NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — As we continue our month-long celebration of Vicki Yates's incredible career here at NewsChannel 5, we knew we had to turn to people who know her best. Other than members of Vicki's own family, her original co-anchors at NC5 may be the perfect group.
We invited Vicki's co-anchor of 17 years Chris Clark, former Chief Meteorologist Ron Howes, and Sports Director Hope Hines to share their memories with us.
"Kids today don’t know who we are," Hope Hines joked.
"Grandmothers do, Great-Grandmothers, do too," Chris Clark replied.
"Every once and a while we get that, well my grandmother watched you all the time," Ron Howes added.
All three of them, who are now enjoying the spoils of retirement say they remember when the news broke in 1990 that Vicki was joining their anchor team.
"She was immaculate from head to all of those beautiful shoes. And I’m a shoe person so I notice things like that," Hines said.
"She may have been like a duck. She may have been paddling like heck under water, but on top she was just as calm as ever," Clark said.
They say Vicki showed her easygoing spirit on her very first newscast at NewsChannel 5 when her official introduction didn't go exactly as planned.
"Take this break in the news to welcome Lisa — well Lisa — Vicki Yates," said Clark back in 1990.
"I’ll go by Lisa," Vicki replied.
"I know who Vicki is, we just had Lisa on the air," Clark explained.
Clark was able to laugh about the mistake all these years later.
"She took that gaffe I made and turned it around into something we could all smile about. And it was perfect. She didn’t take offense at that at all. There were people who could have taken offense, and probably did if I had done that to other people," Clark said.
If the trio is to be believed, her calm demeanor was often put to the test.
"She told stories you’d never believe — I’m kidding, I’m kidding," Hines said.
"She was quiet and looking at the script and going on to the next thing — totally professional," Clark said.
"Usually trying to regain professionalism after the sports right?" Howes said with a laugh.
"Everything she did was effortless, almost," Hines said.
"It seemed that way," Clark said.
"It appeared. It wasn’t, but she made it look effortless," Howes said.
It's one thing to have that kind of poise every day on the air, it's another when you're raising a family of three all by yourself, like Vicki. "She was raising three little children as a single mom, and she would come in so composed," Howes said.
"She did that cooking them meals every day, coming into a pressure job and she pulled it off -- don’t you think? Just beautifully," Clark said.
As the years went on, so did longtime traditions — like when the open music would start, so did Chris and Vicki's so-called 'We're Number One' dance. "She’d sit down and we’d go we’re number one, we’re number one. Go like that -- and that sort of just got us up for the headline thing," Clark said.
And through it all, they've all become close friends. It's likely that will only grow now that Vicki will have time to join a very different iteration of this team. "She definitely made us a whole lot better than what we normally were, I can promise you that," Hines said.
"Vicki, you were the glue that held NewsChannel 5 together for so long, now it’s time to enjoy life. We love you, we enjoyed working every minute with you. Now go off and have the best retirement ever," Howes said.
Join us Tuesday night at 6 p.m. for Part Two of our joint interview with Chris Clark, Ron Howes, and Hope Hines on the career of Vicki Yates.
