Radio legends program comes to an end

I waited anxiously last Thursday for the announcement that I just knew would be made near the end of the radio program I was listening too. As the show came to a close, the host came on and announced that he had mis-judged his clock and two more minutes remained of air time that day.

This must be it, I thought, here comes the announcement all of the listeners have been waiting for today – but it never came. Instead, last Thursday morning at sharply 11:00 a.m. central time, the 10 and one-half year run of the Joe B. and Denny Radio Show came to an end.

It’s no secret that my Kentucky college basketball allegiances include both of our state’s powerhouse teams, the UK Wildcats and the UL Cardinals, and for that, I often catch a lot of grief – mostly from UL haters who just can’t bring themselves to support both squads.

That was one reason I have enjoyed listening to the daily morning talk show that was hosted by our state’s two most famous basketball coaching alums, Joe B. Hall and Denny Crum, who between them, have coached the two teams to three of this state’s NCAA basketball championship titles. But until recently, I had only been able to join the ranks of “loyal listener” through the iHeart Radio app on my newfangled smart phone.

Before technology caught up with me, I was forced to only get to enjoy the antics of those two famous Kentucky coaches when I was near enough to Lexington or Louisville to pick up the stations over the air, or else was in Lexington during the KHSAA Boys Sweet 16 state tournament when the two would hold their show live one day each year from the lobby of the food court adjacent to Rupp Arena, or at the Kentucky Sport, Boat and RV Show when they would be aired from the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Resources display.

For this past year, as a “regular listener” I enjoyed quick trips each morning outside the office to the Post Office and for coffee refills, always turning on the program as I drove. On Thursday and Friday, when I was either working in the back press room or at home in the yard, I could enjoy the entire two-hour run (cell service dependent which around here is iffy if you’re staring at a tower).

You didn’t have to be a basketball fan to enjoy the program, and that’s what made it so much fun. These two old guys could talk about anything that was sports related, including basketball, which took up much of the day during season, but not just college. They knew hoops on all levels – high school, college and pros, and their former players were guests on the show on a nearly daily basis.

Last Thursday, their final day of the decade plus run, Joe B. who usually worked from the studios of WVLK in Lexington talked to Kenny Walker and Kyle Macy among others, while Denny chatted it up with Darrell Griffith and Jerry Eaves.

Throughout the call-in format program, listeners would hear daily from normal sports fans peppered with calls from sports celebrities from all levels and talents. Joe B. and Denny would joke with them all the same.

But on any given day, especially in the off-season stretch for roundball, there were plenty of other sports to talk about, and these two guys knew and enjoyed them all.

High school and college football kept them on the road weekly and things really got busy for the two of them when baseball time rolled around for prep, college and major league seasons.

They both loved the horses and were frequent visitors to Keeneland and Churchill, and in fact, my success last year at the Kentucky Derby and the pick of Ridin On Curlin’ to show was a tip from Joe B. during that week’s Friday show.

But it was their love of the outdoors that made these two the most fun to listen to. Didn’t mind if it involved guns and dogs, or minnows and boats, they knew their stuff and they were frequent visitors to the outdoor sports – thus one reason they aired their show at least once each winter from the Louisville Boat Show.

Although the show’s format saw Denny usually being in the Louisville WKRD studio, while Joe B. was in Lexington’s WVLK studio, if they hadn’t owned up to it often, most listeners wouldn’t have realized they weren’t sitting side by side each day.

Often however, it would be the show’s host who would be the only one inside a radio studio with Joe B. perhaps talking from a restaurant while Denny was in his hunting lodge out west.

In fact, one of the show’s funnier moments came when Denny, who was working the show via his cell phone from a duck blind, stopped talking long enough to shoot some ducks that were audible to listeners as they flew into range.

“Got em” Crum noted when he picked the phone back up to resume the program that day.

A program change with the Atlanta based owners of the Lexington station forced the end of the program, and the pair couldn’t find a Lexington radio station able to accommodate the morning show – which was the announcement I and most listeners were waiting on last Thursday morning that never came.

A few years ago, a good friend, Mark Jones, met myself and Brett in Lexington at the Sweet 16 and Mark, being a UK alumni and longtime fan, spotted the pair walking together and was amazed they were actually talking. When we walked over to see them working the radio show together, Mark was speechless, yet thrilled to see the spectacle.

It was just that – seeing the two former rivals having so much fun and the special friendship that had developed – that made the show so entertaining for myself and for the listeners across Kentucky.

There is also a Clinton County twist that few people know about the show.

Miller Tallent, a local striper fishing guide on Lake Cumberland, told me a couple of years ago that he was hosting Denny Crum on a guided fishing trip one day when suddenly he noticed the guest had retreated to the back of the boat and was talking on his cell phone.

“We had two or three fish on at the same time, and I told him he needed to hang up and come help,” Tallent recalled the story again this week. “ I could tell he was talking to Joe Hall, but I had no idea he was doing the show from my boat that morning. Denny didn’t tell me that.”

Tallent said it wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that some clients from the Louisville area told him they had heard Crum doing the show while “catching fish with Miller Tallent on Lake Cumberland.”

“He kept telling Joe B. that he had to go because we had two or three fish on the line,” Tallent remembered during a phone conversation this Monday.

“Those two were a case,” Tallent said, also noting that he had heard the radio show was coming to an end.

Hall, now 85, who often said on the program that at his age, he “don’t even buy green bananas” and Crum, 77, are certainly two legends who for years coached at Kentucky schools that were rivals at first simply because UK refused to play the school referred to as “little brother” and later became even fiercer rivals when they did begin the now annual match ups.

I tried to listen to the replacement show this week – some kind of national sports trash by a couple of loud yelling, not funny hosts on the Fox network who are named Andy and Mike.

It’s no longer one of my favorite lineup stations.

I’m going to miss the Joe B. and Denny show – even though I was only able to be loyal for the past year or so. I’ll miss the Yakety Sax program lead-in every morning and listening to Joe B. and Denny’s stories that often had me laughing out loud while driving or operating the press in the back room.

I’ll even miss having to hear one of Joe B’s favorite songs often – Hank Williams Sr. singing “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It” with Hall singing along in the background.

But I’m glad I stepped forward this past March and grabbed a memento.

While attending the Sweet 16 with Brett in March, we stopped again and listened to the two wind down their show that morning, and I handed my phone to my son and asked the show’s producer if I could get a photo with the two legends.

After apologizing to Crum for wearing a UK shirt that day – which produced a chuckle and a “that’s okay” reply, I interrupted their lunch break briefly and we snapped a photo of this fan with two basketball legends.

I’m glad I made that decision this time – it goes up proudly on my Man Cave Wall.

Losing the Joe B. and Denny Show was like losing a good friend.

Coaching legends Denny Crum and Joe B. Hall with Clinton County News Publisher/Editor Al Gibson this past March at the KHSAA Sweet 16.