In this excerpt from the program, WYSO's Mike Frazier steps in as the momentary host of WYSO Weekend to interview the show's regular host Jerry Kenney about his history with the station and more.
Frazier: You're listening to WYSO Weekend here on WYSO. I am not the normal host of YSO weekend. I am Mike Fraser, the local host for Morning Edition. I am here interviewing the YSO weekend host and host of All Things Considered, the man, the myth, the legend known as Jerry Kenny, Hey Jerry.
Jerry Kenney: Pleased to be here, Mike.
Frazier: Well, we don't see each other, we're like two ships passing in the night.
Kenney: So it's rare that we're at the studios together, but we wanted to work out this conversation. You and I spoke recently to get our listeners to know a little bit more about you and so we're going to turn the tables this week.
Frazier: So the spotlight is on you. So Jerry, what is your origin story, your why so origin story?
Kenney: Yeah, I think I was in my mid 20s and one of my best friends said he was driving up to Yellow Springs to donate to a radio station and asked if I wanted to join him. I said, sure, even though I thought the concept of giving money to a station was a little strange. I mean, radio's free, right? So we drove up there on a fall day. It was a beautiful fall day during their fund drive when they had tables set up around so you could meet the people in radio. That's where I met Ruth Dawson, who later became Ruth Yellowhawk, and just a lovely person, met her for the first time. And just because of that visit, I started listening to WYSO and hearing programs that I had never heard before, like This Way Out, an LGBT news magazine, or Wings, a women's international news gathering service. Just all these voices that you don't get on commercial radio.
So I started listening more and more, and then probably after about a year, you know, of listening to the occasional fund drives and requests for donations, I said, you know what, I'm listening enough now, I got to give. So I became a donating listener, and I would get the quarterly newsletter they used to send out, and in one newsletter they were asking for volunteers. So I thought, hey, that'd be cool. I'll volunteer at the station. So I called and it was Ruth Dawson that I spoke with. She invited me to come up and speak with her and get a tour of the station and that was also in the student union building so pretty humble digs. This was the early 90s. So came up, talked to her. She said, we'd love to have you volunteer. And so I expected to just come up and stuff envelopes or... Do something, some kind of office work or something, but she asked if I wanted to learn how to operate the board. I was like, really? You'll let me do that? So I spent the next probably six months, it was a great summer, I would come up every Saturday and operate the board for Bob Reamer who hosted Unified Field Theory on Saturday afternoon, a really great music show and I still have some cassette recordings of that program.
So that was my start and then general manager at the time, Brian Gibbons was also hosting the second half of Alpha Rhythms on Sunday nights from nine to midnight, but he was also hosting Morning Edition the next morning. So I just called Ruth one day and said, you know, if Brian ever needs a break, I would love to try and fill in on Sunday night. And she said, oh, okay, great. Well, yeah, I'll get back to you. She called me actually like within an hour or two and said ‘Hey, Brian asked if you're interested in filling in this Sunday?
Frazier: That was quick.
Kenney: Yeah, it was very quick. And so I filled in that Sunday, and I filled it in the next Sunday, and then I filled in for the next 18 years. He never came back to the program. So that was my start with WYSO.
Frazier: Well, you must have been pretty good at it.
Kenney: Oh no, I was terrible. I believe you mentioned last week that you were pretty bad. I'm really shocked that they allowed me to stay on the air. In fact, I had this big speech written out for my first night on the radio. Ever solo and so I said thanks to Brian and thanks for WYSO for giving me the opportunity and then I hit my first song and the person before me, Lori Taylor had switched off the record players so I give this grand speech thanking everybody and it's like a 1:30 of silence until she comes back in the room and she's like oh I'm sorry. So yeah, that was my big start on the music scene
Frazier: A humble start, but a beginning of a long career.
Kenney: Yeah, I really enjoyed co-hosting. We would kind of mix it up. We would, she would do the first two hours because Alpha Rhythms was a five-hour program back then. So then I would do final three hours or sometimes we'd do that middle hour together. So it was just nice. And I was a big fan of the music before I ever volunteered.
Frazier: And you still do alpha rhythms now and then?
Kenney: I did. I took a break when I was hired to do Morning Edition in 2007. I managed to do Alpha Rhythms for maybe another year and then having to work so early, I was in the shoes that Brian Gibbons was in, so I decided to take a break, and Juliet Fromholt was on board by then. Justin Vandenberg was co-hosting. We trained him so... I left the show in what I thought was very capable hands, and Juliet is still hosting that today. And then just a few years ago, I got the urge to start co-hosting again, so she very graciously gave up the final hour, the 10 to 11 o'clock hour, so that I could come back and spin some music.
Frazier: It is nice hosting a music show. I miss doing that, I have to admit.
Kenney: Yeah, it's great, and I'm still a big fan of ambient New Age music.
Frazier: Now, did you start with Morning Edition first or All Things Considered?
Kenney: I actually started with All Things Considered first. I worked here part time, I guess. For about eight months, I hosted All Things Considered, and that came about because I was let go from a job that I really hated. So it was a complete blessing. I put together a resume and gave it to the program director at the time and said, I've got lots of free time, if there's anything else you want me to do. And at that time, he had been approached by the current All Things Considered host who had said they needed to step back and take care of their father. So the timing was just right, called me very soon after I handed my resume in and said ‘How do you feel about doing news in the afternoons?’ So I did that for eight months and then the Morning Edition job came up.
Frazier: You did a morning edition for how long?
Kenney: Oh gosh, six years and then transitioned back to All Things Considered.
Frazier: And you've been there ever since?
Kenney: Yeah. What is that? 18 years as full-time staff.
Frazier: That's quite a tenure. Congratulations.
Kenney: Thanks.
Frazier: So I shared some war stories, some humbling war stories. Do you have any similar war stories?
Kenney: What comes to mind immediately is, and I'm sure you've done this too, been in a situation where you've had to host both shows, morning and afternoon. So I was Morning Edition host, but I had filled in for All Things Considered. So I just thought, you know what, I'm going to prepare everything for the next morning and maybe just kind of cruise in a little later than normal. So I had all my newscasts lined up by the time I left after all things consider. And everything was going according to plan. I got here to the station just before six o'clock and you know that first newscast is at 6.04, but everything was ready. I knew where it was. I could just open up the mic and go on the air. It was all prepared. So I got out of my car, put my backpack on, and I had a Starbucks coffee and I'm feeling good. Everything's in place. I did a little hop, skip, jump up the steps to the Fells building because you would enter from the alleyway. And, I tripped and I fell forward, lost my coffee, hit my forehead on one of the steps. It was complete wipeout.
Frazier: Oh my god.
Kenney: And so I kind of like got up, shook it off, and I'm like, well, darn, there goes my coffee. It was a nice full cup of hot coffee too. So I still, according to plan, you know, it's 6.04, I'm standing there. I've got my newscasts ready and I start reading the news and I notice there's just a little wetness running down my forehead. So I did that newscast with blood running down my face.
Frazier: Wow, you actually shed blood for WYSO.
Kenney: Yes. So I guess that you can count that as a war story with wounds.
Frazier: That's dedication. That's dedication So besides being the voice of Morning Edition, All Things Considered and occasionally Alpha Rhythms What else do you do your spare time?
Kenney: Spare time, I'm really into fitness actually at this point. So I'll be 61 very soon and the kind of mentality that I should have had in my younger years has finally clicked. So not looking backward, just looking forward. So I really enjoy getting out, walking the neighborhood or I've joined the Payne Recreation Center out in Moraine. I walk the riverbank there next to the, there's a small airport out there as well. It's great. Sometimes I'll catch a plane flying, just taking off right overhead. So it's just beautiful out there. So I'm walking a lot. I've started weight training and doing some other exercises. I've still got to get on board with some like stretching or martial arts. I'm tossing that idea around.
Frazier: It's good to stay flexible and, you know, you and I are pretty close in age, you know, I'm also trying to keep mind of my physical abilities or lack thereof, and, you know try to stay as a limber as we approach that phase in our lives. Feeling better about it?
Kenney: Absolutely, yeah, actually I've, if I can say this, I've lost 35 pounds in the last year.
Frazier: You look thinner, actually.
Kenney: I'm really feeling pretty good.
Frazier: Glad to hear that. Well nice, Jerry Kenney, the man, myth, legend. I don't see any scars on your forehead, so I think you healed pretty well from that ordeal from years ago.
Kenney: I did; I did. Life goes on.
