Last Saturday I confirmed something I thought I saw coming – the breakup of my Saturday morning routine. For the past several years, my Saturday morning revolved around several radio presentations. I structured my morning routine so that I could do the laundry, letting the washer and dryer do their thing while I listened to a couple of segments of “Wheels-With Ed Wallace” and the NPR show “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” Ed announced that last Saturday morning would be his last day doing Wheels.
There goes an hour of my Saturday morning routine.
Wheels is an advertising vehicle for select automobile dealerships here in the Metromess. The show could be one long, boring program length commercial run by a former car salesman; instead it’s a bit of a variety show run by a former car salesman. Calling out Mr. Wallace as a former car salesman (which he was) is doing the man a disservice. Yes, there’s car talk out there, but what I listened for were a couple of features which he ran as part of the show.
At about 8:30, Ed ran a relatively short feature about the history of Rock and Roll. Stories about groups, individual performers, and stories about radio itself were featured. I cannot say that I was ever bored with Ed Wallace’s Saturday morning college of rock and roll knowledge. Many times he would tell of the background of a performer who had recently died. This past Saturday he presented a vignette of the man who came up with the term “Oldies but Goodies,” a radio veteran who passed earlier in October.
Around 9:10 or so, Ed ran a segment he called “The Backside of American History.” As with the rock and roll segment, he featured well-researched stories not usually found in history books. My favorite story was one he told just before Christmas each year about the Santa Claus Bank Robbery… a shoot-em-up story about a pre-Christmas bank robbery pulled off by a burglar in a Santa Claus suit in Cisco Texas.
It was at the end of this week’s final part of a three-part story about legendary CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow that Ed confirmed that he was doing his last show.
Frankly, I don’t blame the man for stepping away from the microphone. He’s either just turned or is pushing seventy awfully hard and he deserves a break from a job well done.
Still, I am almost at a loss as to what to do in that hour or so on a Saturday morning. Maybe I can find another something to latch onto for my appointment radio fix.
Yes, I said appointment.
Many of us have certain media appointments through the week. I knew a family back in the day who gathered faithfully on Saturday nights to watch “Mission: Impossible.” One of my good friends would drop everything he was doing to watch what he called, “Book ’em,” better known as “Hawaii Five-O.” I’ve had similar appointments with several other shows – and have current appointments with “Ghosts,” “Svengoolie,” and several re-runs of older shows, like “Batman” with Adam West (is there any other?).
I’ve had Saturday morning radio appointments with “What Do You Know,” “Car Talk (with Tom and Ray),” and almost had an appointment with Tom Bodett’s “End of the Road” radio series. I caught the last episode of “End of the Road,” ended up finding and reading the book he wrote incorporating the stories he told on the radio. Bodett occasionally shows up on “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” as a panelist, and still can be heard from time to time advertising Motel 6 (We’ll leave the light on for you).
I will most likely find something else worth listening to while doing laundry and other household chores on Saturday morning. Still, there will be a hole left with Ed Wallace parting company with Wheels. Good job, Ed. Never met you, but I sure will miss you!
Be Seeing You!
bdharrellauthor 