Rick Minerd - Life Is A Jukebox

Through the late 1970's till the early 1980's while I was working at WMNI   I never gave a lot of thought to the stations syndicated programs or short features except that they were well produced and in most cases better than some of the other drivel carried by some of the other stations in town.

For example, the weekly Country Music Top-40 show, "American Country Countdown"  hosted by Bob Kingsley was a better show than the more famous "American Top 40"  hosted by Kasey Kasem.

Kingsley had that smooth and friendly down home demeanor while Kasem had that often imitated and nearly always' made fun of obnoxious  "DJ" voice that sounded like he was trying too hard.

But a shorter daily vignette, about 4 or 5 minutes long that aired several times each day on WMNI  called  "Inside Nashville" a sort of mini version of TV's  "Extra" that focused on the latest country music gossip was voiced by Biff Collie,  who's real name was Hiram Abiff Collie.

Hiram came across as a guy who sounded like an older relative, someone who could tell stories in a polite and interesting way that made you want to hear all of it.

Or someone you'd sit down with  in a break room with  who seemed to know every thing about everyone at work, or just a guy you'd like to go fishing with if just to have an interesting conversationalist along for companionship.

He was very easy to listen to.

Nothing phony, no out of the way efforts to prove his announcing virtues, no showboating,  just interesting tid-bit's about the stars of country music, delivered by someone who sounded like someone you knew.

I was recently reading his bio and learned things I never knew about him,  but information that didn't surprise me.

Born in 1926, and long before he was a short programming highlight on WMNI  Biff was a major mover and shaker in the country music industry, both in radio, television, records and promoting some of the biggest stars of the genre.

His biography reveals that he began his radio career as a a teenager at KMAC in San Antonio, Texas,   and later found himself in Houston working for KPRC becoming  the first country DJ in the city.

While there he was booking concerts and was one of the first to book such stars as Hank Williams and Elvis among other future giants.

By the late 1950's he was hosting a nationally broadcasted program on the Mutual  Broadcasting System.

After several high profile DJ jobs around the country, and having enjoyed a career in the record industry and all things country music,  Hiram Collie died in 1992.

In many ways he reminded me of WMNI's own in-house country music encyclopedia,  Carl Wendelken, "The Old Night Crawler."

With voices not that different from one another and speaking deliveries that made you feel like you were listening to a friend who really knew what he was talking about, these guy's even looked a little like each other.

They could have passed as brothers.  

A compliment to them both.

And like Collie, who Carl knew personally,  Wendelken also knew his way around Nashville and often rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest names in Country Music.

Carl had met and become friends with many world famous personalities through his decades as a country DJ.

I never met Biff Collie, but having him as a feature on my own radio program, and working around people like Carl Wendelken and others, I was working and as the saying goes, "walking in high cotton"  from 1976 until 1983.

"Suuuurrrre as I'm a Biffer!"    Imjustrick@aol.com

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this