SALISBURY — The man whose name became synonymous with radio not only in Rowan County but across North Carolina, Tom Harrell, died Tuesday afternoon at the N.C. State Veteran’s Home at the age of 98.

Harrell was the former owner of Salisbury radio stations WSTP and WRDX and the general manager of WSOC TV and radio stations. He was also a World War II veteran and one of the originators of the Veteran’s Coffee Shop, which over time moved from Thelma’s Restaurant to K&W Cafeteria to its current location at Christiana Lutheran Church, where veterans meet to share lunch and connections.

“He was the first chairman, I guess you’d say, of that organization that has now spread across North Carolina with similar coffee groups,” said Ronnie Smith, who counted Harrell among his close friends. “He was a pillar of our community, and he did so much for veteran’s groups. He will be truly missed.”

Smith added that Harrell worked with Wilson Smith and Ralph Ketner when they were getting the original Food Town off the ground, and “my dad worked directly with Tom on the radio on advertising spots. He was very instrumental in helping them get going.”

WBTV reporter David Whisenant said Harrell hired him at WSTP while Whisenant was still in high school in 1977, becoming the biggest influence on Whisenant’s own long career. He worked at the station part time through his Appalachian college years, then full time through 1988. He went back in 1989 and stayed until he joined WBTV in 1992, and even then continued to do freelance work with the station until Harrell sold it in 1995.

“We (Salisbury-Rowan) were not exactly a major radio market, but he insisted that it sound like one,” Whisenant said Wednesday morning. He said Harrell pushed staff to always be professional and “tight on the board and to treat listeners and advertisers with respect.” Harrell was, he said, “ahead of his time” on marketing and reading trends.

“The list of distinguished WSTP alumni shows how his influence paid off,” said Whisenant.

Harrell was consistently active in the community through organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, and he and his wife, Sylvia Wiseman, who was at one time lifestyles editor at the Salisbury Post, donated the former Atlantic Ice and Coal Co. property to Piedmont Players. Harrell was also presented with the Earl Gluck Distinguished Service Award from the N.C. Association of Broadcasters in 1988 and in 2017, he received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

“I will miss his optimism, his insistence that if you are going to do something, you better to it to the highest level you can,” said Whisenant. As a way of showing what he meant, Whisenant said one summer he was working the 7 p.m. to midnight shift, “playing rock and roll on two radio stations,” and one night he forgot to power down the transmitter at the end of his shift. The next day, Harrell was waiting for him and “let me have it.” But Harrell “handled it well and it left and impression that influences how I work today. I think it was a ‘don’t overlook the details’ kind of lesson.”