In a career that spanned more than four decades in print, television and radio journalism, Mike Fleming was called many things.
Abrasive. Antagonistic. "The biggest joke there is," City Council member Janis Fullilove once said.
But once you got past the talk-show host facade, Mr. Fleming proved to be none of those things, family and longtime friends said Sunday.
"Mike was a wonderful person, and a very caring individual. You might not have gotten that from the on-air personality, but he really was," said Paul Shanklin, a local political satirist who has done work for the Rush Limbaugh show. "We loved him, and it's a real loss for everybody."
Mr. Fleming died in Covington, Tennessee, Sunday morning after a years-long battle with Alzheimer's, his son Jeff Fleming said. He was 74.
A native of Athens, Tennessee, Mr. Fleming began working for The Commercial Appeal in 1974. He spent most of his career in the sports department, including covering the Dana Kirk scandal at what was then Memphis State in the 1980s.
Mr. Fleming left the newspaper in 1991 for a job as executive producer for sports at WMC-TV Channel 5. He was named executive news editor for the station in 1995, but his position was eliminated in 1998.
By that time, though, he'd already started hosting a radio talk show, the media foray that he is likely most famous for. What started as a sports-oriented show eventually evolved into a conservative broadcast, with Mr. Fleming firing shots at everyone from Fullilove to former mayor Willie Herenton (Mr. Fleming dubbed him "King Willie.")
