greg was done.
"Greg had full control of any meeting. It didn't matter if it was [President Barack] Obama talking. He'd get that microphone in front of whoever was talking."
Perrin declared Aug. 2, 2011 -- Chance's 60th birthday -- as "Greg Chance Day" in Jonesboro, noting the work he did in covering the city's news.
While on the ASU board of trustees, Perrin asked half in jest whether the university could buy Chance a car to replace his scooter.
"I was scared he'd get run over," Perrin said.
Trey Stafford, president of the Jonesboro Radio Group, which owns several area radio stations, remembered first hearing Chance while Stafford was working with Arkansas Radio Network's affiliate in Marked Tree.
"We all did submissions to the network," Stafford said. "I'd hear his sign off on stories all the time and think, 'This guy must be working his tail off.'
"He epitomized the passion and the drive for news that I don't think I'll ever see anymore in my lifetime."
Johnathan Reaves, a morning news announcer at KASU, worked with Chance for four years.
"He was all over the place," Reaves said of Chance's news coverage. "And he knew everyone. If I was doing a story, Greg would help me find the right people to talk to."
Chance was well-known at most events, Doyle said.
When Jonesboro officials planned to renovate a downtown grocery store into a municipal building years ago, architects created a landscape model that showed the design. In the parking lot of the model, architects included a tiny scooter parked in one of the slots, Doyle said.
"That was Greg's presence," Doyle said. "That really says how much he was accepted as part of everyone's life."
State Desk on 04/16/2015