Ned Perme pushed his tall frame onto a counter in the receptionist’s booth at KATV’s Main Street headquarters, gracefully finding an alternative interview spot after a locked door kept him out of the the Little Rock ABC affiliate’s elegant waiting room.
Perme, seeming as handsome, fit and dark as ever (his bronze hue is a pool tan, he says), was framed by light from the front door, where he first crossed the threshold 34 years ago.
He has enough snow in his hair now to befit his traditional role as the station’s holiday pianist, but he looks a decade younger than his 64 years.
So it still came as a bit of a shock when he walked off the set Friday as a retiree.
Oh, it dawned on Perme over the past weeks that routine tasks were becoming lasts. A final on-set visit with meteorologist Barry Brandt; last meetings with News Director Nick Genty; last advice to weather newcomer James Bryant, whose first day at KATV was one of Perme’s last.
Still, Perme went away happy, with big plans for the Ned Perme Band and another sidelight, oil painting, not to mention treasuring a homey and full family life.
“I’m still young enough to enjoy the next chapter, and a lot of things interest me,” said Perme, who was born in Cleveland and raised in Louisville before starting his career in Mobile. He’ll be staying in Little Rock, where his daughter and son still live and grandkids are already clamoring for attention. “I’ll be here, except maybe for some breaks in winter. I don’t like the cold.”
Perme, who wrote the local holiday standard “Christmastime in Arkansas,” will keep up the big band benefit shows he had been playing, but he’ll also head a streamlined band to play a few times a month around town. His paintings — Little Rock cityscapes local landmarks like the Old Mill are favorites — will still be for sale through a gallery at Pleasant Ridge Town Center.
“I’m a partner in the Art Group Gallery, so I’ve got music, I’ve got art, all these things I love doing, and people have responded to. I started in television in 1977. That’s kind of enough.”
He described “a great and wonderful run” at KATV and thanked fans and colleagues for a flood of social media tributes and good wishes since his retirement plans surfaced last summer. Perme, who said he invested well enough and doesn’t fear for money, is also open to doing some limited ad work.
Back at KATV News, “you’ll see Barry [Brandt] at 6 and 10, Todd Yakoubian at 11:30, 3 and 5,” Genty said, running down the weather lineup. “James Bryant on the weekends and some during the week. Melinda Mayo stays on the No. 1 morning show in the market.”
Perme will be missed for his engaged, genuine newsroom presence, Genty said.
“In 34 years,” Perme said, “I can say that excepting maybe two people, I’ve absolutely loved everyone I’ve worked with, and gotten along with everyone.”
His closest colleague was the “beloved” sportscaster Paul Eels, who died in a 2006 automobile accident. “That hurt everyone, but it deeply affected me for a while,” said Perme, whose strong work relationships were one reason he stuck out his career in Little Rock. “Of all the people ever in TV in this market, I probably am the only one to have kept the same job for so many years.”
The starkest change? Technology, Perme replied. “When I first came here we could barely get a tornado warning on the air. Now radar technology lets us issue warnings in incredible detail. Tracking technology lets us track storms down to street level.” All that was crucial to giving viewers a half-hour’s warning in April 2014 when a lethal F4 tornado tore through Mayflower and Vilonia, he said.
In retrospect, Perme says he’s glad he made his career in Arkansas. “When I was younger I had a chance to get on that bigger-market train. Bigger, better; bigger, better. Well, that’s not really the case. Local TV in New York is the same as it is here, basically. You might get a bigger paycheck at a bigger station, but there are bigger headaches. I’m happy I stayed.”
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