OUT OF THIN AIR

wasn’t hired to do this, it came about naturally. Ches, in fact, had great difficulty getting hired at the start. His first audition didn’t go over very well with the Colonel who liked announcers to have deep-throated resonant voices. So Bob Large had to write Ches:

October 15, 1946 From R.F. Large, Program Manager

Dear C hes:

This morning I played your recording for the Colonel and he is of the opinion that there is little future for you in radio as an announcer. Kindest regards.

But Ches was determined and after the first letter he got in touch with the Colonel to ask for an appointment to talk it over. My Dad did change his mind and hired him which just goes to prove it doesn’t pay to give up too easily. It was a shaky start to a career that lasted a lifetime and brought many rewards. Ches started out singing and announcing on his own show in the early morning and he remembers interviewing Wilf Carter and Johnny Cash and Hawkshaw Hawkins and sometimes Hank Snow. He recalled that “it was pretty early in the morning for

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A. Keith Morrow.

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