I’m 14 years old and it’s Saturday just about noon time and my dad’s car needed washing.
Of course, the reason I wanted to wash the car was because I could turn the car radio on and listen as I was washing the car. It wasn’t the music I wanted to hear. It was Paul Harvey, News and Commentary at noon time. My mind was focusing on being behind the microphone and communicating the day’s events that happened in my life just like Paul Harvey.
Senior year in high school, Speech Class was my favorite class. The assignment was to create a radio commercial and then perform it on a microphone in a closet that the speech teacher had created to emulate a radio broadcast booth. My Paul Harvey influence was in full gear. I created a commercial for my father’s dry-cleaning business. Of course, the copy started with “Page two.” It was to be a 60 second commercial. I nailed it. Perfect timing. Paul Harvey would have been proud. Thank you, Paul Harvey.
After high school and a couple tries at college, I still wanted to be in the broadcast business, I had become a TV director when I discovered that my reading skills were not what the program directors wanted. But after spending two years at the local tv station in Lincoln, Nebraska the radio bug was still in me. There was a chance I could create a radio station with a format that would stimulate the young and growing Christian music enthusiasts of the 1970s. KBHL-FM 95.3 Lincoln, Nebraska went on the air io March 6th, 1975, fulfilling that vision.
For my lunch break, I would go to the parking lot of Toco Bell in Lincoln, Nebraska. I spend a lot of my noon times there. I had learned to love Taco Bell’s tocos and the important thing was I was away from the office. I could be alone in my car and listen to the Paul Harvey’s, News and Commentary on another local radio station.
After finishing my meal of tacos and hearing Paul Harvey’s sign off INSERT “Paul Harvey – good day!” It was time to get back to the office on north 48th street in the old library building that was the broadcast studio for KBHL. I had an appointment to meet with a young enthusiastic guy from the University of Nebraska. He wanted to get into radio. His enthusiasm was so infectious that I hired him. The interview turned out to be very good for both of us.
My influencer was Paul Harvey who had inspired millions of radio listeners. He motivated me to look for and give opportunities to dedicated people.
The interview was with Tracy Johnson who loved radio like I did. He went on to understand the radio audiences in Kansas City, Jacksonville, and San Diego and was named Best Programmer in American by Radio Ink magazine.
Today, Tracy Johnson has inspired hundreds of stations and thousands of personalities in all radio formats worldwide. If it hadn’t been for this teenager being enamored by Paul Harvey, I would have never met a true leader of today’s broadcast industry. Tracy did a great job for KBHL and I’m glad that I was able to give him a step into his broadcast career.
Each month I anticipate a webinar from Tracy Johnson, who continues to inspire radio personalities around the world. I have been in and around this business of broadcasting for over 60 years and I am still learning. Thanks Tracy.
And as Paul Harvey would end his signature afternoon broadcast,
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‘And now you know, the rest of the story.
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