Terry Meiners

Here's my 840WHAS chat with Scott Reynolds today. He's headed back to WAVE3 News starting Monday, May 18. He'll co-anchor the 4 PM newscast and contribute reporting to other WAVE news shows. 📺

LISTEN 🗣️ https://tinyurl.com/ykj3axny

Scott started at WAVE in 1996 and landed at WDRB about 7 years ago after WAVE did not renew his contract.

Reynolds was released by WDRB last summer. Thousands of viewers expressed outrage on social media.

WAVE-TV's parent company Gray Television now owns WDRB and its associated local signals.

From the upcoming Meiners family book BORN TO WORK 📕

"Ron Clay was the perfect counterbalance for me in sharpening each other’s broadcasting skills. He was a jaded counterculture dude and I was a buttoned up Catholic boy chained to structure, order, and discipline. Clay taught me to defy the rules and push the envelope. He’d pick up the phone and call the White House demanding to speak to President Ronald Reagan. I was petrified that the Secret Service would kick down the door of WQMF and demand that we cease and desist from irritating the leader of the free world.

Clay understood the value of just making the call. There’s zero chance of getting through, but smarting off to the woman at the switchboard was the point of the sketch from the beginning. Brilliant. Challenge authority. Break the rules. Take the action and ask for forgiveness later.

Listeners would promote The Show With No Name by recounting various sketches to their friends, continually building a massive audience for WQMF. Our BEAVER BITS, a reimagined version of Leave it to Beaver, still get love 40 years later. One man remembered his high school’s tradition. 'Every Thursday morning, all the cars were occupied in the school parking lot at 7:40. As soon as BEAVER BITS ended, all the car doors would fly open as giggling students scrambled to get to 1st period.'

My strengths were in generating funny voices, adding smart aleck comments, sarcastic interview styling, connecting with the local power structure, and cajoling Ron Clay into pretending that he enjoyed his job. He didn’t. He wanted no part of station management, meeting clients, or show prep. That was for me to worry about. As soon as the show ended he was out the door. Hopefully he’d show up the next day.

Ron loved his wife Sonia and their children and just wanted to hang out at home with them. The real world no longer fascinated him. He had a small circle of eclectic friends who were solidly chill and happily obscure.

After 3+ years on the air together, I was thinking that we’d played all of our tricks at least 3 times over.

A radio friend called me in April 1985 and said, “If I were you, I’d apply for the afternoon show on WHAS.” I knew it was a third-party pitch from WHAS management trying to avoid a tortious interference with contract lawsuit.

I immediately wrote a resume cover letter to the WHAS program director: 84 Reasons Why You Should Hire Terry Meiners.

I cranked out seven dozen ideas touting the benefits of hiring me to host the WHAS afternoon show. I would shock Ron Clay, the listeners, my bosses, and my family by leaving WQMF a few weeks later.

Six years down the road, I spoke with Ron Clay a few days before he died from lymphoma in 1991. My WHAS show was already 6 years running strong so all doubters had been silenced. He’d never forgiven me for busting up our show. I spoke for about 30 seconds about how I was praying for him and that I remembered so many funny things that happened to us as a radio team.

He didn’t chuckle or reflect on other humorous occurrences. He simply replied “Well…thanks for calling” and then hung up.

I left WQMF because, at age 28, I yearned to be a broadcast grownup delivering news, community issues, and mature comedy segments.

I am now the longest serving radio show host (in the same time slot) in Louisville history. I couldn't have built this amazing career without many lessons learned from Ron Clay's sly, subtle trailblazing."

Racing Louisville goalie Jordyn Bloomer fears no one 🥅

Here’s our 840WHAS chat ahead of Friday’s battle with Portland ⚽️

LISTEN 🗣️ tinyurl.com/5esrnez7