My Rock And Roll-er Coaster Ride

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I continued hosting concerts from coast to coast. I introduced Jim Morrison at one the night before he exposed himself in Miami. I introduced one of my boyhood favorites from New Orleans, Fats Domino. I introduced the Rolling Stones. I came out as the fifth member of KISS one night and was booed off the stage in Hempstead, New York for my charade. I became good friends with Little Richard, after he was a guest on many of my shows during the years. Talk about rock & roll being a tough business to survive. Richard survived Pat Boone covering Tutti Frutti. He got his revenge by never telling the bobbysoxer what Tutti Fruitti really meant.

My radio career detoured at times when I scratched my acting itch. I carried Robin Williams to national prominence in the 1970s on Mork and Mindy. Then I carried Cheers to a couple of Emmys in the 1980s, and followed that up by carrying Candice Bergen to a couple more Emmys on Murphy Brown. Murphy was a show known for its music. Did you know that the song played on Murphy Brown during the opening credits of the opening show was the same Respect by Aretha that marked my radio debut 20 years earlier in Pensacola?

In 1995, I carried Richard Dreyfuss to an Academy Award nomination in Mr. Holland's Opus. Richard played Glenn Holland, a frustrated musician who ended up dedicating his life to teaching music at the high school level. I played Bill Meister, the rough-edged football coach who just happened to have a minor in modern dance that allowed him to step in and save the talent show. One of Mr. Holland's students in the movie was Terrance Howard. I'm not sure, but I think our work together inspired Terrance to his Academy Award performance years later in Hustle And Flow.  Music played a major supporting role in Mr. Holland's Opus, as Glenn Holland's career was chronicled through the years by the music of his times, from Lover's Concerto by the Toys, to Stevie Wonder's Uptight to John Lennon's Imagine.

I've won an Emmy for Murphy Brown, and I later received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. While I am very proud of both, I am proudest of the microphone that is engraved on to my star. It means I am a radio guy.

Music and talk. That's me.

So, move over Sir Paul, you've got a head start on me, but with a little luck I'll still be doing my thing, when I'm 64.