Chickaboomer Does Jim Bohannon

Chickaboomer: Tell me something people don't know about you.
Jim: I once played a pretty fair trombone--good enough to have made a bad living, I suspect--and I now own a slide trumpet--an anorexic little trombone which amounts to my midlife crisis. On Bastille Day, I've been known to dress up in a beret and grape purple (I mean Day-Glo flaming grape)! jacket and play the French national anthem at the annual waiters' race on Pennsylvania Avenue [in DC]. That same trombone player also got into a fist fight with a lifelong friend during a rehearsal with the Lebanon High School band in Lebanon, Missouri. As slides and music stands went flying, both of us were kicked out of the band (I was winning) but since we were the best trombonists the band director had, he had to let us back in!
How did you get interested in radio?
Jim: I was in high school in Lebanon, Missouri [pop. 6,000] and I thought it would help me meet girls! I was the class geek. The white Steve Urkel. I thought it would increase my stud quotient so I went down and applied at my local radio station, KWLT. We called it "Keep Listening, We're Trying!"
C: What kind of gig did you get?
Jim: I did everything. country, jazz, middle of the road, news, you name it - all for a dollar an hour. I''ll never forget the general manager. The minimum wage was a dollar an hour. The GM said "I'd pay you what you're worth, but it's illegal." I was a sophonore in high school. 16 years old.
C: Where did you go from there?
Jim: I went to college in Springfield, Missouri and worked at KICK radio. A little rock and roll station. I was a disc jockey and got to meet the Beatles, Dave Clark Five, and James Brown.
C: How did you get to meet the Beatles?
Jim: I took three busloads of kids up to see them in Kansas city.
C: Any recollections of the Beatles? [I saw them at Detroit's Olympia Stadium during their first US tour in 1964]:
Jim At the time they were considered incredibly dangerous, with long misogynistic hair. Looking back they were cute little gentlemen. They all tried to be John. Trying to be really cool.
C: After college?
Jim: I got an all-expensive paid trip to Vietnam and was there for the TET offensive. I tried to get into radio but scored really high on my tests and got a top secret clearance. Breaking my security clearance and going to Fort Leavenworth to break rocks was a fine line. I said, so if you want me to be junior spy I'll be junior spy.
C: "Spy" like what?
Jim: I can't tell you. Just intelligence work, and leave it at that.
C: Did that help you later in your radio career?
Jim (laughs): Absolutely no application!
C: What happened when you got out of the Army?
Jim: The Army transferred me to DC in 1968. I was doing elevator music at WGAY and booth announcing at Channel 26 which was live then and I made more money in four weekend shifts than I made in the Army during the week.
C: When did you get out of the Army?
Jim: July 17th 1970, not that I'm keeping track!
C: Then what did you do?
Jim: I stayed in broadcasting full time in Washington. I went to WTOP Radio as an anchor. WRC Radio. Then Chicago called. WCFL, the company that owned Mutual at the time. It was the first time I got the chance to fill in for Larry King thanks to a mechanic who left a wrench in a rocket at Cape Canaveral. Larry came to Chicago to do his radio show from the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel. He borrowed our engineer who spent the whole night telling Larry how great I was. This was in early 1981. Then in November of 1981 Larry had to have a night off, he was giving a speech or something. At the time his backup was Jim Slade who later went to ABC News. He was Larry's designated backup and the Mutual space correspondent. So we had this launch of a shuttle in November. The next night Jim [Slade] had to fill in for Larry. The mechanic left the wrench in the rocket. The shuttle was delayed. Slade was stuck at the Cape. Mutual had no bench strength and someone said "What about his guy Bohannon?" I got to fill in, they liked me, and I filled in for the next eleven years. If I could find that mechanic I'd buy him a drink! I took over Larry's show January 29th 1993. What happened was when Larry was leaving nighttime radio, the Mutual affiliates' advisory board was called to Bermuda for a big meeting. Norm Pattiz led the discussions. He asked "should we consider a higher profile guy like Charlie Rose? I spent eleven years sucking up to affiliates. And the affiliate board said no. Norm backed down and I got the gig. On January 29th I celebrate my 15th anniversary surpassing Larry King. [Larry was on from 1978 to 1993.] C: How many affiliates now?
Jim: We've got 300 on the night show and 350 on "America In The Morning." Fifty on the weekend. if you eliminate duplications it comes out to about 500 different radio stations.
C: Are you used to the hours?
Jim: I love them! People are always commiserating with me. But there's no dress code, bosses, rush hour. I play tennis during the day. Nobody's there [on the courts]. You know how much I pay for parking in downtown DC? Zero. I park at broken meters. [Jim's show runs from 10 p to 1 a]
C: When I did Larry's overnight talk show [news anchor] I liked it for the same reasons you do. No bosses. That was the big thing with me.
Jim (slyly): I'll bet he liked you.
Chickaboomer doesn't bite Jim's bait: When do you sleep?
Jim: During the day. I have to be somewhat adaptable or I don't have a life. Eleven a.m. to six p.m. generally.
C: You're so used to it now it is second nature. Do you think you can keep this up?
Jim: Aboslutely. I subscribe to the Milton Berle school of thought on retirement. If you like what you do why stop doing it?
C: Who is your favorite guest?
Jim: Carol Channing was a great favorite. She didn't have time to take off her makeup from a Kennedy Center performance. She showed up and planted a big one on me and I had on a white shirt that day, and never washed it!
C: How do you deal with obnoxious guests?
Jim: You can't let them take over the show. It's hard if you have a guest that won't talk. II had Dr. Edward Teller on and wanted him to explain to the public how to make an H-bomb. He wouldn't talk so I decided he needed a rhetorical right chop. I heard he hated being called "The Father Of The H-Bomb." So I asked him: "is it true every June the H-bomb sends you a Father's Day card?" He started sputtering but started talking.
C: What do you like to do off air?
Jim: Read. Discretionary reading is a luxury for me. Play tennis. Some TV shows. Science channel, History Channel. I don't have any "hobby" quote unquote. My work is sort of my hobby.
C: What was your childhood like?
Jim: Strictly "Leave It To Beaver," "Father Knows Best." My father was a traveling salesman. My mom worked for the telephone company but was a stay-at-home mom while I was in school. I had the "American Graffiti" childhood.
C: Any brothers or sisters?
Jim: I had a brother who died at birth. Strangled on his umbilical cord. I must admit to mixed feelings because my mother was getting on in years and probably wouldn't have had me.
C: What kind of personality did you have as a kid?
Jim: I got in trouble a bit but not a lot. One time I had taken something from the neighborhood girls and I went running around the neighborhood and when I turned around to see if they were chasing me I ran into an air conditioning unit on the side of a house and the metal edge cleaved my scalp. i still have a scar there. (Laughs) Now that my hair has receded you can see it.
C: Did you consider yourself shy or gregarious?
Jim: I was always the big mouth from day one.
C: Anyone from your hometown suprised when you got into radio?
Jim: I think they (and I at the time ) thought I'd go into science or engineering but I realized I wasn't interested in that.
C: Your take on state of talk radio today.
Jim: It's never been more popular. For those talking about the demise of the aural format, there'll always be a need for something to hear. If you're in the tower and transmitter business it's not a good time. But we're going to be out there - through the Internet or your pop-up toaster. The technology will change but the message won't.
C: Do you see yourself on satellite radio?
Jim: I'd love to. The company has a policy against that. The other networks do. Why shouldn't we? But we have a new president [of Westwood One] - Thomas Buesse of TimeLife. The problem is we haven't always embraced new technology here with our steam-powered computers!
C: Remember the old days at Mutual with the Underwood typewriters?
Jim: Vividly! That's what I started out on. I'm sure I used typewriters you used [in the Mutal newsroom] many a time!
C: Is there a part of you that longs for the old days of radio?
Jim: I suppose. There are no time machines. It's not coming back. Here and now is where we are so let's play with it.
C: One more thing. What do you think about Radio & Records reneging on Bob Grant's award? Under pressure over the conservative talk radio legend's racial remarks that precipitated his firing from WABC Radio NYC (PD Phil Boyce who fired him rehired Grant last year after many years on WOR Radio NYC), R&R rescinded Grant's "Lifetime Achievement Award" that was to have been presented to him at R&R's Talk Radio Seminar in March.
Jim: It was not the brightest move to give an award and take it back. I'm surprised. I find it hard to believe that Erica Farber [publisher] had anything to do with that. I think it's the new owners [Nielsen].

[Jim Bohannon was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2003. Last year Jim hosted 2007's Radio Hall Of Fame induction ceremony. Video]

[Photo: Jim & Marty, NAB Radio Show 2006. Jim looks as per usual. I hate my hair. What else is new?]