I was saddened to learn of the death of national talk show host Jim Bohannon from cancer on Saturday, Nov. 12. It happened about a month after he ended his long-running late-night radio program citing health issues. Bohannon had been very influential to me when I was starting my career, and years later, I was proud to report regularly from Miami for his “America in the Morning” program. I also got the opportunity to join him once live in the studio during his late-night show.
Bohannon had a warmth that radiated through the radio, along with intelligence, wit and an amazing voice. He was very comfortable to listen to. While acknowledging that his personal political beliefs were slightly conservative, Bohannon maintained a middle-of-the-road style on the air, at least in the years I was a regular listener.
This quote from him in 2003, included in Wikipedia’s entry on Bohannon, says it all:
“Our political system gives the extremes too much of a say-so. We’re very often given the choice between an off-the-wall, right-wing whacko or some left-wing idiot. The result is that the sensible center – where things actually get done in this country – winds up having to choose from the ‘evil of two lesser,” Bohannon said in an interview with Inside Radio.
Nineteen years later, in today’s era of hyper-partisan commentary, I think his comments can also be reflective on one reason so many once-dominant commercial news and talk stations have low ratings.
I became familiar with Jim Bohannon around 1990 when I would hear him on Little Rock affiliate KARN-AM 920 while driving home from my evening shift as a DJ at KLRA-FM 96.5 in England, Ark. He often filled in for Larry King on the Mutual Broadcasting System and had his own Saturday night show on the network. After King left the late-night show for an afternoon radio program in January 1993, Bohannon got the coveted slot.
In May 1993, I was hired by KARN as a news anchor, reporter and producer. It was then that I started hearing “America in the Morning,” which Bohannon also hosted. After the three-hour late-night program ended, he would spend the next three hours preparing the hour-long morning program, which was more of a magazine-style format and seemed to be a great lead-in for morning drive at affiliates. It must have been a grueling all-night shift for him.
In 2000, when I began working as a Miami-based freelance reporter for CBS News Radio, I would also file two-minute reports for “America in the Morning.” At that time, CBS and Bohannon’s programs were distributed by Westwood One, and they shared news content. I was one of two people CBS had in Florida, and between the two of us, we would travel around the state to cover stories of national interest.
At a time when reports for commercial radio stations typically ran 40 seconds at the most, it was a treat to produce longer versions of my stories that I felt provided better context and perspective. I could use several soundbites, and if they were strong, longer cuts, like exchanges during interviews or courtroom trials. The reports for “America in the Morning” would typically be the last thing I would produce after a day of covering developing stories and feeding reports for CBS hourly newscasts. The longer reports provided a chance for me to reflect on what had happened during the span of the day and how best to sum everything up.
While my reports to CBS would be fed to a producer in New York over phone lines using an expensive piece of equipment called a Comrex Hotline, which the network had assigned to me, my reports for Bohannon’s show were simply emailed as an MP3. While I saved those reports, for my own archives, I wanted to have Bohannon’s introductions to my reports. So during one trip to New York to spend a few days at the CBS Broadcast Center, I stopped at the Arlington, Virginia Westwood One studios where Bohannon’s program was based and his producer gave me access to recordings of the full programs so that I could record.
Jim Bohannon came in to do his program and we met for the first time. While making polite conversation about a story I had filed a day or two earlier about a large number of passengers becoming sick on a cruise ship that returned to South Florida, he invited me to join him on the air during a segment when he had no guests scheduled and was taking calls from listeners.
AUDIO: Joining Jim Bohannon on his national radio program on Dec. 2, 2002.
Needless to say, it was an honor to sit in with Bohannon. We’ve lost another great broadcaster and a throw back to a more congenial era of broadcasting.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 35-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
