M
y friends, the Parmelees, have kept copious audio notes of the happenings of my Moody radio career. In this section, we will give you some high points and perhaps low points of my radio journey. These are meant to be fun remembrances of things past and nostalgic. The good old days. We won't be going back to these days, I can assure you. But we can revisit them, like an old friend.

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1. "When My Taxes Are All Done" by Johnny Outa Cash - April 15, 1998

In my Mornings with Greg and Chris days (when I hosted a show with Greg Wheatley in Chicago) we did a song, live, with my guitar and a little reverb. This was performed in my home studio with Greg in the Chicago studio. My character was "Johnny Outa Cash." Greg played himself, a notoriously late tax filer, who I am happy to say has mended his ways in the years hence. I hope you enjoy this archival excerpt!


2. A Mother's Day Sigh with Mom - May 7, 1999

Every now and then my mom would join Greg Wheatley and me by phone on Mornings with Greg and Chris. My mother was born on Camel’s Creek in West Virginia and you’ll hear some of that come through in the conversation. This particular morning we were talking about Mother's Day, fudge, family memories, and bromeliads. I hope you enjoy the festivities.


3. It's a Wonderful Station - December 17, 1997

WMBI listeners may remember this blast from the past. Here, Greg Wheatley plays Uncle Billy, Monte Larrick is Mr. Potter, Diana Berryman is our announcer. I play the Jimmy Stewart character. This was a high point in our Christmas season, along with introducing Wally the Snowflake, of course. Enjoy.


4. Tiny L. Bear's First Interview - September 17, 1997

Greg Wheatley did such a great job with this interview on Mornings with Greg and Chris. I used a little voice processor to create Tiny. You can hear Diana Berryman laughing in the background, too. This was to encourage listeners to get involved in the "Bear Lift," which was a ministry of Josh McDowell. I don’t know how much our bosses liked Tiny, but we had a blast.


5. I Like Walmart - January 12, 2007

This is an audio blog I wrote for Prime Time America a couple of years ago, little knowing how much more Walmart would come to mean to me in the June Bug days ahead.  Notice the foreshadowing with my observation that "Walmart lets people in RVs stay overnight in their parking lot," long before June Bug was even a gleam in her author's eye.


6. Catalog Shopping - December 8, 1997

Many days Greg and I did Mornings with Greg and Chris from separate locations. Greg was in Chicago, I was at home at my palatial studio. One day we started talking about catalog shopping and touched a nerve. I really laughed when I heard this again. Just another reason why we're not together any longer--we just had way too much fun.


7. A Friday Sigh with Andrea - March 12, 1999

The Friday Sigh was one of our weekly features on Mornings with Greg and Chris. We played the Paul Mickelson Strings and at strategic points, sighed and got everyone to come along. On this particular Friday we invited Andrea to join us, though we really did surprise her. When Greg asked about "another baby," we were soon to discover that Andrea was, indeed, going to have our 8th child in December! (Is Greg a prophet? Hmmmm.)

Also, there were several references thrown about regarding the "trash can." I bought Andrea a Rubbermaid trash can for $130 in 1999. It moved with us to Colorado and was still operational, so it cost us $13 per year. (Sadly, we lost it with the house sale.)



8. A Thankful Thursday Dedicated to Greg Wheatley - January 1, 1998

Each Thursday on the morning program I had to come up with some things to be thankful for, and when Greg returned from a trip, I decided to honor and give a tribute to him. There were so many things in this Thankful Thursday. The oldest joke was about Greg clearing his throat, which he did constantly off the air. He really did ask Sam to pull the curtain when the sun came up over Lake Michigan. The biggest kick I got out of this was hearing Greg laugh. (There was a boycott going on against Disney at the time we recorded this and Greg is not one to jump on the boycott bandwagon.)


9. Theater of the Mind: The Unemployed Brothers Mystery - August 28, 1998

On Wednesday, 7/1/09, I mentioned a vignette on Chris Fabry Live! from the Mornings with Greg and Chris days. It makes me laugh just thinking of the premise. Greg as Frank Hardy, me as Joe Hardy, a few years into middle age. Give this a listen and I dare you to not laugh. Go ahead, I dare you.