By Anita Fritz / Special Contributing Writer
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Franklin County is in mourning this week, learning that local newsman extraordinaire Chris Collins had died at the age of 54 on Sunday. Collins had been hospitalized in Springfield since January with a serious heart condition and after undergoing a major operation last week, and then a struggle to recover from it, he lost the battle. The county will feel the void for many years to come.
Chris Collins was Franklin County.

Many who heard the news of his death on Sunday said, “It will never be the same.” Collins has left a hole bigger than many can even imagine at this point, but it will become more apparent when spectators at high school sports don’t hear his familiar voice and commentary. It will be the voice on the radio silenced by his passing, or his news articles absent from FranklinCountyNow.com that will make it more real as the days and weeks pass.

Local DJ Robert “Bobby C” Campbell, a longtime friend of Collins, said, “There was no one else like him.” The two met when Collins was in ninth grade. They worked together that summer at the radio station at Deerfield Academy and Collins never looked back. “That was his calling,” Campbell said. “He knew it in an instant. He was a sports guy, a newshound, a columnist.” Campbell said Collins also loved music and played in the high school band. “It was just one of his many passions.”

The consummate multi-tasker
Collins was a renaissance man when it came to all forms of media, Western Mass Radio Group Traffic Manager and Sports Director Jeff Tirrell said. Collins began his media career in 1986 when he was 19 years old.  He quickly became an on-air radio personality at WHAI and was also Operations Manager at WCAT in Orange. His print career began as a reporter at The Recorder covering South County after studying mass communications at Emerson College. It wasn’t long before he was asked to cover Greenfield and politics at The Recorder, and by the early 2000s, he was writing his beloved column, “In the Arena,” where he discussed local, regional and state politics for two decades. The column was widely read by news and political “junkies,” as well as people who just loved to hear what Collins had to say each week.

In 2020, the column ended and Collins turned his full attention to the other avenues he was involved in – radio, covering sports and helping Western Mass Radio Group President and General Manager Dan Guin get the stations’ online breaking news format, FranklinCountyNow.com, up and running, among other things.

“Chris did everything,” Tirrell said. “He did radio, print, online–everything, and he was doing more than one at a time. He was writing stories for Franklin County Now right up until the day before his surgery last week.”

According to Guin, Tirrell and former Recorder Editor Tim Blagg, Collins never had just one job. He’d be on one of the local radio stations – he worked for WHMP in Northampton at one point and was the news director for WHAI and Bear Country in Greenfield – while writing stories for FranklinCountyNow.com and traveling the Pioneer Valley and beyond to cover local sports. He was a morning show host, a weekend broadcaster and would cover what and where anyone needed him.

A former hockey player, he always took pride in the fact that the Collins-Moylan Skating Arena in Greenfield was named for his father, Ralph. “Chris grew up in that building and loved it,” Tirrell said. “It was his home away from home.”

Collins had also worked at Greenfield Community Television in Greenfield, doing a show called “Political Potpourri” and “Beacon Hill Updates,” and was most recently working as general manager at Frontier Community Access Television in South Deerfield. “I appreciated his diligence, his adherence to his craft and the ‘old-school’ journalism that he loved doing,” Tirrell said.
Guin said Collins wasn’t about flash and self-promotion; he simply wanted to get the story and get it right for his listeners and readers. “He was either in the building or chasing a story,” Guin said. “He was an interesting man with a great sense of humor.”

While his friends and colleagues said he was always working on something, he found plenty of time to spend with his wife of close to 20 years, Barb, who he lovingly referred to as “Dood” (and she the same to him), their small four-legged best friend, Jack, and their two cats. He and Barb were married in September 2002.

They met in high school and were high school sweethearts, said former City Council President Mark Maloney, who knew Collins from the time he was born and became a lifelong friend. “Chris and Barb were high school sweethearts who eventually married,” Maloney said. “They were complementary to each other – they were different, but they fit. Barb grounded him. She was his home base and was so important to him. She helped change his focus from all work to family as well. He really enjoyed the life he had created with her.”

Though Collins would walk into a room and as soon as he spoke with his deep, broadcaster voice, you knew you should listen, there was a softer side to him, one that he let his friends, family and colleagues see. Sometimes it wasn’t just Collins who walked in, but Jack with him, wearing a little bell on his collar, and when Collins picked him up and held him in his arms, you knew his softer side. “He did everything for Barb and Jack,” Campbell said. “Everything he did was for them.”

Those who talk about Collins remember his unique sense of humor. Though he was very serious about what he did, whether covering a high school basketball game, reporting breaking news or moderating a huge local political debate just before an important election, Collins would have some sort of sarcastic or funny remark either in public or to his friends during or right after the event was over, if for no other reason than to lighten the mood.

“Look, Chris had his opinions – that’s what his column was for,” Campbell said. “He knew when to share his opinions and when to write or report straight news with no commentary, no editorializing. He was very intelligent. What was most impressive is that he held everyone accountable. So many times, he said, ‘That person is better than this.’ And so many times, that person knew it themselves and had to agree.”

Collins’ coverage
Greenfield Mayor Roxann Wedegartner said Collins covered her throughout her public life on the School Committee, Planning Board and most recently as mayor. He surely could annoy me,” Wedegartner said. “As a former journalist, though, I knew it was in service to his craft. He’d ask the most difficult questions at times, and I understood he should do that as a journalist. I always tried to answer his questions as directly as possible based on what I knew at the moment, and I’d get back to him if I didn’t have the answer.

“When Chris was broadcasting or writing the news, he was accurate and fair,” she continued. “He was committed to his craft. He always gave a fair representation of a moment.” Wedegartner said she and others will miss Collins. She said even as a public figure who didn’t always agree with him, she could also laugh and joke with him because he had a great sense of humor, and because she knew what he was writing, or broadcasting came from a place of really wanting to get something for his listeners or readers.

Tim Farrell said he knew Collins and his family from early on and was friends with him for many years. When Farrell became a member of the Greenfield Board of Selectmen and later president of the City Council, he knew what he was in for when Collins covered him. “He was four years older than me, but I knew him and his family through school, sports, hockey and more,” Farrell said. “One of his sisters babysat me and one was my preschool teacher. I had that connection.”

When Farrell decided to run for local government, the first person he called was Collins, he said. “I announced my run first on WHAI, and Chris was also at GCTV doing “Political Potpourri,” so my first ‘real’ interview was with him.” Farrell felt it was good to have someone he knew and trusted giving him advice and covering him. “He had a good grasp on local government, and he really cared for the community,” Farrell said. “He would tell it like it was, without pulling any punches. He was fair and accurate in reporting the news.”

Farrell said “In the Arena” gave Collins a different platform, one where he could share not only the news but his spin, his opinion, on it. “He got to take a side,” he said. “Whether he talked about the full board or the individual in his column, he got to share the good and bad, his own thoughts. Even though I didn’t always agree with him, I didn’t get angry with him. That wasn’t always the case with my friends and family after he had disagreed with something I said or did and called me out in his column, but I think sometimes people missed that some of what he did was news and the column was opinion, which everyone is entitled to. “Chris always knew when he was stirring the pot – he’d make sure he asked the questions that would do so,” he continued.

But because of Collins, people got all different sides to a story, and eventually they got to take a side themselves based on what they learned, he said. “Chris took what he did very seriously,” Farrell said. “He contributed to the community process on all issues.” Farrell said he has watched journalists come to and move on from the community over the years, but Collins was here to stay. He was invested. “It was important to him that government do what it was supposed to do,” he said. “And at least he was willing to stand up for what he believed. He took shots at those in government, but he was also willing to take shots from others. He would get pretty beat up in letters to the editor in the local newspaper. He knew his power, but he also knew his responsibilities.”

This weekend, Farrell will coach at the Annual David M. Petrin Alumni Game featuring Greenfield High School and Green Wave Alumni at Collins-Moylan Skating Arena. He said he and Collins started coaching each year when they stopped playing. “He called me from the hospital and apologized that he wouldn’t be able to do it this year,” Farrell said. “I told him he could do it next year. We will definitely remember him Saturday night.”

He was smart and he was fair,” Maloney said. “He viewed politics as a spectator sport, as fun, but he also took it very seriously. He was precise in his writing and knew the background of the local politics he was covering.” Maloney, who said he didn’t have a problem with Collins’ coverage of him because he had “journalistic integrity,” and being a native of Franklin County loved his community. “He could have gone to a bigger market and done well, but he wanted to stay here where he was invested,” he said. “He cared. He loved it here, made his home here with Barb.”

Maloney said when people criticized him for what he wrote or broadcasted, he didn’t take it personally. Like Collins, people were entitled to their own opinions. He gave everyone the benefit of the doubt and approached everything with “good intentions.” “He knew so many people as individuals and knew how to interview each one in a way that would make them feel better and get the most out of the interview,” he said.

Rep. Natalie Blais said she talked to Collins the night before his surgery last week. “What struck me the most that night was how much he was blown away by the outpouring and support and well-wishes he received from his community through this whole ordeal,” she said. “He cared so deeply for his community, and he found out how much they cared for him. There was so much respect for him.”

Blais said she appreciated the depth of his knowledge of the region, down to the smallest detail. “At the same time, you got the bigger picture from him,” she said. “He understood the intricacies of our community. He was really something special. He tapped into the lifeblood of politics in this area. He was plugged into the happenings in Franklin County. He was able to ask pointed questions, because he cared so much and knew so much about the community.” Blais said Collins always wanted what was best for Franklin County.

Guin, Tirrell and Campbell all agreed that some people had a love-hate relationship with Collins. They didn’t necessarily like what he was saying about them, and a lot of times they’d get angry, but they knew he did his homework and research before he spoke and was accurate and fair and they respected him, so most never held it against him.

Blagg said that’s what he admired most about Collins. “I didn’t always agree with him, but he was accurate, fair and always met deadline,” Blagg said. “An editor couldn’t ask for more from a journalist or columnist.” Blagg said Collins loved reporting politics. “Not everyone cares as much as he did,” he said. “He definitely had a following. He did some good coverage. When he decided he wanted to stop reporting for us and just stay with the column and go back into broadcasting, I wasn’t surprised. That’s where he seemed happiest, and he definitely liked being his own boss.”

Blagg said sometimes he’d have to do “damage control” with one of his columns because some people were furious and would call in about it. “He ticked people off, but that’s what he was supposed to do,” he said. “He was certainly a valuable part of the newspaper. He satisfied political junkies each week and entertained the rest of us.”

Beloved local celebrity
“Chris was a Greenfield celebrity,” Guin said. “I’m not sure there will ever be someone like him again.”

In recent years, he became the voice of the Town of Montague after being elected its moderator. He was planning to serve another term. Time and again, people who worked with Collins over the years said he had a lot of “integrity” and the trust of all of Franklin County and beyond. He loved having his finger on the pulse of his community, and though he had some serious health problems over the past decade or so, he pushed through them and got right back to work for the community he adored as soon as he recovered, sometimes before.

“He loved covering hockey,” Tirrell said. “He’d do the color commentary with me at basketball games, for instance, but hockey was his sport, and he was the guy to cover the play-by-play at those games. You could just feel his passion as he did the games.” Tirrell, a longtime friend of Collins like Campbell, said he will miss his friend and the rides to cover games and tournaments. “That’s when you really got to know him – and the county,” he said. “We’d talk briefly about the tournament we were about to cover or had just covered, but the majority of a two-and-a-half-hour ride would be spent talking about the county and the people who lived here.” “I just wish he would have lived long enough to have his own podcast,” Tirrell mused. “I would have subscribed and listened to that one.”

Chris loved the newsroom, the radio studio or broadcasting from the sidelines of an exciting high school game. Yet his radio family will most remember how much Chris enjoyed the ocean; walking the beaches of Cape Cod with his “Dood” and his very good boy, Jack.