ADRIAN MA, HOST:
The NPR newsroom is a little smaller than it used to be. You might already know about the congressional funding cuts that hit member stations last year. Well, as a result, NPR itself has also experienced budget challenges, and that's led recently to some of our colleagues being laid off or taking a buyout. One of them decided to retire this week, and so ALL THINGS CONSIDERED host Scott Detrow decided it was finally time to make him the story for once.
SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: After decades on the radio and decades driving across various swing states to talk to voters, Don Gonyea is retiring from NPR. You have heard Don. You know what he does best. It's moments just like this...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
DON GONYEA: Does it bother you at all, though, to see these two countries that have been having this argument?
DETROW: ...Where Don, almost certainly wearing a beat-up, old Detroit Tigers hat, is connecting with voters and getting them to open up about their worries, their hopes and what they think about the political moment.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
EXCELL MOORE: And I go to Canada quite a bit. I like Canada.
GONYEA: What do you do over there?
MOORE: Casino.
GONYEA: Ah. OK.
MOORE: (Laughter).
DETROW: Don has been a presence on the NPR airwaves for decades.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
GONYEA: I'm Don Gonyea reporting for National Public Radio.
Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their young daughters, Malia and Sasha, strode onto the stage.
It's not a huge shock that she has decided that Donald Trump is the guy, even though she has had close...
DETROW: So before Don retires at the end of this week, we had to take some time to appreciate his work. I talked to two longtime colleagues of Don's, NPR's Scott Horsley and former NPR congressional correspondent Susan Davis.
So, Scott, let's start with this, remind me of the years that you two covered the White House together.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Well, I have to back up a little bit because, you know, in the first George W. Bush administration, Don Gonyea covered the White House all by himself.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
GONYEA: A lengthy meeting with his National Security Council yesterday.
HORSLEY: But, you know, Don - he had been a Michigan-based, you know, auto reporter and had done a lot of political coverage, but he was a newcomer to Washington when he got dropped into the White House to cover that beat.
DETROW: One of the main criticisms of political coverage in D.C. is that it's so insular and kind of self-involved. Like, what, from your perspective, did you see about the way that Don's background and approach to reporting influenced the way he covered the White House? Sue?
SUSAN DAVIS, BYLINE: Authenticity matters, and you can't really fake it. And Don's a really authentic guy. Like, he looks like a Midwest dad from Detroit, right? Like, there is certainly something about his countenance that I think is pretty friendly. He has a friendly face.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
GONYEA: There is a stick of butter in there. You see that?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yep.
DAVIS: He's got a nice smile. I think that that is just part of maybe his natural existence. I'm not sure you can learn those sort of things. It's about who he is. And I think that, look, you have to be genuinely interested in people and their lives. Like, that is a very hard thing to fake over a journalism career. And I do think he is, generally speaking, a people person. He likes people.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I'm hoping my friends are listening down here. We'll see.
GONYEA: Including the Cape Girardeau Republicans.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Including all of them, yes.
GONYEA: After Missouri...
DETROW: Here's the thing about Don - though he earned his paycheck covering politics, his heart was in the arts pieces he sometimes got a chance to do. He worked hard to look for that culture and that music wherever he was.
HORSLEY: A piece of advice that he gave me - and I think he's given this to you and to others - is, you know, when you are traveling with the president, when you're in this bubble, this moving circus parade, try as much as you can to sneak off for half an hour and just wander around the city. And because of that, I think he always, you know, was able to bring a little more flavor to the stories, wherever he was. He was traveling with Barack Obama early in the Obama administration. They went to Prague. Don got to the venue early, and there was a warm-up band that was just kind of entertaining the audience. And it was this Czech bluegrass band.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
GONYEA: This was classic American music, country music, played by five guys who could've stepped right out of Austin, Texas - that is, until they started to sing.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DRUHA TRAVA: (Singing in Czech).
HORSLEY: (Laughter) Then Don realizes that they're seeing covers of Bob Dylan tunes, but in Czech (laughter). But he recognized the tune, of course, because, you know, Don is, if not the biggest Bob Dylan fan in America, he's at least in the top 100, I'm sure.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
GONYEA: A confession here - I've probably spent a lot more time listening to Bob Dylan than your average, well-adjusted human being.
HORSLEY: Of course, naturally, he turned this into a delightful little postcard, and you think it's sort of a one-off. But then, fast forward two years, and Don is on the campaign trail in Iowa. And he's in Cedar Rapids, and he sees a poster that this same Czech bluegrass band is playing the community center in Cedar Rapids (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
GONYEA: On this U.S. tour, Druha Trava is promoting its first-ever English-language CD. This song is called "Shuttle To Bethlehem," but there are also old favorites, including The Rolling Stones.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUMPIN' JACK FLASH")
DRUHA TRAVA: (Singing) I was born in a crossfire hurricane. And I howled...
DETROW: Other than the Czech Bob Dylan band, do you have a favorite Don Gonyea piece that sticks in your mind?
HORSLEY: (Laughter) Well, of course, there's a piece he did. I think he was guest hosting on one of the weekend shows. Don was a DJ for a country station at one time.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
GONYEA: Bobcat Friendly Ford (ph) time is 15 before 10 o'clock. Wayne, you're back from the fair.
HORSLEY: As part of his working for this country station, he had an opportunity to interview Johnny Cash at a time when, you know, Don was probably in his early 20s and had a very sort of adenoidal voice.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GONYEA: How you doing, Johnny?
JOHNNY CASH: Hi. How you doing?
GONYEA: Welcome to Monroe.
CASH: Thank you.
GONYEA: I'm from WBMO, the radio station here in town.
HORSLEY: I remember Don - one of his questions was, how'd you become the Man in Black, Johnny?
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
GONYEA: How'd you get to be the Man in Black?
DETROW: (Laughter).
HORSLEY: And, Johnny says, well, it's...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
CASH: For one reason, it's a little more slimming, and...
HORSLEY: It's very slimming (laughter).
DETROW: Don always encourages everybody around him to be curious.
DAVIS: If you're in Chicago, if you're in rural Iowa, if you're in Texas, like, figure out what he would call the local treasures of the place. Like, every place has something that makes it special, and find that place.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
GONYEA: Right ahead of us are the Detroit Industry frescoes, one of my very favorite places in the whole world.
DAVIS: You know, sometimes you're driving down a highway, and you see these random signs, and it said, world's largest popcorn ball, three miles ahead. And I think my pre-Don Gonyea life, I don't think I would've stopped...
DETROW: You don't need to see that. Yeah.
DAVIS: ...To see the world's largest popcorn ball. But I was like, you know what? I am stopping to see the world's largest popcorn ball. And I have my picture outside of it, and I'm glad I stopped.
DETROW: That is the thing about Don. His enthusiasm for life, for people, for the craft of radio is always infectious - to people who have known him for years and to people who have just met him. In fact, just a few weeks ago, Don was reporting a piece in Detroit, and he was telling a producer about one of the buildings in that city he found so fascinating.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
GONYEA: Right in front of us is, hands down, my pick for the coolest building on the planet. It's the Guardian Building. It...
DETROW: And as he did this, Don started to draw a crowd.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
MARTY WELLS: I've only seen it from the outside.
GONYEA: Oh, OK. Well, you should...
WELLS: And I'd love to see it from the inside.
GONYEA: You should come in with us then.
WELLS: Yes.
GONYEA: But tell me your name.
WELLS: Marty Wells.
GONYEA: Marty, I'm Don Gonyea.
WELLS: Don...
GONYEA: Go. Go in. Well, just like, look at the elevator doors and look up at the tile work on top too.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Well, so the sharpness here of the light above the elevator.
GONYEA: But he pointed out something I'd never noticed. The bank was United Trust. Here's a U, and there's the T. I've never seen that before.
WELLS: Wow. Yeah. It's hidden in there.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLOWIN' IN THE WIND")
BOB DYLAN: (Singing) How many roads must a man walk down...
DETROW: Don Gonyea is saying goodbye to NPR, but if you miss him, just keep an ear out the next time you're in a museum or a concert or a baseball game or really anywhere in the vicinity of a retro neon sign because there is a good chance you will run into him there. Make sure you say hi.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLOWIN' IN THE WIND")
DYLAN: (Singing) The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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