Don’t Touch That Dial - My Life in Radio
At the young age of 10, I remember creating my own radio station in the basement of our home. I was a huge fan of Gary Burbank on WHAS radio in Louisville, KY. Gary was a master of character voices and would feature his characters on his afternoon radio show.
My radio show consisted of me recording comedy bits with character voices on my cassette player and playing music of that period, which I had also recorded on my cassette machine by holding it up to the radio and waiting patiently for a favorite song to be played. I remember quite vividly waiting for "Indiana Wants Me" to come on the air. It was a popular song in 1970 and because I was in Indiana, it seemed like the perfect song.
My love of doing voices carried on into high school where I would perform a comedy act for various talend contests doing voices of famous actors and politicians of the time. Rich Little was an idol of mine in those days. My senior year of high school I decided to drop by our hometown radio station in Corydon, IN - WPDF 1550 am. It was a little 500 watt radio station run by Herb Arms. I told Mr. Arms of my love of radio and I did a few voices for him. He had me fill out a form to apply for a "broadcaster's license". I think it took a couple of weeks to acquire, and as soon as I got it in the mail, he put me to work that weekend. I was in heaven! I was a real live, honest-to-goodness, bonafide DJ!! :)
I have worked in radio as my profession for several years, and then quickly realized that DJs were near the bottom of the pay scale. So, I found other work, but would still dable in radio for the rest of my life. My biggest part-time job that I was fortunate to land came in 1998, when, while working on WAMZ radio in Louisville, as a weekend jock (Cactus Jack), I ran into Terry Meiners in the hallway one day. Terry was the afternoon drive-time jock on WHAS, the #1 radio station in the Louisville market. I had heard that Terry's long-time character voice partner had just quit. As I met Terry in the hall, I said something like "Hey, Terry, you know, I can do the same voices that Randy did, in case you need anything." And, although he was quite congenial, I got the feeling I hadn't made a real impression with that comment.
I told him I would be happy to make a cassette recording of the stuff I do and leave it on his desk sometime soon. He said something like, "Sure, that's fine. You do that."
Well, I did. The next week I got a call from Terry. He said something like, "Let's see what we can do together."
The rest, as they say, is history. lol!
I have now been providing character voices for Terry's show for nearly 25 years. It's just a hobby, really. But it brings me joy, and I hope it provides his audience with a laugh or smile as they listen and make their way through their afternoons. I've always been proud and honored that Terry brought me on board and allowed me to join in the fun on his award-winning afternoon radio program on 84-WHAS.
Terry has always provided the hilarious scripts and put a voice to them. I never had the chance to meet Coach Hall, but I am forever grateful for his good nature in taking the parodies all in stride. Honestly, The Beasman has always been a favorite of not only Terry's audience, but a favorite of mine as well.
Below is a recent article about the relationship between Coach Hall and Terry and how The Beasman became a radio icon.
A clip from our home recording studio of The Beasman.