Around midday on March 9, 1977, Maurice Williams, an up-and-coming reporter with WHUR radio, asked to join his boss and a colleague on a business lunch.

Kojo Nnamdi, WHUR news editor at the time, turned down the 24-year-old Howard University graduate. Though his colleagues described him as energetic, observant and a bright shining star, “Junior” simply wasn’t one of the “big boys,” Nnamdi said.