A Legend Takes A Final Bow
You no doubt heard the news earlier this week…this will be the final week of “The Jim Bohannon Show” on some 600 radio stations across the country, including KXEL. Mr. Bohannon was away from the show for about four months earlier this year to deal with health issues; I’m sorry to tell you that is also the reason he is leaving the program after Friday night’s edition.
KXEL has high school football programming that pre-empts much of the Friday show, but fear not…we will air the final Bohannon program in its entirety on Saturday from 9 to midnight, in the space where you normally hear the “Best of Bohannon”. That’s fitting, since many of us first came to know Jim Bohannon when he hosted a Saturday night program on the Mutual network. He was the regular fill-in for Larry King on his popular late night program, and when Mr. King left the slot to focus on his CNN television program, it became “The Jim Bohannon Show”.
Tough duty, taking over from a radio hall-of-fame broadcaster. But over his 27-year run as a weeknight late night radio host, Jim Bohannon became a radio hall-of-famer in his own right…and rightly so.
I first met Mr. Bohannon 21 years ago, when he came to speak to a convention of a journalism group I was running at the time. He made trips to Iowa four times in that two decades, and I always like to tell listeners that he is just as you would want him to be, that the guy you hear on the radio is the guy you see in person—sharp, intelligent, witty, and always gracious. I’m sorry to say that’s not always the case with nationally known media personalities.
No radio station ever had a better host to work with in doing interviews, recording promotional announcements, etc. I even put him behind the wheel of the old KXEL van for social media purposes…and he loved every bit of it.
He has been kind enough to have me as a guest on his program several times, often tied to the Iowa Caucuses. And he’s even shared some of these commentaries with his national audience.
He won’t share this one, though…because it’s about him, and he’s far too humble. I have more to say on the topic tomorrow…he won’t share that one on his show, either.
