It was fun seeing all of my deejay buddies post their photos and career trajectories for #NationalRadioDay last week. Here are a few that I snatched from their social media pages. And then there's the program director's memo that kept 19-year-old me on the part-time payroll. NOTE: he used bad math. I was being paid $40 per MONTH, or $480 per year to do some radio promotion work on the University of Kentucky campus. Had they cut me, I would more than likely have found a different career path. 😢 Happy #NationalRadioDay 🎧 Here's the 1976 @WKQQLexington program director's memo that saved my job and kept me in the business. I had only been working there for two months when Dick Hungate suggested that
Tag: WQMF
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
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
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."
WLKY reports on Louisville Radio Wars (1989)
From 1989: WLKY's Bill Frances profiled Louisville's top 5 radio radio stations: (5) WQMF (4) WLOU (3) WHAS (2) WDJX (1) WAMZ NOTE: the closing piece on #1 WAMZ is flawed
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