The Entertaining Journey of Radio Personality Bob Carroll

Join us for a rare and insightful journey into the vibrant world of entertainment with the great Bob Carroll on this episode of Radio Split Ranch. 

Discover Bob's multifaceted experiences, his humble beginnings in broadcasting, his encounter with notorious characters, and stories from his early days in the industry, including a fire incident that left an indelible mark on his radio career. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Radio Split Ranch!
Hello and welcome once again to Radio Split Ranch, a monthly visit with the
Capital Region's great broadcasters of the past, sometimes present.
I'm Warren Garling when I'm not on the radio, and sometimes when I am.
You'll understand that later.

(00:20):
This month, as we step into the way back time warp machine, you're going to
have to strap yourself in a little tight.
Right. We're going back more than 50 years with an old friend of mine who didn't
spend a very long time in broadcasting,
but he says he wouldn't have had his longtime career in entertainment and education
if it weren't for the foundation of his radio days.

(00:41):
So if you don't recognize his name, you'll certainly identify with his love of the industry.
Sit back and meet a man who just likes to make people of all ages laugh.
I hope you'll enjoy my conversation with Bob Carroll.
Well, it's been much too long since I've spoken to our guest today,
although we do keep in touch other ways, thanks to the magic of the internet.

(01:04):
But Bob Carroll and I worked together so many years ago that we're going to
try to skip the dates as to when it was.
But Bob, thank you for joining me from beautiful downtown. Where are you? Burbank, Hollywood.
Burbank. Burbank. There you go. Beautiful downtown Burbank. And how's life out there?
Life is treating us good here. It's nice to be retired. I haven't figured out

(01:26):
what career I'm retired from, but I am retired.
Well, that'll come up in our conversation because you've done so much over the
years and it all started.
Uh, weren't you just a young boy from the Amsterdam or Johnstown area?
Tell me, tell me a little bit about how you got started.
From Gloversville-Johnstown area. Okay. And when I was a kid,

(01:48):
I used to watch Ed Sullivan and watch all the acts on there.
Sure. And I wanted to be a magician.
I wanted to be a ventriloquist. I wanted to be on the radio.
I wanted to be on television.
I wanted to do it all. Yeah. How old do you think you were when this struck you?
I mean, or do you just always remember feeling this way? way i you

(02:10):
know i remember when when sherry
lewis used to be on television sure yeah she was
she was kind of growing up in paul winchell and
jerry mahoney there you go shows and he
was like the forerunner of the muppets because jerry could
dance and sing and played the drums and even
though he's a ventriloquist figure he did all those things and i

(02:32):
went that's what i wanted to to do with a with a
puppet to make him seem alive yeah and but
it was years before i was able to get a real ventriloquist
figure because they were expensive back sure sure as
they are now they're even more but in the in the interim i went and my my mother
got me magic tricks for christmas and went to new york city and got magic tricks

(02:56):
but my first being on a stage was when i was 10 years old I would do impressions.
I would do Ed Sullivan. I did President Kennedy. I did Jimmy Durante.
And so I ended a talent show at the Glove Theater in Gloversville. There you go.
And it was hosted by a disc jockey from WENT, Ron Jacobitz. Okay.

(03:21):
And so Ron Jacobitz was there, and another guy was named Tom McHugh.
And he was for the radio station. And so they had me on the talent show.
I came in second, so I forgot who came in first. But I wound up doing impressions.
And they asked me if I wanted to come up to the radio station and do those impressions on the radio.

(03:44):
Really? You're 10 years old? Yes. Wow.
I was like 10, 11 years old, about that time. And since it was downtown Gloversville
at the time, they had the station on Main Street before they moved out to the woods there.
So they asked me to come up and I was struck by the whole radio station thing
because at that time in the early 60s or whatever, it was archaic. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

(04:12):
Oh, yeah. You know, they had these big, giant records, like even bigger than
the 33s that they put on. That's right. Right, yeah, transcriptions with not
just music on them, but mostly commercials and PSAs and stuff like that.
Yeah, yeah. They were still doing radio shows like Arthur Godfrey.
Oh, okay, yeah. So you're talking really the early 60s, yeah.
Yes, they were doing Arthur Godfrey. Even they had transcripts of Edgar Bergen

(04:36):
and Charlie McCarthy and all these old radio shows that I thought that were
being broadcast, you know, from nation to nation or coast to coast.
Yeah. But they weren't. They were just on records. Okay.
So they asked me to come up, and I did it. And I says, thank you very much and everything.
And I kind of forgot about it. I just didn't want to go there until I found

(04:57):
in Woolworths a record called You Be a DJ. Oh, geez.
Do you remember that? I do, yes.
It was put out by Dick Clark Enterprises and a guy by the name of Don.
Was the guy and one side of the record was him doing
the whole thing and the other side to give you a script

(05:17):
and you had to do it with music
intros and you had to do the whole thing right and
everything was on there so i
couldn't i didn't want to do jokes that he did you know
the all those jokes that he did on the record okay you
know don's drive in so i took all the music
and i just took real commercials out of the newspaper and did it to that okay

(05:41):
and i didn't know what i put it on a tape recorder and then i said you know
i'm going to go down to the radio station wnt and give my tape why not you know
but i was like 12 and my voice was real squeaky.
Squeaky squeaker than it is now yeah yeah it's
a little bit squeakier than this but you know know what i mean and that we

(06:03):
all put on a radio voice that's true
we always have a rate we have you know and uh
wpgr radio and here
we go 1540 we always had those kind of radio voice guys yep you know like don
bowers okay we're gonna start picking on people now all right no no i worked
with him and i worked with him at wsny yeah yeah we're good friends but anyway they they,

(06:30):
They played it, and they had the program director listen to it,
and they go, well, it's not really something we're interested in right now.
We got it. I said, okay, fine.
They said, but you can hang around here once in a while if you want to and learn the business.
Cool. So I said, really? They said, yeah, you can put records away,
and you can clean up and stuff, but we're not going to pay you nothing.

(06:52):
Of course not. I was so excited about it.
And they go, but when you get, so when I got in high school,
just the first year of high school, I asked them, I said, could we do like news
from the high school, like radio news for the high school?
You know, I'll do like a five minute report. Nice.
So they said, okay, we'll do it. We'll do that. So they have somebody from Glover's

(07:16):
own Johnstone and I wound up doing the Johnstone news and eventually they wound
up hiring me, but I couldn't be on the radio because my voice was too high. Oh, okay.
So I actually started probably when I was 13 working for WENT. Wow.
Well, you beat me by three years. That's cool. Yeah.

(07:37):
13, yes, 13 years old. So I worked for them, but I couldn't,
they wouldn't let me, they actually made promos for me called the Bob Carroll silent hour.
So they wouldn't let me do the commercials or the weather or anything because
my voice was high. So you're a glorified board op.

(07:58):
Right. Yeah. So what happened was Howard Samuels was running for governor of New York.
Way back then. And I was the only one who was able to interview him when he
came to our high school. Wow.
So I got the interview and they asked me if I would do it and bring it down
to the radio station. I said, yeah, I would. And they cut my voice out.

(08:21):
Jeez. And the other disc jockeys were upset. Yeah.
They said, he got the whole interview. Why don't you say here's our Johnstown
High School reporter interviewing Howard Samuels.
So they said, okay, we'll do that. Fine.
So I didn't get really on the radio until Christmas day.

(08:42):
One of the dish jockeys, Tom McHugh, wanted to be with his family. Of all things. Yeah.
Radio didn't pay much.
I'd rather be with my family and Joe Tobin, who ran the station.
What are we going to do? We don't have anybody else come in.
And Tom says, yeah, get Bob in. A star is born.

(09:04):
And he says, well, I know he works here, but I never heard him on the radio.
And they said, it's because you won't let him.
So they called my house Christmas Eve, and they asked me if I would come in Christmas Day and work.
You know, when you work Christmas Day, you just work by yourself.
Oh, there's nobody else in the building. Yeah, yeah. Right. Right.

(09:27):
You're just taking news off the ticker tape parade there, reading the thing.
But I did it by myself, and then I just wound up having my own show after a
while. Isn't that crazy?
Yeah. And after I left there, I mean, I went to a lot of radio stations,
WCSS in Amsterdam, and I went to a lot of radio stations.

(09:47):
I went there and went there for just for a few weeks. They needed to fill in.
Okay. But then I went to WLFH in Little Falls.
WLFH was run by Hank Brown, who I don't know if you know Hank Brown, but heard of him.
It seems that a lot of the folks that worked or that ran stations,

(10:07):
the outskirts of the capital district, I really don't remember a lot of their
names, including my own when I was working in Saratoga. He had his own TV show called Twisterammer.
At the time there you go yeah it was on kt ktv wktv that's right so i worked
with him at wlfh and it was one of those stations where they paid you in coupons

(10:30):
food coupons tire coupons.
Very little money it beats vinyl i mean i've been paid that way Get a record.
Take whatever record. Exactly.
But it was the best experience at WLFH because my boss, Hank Brown,
was part of the radio crew.

(10:51):
And he loved it when we were just jokes on the radio.
Nice. So we wound up doing so many different things that it was pre-Howard Stern.
Okay. We did things that we'd say we couldn't get away with this on any other station.
Really? We had a fake frog festival in the town of Little Falls in Iliad that

(11:14):
we had Ed Sullivan as the master of ceremonies.
We had the whole fake parade.
We had planned this thing weeks ahead of time, and it just didn't happen.
It was all inside the radio station. That's terrific.
Back then was Univac. Remember Univac? Oh, sure.

(11:35):
Computer. Yeah, early computer. They took the whole day off for this frog festival.
It didn't exist. Oh, darn.
Now, that's radio. That's the theater of the mind.
That's terrific. I was the morning dish jockey back then, and there wasn't a 24-hour station.
And I come in in the morning. I open at 6, and I come down, and the radio station's gone.

(12:02):
It burned down. Oh, my God. It burned.
The man at night, the night dish jockey, was an arsonist. Oh, no.
Now, you're making this up. No, I'm not. His name was Joe. I'm not going to say his last name. Sure.
But he was he burned this the the
radio station down i'll be darned yeah and

(12:25):
so we were off the you know of course i didn't
know i mean where you're getting the news from showed up and
it's just not there i mean i see the fire trucks are there and i see hank brown
there the other dish out so we're all out of work man but his resources with
us and getting a trailer trailer and

(12:46):
getting a new transmitter and getting everything back was like 72 hours.
Excellent. So it was, it was crazy. And, you know, we.
He says, now, Bob, I know you just had a fire and everybody knows about it in
town. I says, yeah, it's a small community.
He says, I just asked for one thing. I said, what is that, Hank?

(13:06):
What do you want? Don't mention the fire.
Seriously. It's the biggest news story they've ever had in town. Exactly.
You don't want me to mention the fire. No, whatever you do, don't say anything about the fire.
I says, all right, Hank, you sure? Yep, don't say anything.
I said, okay, fine. so we get back on the air and he says and now it's time

(13:28):
for bob girl's radio show you know welcome back and my first songs were fire
and rain i am the god of hell fire yeah right,
crazy world of arthur brown yeah i love it.
That's okay hank i didn't mention the fun that's terrific oh bob you're something,

(13:49):
i tried to do something but then we were uh i don't care remember if i worked
at bca first or KHA first, but that's the last radio stations I really went to.
Okay. So you did go to BZA in Glens Falls, right? Yeah. Yep. Yep.
Yes. Yeah. Again, I don't remember either.

(14:09):
I thought KHA was the end of your radio career, but I'm, again,
I'm not positive on that because that's where we worked together.
I was at KHA and then I went to BZA, but Herb Saban was at BZA too.
Yeah. Yeah, and we worked with him at KAJ.
Right, so I think he went to BZA. All right, there you go. Okay,

(14:31):
so really— He asked me if I wanted to work there.
So only five radio stations in your career.
Well, yeah, I think that's about it, yes. Well, it's been nice talking to you, Bob.
But the thing of it is, it was such a great career that—
And the thing of it is, it helped me so much along the way. Oh, absolutely.

(14:53):
Absolutely. And we'll spend some more time talking radio before we get into
where the crux of your life actually went, if you will.
But when we were, and we were both in our early 20s when we were at WKAJ.
And you found out faster than I did that you really can't live on a radio disc

(15:13):
jockey's salary, you know, any place but maybe New York and Los Angeles.
And so you were working some other jobs, which I found quite fascinating because,
again, you were multi-talented.
You weren't just a good disc jockey, and you even did some news,
I think, on KAJ for a while.
But let's talk about the days we worked together. Let's talk about Kent Jones for about 30 seconds.

(15:41):
I'm sorry. We shouldn't speak ill of the dead.
Great. great. He was, he was a good boss. He really was. He was a taskmaster.
And I remember when I went to work there and told him what I thought my air
name should be. He said, no, we're not stars here.
We're radio professionals. You will use your real name.
And, uh, and that's a question I wanted to ask you is Bob Carroll, your real name.

(16:06):
Yeah. So you were born to be somebody with a simple radio radio TV type name.
Yeah. Yes. You know, cause people, even though it's long been gone,
people always, even when I was a kid, they go, you wrote for, I love Lucy.
Oh God. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. He was a big name on TV in the early days, Bob Carroll.
And I am Bob Carroll jr too. So that's exactly why people thought that.

(16:31):
I go, no, no. Did your father write for that?
But I didn't write for, I love Lucy. I'm not that old.
I am now. Yeah. Now you could, Now you could write for Lucy easily. Right. Yeah, yeah.
Yes. And all of those radio stations that I worked at, all of them,
A lot of fun. I never really got mad at anybody. Well, we worked with some great people.

(16:58):
Growing up in the 70s was very, I don't know, it was just so much fun.
Yes. Oh, I agree. I think the timing was very good, except, and I've said this
before on this podcast, I kind of wish sometimes I was born about 40 years earlier
because I would love to have been a radio actor with a script and all that stuff.
I really enjoy, I got to do it once and, and I really would have enjoyed that, I think.

(17:23):
And I always thought that during my career, but being a DJ in the sixties and
seventies and in, in radio, I mean, that was, we were stars,
you know, I mean, people listened and called in and, you know,
all that stuff, you know.
Oh, geez. I remember when we used to, we did a live remote from a tuxedo store
in downtown Saratoga and it was pouring rain, and the guy paid for the whole day.

(17:49):
And we did so many crazy things back then. Yeah, yeah. Were you with me?
Drunk of donuts and everything. Yeah, were you with me when we actually broadcast a parade on the radio?
Took a parade? There you go. And I looked at the boss or maybe the sales guy
at the time and said, really, a parade on the radio?

(18:09):
I mean, isn't it a visual thing?
You know and he said we got a sponsor we're gonna do it we're gonna get paid to do it so,
exactly yeah exactly so i
think my last job was probably wbza in glens falls because i wanted to be close
to the entertainment area sure sure and so let's get into that a little bit

(18:31):
because some of the folks that i i am in contact with here locally today like
brian jackson and a few others They worked with you in other places.
So talk about what you were doing while you were working at BZA and KAJ.
You were up at Gaslight Village, right?
I hadn't gotten there yet. Oh, okay. I'm jumping ahead.

(18:52):
Okay. I was pretty close to it at that time. Okay. I was working resorts.
I was doing my magic act and ventriloquist act and stuff like that. Okay.
But when I went to Storytown to audition, I went, you know, when you're a kid,
you don't think of being afraid. Just go and do it. Yes, true.

(19:14):
You don't have any conception of what business is. You just say,
I just want to go get this job.
So I went to Storytown and Mr. Wood, who owned it, Charlie Wood, was a very nice man.
I didn't know who he was. I didn't know what he looked like.
But I went up to Storytown with my puppet and my brochures and resumes and stuff.

(19:35):
And I said I wanted to work for him.
And he said, well, we got no openings. I'm sorry. You know, with nothing I could
do for you. I said, OK, fine.
So as i've come downstairs i see rex billings who was the manager and he's yelling
at me go what are you doing up there what do you know as well i said talking to the guy in his office.

(19:58):
And i said we're trying to get a job here so that's mr woody owns the place
you don't have to go talk to him talk to me as well work at gaslight and do
my ventriloquist act because when Gaslight Village opened in 1950s,
56, I think it was, 59.
Okay. Because it only lasted 30 years. Only. When it opened in 59,

(20:19):
I was one of the first customers at a young age.
And I got on stage on the outdoor stage with a magician. He floated me.
And I've said, man, this is great. I'm on stage and getting applause for doing
nothing. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
So I wanted to be on that outdoor stage. And eventually I wound up working for

(20:41):
them at both parks, Storytown and Gaslight Village.
Terrific. And I worked there and then I worked there for over 20 summers.
That's crazy, Bob. That's nuts. Yeah, because, you know, in between,
I was working seven days a week and seven nights in Lake George and Saratoga

(21:03):
for the whole summer season.
And then I would take the winter off and just do small shows.
Sure. Because there was nothing going on in the winter in the capital district.
That's true. That's true. And that has changed a little bit.
Lake George is now quite a place to be in the wintertime here.
Yes. And Saratoga, even though it's very busy summertime, it keeps a year-round
business going. lots of great restaurants and venues up there, music venues and such.

(21:29):
But back in the 70s, you're right, the place just kind of folded up in the wintertime.
Yeah, but during the summer, during those 13 weeks in the summer, it was the place to be.
Absolutely, yeah, yeah. It was a place, and it started dying out once the air
first started going down and people went to other places.
Sure, sure, yeah. They went to Las Vegas and they went here and there,

(21:51):
and it wasn't like a family destination.
Like it was in the 60s and 70s. Because they had so many, I mean,
every resort had some kind of entertainment.
Yes, true. Whether it was Roaring Brook or Thousand Acres or Alpine Lodge or
even the motels were having entertainment.
You're correct. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so I was right there at the right time.

(22:13):
Me and a couple, a handful of other entertainers was able to get into all those places.
I not only worked Storytown, but Time Town, which was way up on the hill.
Was another small amusement park i worked there with my friends rob and carol
allen they were magicians so i worked there and there was a lot of places around

(22:34):
it you had frontier town north pole that's true magic forest so many different
places where people could work,
and so i worked there and i worked exotic dance clubs
because they had those in the area yes i worked
with strippers oh my lord i think
that's the first time the word strippers has been said on our podcast well there

(22:56):
you go they were lovely human beings absolutely yes and but you know the thing
of it is because even back then when i started doing that i was 16 17 years old.
Working in at the rustic inn and all these other places around that kind of
entertainment yeah but i had to sit in the kitchen sure i couldn't come out

(23:20):
to the bar area because i wasn't,
18 yeah there you go yeah crazy and so
i had to i had to sit in the kitchen before and
they'd bring me food or something and i'd go on and do
my show and collect my 75 bucks and get out of there isn't that crazy yeah what
you're doing enough of those 75 evenings and it added up you could actually

(23:42):
eat you know it's terrific exactly exactly because Because being the only one
out there that was doing those things, it was great.
But even after the 80s, because we left to go to Las Vegas to work in 1979, 80, and 81.
Okay. All right. I still came back to work at Gaslight Village. Oh, that's cool.

(24:06):
That's pretty neat. Yeah.
Music.
Gaslight Village. Yesterday's fun today. The big news in Lake George is Gaslight
Village, featuring the all-new ice show extravaganza Americana Ice.
Over 40 spectacular rides and shows included in one admission price.
Enjoy the space shuttle, cavalcative cars, and old-time Mellor dramas.

(24:26):
Continuous live entertainment, all wrapped up in the 1890s atmosphere of fantasy
and fun. Gaslight Village, Lake George, New York.
It's so it's so weird because we had
we had that we had a television show back
in albany in the 70s yeah talk about that
a little bit on uh channel 13 right w-a-s-t when

(24:50):
it was w-a-s-t albany's connect to detroit correct yeah
exactly and it was near east greenbush i
believe manans manans manans yep
yes because they had the manans mall remember oh
gosh yeah sure there was a flea market in there eventually but yes but they
had the they called i was working the magic shop there was several of them at

(25:14):
the north of the mall we had a house of magic and then i had a magic shop up
the street called uh mcm magic,
And so I had many different hats that I wore.
And so they asked me, would you think about doing a television show?
We're going to call it Up, Up and Away.
There you go. What year do you think this was, Bob?

(25:36):
Sheesh, 72, 73, something like that. Really? Okay.
Yeah. So it was after your radio
stints were done. Your radio career was pretty much done. Yeah. Okay.
So we did that. We did that for about a year.
And it was it was a successful little
kid show sure and uh and we

(25:56):
knew betty george and moo there you go absolutely john
wolf yeah famous folks from
channel 13 absolutely so when we left because one of the guys who was the mc
of our show he wanted to go to new york so i said well i can't do it just with
one other person i needed three and there wasn't anybody around so So we just

(26:16):
gave up the show and said, we weren't getting paid much.
You know how TV was. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, it was sponsored by Sears, but we didn't get, well,
I think we got, there was three of us, we got 50 bucks a piece to come in and
do a show for kids. Isn't that crazy?
Yeah, it was 150 bucks. That was their budget. Well, once again,
as with radio and those early days of TV,

(26:39):
you weren't doing it so much for the money as that you just enjoyed doing it
and you couldn't think of doing anything that was more fun.
That's the thing. When I worked at Gaslight Village, I don't know if you've
been there, you know that there was a big giant opera house. Yep.
That was the last vestige of Vaudeville.
That's true. true if i was had to

(27:01):
go back in time i would say i would have been a broadvillian there
you go yeah and i had met so many people at
gaslight village that helped me with my
career because those people were on their way down as
i was just coming up there you go because they had been on the sullivan they'd
have been on variety shows they'd been in the circus they traveled all over

(27:22):
the world i mean i worked with the royal lilliputians who were part of the troop
that That were the Munchkins and the Wizard of Oz. Yes, I remember that. And that's wild.
They were also in Danny Kaye's The Court Jester.
They had some parts in that.
And I worked with Joe Jackson Jr. And Joe Jackson Jr.
Was a clown, a tramp clown, who rode a bike on the ice and it fell apart and he put it back together.

(27:49):
But between him and his father, his father had the act in the early 1900s.
Between the two of them, they had that act, the same act for over a hundred
years. There you go. Isn't that crazy?
It is. I mean, you couldn't do that today. Well, obviously. Yeah. Times change.
Yeah. Yeah. But he worked, you know, that we had the ice show.
We had, there was so much talent.

(28:10):
Music.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Gaslight Village, where we have continuous
entertainment over at the Opera House.
Right now, oleo acts are now going on with our singing waiters and waitresses.
The outdoor stage is located directly across from the main entrance,

(28:33):
and our first show of the day will be at 220 this afternoon.
That's just 15 minutes from now. Now, Gaslight Village will present The Odd
Couple, Bob Carroll and Ted Ellis, comedy and ventriloquism.
Plenty of park bench seats are available.
Head over that way now and enjoy the show. Me and Floyd Vivino,

(28:55):
Floyd became Uncle Floyd down in Jersey.
And he was in movies like Good Morning Vietnam and Crazy People with Dudley
Moore. So he became an actor and he became famous in New Jersey and had a career
down there on television.
So all of us really were just starting out. Sure. Yeah.

(29:16):
And I say that because of the fact that people say, why did you go back for 20 years?
It was because we all wanted to go back every year.
We didn't want that summer to end. Yeah.
Crazy. Because Lake George was, you know where Lake George is,
but Gaslight Village was the
village you saw before you got into Lake George. That's true. Yep, yep.

(29:39):
Because you come over that Route 9, and you see that light, so the Ferris wheel
and the park, you think that's Lake George.
Mm-hmm. Yep, yep. And you hadn't even gotten to the village yet, no.
Exactly. Crazy. So all of those things happened, and then I eventually went,
we went to Vegas, and I worked in an amusement park, Old Vegas, out there for a while.

(30:00):
And then we we came back home because i
was working in all the lounges okay at the
time and when howard hughes bought
up all the hotels and he came in and bought things he got rid of all the lounge
acts so there was no place to be bad anymore you know i mean they had talk about

(30:21):
lounge acts i mean you had don rickles in the lounge yeah wailing flowers and
madam you You had all these people working lounge acts,
and it was only a two-drink minimum. There you go.
You know, you come in, sit down, and it was 24 hours of entertainment.
So I just came back, and then luckily I did because I worked for a private company

(30:41):
and did school shows, safety shows for kids until I finally retired.
But I did that for 25 years.
All right. Well, let's back up a little bit because a couple of highlights happen along the way here.
Where we actually crossed paths again a couple of times.
And one of them is you got into the Guinness Book of World Records. Yeah.

(31:07):
Yeah, and for the unknowing and uninitiated, that's not easy to do,
and you didn't, you know, ride a bike upside down for, you know,
24 hours or something like that.
You actually, well, you tell the folks what you, what wound up happening.
I did it twice. Okay.
I looked in the Guinness Book, and it said 12 hours, Guinness Book record.

(31:30):
Okay. Joke telling. For joke telling, yes, there you go.
For joke telling. now in on wolf road in
albany there was a beef steak charlie's okay remember
those days i do yeah so there was a lounge
and i was working there and the guy says can you do
something exciting you know so we get some business and
i could do this thing if

(31:51):
i could try it so i did 13 hours okay and
so they had to open early in the morning and you know
they couldn't serve drinks or anything at that hour but so
i did it for 13 hours figuring i was going to get
into the guinness books yeah but i
little did i know that it's all about the
timing when you do things because the guinness books get published at a certain

(32:14):
time and they only take so many you know entries sure and the latest entry gets
in okay so i had to call guinness book after i didn't get in the first time
because somebody did 15 hours after I did 13.
So I go, okay, it's me and this guy in England. So I called Dennis and I said,
when is the latest I can put something in the book?
So it gets into the following year, they told me.

(32:37):
So I wound up doing it again for 24 hours and five minutes in Clifton Park.
This was the days of the discos. Remember disco? Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
Yeah, I was working at the Castilian Lounge and at that time.
The reason a lot of these places went out of business is because,
not because of the disco, it's because they wouldn't, they wouldn't get off

(33:01):
the dance floor and start drinking. There you go. Yeah.
So I was working for them and we put on the dating game for them and I did my
act for them. There you go.
Where people would sit for a while and then order drinks. Yeah,
you sit and drink and order stuff. That's right. Yeah.
So, because the music would just keep going and they wouldn't stop, you know, stop.

(33:22):
Sure. So they said, could you do the Guinness Book of Records thing here?
I go, yeah, but who's going to stay open 24 hours?
I got to have somebody. They said, we'll stay open for you. Neat. I said, okay. Yeah.
So I did 24 hours and five minutes at the Castilian Lounge. It's now a dentist office.

(33:42):
I'm sure they'd have you back.
You know, I mean, there are people in the waiting room all the time.
I think about that as much as I think about all the radio stations I've closed.
And the ones that have burned down on you. Yeah, yeah. Exactly.
Well, there goes another one I won't say again.

(34:03):
All of those. So I got in the Guinness Book, and that's when I decided when
I get in the Guinness Book that I would go to Vegas.
I figured I'd make it in some place. Okay, okay. Okay.
You know, there was so much competition
back then, but it was a great experience. I mean, I got to work.
Oh, yeah, with some terrific people. Yeah. Yeah, and it was,

(34:25):
you know, as you say, it was steady work, you know.
Now, I'm not sure where this fits into the timeline.
I know that it had to be in the early 1980s. You actually, we crossed paths again.
I see in the newspaper that the new Rotterdam Square Mall is going to open.
And the entertainment that first weekend consisted of Bob Carroll and his magic,

(34:49):
and I'm not sure if you were doing ventriloquism still with your act at the
time, but I brought the family.
And our youngest son volunteered from the audience. Well, I don't know if he
volunteered. You kind of looked down, saw me, and pointed at him.
And I don't know if you remember this or not, but it's seared in his mind.
He was probably four or five years old at the time.

(35:12):
So it was probably the mid-'80s. He was born in 81.
So, yeah, so it was the mid to late-'80s. And, boy, when I saw that in the newspaper
you were going to be there, I said, well, we got to be there.
So we're sitting there and, and you, you brought him on stage and you, it was all planned.
You know, you, you usually had somebody come up and I don't,

(35:33):
again, I don't know if you remember it.
I just know that you handed him your magic wand and it wilted. Yeah. It fell apart.
And so, you know, and he's, and all you're telling him to do is wave the magic
wand over the hat or something, you know, and every time he,
you know, he took it, it would, it would go limp, you know?
Know so at one at one point he

(35:54):
decides he's going to make he's going to do this he
takes it and he starts flipping it to see if it'll go straight again
it'll if it'll stiffen up and the audience goes
crazy and there was a good crowd there that weekend
audience goes nuts and you start
laughing and i i don't know again you won't remember
but you came down off the stage later and you said hey can he

(36:14):
go on the road with me he's good yeah you know
that's that's one of those tricks where it's just great for any age for the
kids yep yep i think they did something wrong and they were able to fix it so
it's it's i was working with mr wood at that time and we were doing promotions
for story town and gaslight village oh okay so that might have been the that

(36:37):
must have been it because.
I would do all the malls me and steve ross roscoe
the clown we would do all the malls for them for a
while when windy bill couldn't do it anymore and
uh because wendy you know from story story town
right he was uh yeah the marshal the
marshal up there yep yep marshal of ghost town he was
there for 50 years wow yeah we

(37:00):
became good friends he he pinned the badge on me
when i was five years old and i grew up to admire him
and hang around his house and then work with him
that's cool yeah yeah i filled in for
him when he had a heart bypass wow i began
they asked me to be the marshal i said no i'll be a deputy i
won't be a marshal yeah you can't take his place can't get into his boots no

(37:22):
i know kids are gonna be there and asking him sure my parents yeah exactly i
gotta be a deputy not a marshal oh what great stuff yeah it is so so you go
out to vegas you You come back to the area, and now you settle.
Now, did you settle here locally, or did you go over into Massachusetts somewhere?
No, we moved to Massachusetts. That's what I thought. We moved to Glens Falls

(37:45):
for a while. We moved to Glens Falls. Glens Falls.
And I get a phone call one day from the company, and they asked me to fly out
to New Jersey and audition to be an entertainer for a safety company.
They put on say no to drug shows for kids and safety, fire safety,

(38:06):
and regular safety, bus safety, street safety, all that stuff.
Stranger danger sort of stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I go out and audition.
I get the job. And then it was a great job because they paid me.
They gave me a car. They paid for my equipment, paid for my hotel.
They paid for our health insurance.
Nice. I said, I'm going to stay with this job as long as I can.

(38:30):
They said, well, you have to move to Massachusetts. So we moved to Massachusetts,
stayed there for 25 years.
And then after I retired from that job, I said, well, I think my career is over.
Well yeah well i suppose and it
wasn't and we'll talk more about you know you know

(38:50):
what you're doing in retirement as most of us are doing something in retirement
yeah exactly exactly you can't just sit on the well i could sit on my butt all
day but my wife wouldn't like that too much so yeah so you have 25 years and
in the same area so obviously made a lot of uh you know friends and,
uh, and, uh, certainly contacts all over the place.

(39:13):
Right. Right. But I did seven states. So I was on the road quite a bit. Sure.
So, you know, staying overnight in hotels because each school district's different.
You don't know if it's going to snow and you got to be in place and everything.
But it was a great, great experience.
I really enjoyed it. And I did magic and puppets and made kids happy and saved some lives.

(39:33):
Yeah, there you go. Well, you made a difference.
Absolutely. You were giving at the same time you were, you know, entertaining.
And, you know, as they say, you do something you love and you don't work a day
in your life. So, I mean, certainly there was some work to it,
but you were, you were having fun and, and doing what you had always wanted to do in front of folks.

(39:54):
Exactly. Exactly. I always said that, you know, if you find something you love,
you're not working. Yeah, that's true. You're not working, you're just enjoying it.
Terrific. So you finally, the, the traveling got to you and you finally decide
maybe it's time to hang up the puppets.
Yeah, we can, that's what we said. And we got, had grandkids out here in Burbank.
So, you know, once you get grandkids, you say, I'm going to come,

(40:17):
I'm going to move out there. So that's why we moved to Burbank.
And we, you know, my families are out here. So we, we helped raise our granddaughter
and our grandson while they were growing up.
That's always nice. Yeah. Yeah. Great experience.
And I don't have to shovel snow.
That's also very nice. Mud out of the way when they get slide. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

(40:41):
You watch out for the fires. Yeah. Yeah, other than that and the earthquakes,
occasionally the earth moves.
Yeah, we only have three or four seasons, but they're all the same.
Earthquakes, fires, mudslides, drought. There you go.
But you're enjoying yourself out there, and you're not limiting yourself to just there.
I see you posting online that you're in Vegas a lot because it's just a short drive away.

(41:07):
We go to Vegas for trips because we're so close, so we do go to Vegas every
once in a while. I'll see some shows.
You know, I do like to watch the live entertainment. I miss a lot of it from
the days when Ed Sullivan was on.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Those days are just so far behind us now. It's amazing.
Yeah. Variety shows. I mean, all the talk shows. Mike Douglas,

(41:30):
Burt Griffin. Those were great days to grow up and see entertainment.
That's true. All the old comics are all gone now. Yeah, that's true.
That was always what I wanted to be, an old-time vaudeville comedian. There you go.
So you had launched something not long after you got out there because of the
unfortunate circumstance of the COVID and the shutdown.

(41:52):
And I think this was just very smart thinking on your part because,
you know, we needed some relief from what we were going through.
So tell folks how the idea came about and what you did.
Well, when we got the news that COVID was going to be locked up for two weeks,
you know, it was only going to be two weeks. Right.

(42:14):
So I told Debbie, I says, what am I going to do? I says, I got to come up with
something to do because I can't just sit here and not go anywhere or do anything.
So I just said, I'm going to get a trivia book out of my closet and just do a trivia show.
So I went on March 17th, 2020, practically the day of lockdown.
Yeah. Turned on Facebook and just did a 30 minute show.

(42:38):
I gave away a prize at the end. And then I go, I got done and the people showed
up and I go, I'm going to do this tomorrow and the next day and the next.
And I just did it for the whole 2020, almost seven days a week. Wow.
For 2020. And then I go, well, I'm going to stop. And people would know, keep going.

(43:01):
So I just kept going and then wound up as of the last couple of weeks ago,
you know, doing the 600 show.
From an out outside an old red lobster, it's Trivia Time's 600th episode.
It's time for a man who went from being unknown to total obscurity in just a few short years.

(43:25):
The Trivia King, the one, the only Bob Carroll.
Music.
Welcome everybody welcome everybody for the show 600

(43:46):
i'm waiting for at least 599
shows i went down to four days a
week and then three days and two and then one and i go
because it's a lot it was a lot of work towards the end
yeah anybody that's watched it and and you can still see
some of it online you've you've got i know that i found your
600th show on youtube tube so folks want

(44:07):
to go and and and see that and that's interesting
because it's kind of a retrospective of
your career a little bit isn't it that 600 show yeah yeah i had my vent tax
on there and some of the other stuff i've done with people's on there yeah tv
show that i did out in vegas we did a pilot for hi friends fetch it smith here

(44:28):
for fetch it smith use pets that's right we've You've got them.
Anything that you want. Your little heart desires. A goldfish that can't swim.
A bent pussycat. A straight camel. We even got a dog that stutters. Bow, bow, bow, bow, bow.
So come on down and see us. That's right.
That's right. We have them all for you. A little bit of magic and ventriloquism.
I love doing the variety shows. Sure, sure. On a trivia show.

(44:51):
Yeah. Because it gets my, the people who are viewers are also entertainers.
Yeah. A lot of them are magicians or magicians or ventriloquists or singers
or they do some kind of entertainment.
And that's how I got my audience for the trivia time.
There you go. So I did that. And then I said I stopped at 600,

(45:12):
but I told him I'd come back and do it once a month.
It's a lot more work now because it wasn't just it was trivia in the beginning.
And then I started adding jokes and then comedy bits and then more production and games and puzzles.
And so it got to be a big production after a while.
And very well done. I mean, you know, I've watched a little bit of it and you

(45:35):
can tell you're having fun.
And hey, those old jokes have to go somewhere.
Exactly. You know. You gotta keep, today they're called dad jokes.
Exactly. Actually, yeah, I remember when I sat and watched you a little bit
trying to do the Guinness book thing, I'm sitting there watching you do it.

(45:58):
And I realized that you didn't go all that long before you started repeating jokes.
And I said, well, he can't have 24 hours or even 12 hours of,
of, you know, straight material. I mean, he's going to have to repeat.
And we all did that in radio. I mean, I used to, you know, the,
the lines that I thought really worked. I made sure I kept them,

(46:18):
and a year later, I would do them again on my weekly radio thing.
Who's going to be listening that was listening a year ago and remember that I said that then?
That I picked up from Boom Boom Branigan, if you remember that name,
obviously. Oh, yeah. I remember Boomer. Yep, yep.
Always record hot. I helped carry his records. Yeah, did you?

(46:39):
You're not the only one. There are quite a few in this market that did that. Yeah, yeah.
Can I help you up to the gym with these? Yeah, there you go.
Yeah. Oh man. No, just, uh, you know, great memories there, but you gotta,
at least once a month, you gotta do something.
Maybe you can get the Guinness book again for how long you've,

(47:01):
you know, done this, uh, this type of, uh, entertaining.
Well, people think that the 600 shows it was, but then I also did variety shows of the people.
So it was more than just to 600.
Ah okay well so putting in the hours
before you do a show was the hard part because yeah
coming up with trivia without trying to repeat anything was the toughest part

(47:24):
of all yeah yeah you know so i mean i would have different categories just like
jeopardy and wheel of fortune categories but it that's the hardest part because
what can i show them that they haven't seen before Exactly, exactly.
Because mostly it's the same people over and over again. It can be.
Who come to the show. That's true, that's true.

(47:45):
And the thing of it is, I realized that during COVID, we lost a couple of viewers during COVID.
And they lost their spouses, but they stuck it out with the show.
Nice. And they became friends across the country with each other.
Well, once again, you were doing a service for folks. I mean,
you were taking us out of that funk we were in and entertaining us a bit and

(48:09):
just had something to look forward to every night, you know? Yeah.
And we only had one stipulation, no politics.
There you go. Smart. Smart man. It makes the world a happier place. Exactly. Exactly.
Now, you're also a published author. We should mention that.
You've got a couple of books I know have come across my desk here over the years.

(48:30):
So can we still find these tomes? somewhere,
Yeah, they're in the bargain bin at Amazon. That's where my memoir is right now.
Yeah, yeah. I just noticed recently they lowered their price by about six bucks a pop.
I just wanted to get them off the shelf. Yeah, there you go.
There you go. So tell the folks what those titles are.

(48:53):
The one book, it's about magicians, but it's also kind of an entertaining story
about trips on the road and stuff. was The World's Most Famous Unknown Magician
and Ventriloquist, a real long title.
For a real short book.
And the other one is called My Favorite Jokes. I used to post,
in fact, I still do, I post jokes on Facebook every single day just to make

(49:18):
people laugh or even groan, I don't care, as long as I get a response.
And so Debbie said to me, this was years ago, why don't you write a joke book?
I said, where am I going to get those jokes? She says, you already posted them. That's it.
That's it. Absolutely. So I did.
I copied and pasted all the books into a book and put it on the market.
Excellent. Excellent. If you're an entertainer or a disc jockey and you need

(49:42):
some material, that's exactly where you can go find it. And I can attest to that.
I've used more than one of your lines on the radio. I'm not going to lie to you.
Yes. And my good friend, Mark Fuller, who still does a radio show,
we went to high school together, and he's out in Syracuse area.
I still read my Joe books.

(50:03):
You're going to live forever, Bob. Well, it just seems that way.
More and more every day. Exactly. Well, I tell people I'm going to live forever,
and they look at me funny, and I say, well, so far, so good.
Well, I never thought when you're growing up that things you grew up with would no longer be there.

(50:24):
That's true. You know, that's always the thing that makes you sad.
Bad you go that amusement park's not
there anymore it's now just a park or you
know that boss is not there who i really
liked or yeah you know these people that you miss but along the way you go when
i drive through saratoga go where's the radio station i used to yeah no not

(50:48):
there anymore yeah so there's the parking lot but exactly exactly yeah yeah
it's it's crazy yeah Yeah,
and sometimes it's just the parking lot that's left. Exactly.
There's nothing else there. Yeah, yeah.
It's just the nature of things. You got to be ready for change.
Yeah, exactly. But it's been a charmed life.

(51:11):
I think back, I said, I wouldn't change a thing about what I did.
Good for you. Whether it was right or wrong.
I think it's everybody's.
Right to do what they want to do for a living, or try to make their dream come true.
Yeah, yeah. No, I feel the same way. I don't regret a day.
And my life took a real weird, you know, turns along the way and strange,

(51:33):
you know, corners and such.
And yet I wouldn't change a thing. It all seemed to unfold the way it should for some crazy reason.
Exactly. When I left radio, I
was kind of sad because that was the
catalyst that got me going into show business sure yeah but
then in the same sense as i wanted to be out

(51:53):
there with people so i could see people because radio
is a lonely business it it is and and that's
maybe where we're different i i really
didn't need the live audience i in high school
i did the school plays and the talent show and
stuff like that and it wasn't bad but the second i left
high school i stopped you know stage appearances because i

(52:15):
was now on the radio and that was for me
was fine when you put me in front of a group of
people i'm just not as comfortable as i was with
that sole microphone in front of me and being alone
in the studio and and so that's that's my
that's where my that's when i was most comfortable anyway and so
to me i i really like working at every

(52:36):
radio station i was was that it just the fact the
the pay wasn't great let's put it down yeah that's true
you really couldn't live on it no no no no you you
had you had to make other income yeah yeah exactly in
those days you know it's not like the you know the big radio station stars that
they have today but it was it was fun while it lasted but then i said once i

(52:57):
found show business and another storm i said this is what i really want to do
there you go well bob it sounds like things are good you You sound healthy.
I know you're enjoying life out there.
Your son followed you into the business.
Tell us a little bit about what he does, and then we'll wrap this up.
Okay. He cad into show business and the other side of it and directing and producing

(53:22):
and being an executive producer for a lot of shows that people might have seen, like the shows that...
Called Botched, where they do plastic surgery. He helped make that show and produce and direct it.
He's done the Real Housewives shows.
He's done a lot of different reality shows along the way. Cool.

(53:44):
Good for him. And he's done documentaries, and he's working on one now.
It's going to be in the theater. And I don't know exactly the name of it,
but I know it's about West Point. Interesting. Very good. Well, congratulations.
You know, the legacy lives on. I'm glad it does.
And we're, I'm, I'm just better than you do. And you always do.

(54:05):
You absolutely always do.
Bob, thank you for taking the time today and then sharing your story with us.
I know it wasn't a whole life of radio, but you've, you've clearly explained
how important that part of your life was.
And, and you made a, yeah. And, and you made a lot of friends here that still
remember you and still talk about you.

(54:26):
And, you know, most of us are retired, but we just sit around and chew the fat
and say, remember that crazy guy that used to do the, you know,
the puppets and the ventriloquism and the magic.
And yeah, so you're, you're, you're, you know, might be on the other coast,
but you're not forgotten.
And, uh, we, uh, I'm, I'm just so happy that our paths crossed for us a few,

(54:47):
the few months that they did, you know, back in the, in the 1972, 73 in there somewhere.
And I appreciate it. Thanks for letting me sleep under the console,
which you really should have done. so you could be there when the station needed
to be signed on instead of coming in five minutes after six. Yeah.

(55:07):
Oh, great, great memories. Great talking with you, Bob. Take care. Stay healthy, okay?
All right, thanks. Radio Split Ranch.
Funny how life works, isn't it? As I was editing this particular podcast and
listening to Bob talk about living in California among the mudslides, wildfires, drought,
and earthquakes, The desk in my studio shook for about 10 to 15 seconds as the

(55:33):
northeast was moved by a 4.8 measured earthquake centered somewhere in New Jersey.
You can't make this stuff up. As Bob mentioned earlier in our podcast,
he only worked at five radio stations when he was young and also had a very
short-lived magic show on Albany TV.
So, if we add his six sets of call letters to our running total of stations

(55:55):
visited by all of our 31 guests so far, our grand total has reached 311.
I wonder how many of those stations are still broadcasting from their original locations.
See, when you're checking out the two books that Bob has available through Amazon.com,
please feel free to check out my memoir, I'll Have to Ask My Mom.

(56:16):
Bob's mentioned in there.
It's all about my entry into the industry as a young man.
It's bargain-priced, fitting for the humor that it was written with.
I know you've been wondering through this whole podcast this month,
Is there any record of Warren and Bob's time together on WKAJ in Saratoga Springs?
Well, you're in luck, I guess.

(56:36):
Yes, from March 29, 1973, got a quick clip of me doing morning drive.
This is like air check 30 minutes tops with a little help from Bob doing the
intro and outro to, of course, the local school lunch menus. This is 1973.
We read those at least twice every weekday morning. This was my first job out

(56:58):
of college, so please be kind in your critique of this not-quite-21-year-old
trying to wake up Saratoga with a smile.
It's evident I was having an off morning. And if this doesn't scare you too
badly, please join me again next month on the Radio Split Ranch.
In the meantime, don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

(57:19):
Right, Ben's shiny day. Well, I don't know. We have clouds in the forecast for
the WKHA listening area, but you can't have everything. It's a Thursday.
We're heading downhill toward the weekend, 14 and a half minutes after 6 o'clock
and 34 in Saratoga Spring.
And welcome to a Thursday Garlingo Round. We'll be here until 9 o'clock for
our first portion this morning.
Then we hop on back for our second chance, which we need almost every day, from 10 to noon.

(57:42):
So if you're planning on spending the day inside, we've got plenty of entertainment
for you, and it starts right now.
And now it's time to check the school lunch program.
Take it away, Mr. Radio Pronouncer. sir. Thank you, kindness, sir. We'll do that.
It's getting stranger every day, folks. St. Peter's Elementary School hot lunch
menu calls for, let's see, Thursday.

(58:03):
Yes, that's the 29th. Let's just write that on my fingers here.
Hot dog on roll, buttered vegetable, pudding, and milk.
That's over at St. Peter's, their hot lunch menu for today.
Checking quickly with St. Clement's School, their hot lunch menu.
Hamburg on bun, wax beans, rice with gravy, cookies, and milk. Let's hear it, folks.
Saratoga Springs City School District. First of all, the junior and senior high,

(58:23):
spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans, bread and butter, jello, and milk.
And over at the elementary city schools today, Thursday, hot dog with beans,
roll, peach crisp, and, of course, milk.
And that's our first check of the school lunch menus this morning.
Can you imagine doing this for a living?
Ha ha ha. Yes, folks. He gets shorter every day, too. 6.16, our time and music

(58:45):
on the morning side from yours truly, the Garland Go Round.
Sports. Ed Engels on sports. Keith Morris of Sports Illustrated.
Live local sports coverage. Four sportscasts each day. The biggest sport in town.
Music.

(59:09):
Hasn't yet been able to figure out when the 12th of never is.
Must come sometime after the 13th hour, or it must come after December 31st
and before January 1st. But he's making a hit out of it anyway.
Donny Osmond on the morning show at 19 minutes after 6 o'clock.
Temperature reading of 34 degrees. Calling for variable cloudiness and mild
weather today, tonight, and tomorrow.
Chance of a few showers here and there. And the high temperatures both days

(59:31):
from the 50s to around 60.
Low tonight will be in the low 40s. There's a 40% chance of rain today.
That increases to 50% overnight. night, down to 30% for tomorrow,
a Friday heading into the weekend.
Right now, again, in Saratoga, 35 degrees.
And now, as a public service of WKAJ, we present news from the world of agriculture.

(59:53):
And now, here's your Farm Bureau reporter, Joe Peck. Good morning.
It's a further development.
And due to difficulties beyond our control this morning, we don't have Bernard
Brenner and the Farm Show Report.
Mainly, I am the difficult this morning, the difficulty.
In any event, we've got some good music for you. The night the lights went out
in Georgia because the governor didn't pay the bills. We're going home from Candle Dock.

(01:00:14):
Sounds like a nice, friendly town, doesn't it? Yeah.
626 in Saratoga Springs, a temperature reading of 36 degrees now,
heading toward a high near 60 today.
I'm Warren Garling. Thank goodness. I'm looking all over for my name.
Found Robert Hall inside my coat, but that wasn't it. Here's some memories for you from 72.

(01:00:35):
Everybody's gone away. All right, time for your morning whistling exercises. Let's go now. Pucker up.
Music.

(01:00:56):
Oh, it's gorgeous. I didn't know you could do so well. Fantastic.
36 degrees, we're approaching 630, and time for news once again.
This is WKAJ AM and FM, Saratoga Springs, New York.
900 on your AM dial, 102.3 on your FM dial.
Today's top story, the last American prisoners and the last U.S. troops leave Vietnam.

(01:01:21):
WKAJ and United President National have a full report.