As a college student, I lived near Chicago, and I was able to listen to some great talent. Wally Phillips on WGN. Roy Leonard in the afternoon on the same station, and on a station which was a squeaker, I listened to a show by a guy named Benson and another whose name I believe was Hedges. To round out my night, I would listen to Jack Eigen, and when he left Chicago there was Dave Baum on another station. Soon after I left Northern Indiana the station went all Spanish, then to some Right Wing Conglomerate. Jack Eigen had moved to Florida where he did a show in Miami. Ironically, he was in competition with Larry King, who was working at a restaurant named Surf Side Six. Both Eigen and King started out sitting at a table trying to get movie stars to come sit at his table so he could interview them over the radio. Ed Sullivan did the same in New York. Eigen has been called ” The Father of Talk Radio.” Seemingly, he was the first to do an interview show. He mainly interviewed movie and stage stars. Forrest Tucker was one of his favorite stars to interview. He often said that he would make a good political candidate, and this had shades of Ronald Reagan. Tucker shied away from such talk, but I do think he was a Conservative.
Eigen was on WMAQ, now gone forever. His program was live. No call-ins, he was emphatic on that. He often said that if he could not think of a question to ask, then he would leave the business. He never faltered for a question. One Summer, I took my wife and her cousin to see his show. This Show started at 10:30 PM and was over at 1 AM. Eigen, unlike in New York was often hard pressed to find stars of any stripe, so he did the next best thing, he interviewed anyone available. For an hour or so, they began to feel as if they were special. I know, I tried to question one of his these not famous guests and he ignored me.
In K.C., interview shows were a rarity. Walt Bodine had been doing “Night Beat” on a local station, but he too had problems of finding notable guests. Walt invented games to play. One was “The Name Game”. You take a name, strip it of a title and ask who this individual is, and to further complicate the game, the person could be real or fictional. He also had a game called “Note the Quote”, and it usually consisted of movie quotes, although not always.
Dr. Marshall Saper, a local Psychologist started out on KMBZ, but ended up on KCMO radio. His program was all about Psychology and why we do what we do, and how to modify our behavior. It was a good show until he sadly killed himself.
