We are sad to report that WHAS morning legend Wayne Perkey has passed due to COVID complications. Here is the Courier Journal profile on Wayne's incredible life story. Many of Wayne's colleagues joined me today on 840WHAS to reflect on their time working with Louisville's energetic morning man. 🎙️ @840WHAS colleagues reflect on Wayne Perkey's life and legacy. Thank you Ken Schulz, @KimSowinski, Van Vance, Denny Nugent, and Jack Fox. 🙏 LISTEN 📲 https://t.co/o7DyoleR0J #WHAS100 #WHAS100years #WaynePerkey #Louisville #loumedia #localradio pic.twitter.com/DEFsvkwihx — Terry Meiners (@terrymeiners) March 7, 2022 WHAS11 also profiled Perkey's phenomenal broadcast career of radio, television, and philanthropic work. Here is the radio interview I conducted with Wayne just a little more than a month ago. He was delighted to tell me that he
Tag: ron clay
That time I had to lie to the local newspaper guy, except for the “I’m going to make a living off my imagination” part
In 1985, my radio career was soaring. I was co-hosting the hugely successful WQMF-FM morning radio "Show With No Name." My partner Ron Clay was a shrewd, sardonic, soured-on-life hippie guy. He was brilliant and always had something clever to throw out on the air. We could finish each other's sentences with goofy riffs about society, celebrities, and politicians. We did outrageous things. We used sound effects to make it seem as if we were broadcasting from around the world. We lied a lot. We giggled at each other's provocative setups. We were juvenile delinquents trapped in grownup bodies. Rude boys throwing conventional broadcast techniques out the window. Radio stations in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia sent employment inquiries. None of those
There really was a channel that played music videos
When our bosses at WLRS pulled the plug on our morning cable TV show in 1981, Ron Clay and I laughed. "They're replacing us with some new channel called MTV. Who would watch music videos all day?" Apparently, most people wanted to watch music videos and not Ron and me doing our radio show. I have to admit...it kind of stung. David Bowie sings Let's Dance while some goofy people mill around a bar, then they're in the desert seeing a mirage, then a woman is scrubbing the street. Oh, OK. Drugs much? People eventually agreed with me and tired of repetitive music videos featuring bizarre video imagery. MTV started airing schlock TV which thrives even to this day. Just for old
Hedge hogs ready to gut Gannett, newspaper business fiddled while Rome burned
Proofreaders? We don't need no stinkin' proofreaders! Nor do most American newspapers. Two more editors were among the newly RIF'd at The Courier-Journal in Gannett's slash-and-burn strategy. A few weeks ago, a Courier-Journal employee told me that the scant few remaining employees were shuddering at the prospect of a hedge fund takeover of CJ parent company Gannett. Sure enough, Gannett made another massive reduction in force across America this week as if to prepare for its unholy marriage with Alden Capital. Gannett slashed 400 jobs. Other media outlets also sent the Grim Reaper through employee break rooms. Even the snarky HuffPo kids took a hit. The Courier-Journal losses were light this time but it could be just a preview of more consolidation
SWEET SOUNDS: I heard it on the radio
Today is National Radio Day. In my life, it means almost as much as my birthday. I've been lucky enough to earn my living doing what I always wanted to do. From the time I was a little kid I just wanted to be on the radio. My dad laughed at Bill Bailey's jokes. I loved WAKY radio and the lunacy I heard from its deejays. I was hired at WHAS in 1985 for my sarcastic comedy streak, but the job evolved into conducting news making interviews with the powerful and prominent. Sometimes people become more prominent after appearing on my show. After some of my WAKY buddies helped me put together an audition tape in 1976, I was hired by
After 40 years of broadcasting, I’m too lazy to quit now
I was never smart enough to get a real job. Nonetheless, this broadcasting thing seemed to work out. WHAS RADIO CLIPS WHAS ARCHIVED CLIPS FROM THE 80s WHAS-TV GREAT DAY LIVE VIDEO WQMF RADIO CLIPS WITH RON CLAY WLRS RADIO CLIPS WITH RON CLAY WKQQ CLIPS FROM THE 1970s Both of my sons have the media bug. Family tradition. It's all good. WHAS Radio "Ter's Top 73 clips of 1987" Getting paid to play in the snow? Sign me up. In 2016, my media buddies roasted me as a fundraiser for Seven Counties Services. My earliest TV series was the nightly news magazine PM Louisville with the delightful Ange Humphrey.
It’s always nice to see your name in the news, unless it is followed by “was arrested”
My friend Shannon Ragland was doing some research and found the first time my name was published in our hometown newspaper The Courier-Journal. My parents must have been so proud that they forgot to say "I saw your name in the paper, honey!" About a month after the Mick Jagger article ran, I was moved to co-host the morning show with Ron Clay. We titled our show "Morning Sickness" and it became an instant hit. The photo below shows both of us in another high-profile publicity stunt, now working for WQMF under the title "The Show With No Name."
Ron Clay & Tom Clay welcome in 1982
Two American broadcast legends on one video, the father/son tandem of Tom and Ron Clay (Clague). While Tom was visiting for the holidays, Ron had his pop appear with him on our morning cable TV show. It was taped for use a day or two later as fill-in material during the holiday schedule. I was still on Christmas break from the show and Tom filled in as Ron's partner. The local WLRS cable show was usually live on weekday mornings. People watched us do our WLRS radio show and during times music or commercials were on the radio, we could turn to the TV cameras and improvise racier content that was suitable for cable. PHOTOS - Ron Clay and Terry
WAKY/WLRS deejay Lee Masters loves triples: MTV, Vh1, NPR
Former Louisville radio personality and radio programmer Lee Masters, whose real name is Jarl Mohn, has been named as the new president and CEO of NPR. He'd been working closely with Southern California Public Radio where he generated the phrase "No rant, no slant." Masters is also the guy who put Ron Clay and me together for Morning Sickness on WLRS-FM in 1981 and went on to advise us on the direction of the show. National Public Radio has been through several rocky years of turbulent issues related to finances, management, and floundering partner stations. If anyone is capable of growing NPR, it is Lee Masters. In addition to a mastery of radio broadcasting, Lee and his business partner Bob Pittman