Interview with Wayne Perkey, February 25, 2012

Jack Fox: Well, it is Feb 25, 2012.

Wayne Perkey: Time flies when you're having fun.

JF: I am and we are going to have some fun. This is Jack Fox, and we are talking to a long-time Louisville radio broadcaster, very successful morning man, at WHAS, Wayne Perkey.

WP: Yes, it's always fun to be with you.

JF: We've had some good times.

WP: Yes we have.

JF: Well, Wayne let's talk about you just a minute. Let's find out, first of all you I just realized that you have lived in Louisville probably over half your life, but you are not from here originally, are you?

WP: That's right! Gosh I have been over here half my life. (laughs)

JF: Exactly. That's what I thought as I was driving in here this morning.

WP: That's funny.

P: So you're from where originally?

WP: I was born in east Tennessee, uh, in Lake City in Clinton and graduated Lake City High school. Went to Carson-Newman College my first year of school, and uh, 1:00there was a note when we came in from supper one night, there was a note on the dormitory bulletin board saying there was going to be tryouts for announcers for the campus radio station. We were uh, I think a ten-watt carrier current. You could get us all the way out to the drive-in movie and almost all the dorms right. (both laugh) And my buddy Joe Pesterfield, who uh was from Chattanooga, then we were we together. Joe, do you remember an actor named Aldo Rey? Big, strappin' big kind of voice like this, you know. He always really played the really tough guy. Joe sounded like a lot like Aldo Rey. He said, "Perk let's go over and try out." I said, "Are you kidding, with our accents? Well they took me, and they didn't take Joe.

JF: Oh my Gosh.

WP: And it was really fun, and had a great time you know.

JF: Yeah. had you ever thought about anything like that performing as a kid, did you pick up all these radio stations from around the country and thought I'd like to do that someday?

WP: No, I was always a radio fan, but no. Thought I was going go I thought I was going to become a lawyer.

JF: Really? My uncle was a Judge Advocate traveled the world. I thought what an exciting life he had life, ya know. Uh, and I mean they lived all over the world. So I was a prelaw, and somewhere along the line realized that who---I don't know who I talked to---- but a good friend who was a librarian there, Karsh Newman, who reminding me that lawyers spend a lot of time alone in stacks digging out information, writing briefs, doing all these things.

JF: That wasn't you?

WP: It wasn't me. I was involved meanwhile in the radio station uh, also was writing for the yearbook and doing some other things the newspaper at school, and uh I loved it, but I ran out of money. So I went home, got a job working 3:00relief on a sanitation truck ---- it was really funny----we pulled up to my my uncle's house and---

JF: ---this is the Judge Advocate?

WP: No, this is a different uncle, and his son Devin came out and said, "Wayne, did you go-to college to learn how to be a garbage man?" (laughs) Cashed my check, bought a bus ticket to Chicago, and uh went off to Chicago. There were about a hundred guys there from my neighborhood in Lafollette, Lake City, Clinton, Oak Ridge, Knoxville that I knew who were working in Hammond, east Chicago and Jolliet, all those areas. So I went and worked for a railroad. This is much more than you want to know.

JF: No. Finding out here?

WP: Anyway, uh, we hit the slowdown, and I got laid out, so I cashed my check, and took my money and went back home and went to school. Uh, there I got a call one night from a fellow who was working for a radio station in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. And this station had been purchased and was being moved to Knoxville, 4:00so he said, "Would you like I know you've got some radio, would you like to come be the relief guy?" So I signed off the radio station and got keys for all my buddies and having killed the radio station.

JF: Well, now, at this point you are working college radio station. Were you considering a career in broadcasting, yet, at this time? Did this job just come along and thought you know.

WP: No, radio was just fun, ya know, and I grew up a good, solid, southern Baptist boy, ya know, fun was fun, and work was work. It was work.

JF: You didn't mix the two.

WP: Work was work and fun was fun.

JF: I like to say you got over that.

WP: (laughs) I crossed that bridge (laughs). Uh, so I closed that radio of station and went off to University of Tennessee. And uh, I found a job in Lafollette, Tennessee, a 250-watt radio station, WLAF, working forty-eight hours a week on the air. Boy, you talk about, yeah.

JF: What were you doing?

WP: Four to midnight --- disc jockeying.

JF: So disc jockeying --- playing music and things like that.

WP: Uh, and was a great learning experience for me, but it was a fifty miles round trip, you know, every day. I was driving a hundred miles a day. So I got my pay check at Christmas after four months of this intense indoctrination, and moved to Knoxville to go to school. Found a buddy---

JF: ---you were going to go-to U.T.

WP: I was at U. T., and uh a buddy in a chemistry class told me about an opening at a radio station, WBIR, weekends. I thought, perfect. So, I applied and got a job and was there for a while.

JF: What did you do there then? Disc Jockey?

WP: Disc Jockey. Worked weekends. Uh, went to another radio station, wound up WATE which was a really really good radio station.

JF: Yes. And had the opportunity there to also to work in television. So I had I had an opportunity to do that, and uh I went to uh WHAS television WATE Television news for a year. And uh---

JF: ---as a reporter or anchor or reporter?

WP: I was a reporter. I did a little anchoring, but not much.

JF: Were you doing radio duties at this time, too, or just television?

WP: By that time I did a full year; I did a full year in television news, which was a great learning experience for me. I was able to do a lot of things that were creative and inventive that nobody has ever done before. That's where I was when Kennedy was shot. I remember vividly.

JF: Yeah. Quite a moment.

WP: Yeah. Um, and after three years, uh went to work for WN0X radio -- great rock and roll radio station, and it was, I mean we were a great rock and roll radio.

JF: There's your fun kicking back in, isn't it?

WP: Yes, I am still trying to figure out what I'm going to be when I grow up. It was really funny. I would register for school -- my classes, and I'd get half 7:00way through and realize I was so far behind I didn't have a prayer. You know I'd drop out, right and come back the next quarter and register again, but because I thought I was a part time guy. And you know, but I kept working forty-eight hours a week and no time to study. And so eventually I decided this is really silly, and besides I was having such a good time, driving my Austin Healy, wearing my Beatle boots, long duck tail sweeping back, emceeing all those rock and roll shows, you know.

JF: It was really fun.

WP: And I got a call from a guy who had been a newsman with us who had moved, Roger Barre, been and wound up at CNN, and had a really good job there but had gone down to Mobile, Alabama, WALA TV was the television station that had been crippled by a strike, and uh, had been purchased by the WDSU folks out of New Orleans, great great operators. Uh, they had moved into a theater building downtown by the water front on Government Street, and uh, I thought I'll go off and grow up and be a television person. So, uh, it was a great place to work, 8:00Jack, because they were really essentially recreating the station, and I could do anything I wanted to do if I could convince the management that it was a good idea. So I was their television weather man. Uh I was host for the Mardi Gras parades. And as a matter of fact the first assignment I that I got when I got there, they uh the program director, a great fellow named Claude Evans, good teacher, gentle man, handed me a book and said, "Okay, you are the host-producer for our Mardi Gras coverage. Three weeks' worth of parades and balls and all that stuff.

JF: Wow.

WP: Talking about over your head. (laughs) So, uh, it was great fun. I had a great time doing that. It was a great learning experience, but we were a little too far from home. So those week end trips home to grandparents, so after three years I saw a-- it was a trade publication, uh, our chief engineer brought me, and Grady said, "Wayne, you ought to read this." This is about WHAS television.

JF: This is while you were in Mobile?

WP: Un huh, and we had I had applied to WHAS and WAVE. WSM in a, not WUSM, but W Memphis.

JF: Memphis. WSM, no, yes. That's the number one channel.

WP: It was a Chris Tower station. I had worked for a uh I had worked for a Chris Tower station in Knoxville, so any rate, it was an interview in this technical journal with Sam Gifford about the WHAS Crusade for Children. And I said that's where I want to work. So, I wrote Sam a letter, and said listen, I'm really wonderful, and if you need somebody please call me.

JF: Sure, you'd had all that experience.

WP: Right. Meantime Bob Morris is our news director, and Bob, I almost didn't 10:00get the WHAS.

JF: Bob was in Mobile?

WP: Bob was the News Director in Mobile. I was the weather guy. (coughs) Uh, the Binghams had were undergoing some transformation with the television stations, (coughs) and uh ---give me a minute---Dot Ridings and Don Ridings and Bob had known each other in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Bob was the state reporter for WSSC television. Don Ridings was working for the Charlotte Observer, and then then they became very good friends and commuted back and forth together. So Bob comes to WALA TV as the News Director, and Don Ridings and Dot moved to Louisville where he becomes, as far as I know, the first environmental reporter for the Courier Journal.

JF: Right.

WP: So, uh, one-day Don called Bob and says, "Listen, they're redoing WHAS, top 11:00to bottom, and they are restructuring the management and you need to apply for this job. You're going to love these people." So Bob applies for the news director job and by gosh gets it. Well, my wife was really upset, because, well, you think -- that's we want to be!

JF: Right, yeah. One day they were in the process of moving from the sixth and seventh floors of the Courier Journal building down to the new building,

JF: Yes, at Chestnut Street.

WP: At Chestnut, right, and everything is in a state of flux, and things are locked and things moved over, and Hugh Barr, who is the new Radio Program Director, walks down the hall to the other corner to Bob's office, and said, "You know, I got an application and air check from a guy, and I think you worked with in Mobile, Alabama, and I cannot find it anywhere." Bob called and said, "Perky you better call." So, I called Hugh, and I said, "Listen, I can come to Louisville in August." and I did. And.

JF: That's how that got started.

WP: I almost got lost in the shuffle.

JF: Well, now your original application from that magazine ad was that for uh, for Sam Gifford in television?

WP: Yes, and he passed it on.

JF: Oh, that's how you wind up in Hugh Barr's hand?

WP: Yes!

JF: I see. Wow.

WP: Yes.

JF: Wow, so that was, uh what year was that, Wayne, when you came?

WP: Un, 1969.

JF: In1969, and it was undergoing and Hugh Barr was a big mover behind it. Talk about WHAS radio was doing at that time, pre you and pre Hugh Barr and what what Hugh had in mind. You were a big part of the that. You were kind of the key player in that. He was looking for somebody to start that chain of events, I believe.

WP: That's sort of the way it happened.

JF: First of all what was WHAS way of doing when you got there?

WP: We were sort of middle of the road, nondescript, hard to put your finger on. The guys that who were doing it ware really good at what they did, but they were about ten years past.

JF: And no constant theme all through the day I don't think, was there?

WP: There was none. It was kind of blocked.

JF: So in the mornings what did they do in the mornings?

WP: Uh, Jim Walton, was uh playing a little music and news, and Paul Clark was 13:00the voice of God and the news man in the mornings. At that point people typically listen to WHAS in the morning at 7:00 for Paul Clark's news, and noon to see what was going on.

JF: And the Farm Report.

WP: Yes.

JF: In the Courier Journal?

WP: Yes, 5:00 block of news and Milton, Milton Metz did the stock report there.

JF: Five in the afternoon.

WP: Caywood Ledford did a ten minute sports cast that just sang. And then they listened for a UK basketball and sometimes football.

JF: So the radio station itself was not necessarily a prime mover in the market at that time, uh WAVE Radio, WAKY radio, WAKY was WAKY going then?

WP: Yep, this was a great radio town. WAKY and KLO fighting each other even for a---

JF: Radio came through there.

WP: Yes sir. It was a, yeah, and people broke records here. It was a really important radio town.

JF: Yeah.

WP: There was a guy named Bucks Brahn, who was a Kentucky programmer for WINN 14:00Radio which was a nationally, prominent, country music station. There was a fellow named Jim Lucas, who had grown up here and had gone off to New York and was the opening act for the Tonight Show, uh who decided he did not like living in New York or whatever, and he came back, and he was doing nine to noon on WAVE radio. And then he doing some televisions things for them; so he was uh like me, a hybrid. He got to do both of those. But, WHAS-it was was important. I'll tell you a story. When I came to interview, uh, and Bob Morris walked me from Sixth and Chestnut down to Sixth and Broadway to go through my test. Did you have to go through those tests?

JF: Oh yes, yeah yes.

WP: He wanted to know if you could be a type setter.

JF: Yes yes yes yes.

WP: Thanks

JF: Because WHAS was owned by the Binghams and then the Courier Journal and Royal Standard Gravure and radio and television.

WP: So who walked you from one end to the other with past the Standard Gravure in the middle. Bob said to me, "That's where they print the money in the basement."

JF: (laughs)

WP: Some guy who worked for the Courier for Standard Gravure had created that offset said that Standard Gravure process, and they were printing Sunday supplements for 120 newspapers.

JF: Yeah.

WP: You remember on Thursday and Friday afternoons those big semis, yeah, would back up and load 'em and send them all over America.

JF: That was all Bingham Corporation?

WP: Yeah. Uh, so it wasn't important that the radio - broadcast properties make money. So we had a classical music radio station, that was----

JF: Jack Reynolds.

WP: Yeah, and all the sales guys were on commission. They----I mean not on commission; I mean on salary, so they did so they didn't have to really hustle because they were getting paid. It wasn't important that the broadcast properties make any money. One day, Cy McKinnon, who was the business manager for the Bingham enterprises walked into Barry Sr. and Jr., and said, "You know, there's a great movement in America;" this is a really ironic story. "There's a great movement in Congress right now concerned about dissemination of information, and too much being concentrated in the hands of one entity. For 16:00example, Mr. Bingham, you own newspapers, two of them, you have three broadcast properties, and it may be deemed that that's not a good idea. And you may have to sell those broadcast properties, and if you do, you are going to take a bath because they are not profitable. And that's when all the---

JF: Ah, that was the catalyst for---

WP: ---that started everything around.

JF: How long had Hugh Barr been there when when that whole---

WP: Less than a year I think when I came.

JF: Was he called in for that purpose?

WP: Yes.

JF: Okay, that's fine.

WP: They restructured everything. Vick Sholus was the General Manager. Hugh was moved to side, and they began to look for his replacement.

JF: Uh, who who replaced him. Do you recall?

WP: Yes, eventually Ed Shatburn came over uh, by uh from Channel 32.

JF: Yeah.

WP: Uh, the News Director the new News Director was Bob Morris. The new television Program Director was Dick Sweeney, who was moved up to succeed Sam 17:00Gifford, who moved over to become the General Manger of the new uh production company called Graphic Eleven, and Hugh was brought in from St. Louis, from Salt Lake City, to be the new Radio Program Director.

JF: That was all coming together then.

WP: Yeah.

JF: When you showed up there.

WP: Now what was interesting about that was uh the Binghams were pretty smart. And uh, Morris and I had been good friends. So when I came here without my wife and family, uh I spent the first couple of months living in his basement. Uh, and he had a room down there that they had built for his mother who came occasionally at their house, and I stayed with him. And uh, he told me the story that they had they decided to let ---am I going too long?

JF: No, you're fine. We have plenty of space.

WP: (coughs)

JF: I'm just checking the levels.

WP: They decided that they would let the new Assistant Station Manager, like Barr and Morris and Sweeney interview the prospective General Manager. So these guys were coming in from across the country, there were five of them, and each of these department heads would take the new prospective new general managers out to dinner. And they'd interview them, right, and what was funny about it is they didn't hire any of those guys. They brought in Shadburn over from Channel 32.

(both laugh)

JF: That's wild.

WP: That's funny.

JF: It is.

WP: So, uh. So there was the legend, you know---

JF: Uh hum.

WP: On in the morning. Jim Walton had been doing mornings forever. Walton calling in all this stuff. Those guys were so good. Um, Van Vance was---there was a staff of guys there who had been there forever. Paul Clark was our senior announcer. And what a gentle guy he was. What a wonderful man he was. Uh, Paul had been there for a very long time. But there was Bill Britton, and Milton Metz, and uh Tom---

JF: Tom Brooks.

WP: Brooks, thank you, and Ray Shelton and Bill Britton. Uh, and then Van Vance had been there ten years, and he was the next he was the youngest guy on the staff.

JF: So you're the next---new kid coming in then?

WP: After Jerry David Malloy.

JF: Oh oh.

WP: Jerry had been there three years

JF: Okay.

WP: And then me.

JF: Okay okay. What was Jerry doing? Jerry was just like doing the general program?

WP: He was the announcer, yeah, he did a show from nine to noon. By that time Hugh had restructured things a little bit. Van Vance was doing in the afternoon show from three to seven, and uh, Jerry David was on from nine to noon. Jim Walton opened up the morning. I don't remember who was in the middle of the day. It might have been--- I'm not sure. But it was decided that Jim would become--- he had been the host and MC for Crusade for Children all those years. And uh seventeen, I guess. So he would become the new uh Executive Director of the Crusade for Children. And Jerry David became the morning guy, and I did noon to three.

JF: Oh, really?

WP: Yeah, for about three months. Which was a gift to me.

JF: Sure.

WP: Because I didn't have to be the----you remember that Joe B. Hall used to say---

JF: No pressure on you, then.

WP: Joe B. Hall used to say or maybe Caywood said about Joe B.---I don't want to be the guy who replaces, uh, yeah---

JF: Uh, yeah.

WP: I don't want to be the guy who replaces the guy

JF: Adolph Rupp.

JF: who replaces Adolph Rupp, right?

WP: (laughs) So, uh, I had the buck from the middle. And you know I was a fast- talking, high energy, kind of morning guy, and there were a lot of phone calls saying send that guy back to WAKY radio.

JF: (Laughs) Is that right?

WP: Yeah. Uh, I was asking the engineers to do things that we used to do in rock n' roll radio that they just didn't do.

JF: So you asked engineers would they running your equipment at that time?

WP: Yes.

JF: So where was your studio at that time?

WP: In the middle of the building.

JF: That was the one in the middle there, and so they sat on one side of the controls you sat on the other side of the glass.

WP: With a desk, a microphone, a cough switch, you know (??)

JF: Yeah yeah.

WP: Just enough to--- they controlled the microphone. I could turn it off for 21:00long to take a breath.

JF: So you had to have some cooperation from them to get to get all set up?

WP: Absolutely. And my headset, uh, and a pencil and a telephone.

JF: (laughs).

WP: They were in charge. (laughs)

JF: Do you remember who some of the engineers who who was the engineer on your show? Do you remember?

WP: Oh, Paul Diarmon,

JF: Oh yeah, Harold Diarmon.

WP: Harold Diarmon. Uh, Butch Toon.

JF: Yeah, I remember.

WP: Yeah. Two really good guys.

JF: Yeah.

WP: Butch was particularly into what we were doing. He was a fun fun guy.

JF: So they were cooperative with you? They weren't putting up road blocks all along. They came around is what you're saying.

WP: Yes, right (laughs).

JF: How long before you began to run your own equipment?

WP: Well, it was pretty interesting. Uh, I was, uh, essentially, Hugh and I agreed that I would come to work in August, and I didn't get here until November 10th, because they were building a studio that we could operate ourselves, but they had to go through contracting negotiations with the engineers to get the permission to let us show----

JF: That's right; there's the engineers' union; that was in their contract to run that equipment. You were not allowed to run the equipment, were you?

WP: That's exactly right.

JF: Even production things.

WP: That's right.

JF: You would come in and voice it, and they would put everything together.

WP: Um-hm. So, it took until March for that to happen, and uh, so I became the morning guy in March of 1970.

JF: How 'bout that.

WP: Yeah,

JF: Wow. And that was kind of the start--you know when I came to town in 1973 you guys had things going pretty good, but I I think I remember they used to talk about WHAS was referred around town as the sleeping giant at this 50000-watt station, and if they ever woke up---

WP: Yeah.

JF: ---and you guys were in the process of waking them up.

WP: We were trying.

JF: To become the cuddly giant.

WP: That's exactly right. I was talking-- I was out three four nights a week on weekends. I figured if I could meet an audience of twenty-five people, and get 23:00three of them to turn me on tomorrow morning, and they liked what they heard, I had three more listeners.

JF: Let's talk about that just a minute, because, that, to me, was the key ingredients of your success. Was that something. So you had talked that out. Was that kind of one of your philosophies of a, or was that ---

WP: One of those things that evolved. Yeah. Everything just kind of evolved. I remember vividly the day Hugh called me into his office. Now, we didn't subscribe to the ratings systems because we were above that.

JF: Sure.

WP: But, there was always a salesman with a buddy, and an agency somewhere who did subscribe who could get us a pirated copy.

JF: Now, talk about the rating systems. What was the rating system? What was that?

WP: Oh, that's uh ARB and uh,

JF: To be used for what purpose?

WP: To determine the size of your audience.

JF: And the sales guys---

WP: And the demographics of those audiences.

JF: But, but, WHAS didn't do that because---

WP: Oh,

JF: They weren't interested in making money.

WP: We were above all that.

JF: That's what you mean about above that.

WP: (laughs) That's right. (laughs) So, I remember vividly the day that Hugh, I walked into his office for our semi-annual look at the ratings, and uh, I sat down across his desk from him---

JF: This is in 1970, again, or---

WP: It's probably about the time you got there, 1973---

JF: Oh, really?

WP: ---and I sat down across from him, and he opened up the book, and he said, "Come over here and look let me show you these numbers." And I said, "Hugh, you've never let me these numbers before." (laughs) And he (laughs) laughs and leaned back and said, "If I had it would have broken your heart." (both laugh)

JF: Let me go back a second. Tell me a little bit about Hugh Barr, because he was kind of the uh, the genius behind carving out what became the cuddly giant. Wasn't he?

WP: Yeah, there was an afternoon guy who came in after me named Jeff Douglas---

JF: Yeah.

WP: Do you remember Jeffey?

JF: Oh, yeah.

WP: Uh, he nicknamed us the cuddly giant.

JF: Okay.

WP: Jeffrey was our promotion guy---

JF: I mean as far as program is concerned, getting the elements---

WP: ---yeah,

JF: And the news department and having sports departments, that was kind of Hugh's architecture, wasn't it?

WP: It truly was.

JF: What kind of guy was he? What was he like?

WP: He was one of the easiest guys to work for I've ever met. Uh, he was uh, I wouldn't say demanding, but encouraging. Uh, his memos were a little flowery, for those who didn't like change, often invoked some ridicule, some teasing about Hugh and his language, but he was a bright, positive, upbeat guy who really believed that we could be really really good---yeah.

JF: I always had the impression that he always knew where we were going. He wasn't just managing. He always knew what the next step was going to be and the step after that and where it was going.

WP: I think he was a terrific architect.

JF: Yeah.

WP: I believe you are right about that. I think he had the vision, and we were just in the trenches trying to slog through the mud.

JF: He was directing it all.

WP: Yeah.

JF: So, you looked at the ratings. What were they like? Were they positive?

WP: Well, they were, you know, up to then, it has been up a little here up a little there, and lost a little here, and lost a little that, you know. Hugh was an interesting guy. I will tell you what kind of guy he was. I am one of those people who is probably terribly difficult to manage. Uh, I would go into his office, and we would play an air check, a tape of my show. And he would point out something to me that I had done, and would suggest to me a different way, and I would need to explain it to him, why I had done, and what I had done, and, you know, and then if he didn't get it after the third time I said okay. (both laugh).

JF: We had the patience to let them process that.

WP: He did. He was very patient with me.

JF: Very interesting.

WP: Yeah. I was, uh, I loved the radio station--he was, I remember at the first summer I was there in August of 1970, his wife, Maureen and I, went out to the Fair Grounds for the Kentucky State Fair, and we set up our booth. We were buried in the bowels of the East Wing. We had nothing but a desk and a curtain backdrop. She and I were there. Uh, and we are giving away a big, giant screen color tv. Sweaty, hot.

JF: Not air conditioned?

WP: Oh, not air conditioned.

JF: And what you had was a saw dust floor, or something, too, wasn't it, too?

WP: No, in the least.

JF: You hoped it was saw dust. (both laugh)

WP: Mostly in the East Wing it was all displays and things, so it was concrete, you know. It was as cement floor, but we're there and sweating and the State Fair sort of became a part of us, you know. So the next year he managed to negotiate and get us moved in closer to the door so we got some air conditioning coming out of the rear, and it was a little cooler.

JF: Yeah.

WP: Bout the third year we were out there I got a visit from a guy from Henry County. The Henry County JC -ettes had always had sponsored the Miss Henry County Fair Pageant. And they held it---planned to hold it in the Horse Shoe Ring at the State Fair, at the County Fair. And I got a call one day from a lady, 1970 I guess, uh, saying would you come up and be our MC? So, I went up to 28:00MC the Miss Henry County Fair Pageant, and uh, it looked like it was going to rain, so we moved the pageant to the high school auditorium. Uh, there was a Presbyterian minister there, Steve, gosh, that's the last name's gone. He became a good friend. I introduced him, and he did the Invocation, and Jack, just as he said, "Amen," there was this enormous crack of thunder---

JF: (laughs)

WP: And the lightning and the lights all went out, for about twenty minutes. I teased him hard about it.

JF: (laughs)

WP: The next year we were on the pageant, and it was a lovely evening. And then the next summer I got a call from Betty, again, said would you come up and MC it, so I went up, and we started to hold it in the outdoor arena, but it looked threatening, so moved again to the high school auditorium. And had a great evening; it was terrific. Uh, the first year it rained so hard that they had to lead me out the back roads because the roads were all flooded---it was a 29:00terribly hard rain. So later that summer I'm working the fair booth at Kentucky State Fair, and a fellow comes up and says, "Hey, Wayne, howya doin'." "Doing fine; how about you?" "Okay, when are you coming back up to Henry County?" And I said, "I'm not sure. Why do you ask?" "Well, it's getting mighty dry."

JF: (laughs)

WP: Yeah.

JF: We need rain.

WP: As you know people become your best friends.

JF: That's right.

WP: You know.

JF: Well, that was part of the that was part of your community involvement. You went out and you did that, and you were sincere about that. You enjoyed people.

WP: Yep

JF: And that was part of it, so.

WP: It was fun.

JF: So you did a lot of those kinds of things, didn't you, emceeing pageants, speaking at different civic organizations and things like that.

WP: Yeah, gosh, I have no idea how many.

JF: Oh.

WP: Three four (??). Yeah, did, uh, I got a call---I learned some important lessons. I got a call one day from the fellow who owned the Coca-Cola Bottling Company---happened to be an angel for the Kentucky Junior Miss Pageant. They 30:00held it at the auditorium at Spalding. He said, "We need an MC, would you come visit me? I want to meet you." I went to see him, and he wanted to check me out, make sure I was an okay guy. Uh, it turned out they were looking for an MC because the fellow who had been traditionally their MC for years, another television personality in the market uh, had been handed the envelops at the end of the pageant when it's time to announce the winners at the year before, and somehow the information got all confused. Now, you'll appreciate that. Being there on the stage live in front of all those peoples, all those mommies and daddies, you know. There's only one family that's going to come out really happy after that evening. And all the others are not going to be really happy, and you're the MC. Somehow the information got confused--it got all messed up, and he said, "I'm not doing this anymore." So, the lesson I learned was you've got 31:00to be able to go with the flow, ya know? In that situation, like doing a morning show or anything else, you have to be prepared for things to not turn out right. And the question is what do you do when it doesn't work?

JF: Interesting.

WP: Yeah, what do you do when the hard part comes, you know?

JF: Was there anything you can do to prepare for that? Or a---

WP: I think you just have to be prepared. For example, I'm emceeing uh, we're at the auditorium, and I am emceeing the finals of Saturday night--the finals are preforming for the Kentucky Junior Miss Pageant. It is about the third or fourth year I've done it. And uh, I introduced the performer. She's on stage and doing her number-her act. And I'm over on the side with Jim Smith, the producer, and we are talking about what's going to happen between her and the next girl, and how I'm going to fill how much time do I need to fill, what do I need to do to get her off and them on, when the music stopped. I thought, "Holy Smoke." And I 32:00dashed on stage only to realize that she was doing a two-part performance, right? And I'm now I'm in the middle of the stage. (both laugh) I said, "Look we're all friends here, right? We're all just going to pretend that this never happened" (both laugh). And I snuck off the stage. (both laugh)

JF: And were invited back next year.

WP: And I was. (both laugh)

JF: That's brave. (both laugh) That's going with flow, that's for sure.

WP: You're right. You know it took us awhile to get going.

JF: To find all the right elements and everything.

WP: Yes, I think. Uh.

JF: Let's talk about that for a second.

WP: Who did you replace when you came in.

JF: Uh, I think it was a fellow Dave McCree, I believe that I replaced.

WP: He had been our first all-night guy.

JF: Yeah, then I think they moved him to mid-days. I'm not sure that was a---

WP: Yes.

JF: ---he was happy about that. I'm not sure, but anyway---

WP: And he wound up going off the Little Rock, I believe.

JF: Yeah yeah, okay, yeah. Uh, but so I came in 1973. You guys had wound it up before that. It was really starting to get into gear about that time. So, you were on mornings.

WP: I tell you what nailed us. What happened to us was April third.

JF: Oh, the tornado, yeah.

WP: Yeah.

JF: Nineteen seventy-four, yeah.

WP: That's right.

JF: Talk about that.

WP: When that happened I think we became the go-to radio station. Uh, because it became our---

JF: Let's remember that phrase. I want to go back to it. Go ahead, go ahead. The tornado I want to talk about go-to in just a minute. Let's talk some more about the tornado, and your experience with that.

WP: I think that, uh, wow---

JF: That was a that was a major major thing.

WP: Yeah.

JF: I remember that uh, of course, Dick Gilbert---

WP: Following it.

JF: But you had to come in the next morning---

WP: Right

JF: ---and kind of encap everything. You spent the night at the radio station, I'm sure, didn't you?

WP: No, actually, I didn't. I listened to Dick on the air with Jeffey---

JF: But you had to come in the next---

WP: ---in my basement. Yeah, but I had to come in the next morning---

JF: ---to tie it all back together.

WP: Yeah. To get the thing going. Um---

JF: That can be a strange---

WP: A lot of that was just a blur. I mean it was just like full-time wall to wall all we did was talk what was going on and how we were going to solve this problem, and what we were going to do with it, you know. Uh, Gilbert was amazing. I remember vividly I think it was Chuck Paddock was on the air with the meteorologist and the Standifer Field and the weather station when he said, "Opt, there it is! I'm gone," and dove under his desk, ya know. Gilbert dropped down and followed it all across the county. He wound up getting a Presidential Citation from President Nixon.

JF: I remember. I was on the air until 3:30---

WP: Okay.

JF: And that's just before it hit. But, we'd had uh warnings every five minutes. Of course it hit Breckinridge County and uh Brandenburg, and all that, and you still don't think it's going to hit you, ya know.

WP: Yeah.

JF: But, I uh then Jeff came on after me, and he and Dick were just great. I remember Dick saying, uh, "Yeah, they are talking about a tornado--oops, there it is," and he spotted it over Freedom Hall.

WP: Yeah. And there goes the horse barns.

JF: (laughs) I remember him saying to, uh oh, it flew over Cherokee Park. And he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, Cherokee Park is no more." And I remember saying, "Dick, don't be so dramatic here." (both laugh) He was right.

WP: Yeah.

JF: He had a different than I did. Yeah, that was a very strange time. Yeah.

WP: Isn't remarkable that it's thirty (both laugh) real emotional about it. (both Laugh) Yeah.

JF: But you know, you're right. That was the mark when it really kind of became the cuddly giant.

WP: Yeah, it did.

JF: Came the go-to--let's talk about the go-to, I want to talk about that, again, for a minute. Because, uh, you were a big part of that because whenever there was a major event in town, or out of town, Final Four, the station was there, and you all you did your shows from there--it was the--if you wanted to find information that's where you went. That was always my impression.

WP: Yeah.

JF: Not only information but entertainment and just being in the thick of things.

WP: We intended to--

JF: How did that happen. Was that did it evolve again, or was that something that ---

WP: No, it was ____________ (??)

WP: Yes, absolutely. We looked for opportunities. How can we be the go-to radio station.

JF: Yeah.

WP: And I think that, uh, I think that maybe we just had---and we were young enough and brash enough to be able to pull it. Uh, I ran into Julian Carroll about three or four years ago, and I told him that he was the last governor I could call at seven o'clock in the morning who would answer his own phone.

JF: (laughs) And you did that?

WP: Yes, we were able to do that, and they would take our phone calls, and frequently would answer questions, you know.

JF: How did that happen. I mean, you you were you were on the did that come from your community involvement and being involved with things or and and, I guess by that point the reputation of the radio station, but you had that ability--- there was some major event happening or decision being made you're on the phone with the mayor or the governor, and you're on a first name basis with these people. Uh, how did all that happen?

WP: Well, I called them Mister. (both laugh)

JF: Thought about a nick-name Sir. (both laugh)

WP: Thank you and please. (both laugh)

JF: Right.

WP: Well it was a conscious effort, though, to be the go-to radio station. These was a question---let's get an answer.

JF: Yeah.

WP: You know? Uh, we had Glen Baston, who was hustling really hard back in the news room, and then Bryan Rublin joined him, and they built a solid news organization.

JF: Boy, they did. Who were some of the people who went through there?

WP: Chuck Paddock, and uh, and Byron Crawford, you know, uh,

JF: Dan Burgess---

WP: Mike Edgerly, who's now running public radio up in Minnesota.

JF: Oh, is that right?

WP: Yeah. Uh,

JF: Remember Dan Burgess, uh, they had a little and and they also brought in some outstanding, uh,

WP: Women.

JF: Female broadcasters, Mary Jeffries, Mary McCarthy uh, many many others---

WP: Who won wonderful awards.

JF: Uh huh.

WP: Bryan Rublin was great teacher, I think. Uh, he could find talent---he and and Hugh had that in common. They could find good talent and really groom them.

JF: He was News Director there.

WP: Yes. And won tons of awards. We were a highly respected news organization.

JF: Glen was the first news director in that genre, I mean not the first news director, but that kind of team that Hugh was putting there to carve out a news department.

WP: Right.

JF: That was my impression, anyways---is that correct?

WP: He he came in, uh, just before me, I think. He was the radio news reporter in the morning, or news director. He fed Paul Clark.

JF: I see, yeah.

WP: And then they hired another one and another one, but until then, the radio television news everybody was one.

JF: One, right.

WP: Right. All the announcers worked for radio and TV. All the news guys worked for radio and TV. So that it was a great pleasure the morning after the election to have Bob Johnson, who knew everybody and knew everything, come into and sit down with me and just talk about the election. That's now something that had been done. We became more free-form, I think, Jack, although we thought we worked by a pretty rigid formula. Here's the deal. We had a very rigid format. 39:00But, we could throw it out the window---

JF: Yeah.

WP: ----if something if there was an opportunity to seize upon.

JF: You were talk radio before it was talk radio which you talked when you had something to say.

WP: Yes.

JF: Otherwise you (laughs)

WP: We played a little music---

JF: And that expanded more, though--it become more and more. It became more important as a center of activity and information that talk of the Morning Show, especially, became even more important.

WP: One of the things that was important about Louisville is that FM radio was slow to penetrate. There were great radio stations here, and so FM was slow to be born. I think, uh, the uh, alternate rock had begun, uh, but had not really caught on. Um, public radio had yet to be really born, so it was A.M. radio---we were we were what was important at that time. Now, I was headed in a pretty important direction with that.

JF: Okay. Well, the fact that we were information at that point, you know you 40:00were uh---

WP: Well, we weren't really sure what we were at that time.

JF: It was evolving.

WP: Yeah.

JF: But it was it was doing---

WP: Yeah.

JF: It was evolving positively, though, that was good.

WP: Yeah. Um---

JF: But but let's go back to the events. You were always at the event that was happening either here or if something was happening out of town that involved a Louisville team or a news maker or something.

WP: I tell you what kind of guy Hugh Barr was. Uh, the Bingham companies always provided a team of employees to work for the United Way campaign. I remember the first United Way campaign kickoff luncheon I attended at the, uh, the old Kentucky Hotel, and the feature speaker was Lee Corso, the University of Louisville football coach at that time, and when Lee stood up to speak, he said, uh, that I knew I wanted to be the guest speaker for this lunch, and when I discovered I was told that attending would be all the movers and shakers and government leaders in the community and housewives soliciting in the East end. 41:00Because in those days we used to send people knocking door to door. (both laugh) Well, today you couldn't get away with that line in that day it brought down the house. (both laugh) So I'm the captain because, you know, you get together with the team, and they point to somebody. I'm the captain of the team; so I get off the air at 9:00 in the morning, and we meet out at that old restaurant that's no longer there, on Brownsboro Road, uh, that was a community neighborhood institution. I didn't think of--Baurer's.

JF: Baurer's.

WP: Yeah. We meet for coffee at Baurer's, and talk about our plans for the day, and we'd go out. One day there was a fellow from the Courier Journal, a reporter, who was on my team who said, "Wayne, I'm having a real problem with this house. It's in Indian Hills, and it's on the street, and I know there's somebody home, but nobody will answer the door.''´ I said, "Well, let's go." Of course they are teasing me about people recognizing me---

JF: Sure.

WP: ---"there's Perkey, the guy on the morning," right?

JF: Um hum.

WP: And, uh, so we we drive up to the house, he and I, and pull into the drive 42:00way, and as we walk across the front yard on the sidewalk to the front door, I realized that there's someone in the house because she's walking in front of the window. So I walk up and knock on the front door, and there's no answer. And I knock, again, and there's no answer. And I rap the third time, and the window beside the door opens a crack, and I hear a woman's voice say, "What do you want?" And I said, "Hi, I'm Wayne Perkey, and this is Harry Smith, and we're from the United Way campaign, and she says, "We don't need any help," and slammed the window. (both laugh) The point is that we were out doing things.

JF: Yeah, yeah.

WP: I mean I was out emceeing something or snipping some ribbons, but do you remember the first fall---no, you weren't there, yet---we had Jeffey's birthday party at the brand new Oxmoor Center. Yes, we had Jeffey's birthday party and right there in the big, open concourse. And nobody came. Jeffrey dressed in---I 43:00think his birthday was in April, so he dressed in an (laughs) Easter Bunny suit. (laughs)

JF: I've seen pictures of that. (both laugh)

WP: And because nobody, you know, we weren't that kind of radio station, yet, you know.

JF: Yeah. Let's talk about the lineup. You were on mornings. Did Jerry David begin to do nine to noon?

WP: Yes.

JF: Jerry David Mulloy.

WP: Yes.

JF: And then, uh, probably until I came I think David, uh, who did noon to three? And then Jeff Jeff Douglas was doing the afternoons though is that right?

WP: No, uh, yes. Actually, uh---

JF: And that was a new venture, too, because uh---

WP: ---and that happened because Van Vance, who had been on noon, from three to seven---

JF: ---um hm.

WP: ---moved over to the Sports Department because we got Kentucky Colonel's Basketball.

JF: Oh, yeah.

WP: And he became the play by play guy for, you know. His first love, anyway, 44:00was sports.

JF: Was Jeff already there at that time?

WP: He had come, and he came in in, uh, like May or June to replace Van.

JF: Okay okay. And he was bringing a new element to the radio station. The afternoon it was he was trying to be funny, and---

WP: Yep.

JF: And---

WP: He wrote a little book, and he's kinds of skits and things.

JF: He had characters on and things.

WP: Yeah.

JF: That was a---

WP: He had a woman named Charlie, remember, who would call him and make outrageous statements.

JF: ---I think that just started with her calling, and then it developed into a shtick---

WP: yeah, yeah. She had a terrific radio voice.

WP: Yeah, it became a character on the show.

JF: ---it was a character voice, and you know---

WP: And people kind of did that, you know? There was a guy named Stu who listened to me in the mornings, every morning, uh, down in the South end of town and driving in. And then one day we hired a new afternoon guy, now I don't remember if it was you or Pete Sutherland, but he was thrilled to death that we had a new afternoon guy. And the reason he said to me, "He hasn't heard my stuff, Perkey, you've heard all my stuff," (both laugh) I've got a new audience."

JF: That's funny. That's funny. That is an element to WHAS had your connected to 45:00listeners--- that listener line was always open, and we had some of our best material from that.

WP: Absolutely.

JF: Not only information, but best material.

WP: We tried to become as close to a two-way radio station as you could possibly be. Uh, there was a fellow who got one of the first people I knew who had a cell phone in his car, who would call me almost every morning on his way up I 65 from Bullitt County, to tell me what was going on. Gilbert couldn't be everywhere; he couldn't see everything. And it made him part of the radio station, you know. So I run into him at a U of L basketball game, for example, and he'd say, "Hey Wayne, still got my cell phone working, and those guys don't take my calls." (laughs)

JF: How about that. That's great. I actually---this is a sidebar---while you were doing that I was on from nine to noon, and of course, the helicopter was gone by that time, and we didn't have traffic reports, so I had a fellow start calling me, but I had another guy said, "I don't have a cell phone; I'm going to send you a post card report." He would say last Wednesday on the Watterson---(both laugh) ---but it was that kind of station. We would do those, as I said the best material many times came from listeners.

WP: That's right.

JF: And also information. I remember when the plane of the of Indiana National Guard plane crashed in Evansville. Uh, I was on the air, and somebody called and said, "Do you guys have a report of a plane crash in Evansville?" I said, "We haven't heard anything, yet, let me call the news room." And the news room called, and the plane had just crashed in Evansville killing the people.

WP: Wow.

JF: It was that kind of a station, though, is what I am saying. We were connected to the community and uh---

WP: ---and they became our eyes and ears.

JF: Exactly right.

WP: You know?

JF: Yeah, and that was fun, too.

WP: It was fun.

JF: So what was happening at night at that time? Was he a sports talk program on, I guess, then Milton was on from nine to midnight, I---

WP: ---I don't think we had Sports Talk then.

JF: Oh, we didn't?

WP: No, I don't think so.

JF: So, did you did Milton didn't come on early and go for a long time?

WP: Milton kind of floated around. He was on---

JF: Milton Metz of course.

WP: ---he was on from seven to nine, then moved to eight to ten, and then nine to---kind of floated around in there; and then when Van had moved to sports, 47:00eventually he became the sports guy, Van Vance Sports Talk, seven until nine.

JF: At nine-that's right.

WP: And then Milt from nine to eleven. What's really funny, in the early days, uh, I remember listening to Metz one night---my son loved Milton---I remember listening to Milton, and I thought I heard a voice I recognized. So her name was, I think Harriet or something. She said, Milton, this is Harriet and uh what I discovered the next day when I asked Milton about was that, uh just in case there were people on staff who were assigned to call in if there was dead air. (both laugh) And it was Mimi, (both laugh) who was really smart as a tack, and always had good things to say, but it was funny. But, pretty soon that was not a 48:00problem; pretty soon there was a waiting list.

JF: No question-great program. A forerunner.

WP: Absolutely.

JF: Well, now Wayne you had a---

WP: Let me tell you a story about Milton---

JF: Sure.

WP: Okay. Jeffey, who was always looking for things outside the box and new wrinkles to add and things to do, decided uh, Milton was going on vacation, and he decided wouldn't be a great idea if each of us did Milton's show one night while he was gone. We would guest host Milton's show. So I am thinking about doing a talk radio show and following Milton Metz and how would I not embarrass myself, and I thought I will talk about uh something innocuous like uh, Are College Sports becoming Too Professional. I'm on the air for about twenty minutes, and get a call from a lady who is just really really angry with me. She said, "I cannot believe this. In a mere twenty minutes you have completely destroyed everything Milton has worked fifteen years to build. (both laugh) I 49:00was not invited back to host, again.

JF: I can recall something though. This was a nice touch, uh, there were many years when you would go on vacation, and you would have a guest host, but they would be the mayor, the county judge, who'd have some celebrity in there. How did you pull that off?

WP: It was just one of those ideas-that wouldn't it be a good idea-what would you think about, so I'm (??), but people would always would say yeah. Doing morning. As a matter of fact, one year I invited Colonel Sanders to come host the show. And a call back from his office was he can't come that week, but could he come another time. So the week after I came back, he came in and visited with me one morning. Yes, well. You know how you do those things. You just kind of punch the button, "Good morning, WHAS Radio you're on the air with the Colonel." Wayne, I heard this voice say, "I can't turn off the hot water," and it was my wife. (both laugh) I had changed the faucet in the kitchen sink the night before 50:00and apparently hadn't done very well. But what was funny was looking over at Colonel Sanders, who said, "Oh, dear, calm down, it's going to be all right. If you'll just go down in the basement, you'll find a cutoff switch. (both laugh)

JF: This is Colonel in his white suit and his bow tie and his goatee speaking plumbing advice. (both laugh)

JF: Those are rare moments, indeed. I'm sure. (both laugh) That was great.

WP: Where were you going?

JF: Well, just talking about your guest host that you had there. You had a lot of people like that. I didn't remember the Colonel. I didn't remember that. I remember the uh, you had---

WP: The mayor was always easy.

JF: Yeah, yeah.

WP: And uh, Denny Crum would usually come---

JF: Yeah, that's right.

WP: Usually could get one of the colonels, uh, to come in and do something, you know.

JF: You didn't have to worry about someone taking your slot because they wanted you when you came back. "Hey, get this guy back in here." (both laugh) That was good, so---

WP: And none of them wanted to come in at five.

JF: Uh, yeah.

WP: They'd do seven to nine.

JF: Yeah, you were on five to nine?

WP: We kind of floated. There was a time we were short of folks---maybe was when you left when I went from five to ten. I started out uh, from six to uh, nine, and then from six thirty---Barney Arnold was on from six to six thirty initially, and uh, so I come on at six thirty and go one until nine. And then Barney was moved back to five.

JF: Barney was the Farm Director---was giving farm reports. He was a legend there.

WP: Absolutely, right. And, absolutely, he was a legend, boy, he logged thirty thousand miles, I bet, a year, listening to folks and doing talks. I once said to him, "Barney, how do you ever get accustomed to doing this these evening appearances and then coming in early in the morning?" And he said, "You never get used to it. It is just hard."

JF: Well, you did that all the time.

WP: People live on their own schedules, and you have to adjust to their schedule.

JF: That was a problem for you--- remember, because many of the things you did were in the evening, and to be there early in the next morning, yeah.

WP: So, I learned that I'd been sleep deprived for thirty years, so for the first six months I was retired I slept a lot.

JF: You enjoyed it, huh, catching up.

WP: That's right.

JF: Let's talk about the physical stuff for a just a minute. When you when you came to the station by that time had moved from the Courier Journal building at sixth and Broadway up to the new WHAS on 520 W. Chestnut.

WP: Yeah, 620.

JF: Sixth and Chestnut. What was that like? You didn't operate at all in the old place, did you? You were part of the new place. But, you still went to the Courier Journal for your personnel stuff and your tests and all that?

WP: Yeah, but actually didn't frequent that much. I wasn't down there much.

JF: Yeah.

WP: So I really didn't know those people a lot. It had been sort of a happy family before, and the folks had been there for a long time---but we all became us and them.

JF: Yeah, so physically once things were rolling you're doing the morning show, and the control board you operated it?

WP: Yeah.

JF: Okay. Uh, news man, where was the new people come in? Were they across from you?

WP: And desk right across the room.

JF: Okay, okay. You operated with your own equipment.

WP: Yep.

JF: Had you of course you'd have done that in the past that was not a problem for you.

WP: That's right.

JF: I would think it was difficult for you to do all that prepare for all the commercials and still keep your mind on what you're doing---you know staying in the flow of things.

WP: And so apparently, I would sometime misread the clock.

JF: Oh really?

WP: Unconsciously, you know and somebody would say no it's not 8:10 it's 6:10 or whatever.

JF: (laughs) Moved around several studios in there from the time you were there---a lot of different studios in the building.

WP: Right. There was another story I was going to share with you.

JF: You were there a long time. How long did you do the morning show, Wayne? You did--

WP: Uh, thirty years.

JF: Thirty years.

WP: Yes, actually not quite thirty, but pretty darn close.

JF: And top-rated most of those----that's just remarkable.

WP: Well, it is one of those inertia things, I believe, Jack. It took us five years to get there, and once we got there we were there.

JF: Yeah.

WP: We were, uh---

JF: That's a remarkable record in any market really.

WP: I think.

JF: You had some competition---there was some strong radio stations here in this town.

WP: Yes, there were. It was a great radio market, really good radio market. But, I had a great team---I always had a great team. And I always thought that my job---I said this many times---my main talent was pitching softball softballs to guys like Dick Gilbert and Ken Scholtz letting them hit it out of the park.

JF: So who were the ingredients---you had so you had Gilbert giving the traffic.

WP: Yeah, the morning at first we were making it up. We---Van had, uh guy on--some kind of Wally somebody that Hugh had found somewhere ---a comedian because we didn't have all that, you know. WAVE TV and Radio had uh Dick Tong in the helicopter. We didn't have a helicopter, so for a little while we worked with uh, the police department---we had a couple of policemen who would come on with me a couple of times during the hour and do traffic reports. Uh, Sergeant Dick--- what's his last name I've forgotten---uh we had Pin Point Weather that would call---I think they were in Cleveland--a couple of really funny funny guys.

JF: I'd forgotten about that, yeah, Pin Point Weather.

WP: Pin Point Weather. I remember that one morning I'm on the air it's about quarter of six in the morning, and the studio door opens---we're now in the the studio where you were---and and the studio door opens, and Glen Master walks in and says, "Wayne, I'd like to introduce to your new meteorologist, Ken Scholtz." Well, I went ballistic. "You're hiring somebody without checking with me first? What?"

JF: (laughs)

WP: Who turned out to be one the greatest gifts I ever got.

JF: Yeah, yeah. That's right. He was very good.

WP: Ken was so funny.

JF: So when you were when you were really up and rolling you had Dick up in the helicopter traffic reports, Ken Scholtz meteorologist---was uh Brian your news man---Brian Rou---

WP: Roubilen?

JF: Although they rotated around didn't they?

WP: Well, actually Roubilen uh had been my morning guy, then he went over for a short time to WAVE.

JF: Oh, that's right.

WP: Remember? And that came back. Baston went to another radio station to be the news director---they were trying to build a new department. And so Brian came back and was our morning guy and our morning anchor guy; and that when his career, I think, really really took off, because he began to hire people like Mary Jeffries.

JF: Yeah, strong team. Who was uh the sports guy? Who did the sports in the morning?

WP: Uh, I had several. Bud Reeves was there for a time, remember? And uh then oh gosh his name---came over from WAVE Television---Joe Knight.

JF: Joe Knight, yeah.

WP: Was there. Van was there for a little while, and then uh eventually Paul Rogers became the guy. Uh, and was there for a very long time.

JF: Paul came there as kind of a raw guy out of---

WP: ---straight out of UK. He had done UK play by play for the UK campus station. And he and Caywood had met, and of course he idolized Caywood and Caywood sort of took him under his wing, and you know. And when he graduated 57:00brought him to WHAS. It turned out at that time we were battling to get the Kentucky Colonels contract so that's where Van went, and then we were looking for the U of L contract because Ed Shadburn knew that we really needed a U of L on, and uh, he and was a U of L fan, and uh, WAVE Radio had the U of L contract; so we couldn't get that. But, he could put them on FM. So WHAS, this classical music radio station, carried U of L Basketball with Paul Rogers doing the play by play for a while. I remember the football and basketball---I remember that we staged a womans' football clinic at U of L with T.W. Alley, the new coach. Alley had replaced Corso, and we were trying to help him get established, and I'd heard about the Georgia football coach---

JF: Dooley?

WP: ---Vince Dooley had done a football clinic for women. I thought what a great idea.

JF: Sure.

WP: So I called U of L and said, "Hey, what'll we do?" So Paul Rogers, dressed in a tuxedo---and they brought me out dressed in a football uniform that was three sizes too big, right, so I'm dwarfed in these big outfit with all these pads and stuff. And Paul's line to T. W. Alley, the coach was how do you turn a guy like this into a football player? I go behind the curtain and out stepped this magnificent hunk of tackle.

JF: (laughs) So the ladies got their note pads out. If he can do that we can do it. That's great.

(both laugh)

JF: Well, those were some special moments really.

WP: We had great fun doing things. You know it was great freedom to---if you had an idea, and you could sell it, you could do it. So one day about 1974 or 5 I said to our Program Director Jerry David Mulloy, we've got a we cannot compete 59:00forever with music with these FM's are really coming on. But WLRS was on by then, and some other stations were making some inroads. We cannot because were AM and you know we don't have the kind of fidelity that FM does for music. So we need to go well we wrestled with going all talk in the morning and wrestled with it and wrestled with it, and finally I just did a format, and brought in and said here's what I think we ought to do, and Jerry said okay. And that's how we became all talk in the morning.

JF: Uh huh.

WP: And I think that's how we really became an information radio station. That was the first start for becoming a genuine, go-to, full-time, let's talk about what's going on right now. Let's seize the opportunity.

JF: Always in the middle of it, yeah. Always in the middle of it. I want to go back to one other we talked about sports a minute ago, about UK and U of L, uh you were on the air at the time when WHAS lost the UK contract---that was not a 60:00fun time, was it?

WP: No, it was not, no. We had a General Manager who uh got into a spitting contest with the CATS and the folks over there just didn't like this guy. Sandy Gamblin, uh he was (laughs) it was, boy you talk about two train wrecks. That was really a train wreck.

JF: Well, I was on the air at that time.

WP: Were you?

JF: We all got flak from that, but I remember a fellow---I am going to intrude on your time just a moment here---

WP: Go.

JF: ---But I remember getting a call, and uh the fellow said, "You don't realize--- you people don't realize how important this radio station the signal is to all the CAT fans out there. For example," he said, "you get out to all these thirty-eight states at night. My father, big CAT fan, lives in Florida, and one night there was a major game on, and he wanted to hear it. It's ten o'clock at night. He can't get it on his home radio; so he's out in his car, and he's sitting in the middle of this exclusive sub-division at 10:30 at night with 61:00his lights off and his engine running listening to the game. A policeman raps on his window and says, 'Sir, do you mind telling what you are doing here?' 'You're not going to believe this, Officer, there's this radio station the UK.' 'I believe that you're the third one I've found tonight. There's another one over the hill.' "

WP: (laughs)

JF: But that was the importance of the signal, and you got a lot of it especially early mornings.

WP: Early mornings.

JF: Yeah.

WP: You know in the early days we worked you worked Monday---I worked Monday through Saturday no matter what---

JF: Yeah.

WP: ---no matter what, and so Christmas morning if it's Monday through Saturday I was on the air in the morning.

JF: Yeah.

WP: And uh, the good news that the good news about that was that when my kids would wait for me to get off the air and come home to see whether or not Santa or not had actually come---

JF: (laughs)

WP: ---there was a fellow from Kentucky who had moved from here to San Francisco. And he worked as night watchman, and in the dead of winter on the December 25th the sun was really late coming up in San Francisco, and that Sky WAVE still worked---

JF: Wow.

WP: ---and he would listen to me in the morning. He would call the radio station. I'd put him on the air, and he'd say merry Christmas to all the family back in Kentucky.

JF: Wow, wow.

WP: Yeah, I remember, uh, Milton getting calls from ships at sea, literally. You 62:00remember the old line, "All the ships at sea"?

JF: Yeah, yeah.

JF: Let's talk about uh, well you had many. You talked about the State Fair. That was an important time to meet a lot of the people, but Kentucky Derby, let's talk about Kentucky Derby for a minute. You did many of those.

WP: Oh gosh. My first---I got a call from Jim Bolus, who had that time had been a sports writer at the Courier Journal and Louisville Times, and had gone to work as the Public Relations Director---Publicity Director at Churchill Downs, and he called Hugh and said what would you think about Wayne doing the Morning Show out at Churchill Downs. So---

JF: At the center of things, again.

WP: ---so that fall for the Fall Meet the first week of the Fall Meet, I went out to Churchill, and we did the Morning Show.

JF: Oh, not just for the Derby you did that, oh?

WP: We, uh, upstairs in the Press Box, and they would bring people over to me. And one day Caywood said, "You know, you're in the wrong spot. You need to be on 63:00the back stretch. That's where all the action is." So for the Spring Meet Derby week I moved out there to our little place, and uh, I guess it was the Press Lounge. It was a little not more than fifteen by fifteen sort of room where they kept coffee and stuff, and I did the Morning Show---

JF: Everybody came right by there.

WP: ---right by there on the way to the track and coming back---you know it was right convergence of two of the main paths---

JF: To the barns and the track.

WP: And you know the Derby horses always were in the forty-one forty-two forty-three. Mostly the filly horses in forty-three, but barns forty-one and forty--two were the primary horses, uh barns for the horses that came in particularly from out of town, and in those days lots of the Derby horses raced elsewhere, and they could come in that week or ten days. Caywood used to tell a story about a trainer uh, maybe a tap shoes, who would not come in until Friday. Drove the guys like Caywood crazy.

JF: Sure, couldn't see them workout.

WP: It was so quiet. I remember vividly the day that uh, Carl---

JF: Schmidt.

WP: Thank you, yeah. Tom had become Tom Meeker had become the new president of Churchill Downs, had been on the board, was their attorney, and they elected him the president of Churchill Downs, and they were going through all the changes. Lynn was leaving, and Tom was in, and they decided they were going to open things up. And uh, suddenly I realized---they moved me first from my place---my spot, which I thought was perfect, over to a new spot. Now, they tried to make me feel better about that by putting a big sign on the outside by putting my face on a caricature on the side---Perkey Broadcasting Live, and, uh, as Carl 65:00used to say, "Well, we'll give you a-list guests; we'll make sure that you get the---."

JF: Yeah.

WP: ---what it was in the central location, and I was in the middle of everything, and people did come in, and I was able to snatch and grab. I'm an opportunist. You know if something is going on I want to talk about it. Let's take advantage of it. Let's seize the moment. So that was a really good place for me because I can be flexible, and I try to adjust, I am the most spur-of-the-moment guy I've ever met in my whole life. Um, and suddenly I realized that WAMZ is also on the air out there, and there was another radio station there, maybe, and I went jumping up in Carl Schmidt's face saying what the heck are you doing? This is my territory. I invented this. This is my territory. What are you doing? And he said, "Perkey, my job is to get every radio station out here." (both laugh) I got no sympathy from them whatsoever. (both laugh)

JF: But, you're right. You were the first, but many did come out and uh, and that was a prized thing. Let me ask you this with all the uh, you became you became, I don't know about close friends, but certainly on a first name basis with many of the trainers and owners, and they all knew you, and I think many of 66:00them wanted to be on with you in the mornings. They were willing to share.

WP: They were. It was a great complement was paid uh, Caywood said to me, uh, that that a lot of them were listening on the way out. Caywood said to me one morning, "You get things from these guys that none of can."

JF: Isn't that interesting? Yeah.

WP: Isn't that interesting?

JF: Well, now let me ask you this. Your retirement fund was enriched greatly then from all the Derby winners you had. All the information, right? (both laugh)

WP: I had in all those years I had one Derby (both laugh). Well, I actually had more money walking out than I had coming in. (both laugh)

JF: Sort of like everybody else. (both laugh) It always amazed me that how these experts have so much information, and nobody knows.

WP: The greatest thrill for me was uh, the Derby 1973. Milton Metz had always been the anchor, you know, before him, well, it was a legendary assignment. But, 67:00Milton was going to move to television, and he was going interview the celebrities in Celebrity Row, and it was a choice for him. I mean, he was moving and shaking with the movers and shakers---

JF: He was great at that.

WP: --and really good at it. Uh, and I was invited to be the uh, the host for the day, which meant I got to work the beside Caywood---

JF: Right, yeah.

WP: --- you know, all day long and was 1973, Secretariat---

JF: Most of the day meant that you started early in the morning and just broadcast all the events of throughout, until the end of the Derby.

WP: ---did the Morning Show from five to nine on the back stretch, and then from nine to ten we went back to the studio and did some special programming; from ten to the end of the day we were all on a dead run. It was just a---you know people everywhere---

JF: What a great time.

WP: ---gosh, it was a thrill, and I got to work with Cawood, and I can hear him now, you know. When Secretariat and Sham turned for home, and he said, "And here they come to me now. Sham on the inside." It's still a thrill.

JF: Yeah. That was my first Derby---

WP: Was it?

JF: ---yeah, first broadcast from WHAS. I tell you another story. We were on the 68:00roof there, Byron Crawford and I had just finished our duties. We were done; so we got to stand while you worked---we got to stand and watch it, you know, and we had both bought a $2 ticket on Sham because We saw, you know. The horses came out. Sham came out all right. Secretariat came out. Byron looked at me and says is that Secretary? Reached in his pocket, took out his $2 ticket and tore it up.

WP: That's funny. (laughs)

JF: Of course, the rest was legendary.

WP: Yeah.

JF: Absolutely. So you had some great Kentucky Derby times, and that was---

WP: It was really fun. It was fun.

JF: Let's talk for a second about the Crusade for Children---a very viable part of WHAS, and you were you were the head of that and emceed that for many years.

WP: Learned a bunch of lessons. Uh, the, uh, how much time do we have.

JF: Oh, we're fine.

WP: You're sure?

JF: Yeah.

WP: Okay, I was I'd come here from Mobile, Alabama, and we had just done a March of Dimes telethon, had raised, uh, about $60,000. The star of The Virginian was 69:00our featured big star, and we raised about $65,000, and everybody was thrilled to death.

JF: Sure.

WP: So, uh I came in and was told about the Crusade and I thought, I was pretty blasé because I'd know about marathons---

JF: Yeah.

WP: ---you know. So, uh I was assigned the overnight gig. I got to introduce folks, you know.

JF: Oh, yeah.

WP: Yeah. We went on at ten o'clock then, and so I went on at one or two. The first four hours were pretty well programed.

JF: One or two in the morning.

WP: Yep, and was on until six or seven, I guess, and then went home and turned it on and watched. I was fascinated.

JF: Yeah.

WP: You know, and I couldn't believe the numbers that began to come, and oh, 70:00gosh, what a remarkable thing. So that in, uh, I guess the winter of 1979-80, when it was decided that Jim Walter was going to retire, and he had been the he had been moved from morning show in 1970 to become the Executive Director of Crusade for Children and its host. And he was going to retire. Phyllis Knight was going to replace him and become the Executive Director of the Crusade. Uh, Phyllis and um, um, Eleanor Bingham took me to lunch, and said would you like to become the MC. Are you kidding? (laughs) You know.

JF: Sure.

WP: Of course. Absolutely. So, Crusade rolls around Crusade weekend gets there, you know, and we're in rehearsals, and I'm scared because you know, Jim, after the seventy- nine Crusade, he'd pat me on back on the way out the door and said, "Good luck with doing twenty-seven, son." (both laugh)

WP: So, Crusade is here, and I don't realize that I am silly putty. I am so 71:00scared. I kept running to the men's room, you know, and going to rehearsal a lot, and was scared. You know, I don't know where I get this idea that I am so important, but I was scared to death that if I didn't do it right, it would all come apart, and the Crusade would die, and it would all be all my fault, you know?

JF: (laughs)

WP: I don't know where that pressure comes from. So we go through rehearsals, and I'm sick in my stomach, and I'm scared and sweating and all this stuff. I just knew that the, you know, the show would open, the band would play, the dancers would dance, and the singers would sing, and it would be this crescendo moment, and the little child would come walking up to me, and I'd pick you up, and I'd burst into tears and choke up and wouldn't be able to say anything at all, and everything would die. It 'd be all my fault.

JF: (laughs)

WP: Well, the show opened. We're now in the studios of WHAS---we moved from the auditorium over the Crusade---the studios, and we and the band plays, and they are fabulous, and the dancers have never performed better, and the Motet singers were spectacular, you know, and the moment comes and the young kids dancers part, and up comes Timmy. Timmy is a five-year-old Spina Bifida kid on his crutches, with a smile, Jack, that lit up the studio, and he's walking up to me, and I feel the emotions come---it's rising up, you know, I get the lump in my throat, and I reach down to pick him up, and you remember you remember how sharp five-year-old finger nails are?

JF: (laughs)

WP: I reached down to pick him up, and Timmy grabbed my nose.

JF: (laughs)

WP: And he cut my nose. And apparently the pain just pulled everything out (both 73:00laugh); the tension was gone, and we had a great time. (both laugh)

WP: I introduced the next act, and went over to the side to dab my nose, and (both laugh) and I'd introduce the next act, and we'd dab my nose.

JF: And nobody knew.

WP: But, you know, I was so uptight and so nervous and got so concerned that I was there all night and the next day, and then the next day. Now we had a new program director who had said to me something like, uh, wouldn't it be a great idea if you would just come to the studio and just do the morning show. Everybody will want to talk to you about what a great weekend it was. I said Denny I'm not physically I won't be physically able to do that. Right, but it's you remember that the uh, Red Men always closed the Crusade---

JF: From New Albany.

WP: Right. They would come in in their Indian gear, and they'd dance and war hoop and stuff, you know, and then Gary, whose last name just left me, Gary always did the report. Gary is a big tall guy, kind of quiet, big voice, but a 74:00very nice man. So, I'm going to tell a story on myself. I am standing there. I am physically beat. I'm exhausted because I had not slept a moment. I had left the studio. I'd been there for whatever hours it was. I'm physically exhausted. And uh, I looked over, and there was Jim Walton, and I thought, wait, this is this is my turn, Jim, you know. I'm feeling guilty now, telling this story, but uh, I'm thinking, you know this is my show. And I realized at that moment that I was going to have to introduce Gary to do the report, and to save my life, I could not remember his name.

JF: Oh my goodness.

WP: I'm thinking what am I going to do when they finish and throw it to me, and I've got what am I going to do? And then as they said and now let's go over to Wayne for the report I said, "Jim," because Gary and Jim had had this running 75:00gag about Gary being Jim's illegitimate son for like ten years or whatever. I said, "Jim, why don't you come out and do this one?"

JF: (laughs)

WP: Well, he was really pleased, you know, that I---

JF: And got you off the hook.

WP: ___it took me right off the hook. (both laugh)

JF: That's going with the flow, isn't it? That's great. Great stories, great stories. You did the Crusade for how many years?

WP: Uh, twenty.

JF: Nineteen eighty, wow. Great stuff, great stuff. Uh, let's talk just a minute here, when you first came to WHAS, it was a Bingham operation.

WP: Yes.

JF: Okay. Did you have much contact with the Bingham's, themselves? The family?

WP: Uh, no, actually, uh, uh, I had been on the air for about three months. One morning we my song ended before---we were still playing music. My song ended just before it was time to introduce Paul Clark for the seven o'clock news cast. So, I had about a minute to kill, and I said, "You know, Paul, I've been here six months now, and I've heard forever about what a big happy family this was. 76:00And do you know not once in all this six month has Barry Bingham Sr. or Barry Bingham, Jr. or Cy McKinnon or any of those guys ever walked down to this end of the block and shoved out those old hairy paws and said, "Wayne, welcome to the family." Paul laughed and said heh, heh, heh, and we went on to the news cast. So it's about forty-five minutes later, and I'm in the studio--we're still playing music---and I'm digging into the racks trying to figure what I'm going to play next or where that song is that I need to play next, and I hear the studio door open behind me, and I turned to look, and there's this tall, skinny, red haired guy with a handlebar mustache striding in, and I grabbed my record, and I thought, well, and I turned back around, and I am about to say to him who the heck are you? What are you doing in my studio, when he says, "Hi Wayne, I'm Barry Bingham, Jr. Welcome to the family. My dad would be here, but he's in the far east."

JF: Wow. What a great family and did a lot of good things.

WP: Yeah.

JF: No question about that.

JF: But you were also there during the transition uh when the Binghams broke up their holdings and sold and broke up the broad cast properties and Clear Channel took over the radio station. Let's talk tell about that transition a little bit---anything you remember about that transition?

WP: Were you still there?

JF: Yes.

WP: Were you part of the uh---

JF: Actually I had left and was coming back right at that time. I'd work, and then I came back in 1984, and this happened in 1985; in fact they were talking about it, and one day I was coming into work, and I, um, saw Barry Bingham, Sr. walking down Broadway toward the Courier, and he was deep in thought. And I thought well I haven't heard anything about the uh, the broadcast properties, and I wonder what they're --and that's the day they announced that they were breaking everything up.

WP: Wow. Yeah, yeah. There are lots of stories about that. George Gill, until he died, would tell me that one of the most remarkable experiences he ever had was, uh because of that sale. Um, we had when we heard that Clear Channel was the the 78:00number one pursuer, uh guys on the air began WMAZ and WHAS began to get phone calls and letters from guys all over America saying Curt Teller those guys are not good operators and uh---

JF: But at this time though they were not the giant that they became. They were a fairly not a small yeah, I think WHAS was kind of the the one of the stars in their crown at that time.

WP: ---they had, uh---

JF: San Antonio, of course, San Antonio and they had WOAI I think or something.

WP: ---yes, which is a fifty KW.

JF: Yes, and the stakes in New Orleans, I believe.

WP: Right, and uh, I think they might have been one of two of the markets, but it was less than five. Uh, and they were really yeah, we were going to become their flag ship, they thought. But, we began to hear that these guys were vultures; they will pick the meat off the bones and throw the carcass on the on the market, and if you were making over twenty-five thousand a year, you better find another job.

JF: Wow.

WP: So Milton Metz wrote a letter to Mr. Bingham, Sr., and said you know your family have built an institution here, and I'm sure you don't want your legacy to be destroyed by bad operators, so you might want to investigate these people more thoroughly. As George Gill tells it, he uh, heard from Barry Sr. who said, "George, find out about this." He calls Lowery Mays, who was the chief of the Clear Channel Communications. Found him on a Texas A&M reunion trip to China, and said, "You have an insurrection here, and if you want to buy these radio properties you better get yourself to Louisville, Kentucky." The guy got on a plane and flew to Louisville, and we met in the big conference room.

JF: Wow.

WP: There was Bob Schuler, who was General Manager of WHAS WAMZ and Lowery Mays on one side of this big big conference table, and ringed around the other side were about fifteen, sixteen, seventeen of us, and I want to tell you there were 80:00no holds barred. I mean people were firing at him from all directions. We have a really important property here; we are leader in broadcasting in America; we're the pioneers; we are dah ta dah, you know, and we understand that you're the bad guys, and the man was unflappable. Lowery sat there and listened quietly to every single person, and continually said, "We think you are really really good, and we just want to help you be even better. We, uh, know about the rumors you are hearing, but they are not true. You are going to become the most important cog in our wheel." I mean it was an amazing experience for us.

JF: Wow. And that certainly was true in the early days. The station was pretty autonomous in the early days---the station was pretty autonomous---there was not a lot of interference from from Clear Channel in the early days there.

WP: And I really believe that was because of the strength of the manager, Bob Scherer.

JF: Yeah.

WP: I think he was the the I think he was standing between us and the, yeah. What happened to broadcasting was pretty sad. What happened what that guys like you and me became viewed as liabili-uh, expensive rather than assets, you know. Rather than being a positive you became an expense. And so how can we have do more with fewer.

JF: That scene, this is just a layman speaking, but it seems to happen as Clear Channel grew more, and things became a part of a balance sheet as opposed to a property that was producing money or a being part of the community.

WP: Yeah, I agree with that.

JF: Yeah?

WP: Yeah. I had a great time, you know I had the opportunity to do the Morning Show all over American, and all over the world, really. I did the Morning Show from London. One of the most fun--one of the most fun promotions we ever did---was dreamed up by Take- a -Trip Skip Esseck.

JF: (laughs) Oh, yeah, yes yes, yes.

WP: Who used to call me "On-the-Plane-Wayne." Yeah.

JF: Skip was the Program Director, yeah.

WP: Yes. Uh, so that uh, when the Broadway show, um, oh, gosh---

JF: Cats?

WP: No, no, uh, the guy with the mask?

JF: Phantom of the Opera.

WP: Phantom of the Opera. Phantom of the Opera was going to premier at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Skip said, "You know we ought to do, let's have a contest in which we award somebody an opportunity to see The Phantom of the Opera the first act in the Kentucky Center, and then we'll fly them to London, and let them see the second half in the theater in London.

JF: (laughs)

WP: So, we had a contest. And uh, we've got a fabulous winner. Well, it turned out to be a Dickens-o-phile. She collected all these Dickens things, uh, loved Charles Dickens. And the hotel that Skip had picked out---The Tower Thistle Hotel---was right next door to an old tavern that Dickens, himself, used to 83:00frequent. So it was great---

JF: Wow. Was it the luck of the draw was it the luck of the draw?

WP: ---yeah.

JF: Just the luck of the draw.

WP: Send it in----enter---

JF: No writing an essay---

WP: Yes. She was thrilled to death. Great lady. So, uh, we're we're trying to figure out how we are going to do this. The plan is that I'll do the Morning Show in Louisville; Skip and I will jump on a plane; we'll fly to London, land at Heathrow, get to the Tower Hotel, and the Tower of Thistle Hotel, and set up and be ready to go on the air broadcast at five o'clock the next morning.

JF: (laughs)

WP: (laughs) We're in Skip's office, we're pouring over this map of London; we're trying to decide do we take the tube, do we get a cab---how do we manage to make this thing happen and get there by in time to set up and check it out and be on the air be on the air by five o'clock in the morning. My phone rings at my desk, and I go answer it. And this voice says, "Uh, Wayne, this is John Van Meter. I understand from Jerry Abramson that you're coming to London." Well, John Van Meter had been on the small world sort, had been on the ballet board with Madelyn Abramson, and they had become friends. He worked for Ashland Oil 84:00and had become, I think, President of Ashland International headquartered in London. And Jerry had said to me about two weeks before, "You know, there's a guy from Kentucky over there named John Van Meter who could probably could help you find people from Kentucky who are living over there to be guests on your show.

JF: Wow wow. (laughs)

WP: So, uh, John said, "Hey, Wayne, I understand you're coming to London. Can I help you?" And I said, well, I figure this guys a grown up; he's capable of saying no. "Could you pick us up at the airport?" and he said, "Uh, well uh, I let me get back to you." So a couple of minutes later I get a phone call from a woman said, "Mr. Perkey," this lovely English lady, who wanted to know when we were arriving, how many of us were coming, uh, what time and what flight, of course.

JF: (laughs)

WP: And how many pieces of luggage would we have, (both laugh) and so Skip and I 85:00clear customs, and there standing is uniformed chauffer. He throws our stuff in the back of this car, whips us off (laughs) to the hotel. We're got an hour to spare. (both laugh) And because of that we had because of John's connections we had the guy uh, who was the Arab Sheiks who bought Harrods. He at that time, he was the spokesman. He was the spokesperson for Harrods, and then during the terrible incident um, when Princess Diana was killed, he became the spokesperson for the Saudi prince. At that point he was the spokesperson for Harrods, and he came on the show. We had somebody from Madame Tussaud's.

JF: Oh wow.

WP: We had a Beef Eater from across, you know, at the Tower. It was a great great trip. We had a great experience. And John and I became very good friends.

JF: Sure. You had that knack, uh you you throughout your whole career. People like that who were heads of companies or whatever---it was just it was it was your knack and the station, you had many opportunities like that. That was great.

WP: It was fun. So we did the show in Quito, Ecuador. Went down with Peter Moran on the mission to try to bring an exhibit of Ecuadorian art back to Speed Museum and tour the country. It didn't quite work, but it was fun to go. I did a show with Abramson the gang down on the Plata Argentina. And uh went to the plaza where all the mothers and grandmothers walked because of missing children. Went to Montpelier a couple of times and Mintz a couple of times.

JF: Sister cities.

WP: Um hum. Did the show from Paris and London.

JF: On the plane Wayne. (laughs)

WP: Take a trip, Skip. (both laugh)

JF: Good stuff.

WP: And of course we got to go to a lot of bowl games. Did the Fiesta Bowl, you know, when we were on the air local time from 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. Was kind of 87:00funny asking coaches to come out.

JF: And Louisville beat Alabama. That was a big big move, yeah, big kind of stuff.

WP: It was kind of funny. We'd go with basketball teams to tournaments and things, you know, and the guys would show up would be the newest guys on the staff. (both laugh) The rookie. (both laugh)

JF: You're starting early in the morning, yeah. You'd go to the final fours.

WP: But, you know Van Vance and Paul Rogers were great about coming to be on the show in the end. You know they did the game the night before. They were going to have another game in the afternoon or the evening, but they were real troupers.

JF: This is a little out of sequence. I want to give another guy credit. I think when you did the Derby things, a guy named John Asher was a big help for that, too, wasn't he?

WP: Yeah, he was a terrific guy. He's a good friend.

JF: Good friend. Well Wayne I uh, you've had a remarkable career. You were on WHAS from 1969 to---

WP: ---1999.

JF: Wow. Good good career. Uh, anything you want to say to kind of sum up all those years. We've shared a lot of stories, a lot of---

WP: I'll tell you a story, um, we flunked Florida and flunked, you know, flyaway; so we're back in town.

JF: This is after you left WHAS.

WP: Yeah, so this is about 2007, I guess, and I'm back in town. I'm reconnected with folks. Hey, we're back; we're living here. And I'd run into Abramson, who said, "Why don't you meet me for lunch tomorrow?" So I go down to city hall, and I'm meeting him and walked out the back door, and a woman named Judy Rosenbloom, who had worked for the Courier Journal, was walking out. Jerry said, "That's the best speech writer I've ever had." She walked away---she turned back and said, "Wayne, you ought to come join us this weekend. All the old Louisville Times reporters and folks who worked there are going to meet up at Bob Hill's Hidden Hill Farm for a big reunion." She said, "You know we had no idea how lucky we were to be living at that time---to be working there at that time." And it's 89:00true. We had no idea. We were kind of in, um, just a magical era.

JF: It was, yeah.

WP: It was a magical era. You know, uh, and I promised myself I wouldn't be one of those old farts who said, well, we didn't do it that way when I was there, you know. But, we didn't do it that way when we were there. I think that, uh, the guys at WHAS are still trying really hard to hang on to that, but you know---

JF: It's a different atmosphere.

WP: It is.

JF: When you were---

WP: Well, Milton Metz invented talk radio, and he never presented one side of any issue, and he was really good about pushing up some wild, crazy statement, and said, "Wait a minute, how can you substantiate that," you know. One of the funniest things that ever happened with Metz---I'm going to tell you this story---no, I'm not going to tell you.

JF: Go ahead.

WP: No, I'm not going to tell you. (both laugh)

JF: Well, Metz had a degree, I think I think we all had our egos and everything. But, I think that was in there that you recognize that other people contributed. You talked about your team a while, ago.

WP: You were obviously the head of that team, but you recognized that each one 90:00of those players had something to contribute, and you would be able to step aside and let them do their thing.

WP: For example, do you remember the first time we were ever rained out the Great Balloon Race was ever rained out, Rocky Aoki of Benihanna Restaurants had won the race the year before, and he came in---he brought Flip Wilson with him, and that year it rained torrents the whole week, remember? So they eventually called off the race, but Ken Schultz and Flip Wilson together, did one of the funniest half hours I think had ever been on radio.

JF: I wish that was in our archives so funny that would be great.

WP: It was wonderful. The next year Rocky comes back. Ken had become the official meteorologist for the Great Balloon Race. And uh, we're at the race meeting that morning. It's five o'clock in the morning, and they are standing around talking about can they fly can they not fly because the winds were pretty iffy. They were right up there, borderline, and uh, Ken comes out and says, "I don't know if we're going to get it to go or not; it just - it might just be 91:00past that borderline." And Rocky said, "Oh, come on man, let's go." And I said, "Rocky, they're saying the winds are going to be pretty tough." And Rocky, who had raced boats and planes and cars and everything in the whole world turned to me, just straight faced and said, "Hey man, we die - we die." (both laugh) "Rocky, I have five kids, (both laugh) and a big mortgage." (both laugh)

JF: No way, no way, no way. Well, it's been great sharing with you, Wayne. Thanks for taking the time to---

WP: ---my pleasure.

JF: ---to share all these memories. I'm sure we could go on for days.

WP: We could, because we were together a long time.

JF: That's right. Thank you very much. Good job.

WP: Yeah, thanks.