The Tim Tolbert Story

Radio has sure changed in the past 40 years, back when I started my career in broadcasting. It was August 12, 1966, I was 15 years old and I walked into a radio station for the first time. The place was Paoli, Indiana. The station was WVAK, a 250 watt AM daytime only station. (The only FM stations in existence played only classical music). All of the Rock 'n Roll, Country and popular music was on AM radio. There were no CD's and computers. We played records and commercials were on tape.

Daytime stations meant they were on the air only between sunrise and sunset, and most of them played block programming (different types of music at different times of the day, much like WBRO does now. The only full time music stations in this area were in Louisville, such as WAKY and WKLO, which played top 40. WTMT 620 AM was the only full time Country Music station back then. I am originally from Orange County (Orangeville, home of the Rise of Lost River) but have lived in Crawford County since 1988.

As I said before, I started in radio in 1966, when I went with my piano teacher, Blanche Kendall to WVAK, in Paoli. She had a one hour live program 5 days a week from 8-9AM (Coffee Time). She played the organ each day. I met her announcer, Tom Holiday and he had me reading national news the next day, and I was hooked! Except for working in a grocery store for 2 weeks and working at a factory 8 months, radio is the only job I've ever had. At the age of 16, I was doing an 8 hour shift each day which included playing country music, announcing on Coffee Time, playing Southern Gospel, reading the news, producing commercials, playing easy listening music, Bluegrass Gospel, and Rock 'n Roll.

Others stations I have worked for, include WJLS, Beckley West Virginia, WSLM, Salem, IN, WTCJ, Tell City, IN, WITZ, Jasper, IN, KHUB, Fremont, Nebraska, WUME, Paoli, IN, WFLQ, French Lick, IN, and WFPC, Petersburg, IN.

Due to health problems, I have not worked in radio on a full time basis since 1993, but started doing a Southern and Country Gospel Show here on WBRO, 89.9 FM on April 8, 2004. It's on each Thursday evening from 5:30-7:00PM.

I put my records and tapes away and brought in my CD's and have long talks with my computer.

Thanks for listening. It's good to be back!
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