Radio Hall of Fame

Tom Taylor's column at Radio-Info.com this morning has all the highlights from this past weekend's Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Larry King was the MC, and told the following story from the dais...

"At age 24 Larry got his break – a chance to do the all-night show. It wasn’t a powerful station, but Larry could feel the energy from the listeners that first night and it was everything he wanted – capped by a thrilling phone call from a woman who said, literally, “I want you.” Like a good radio guy, Larry improvised. Larry told the woman he’d come over when he got off at 6am. But she said she had to leave for work at 6am. He then told WAHR listeners “we have a real treat for you tonight – the live Carnegie Hall performance of the great Harry Belafonte,” or words to that effect. He hopped into his VW and drove 8-10 blocks to the woman’s house. The front door was open. She was inside, waiting. He dived into her arms and it was bliss. But she’d kept the radio on – and Larry heard that the record was stuck, playing the same groove over and over again. He told the National Radio Hall of Fame crowd that it was "a moral dilemma." But he rushed back to the station, where found all the phones ringing. One elderly man said he couldn’t change the station, because he was an invalid and there was no overnight help available. Larry asked “what can I do for you?” He said “Play Hava Nagila.” Larry did. Management never found out about the Harry Belafonte screwup, and Larry kept his job and eventually moved on to a more powerful station in Miami."