Tim Camp Was a Genius

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Five till seven.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
What time is it, Henry?

Speaker 3 (00:07):
What time is it?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Press of message deleted.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
It says the Uncle Henry Show here on news radio
seven ten WNTIM. I'm Uncle Henry. In case you're wondering,
that's me. Thank you. I appreciate very much you listening
to the Uncle Henry Show. I really do. You can

(01:24):
also watch. You can look. If you'd like to see
an older man standing in front of a microphone struggling
to survive, you can watch the Uncle Henry Show live
on the YouTube. Look for Uncle Henry's Show on YouTube
and you can see me there struggling. Well, once again,
here we are together, me and you trying to figure
out what is going on? What is then it's more
important than ever to figure it out what is going

(01:47):
on in the world around us. Now, you can come
and join the show on the telephone if you want
to get up in here with me and talk to
me and talk to the listeners. Two five one four
seven nine two telephone number. There's two five one four
seven nine two seven two three. And as usual, lots
and lots of stuff to talk about. With the continuing

(02:08):
reaction to the political assassination. Last week, you got Mobile's
mayor's race with a debate. Tonight you can watch Spiro
and Barbara Drummond on Fox ten at six o'clock. They're
doing a debate just the two of them on Fox
ten at six o'clock this evening. We can talk about
all this stuff as we move forward and the Uncle
Andrew Show. Before we go any further, though, I just

(02:30):
want to say a few words about a friend of
mine named Tim Camp. Tim Camp got the word that
Tim Camp passed away over the weekend. Tim Camp, who
I met and worked with that WABB back in the
nineteen eighties, and Tim went on quite a career locally,

(02:53):
extremely important to local radio. Tim Camp first working with
Ken Johnson, and I don't even remember the company what
they called the company at that point, back when they
had in this building that I'm in right now, they
had one of the first groups under consolidation in the

(03:16):
country to have multiple radio stations under one roof. That
used to be something that wasn't allowed. And then when
broadcast rules were changed, one of the first companies in
the country to do it was located in Mobile with
Ken Johnson and Tim Camp. And then of course Tim
went on later with Ken Johnson and had ninety two,
ZOO and WNSP and all that kind of stuff. Tim Camp.

(03:40):
You may have heard him on the radio on the
Zoo or heard about him, but I want to tell
you somebody that knew him, worked with him and worked
for him. I considered him a genius of a guy. Yes,
and I don't call a lot of people that, but
he was. To me. He was a genius type of guy,
as he had the ability he could come into this

(04:02):
building or any other building, and as a broadcast engineer,
he could create the studio. He could build the studio,
understood how all the equipment worked, made all of the
equipment work together. Great sound engineer, he could make it
sound great. He also had the knowledge to actually program

(04:23):
the radio stations, and you can see running the Zoo,
running NSP, running all those other radio stations for years.
I had the business acumen to actually keep them on
the air. I can remember a time in let's see,
before twenty ten, we had some big financial problems at

(04:45):
the end of George W. Bush into Barack Obama, and
a lot of broadcast entities had a lot of trouble then.
And he really he's in the Zoo, is still on
the air for those that love that radio stations because
that guy, he told me stories of him going into

(05:07):
banks trying to get loans to make payday from from
one week to the next week, just to keep those
stations on the air. Tim cupt those stations on the
air his efforts. But a genius, I can tell you.
He could work on the station and install all the equipment,
figure out how everything should work, wire it all together,

(05:31):
do it for a number of stations in a building.
He could program the stations. He was also a musician.
Tim was also a musician. He could even come up
with the music to play on the radio station if
he wanted to. I remember the first time I saw
Tim perform as a musician was in the early nineties.

(05:51):
I was working at WABB doing mornings there and was
invited to go to krock Myers on Florida Street, back
when Krockmeers was on Florida Street and Tim was playing
Krockmeres as a two man band with Jason Green of

(06:12):
Jason's Gym on Cottage Road. Tim Camp and Jason Green.
And I'll never forget because I didn't know that Tim
was a musician, so I was just shocked to walk
in and see the engineer in there in Krockmeres just
doing an incredible job. They did a lot of David Bowie.

(06:33):
I remember, I vividly remember the ground control to Major
Time song being performed by Tim Camp and Jason Green
there at krock Myers. Great memory for me. And later
saw Tim performing music at Mike Brazil's wedding Michael Stewart,

(06:53):
he was known as Marathon Mike on wabb Marathon Mike
had a big wedding at one point, and Tim was
the Tim was in charge of the music at the
wedding and performed at the wedding. In fact, it was
that that wedding that Tim Camp gave me advice on women.
The late Tim Camp came up to me at the

(07:15):
wedding after he had performed, and if I remember correctly,
I might have officiated or been one of the officiants
at the wedding that was. It was one of those
events where your memory might be a little cloudy from participating.
But I'll never figure what he told me about women.
He was giving me advice on women, and he said, Henry,

(07:39):
the only thing now again this take it for what
it's worth. He said, the only thing necessary to have. Well,
never mind, I'm not I'm not going to share that
memory with you. I apologize for teasing you with it,
but I don't know. Maybe the quote would be misinterpreted

(08:00):
modern times. But he gave me perhaps a chauvinistic quote
about married life there at the wedding there with Michael Stewart.
But Tim Camp I talk about him as a genius.
He really he could predict the future in this industry,
and I saw him do it. He was the first

(08:23):
guy to really push for all sports radio. The first
all sports radio station on the Gulf Coast was because
Tim Camp pushed for it and worked with Faulkner to
get it going, became WNSP. I watched him do it.
I watched him making the plans for it back when
he was at WABB and then later here. There's more

(08:50):
I could say, and I think I will if you
don't mind, just a few more minutes on this. Tim
Camp a genius. This is the Uncle Henry Show. News

(09:22):
Radio seven to ten WNTM. It is five twenty news
headlines coming up in ten minutes. Telephone number two five
one four seven nine two seven two three. That's two
five one four seven nine two seven two three email address,
Uncle Henrid iHeartMedia dot com. That's Uncle henriy iHeartMedia dot com.
In the last segment of the show, I was just

(09:43):
sharing a few thoughts on Tim Camp, who passed away
over the weekend. Tim Camp, who was a owner, one
of the owners of ninety two zoo, w NSP and
the other stations over in that group. And I was
describing Tim somebody I worked with times, and I was
describing him as a genius and trying to explain why

(10:05):
I would describe him that way. And I mentioned right
before going to break and I promised not to take
up too much more of your time with this, but
I watched him through the years look into the future,
and he always could figure out where the radio industry
was headed looking into the future. He just had he

(10:27):
just there was something about him. He could see around
the corner in a way that a lot of people
could not. I've worked with a lot of really smart people,
all of them smarter than me. He seemed to have
that odd quality of being able to see around the
corner and no where things were headed. I mentioned that
he he provided sports radio for the Gulf Coast. He

(10:51):
was the first to figure out that this was going
to be something that would make money. I know now
it seems like a foregone conclusion that if you just
put a bunch of sports on something, people to it.
He was one of the first to go out there
and really make it happen. I watched him work on
sports radio from when he worked with me at WABB,
then when he worked with me here, and then later

(11:12):
left and went over and started WSP. It took that
long to get it all figured out and to get
it up and go and monetize it the way it
needed to be monetized. But that was a big tim
Camp project. Other people helped him, but it was his
vision for it, and he's the reason it exists on

(11:32):
the Gulf Coast and of course now copycats all over
the country in sports radio. Also, he was one of
the first, with Ken Johnson, to work for a a
what you would call a broadcast group. Back before radio
got deregulated in the eighties and then later into the nineties,

(11:56):
you could not own no company could own more than
one FM and one AM radio station in a broadcast market.
Those rules got changed after a wave of deregulation in
the eighties and then in the nineties, Congress made it
so that it could be corporate and lots of stations,

(12:20):
that you could own a lot of stations in one town.
And Tim camp and Ken Johnson saw that, and they
were one of the They might have been the first
in the country to have multiple stations all under one
roof in the same town. If they weren't the first,
they were one of the first three or four in

(12:42):
the country to do that when they did that here
in the building that I'm in right now. And whether
we like the effects of it or not, that is
the way the entire industry went to it. They saw it,
They saw it coming now all so they named their company.

(13:05):
Tim made them name their company dot com Plus or
something like that, because even when streaming was just first starting,
there were no apps for it. You would have to
go to a website. You'd have to visit a radio
station's website to see if they were putting their content
there and where you could hear it. They saw that coming.

(13:29):
Tim saw that coming and said, we need to be
dot com. That needs to be the name of our
company should be dot com, and we should all be
about streaming and the importance of the inner he just
saw it all coming and and I've touched on this
briefly in the first segment of the show this hour.

(13:51):
For those of you that are fans of the station
that he worked for ninety to two, Zoo, you're a
fan of that, I know a lot of people are
very passionate about that station, have been since early nineties,
maybe even late late eighties. Now. Cat came up with
the branding of that station, Cat Certain. He came up

(14:12):
with the branding, created the image for it, and programmed
the early years of it and really cemented the identity
of that radio station. That was Cat Certain, But it
was Tim Camp coming in later that kept it alive
many many times. The thing could have gone under and

(14:36):
not been a part of mobile radio had it not
been for Tim and Ken Johnson recognizing the value of
it and keeping it going all these years. So for
those that love that station, they've got a lot to
thank Tim Camp for. One of my favorite things about

(14:59):
him as he worked I worked at WABB for seven
or eight years, loved my time there. It really made
me who I am, and he was a huge part
of WABB. I think he was the person on the
air when they launched their FM signal. Correct me if

(15:25):
I'm wrong Radio files. I think he was the guy
on the air. In fact, I think he was on
AM radio on fourteen eighty AM and I think he
was said something in the microphone, went out, gott in
a vehicle and drove down the road to where they

(15:47):
were going to be at wabb and then went on
the air on the FM. I think I don't know
if that's somebody can correct me on that story, but
I think that Tim was the guy that was there
for that big transition of going to FM radio for
that station. Tim worked very closely through the years with
Bernie Dittman, another legend in mobile radio. Bernie Ditman the

(16:08):
owner and operator of WABBAM and FM. These stories about
Bernie Dittman are legendary because Bernie was notoriously frugal. In fact,
when when I worked there, Bernie wanted to give away
one concert ticket and try to sell the other ticket
to the listener that won the first ticket, and we

(16:29):
had to tell him, no, you can't do that, you
can't do that. My favorite Bernie story came from Tim Camp.
Tim Camp was Bernie's chief engineer. They had a part
at the transmitter went banned, and Tim Camp wanted to
He needed to buy a replacement part, and so he
called an electronics company. This was before the internet. He

(16:51):
called an electronics company, I think in Chicago and asked
him about sending the part. And they said, oh you, well,
you you should. We've got a franchise down a mobile
you should call them. And Tim said, well, I never
heard of this electronics store. What's it called? And the
people said, it's Ditman Electronics. And what it was was

(17:18):
Bernie had created a fake electronics store so that he
could get the electronic prices at wholesale prices. I can't
tell you any of the other stories that Tim told
me because there's still people alive. But Tim Camp rest

(17:39):
in peace. Tim Camp got me two important jobs in
my life. He put in good words for me two
times I was hired. I will always be grateful to
Tim Camp. It says the Uncle Henry Show here on

(18:09):
news Radio seven ten WNTM. It's five thirty five. If
there's something you want to talk about, feel free to
call me two five one four seven nine two seven
two three. That's two five one four seven nine two
seven two three. Email address Uncle Henry at iHeartMedia dot com.
That's Uncle Henry at iHeartMedia dot com. Now, for those

(18:34):
that live in Mobile that are interested in the election,
the mayoral runoff that is coming up on the twenty
third tonight, there is a debate between state Representative Barbara
Drummond and former judge Spiro Chergatis. That's going to be
on Fox ten at six o'clock. Now, I will not
be able. I'll be here, I won't be able to

(18:55):
watch it, but uh, you watch it for me and
tell me about it. That's at six o'clock tonight on
Fox ten. And are there people that still haven't made
up their mind?

Speaker 5 (19:10):
Now?

Speaker 4 (19:10):
No, to you. You listen to news talk radio and
you you you keep up with news, and you're interested
in the world around you. You're a very curious person
if you listen to this station. So you've probably made
up your mind. But there are a lot of people
they don't know. They can't figure it out. So this
may I hope this can help these folks. Again, that's
at six o'clock tonight. There's more to talk about, but

(19:32):
first let me go to the phones.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Hello caller, Hey, Uncle Henry.

Speaker 4 (19:37):
Hello, there you are live on the radio.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Hey, uncle Henry, it's Mary Ellen. I just wanted to
tell you that I listened to you and I was
so sad yesterday to hear about Tim Camp.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
Yeah. Uh, and Mary Ellen listeners. She worked with Tim
as well at WABB.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
I'm good. I had the pleasure of working with them
for many years and we were still friends. And I
sat Marty Garl down it in all of the ninety
two zoo people. They were just so wonderful and he
was so wonderful, and I just am so sad that
I feel for him, his family and his children.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
And now do you agree with do you agree with
me that that he was a genius? This is a
genius guy.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
I had so many stories. And I worked at w A. D. D.
In the eighties me too, and uh. We had the
giant telephones that were in the bag that we carried
around for yes, kept us on the air. And I
remember one time we had a concert at the Liberal

(20:40):
Civic Center and we had we used to put the
dinner machine in the lobby for the you know, when
the people came in for the concert and gave away
all kind of exciting trinkets and did live broadcast and
when we got there. They said we could not bring
the dinner machine in because that had gasoline in it.

(21:02):
So me, Tom Camp and Chuck Maury, the sales manager,
we were siphoning out gasoline in the parking lot so
that we could bring the dinner machine into the lock.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
You siphoned the gas out of the dinner machine so
that you could what push it into the lobby of
the Civic center.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yes, because we could not bring it in because I
had like a quarder of the tank of gas in
it or something and it was a danger or fire hazard.
So we had this plastic tube and we were taking turns.
God only knows. Thank god, we didn't get any kind
of COVID or disease. I had to siphe them. We
took times sipening out the gasoline from the dinner machine

(21:43):
so that we could put it in the lobby.

Speaker 4 (21:45):
I've never heard that story before, now do you remember?
Was it?

Speaker 1 (21:50):
And everybody was smoking but me like, and I was like,
I think this is danger in it. And I was
a I started out as an intern at Springhilme College.
Thanks to John Bowler. He holded me as an intern
and or laid that into a promotions position.

Speaker 4 (22:12):
And did a great job at that promotion. But I
want to know, though, do you remember was it Tim's
idea to simphon the gas or was it Chuck Mory's idea.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
I think it was probably Tim, because Chuck probably wouldn't
have come up with that. Maybe, I'm sure. But Tim
was the mcgiver of the radio station if you know
who McGuire was. Yeah, but he could take any situation
and make it happen.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
That is that.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yes, he was a genius.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
And I was telling somebody, you know, he wired this
this this facility that I'm in right now. He spent
a couple of years wiring up all these studios. I
don't know. At one time we had six or eight
studios in the same building. After he left Mary Ellen.
It took the engineers that came after him two or
three years to map out what he had done.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
I believe it.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
They couldn't figure it out.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
I believe it. And I remember that we would go
and hang from a Winnebago camper and find this thermalall
and he would have everything set up and the DJs
would just go in the air like you know now
you just use sull phones or whatever. He knew exactly
what he was doing. God bless him, God bless him.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Well, I'll let you get Uncle Henry that I love
you and congratulations on your marriage. And you know we
all need a reunion sometime because we don't tell each
other we love to other enough.

Speaker 4 (23:51):
I agree, I love you too and would love to
have a reunion.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
All right, Will you take care of yourself?

Speaker 4 (23:58):
You too? Thank you, Mary Ellen. There she goes Mary Ellen,
who worked at WABB also in promotions and did some
other things. I think she her voice was used on
the air from time to time as well. I think
we did a parody song once, the Billy Joel song

(24:22):
we Didn't Start the Fire. We did a version of
of that that was will Uncle Henry retire? And I
believe she was used. She was brought in. I say, used,
I can't carry a tune, and when I tried to
sing it, they said, no, you cannot, and they brought

(24:42):
Mary Ellen in to sing the chorus to that parody song.
So yes, anyway, thank you Mary Ellen. For sure, that
is a WABV story. I'd never heard about having to
siphon gas out of the denim machine to get it
into the old auditorium two five one four seven nine
two seven two three. The telephone number here on the
Uncle In Show, that's two five one four seven nine

(25:03):
two seven two three. Email address Uncle Henry at iHeartMedia
dot com. That's Uncle Henry at iHeartMedia dot com. Uh,
those days of radio where we didn't have the technology
that we have now, lots of fun stories of people
trying to figure out how to make things work on
the fly. You have a lot. She referred to him

(25:26):
as a mcgiver. You just had to do that back
in the day. You just had to just about just
about everybody that worked in it, even the on the
air people like me, had to have some element of
being able to figure out how to fix something mechanical
because you never know when when it was going to

(25:47):
go bad there in those old days of radio. And
another part of the fun was you had to have
the play staff twenty four hours a day, so there
was always there was always something going on up there.
You might not have wanted it going on, but there
was always something going on up there. All right, let's

(26:09):
see what else can we get into before I go
to break here on the Uncle Henry Show. Also I
mentioned Fox ten is doing their debate the mayor's debate
tonight at six o'clock. Also heard the story in the
Fox News from Cameron Taylor, the local Fox News that

(26:29):
Pritchard is having a parade tomorrow night. Pritchard is celebrating
it's one hundredth anniversary and they're doing a parade tomorrow
night at six o'clock for this in Prichard. And I
want to I'm not wearing a hat, but if I

(26:50):
were wearing one, I would say hats off to the
city fathers and mothers of Pritchard for going ahead and
celebrating they're one hundred anniversary, because unfortunately, through the years
there have not there's just not been a lot to
celebrate with Pritchard. They've had a lot of struggles. As

(27:12):
you've been aware as a citizen, there's just a lot
of struggles they're in Prichard. At one point I wondered
would it be worthwhile to just dissolve it and let
it become a part of the county because of all
of the difficulties that they had with their city. But
you can tell by the number of people that ran

(27:32):
for office in Prichard. There's some people in Pritchard, that
love Pritchard, that want Pritchard to succeed. They wanted to
do better, and I wish them the best. And the
fact that they that they love their town enough to
hold a celebration like this good for them. I have

(27:52):
to get a turnout. Are back with more after the break,
it says the Uncle Henry Show. It's five point fifty
news headlines coming up in ten minutes. You can also

(28:15):
hear me on FM radio. I'm allowed to broadcast on
ninety five KSJ Monday through Friday from ten to two tomorrow,
I'll have your chance to win tickets to see Billy Carrington.
He's going to be in concert at the sound Amphitheater
in Ghatche. He'll be there Friday night, September twenty sixth

(28:38):
Billy Carrington. And the way we're giving away tickets is
playing KSJ karaoke where we ask you to sing one
line of a Billy Carrington song to win the tickets.
My winner today was a guy named Jason Jordan of
ken Toonman, Florida. Here he is singing for me, God.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Is great, being good and people are crazy.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
Now see, aren't those wonderful lyrics to a song.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
God is good, God is great, biz good.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
God is great. Pardon me, Lord, God is great, God.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Is great, beiz good and people are crazy?

Speaker 4 (29:18):
All right? He won the tickets. Just with that, I'll
be what do you We'll be doing that tomorrow. I'll
have your chance to win at eleven fifteen tomorrow if
you're if you want to win those tickets, KSJ. Karaoke
tomorrow at fifteen minutes past eleven with me on ninety
five ks J two five one four seven nine two

(29:38):
three the telephone number, Hello, their.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Caller, Hey, Oprah, Henry, are you.

Speaker 4 (29:44):
Doing snake trapper? Snake traveler?

Speaker 2 (29:46):
You are live on the radio, Henry. I will not
be listening to the debate tonight, for one, I'll be
watching all Monday night football and it's two point inside
of my hands. But what I would love, well, mister
Cherry got us to do is to ask miss Drummond,

(30:06):
does she think that Donald Trump is the fastest and
if Republicans are racist and affect to democracy oncle Henry?

Speaker 3 (30:17):
In the reason I.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
Say that because she has been endorsed by people that
has uttered that word, and if not, does she denounce
them people that has endorsed her Uncle Henry, we are
in a fight for our life literally after what happened
to Charlie Kirk. We cannot sit by and not ask
the important questions. Let the voters know how a person stands,

(30:42):
Uncle Henry. I can remember the debate between Mitt Romney
and Barack Obama. Man he got in there and played softball.
Not that Romney would have been any better than Barack Obama,
he may have been the man. He got in there
and played softball and just basically laid down for him.
We cannot allow this to happen, over Henry, this is
a bat we have got to win. And uh, I

(31:05):
would like for uh, for Judge Terry Gotters to to
ask the test when when he gets.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
A chance over well and uh, we'll have to Well,
I'll let you know, since you're gonna watch money now
for football, I'll let you know if he asks it.
I was looking at Foxten's website and they say that
that Lanis Lagan and Cameron Taylor will they will be
moderating the debate and they have a uh they're doing
it with the Chamber of Commerce. Uh so I don't

(31:32):
think they'll ask they I don't think they'll ask the
questions you want asked, uh, but you never know what
Spirow might ask. You're right, so we'll just have to
wait and see.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yes, sir, I mean, like I said on Henry, the
days of playing easy with Comcast is over. We we
have got to beat this out of the all, Uncle Henry,
or this country will be destroyed. And this woman being
endorsed by people that were in the uh uh, the
Biden administration that has utter them words, Uncle Henry, and

(32:04):
Cluton Kamala Harris herself. I mean she was asked by
Andrew Cooper, is Donald Trump a fascist?

Speaker 3 (32:11):
And she said yes.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Well I want people to know that one of them
shellcasing that was in that kid's rifle that was meant
for Charlie Kirk had that exact word on it. Uncle Henry.
We are in a battle for our life. We cannot
lay down anymore.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
All right, Well again, Snake Trapper will watch the debate.
I'll let you know if that ever comes up.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Well, Uncle Henry, I appreciate it, buddy, and you have
a good day.

Speaker 4 (32:37):
Hey you to Snake Trapper, thank you for your phone call.
And there he goes. And Snake Trapper, if you are listening,
at some point, I'm going to need a snake call
because we are going we're going into a drought. The
temperatures were remaining quite warm here in the afternoons with

(33:00):
with drought type conditions. I would like you to at
some point this week, if you don't mind, call in
with some type of snake report, letting me and the
listener know the activities. What will the dryness combined with
a warmth? What kind of behavior should we notice from

(33:21):
our snake friends? All right, just about out of time
for this part of the Unkle Henry Show. There's more
coming up after six o'clock. But again, if you are
in front of a TV, you can watch Fox ten's
debate coming on here in just a few minutes between
Spiritual Agandas and State Representative Barbara Drummond. A reminder, if

(33:43):
you want to listen back to previous episodes of the
Uncle Henry Show, they're available as podcasts. You can find
those at NewsRadio seven ten dot com. You can find
my show and a lot of the other shows from
our radio station there at NewsRadio seven ten dot com,
or you can go to the heart Radio app look

(34:05):
for Uncle Henry Show on the iHeartRadio app and then
set a presett in the app for the show You'll
never miss any frustrating episode of the Uncle Henry Show.

(34:36):
You this Sysney Uncle Henry Show here on News Radio
seventy ten WNTM.

Speaker 5 (34:51):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
I really appreciate you listening to the Uncle Henry Show.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
I really do.

Speaker 4 (34:57):
I need every listener I can gain. Now coming up
this half hour, I got some news items to go over.
I might even get to a voicemail if I got
some time. Now, let me start with this. This is
not one of the most important news items. It might
not be important at all to you, but I just

(35:17):
I enjoy stories from the animal kingdom. Lots of calls
in twenty twenty five to The Uncle Henry Show about
possums and raccoons. I think Buford has left probably about
twenty five or thirty raccoon voicemails this year alone. We've
had a lot of animal talk on The Uncle Henry Show,
even a little skunk talk. I've got a news item

(35:38):
from Mississippi. Let's see Jackson, Mississippi TV station. They're reporting
on a gigantic twelve foot alligator that was caught in
Mississippi that weighed six hundred and twenty eight pounds. The
reason I want to share this story with you is
we get to hear all these wonderful Southern accents. Yes,

(36:03):
now you probably don't care, but I love Southern accents.
I love all the different types and variations of Southern accents.
I just love them. The people talk different from from
region to region. The accent of up around we Tumpka,
it's different from coastal Alabama accent. And this is different

(36:24):
from the accent you hear in Mississippi. So I just
I like hearing the accents. All right, let's listen together Jackson, Mississippi.
I believe the reporter here is Denautus Ledell of w
what is it WABG, Mississippi. I think there's a stepsister
station to Fox ten. Let's listen to this story about

(36:45):
a big gator getting caught.

Speaker 6 (36:48):
It's not every day a gator this size in the delta.

Speaker 5 (36:52):
And I say, in his foot and his foot was
bigger than my hand. I knew. Everybody's like, oh my god,
the man that.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
Is speaking now and again, I want to apologize for
radio not having pictures yet. Now we're still we're working
on it, but we haven't quite got to it. Yet
We're gonna still work on it. But right now, all
I can do is give you a vivid word picture
description of the man talking. The man talking about the
size of the gator is stout. I would say he's

(37:23):
stout in physical appearance, wearing a a T shirt. He's
bald headed on the top of his head, but he's
got a big old beard under his chin, so he's
got hair under his head but not on top of it.
Right back to the man with the accent.

Speaker 7 (37:44):
When I seen his foot and his foot was bigger
than my hand, I knew. Everybody's like, oh my god,
that way.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
And he's also he's wearing a Bass Pro Shop shirt.

Speaker 5 (37:54):
He's saying his head. And when he's saying his head,
I was like, WHOA.

Speaker 6 (37:58):
First time I get hung to aub Westerfield. His wife
and another group of men called this monster in the
Yaza River. The gator measure twelve feet in a weigh
six hundred and twenty eight pounds.

Speaker 4 (38:09):
All right, I got to stop there just to make
this comment. The first time gator hunter and he took
his wife along. Now this is let me applaud that marriage.
You know, if I don't know, what are the signs
that a marriage is strong. I'd say one sign that
a marriage is strong is if you take your wife
gator hunting with you. Now, that couple can probably go

(38:34):
through just about anything together. Life throws a lot of
challenges at you. You want somebody by your side in
a relationship that you would trust on a gator hunt.
Just remember this. If you have not married yet, and
we might have some bachelors out there that are in
their sixties, they haven't married yet, you need to look
for a woman that would hunt a gater with you.

(38:54):
All right. Back to the story about the gator hunting
couple and their friends.

Speaker 6 (38:58):
The Yaza River gator measure twelve feet in a weigh
six hundred and twenty eight pounds, wester Field City. It
took a team effort to break it in.

Speaker 5 (39:07):
I threw my hook over and hooked him in the side.

Speaker 7 (39:10):
And when I hooked him in the side, he just
took off, and I knew right then he was the
biggest thing we had ever seen. They put up a
battle for about forty minutes. We finally got him close
to the boat, and then we threw two big hook
sent him, got a noose on him, and we dispatched

(39:31):
the gator.

Speaker 6 (39:31):
Wesley Newton, owner of the Newton Shop shop, said he
got an early morning phone call about the.

Speaker 4 (39:36):
Gator Newton's Chomp Shop. If you want to know where
to get your gators chomped in Mississippi, it would be
Newton's Chomp Shop.

Speaker 6 (39:46):
And seeing it in person lit a fire in his eyes.

Speaker 5 (39:49):
He woke me up at two o'clock in the morning.
We come up here and spent a couple of hours
up here with it.

Speaker 4 (39:53):
Now this man is wearing a Newton's Chomp Shop T shirt.
He is wearing a camp, a ball camp worn backwards
on top of his head.

Speaker 5 (40:06):
He woke me up at two o'clock in the morning.
We come up here and spent a couple of hours
up here with it. And it was a sight, and
it was big.

Speaker 8 (40:12):
It was nice seeing the pictures of it.

Speaker 5 (40:16):
He said, I was in Hattiesburg whenever they brought.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
It to him.

Speaker 4 (40:19):
Now this is a kid. Now, hats off to the kid.
The kid is wearing his baseball camp the way a
person should wear it, facing forward.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
And he sent me pictures of it.

Speaker 8 (40:29):
It looked big in pictures, but seeing it in person,
it was yeah.

Speaker 6 (40:34):
Picture Newton says skinny processing and preparinga gator is a
job in a syl He asked thatchfas sized casses like
this one or why he loves what he does and.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
It makes it just that much more sight than whenever
something like this comes in, you know that trophy status,
especially around these parts of Mississippi.

Speaker 6 (40:52):
So what do you do with a gator that bit?

Speaker 4 (40:55):
That's a good question. What would you do with a
gator that big? I guess I'd have to call snake
trap and ask him what are we going to do
with this?

Speaker 6 (41:02):
Westerfield said they planned to cook it, mount the school
and stretch the skin on his wall. He advises in
one hunting gators to be causes and bring flends.

Speaker 7 (41:12):
Take somebody that's done it before, and put multiple people
on the boat, because if you hook into a big one,
you're not gonna be able to get him by yourself.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
All right, That was the story. I enjoyed the reporter's
accent as well. It was a story with wonderful accents,
highlighting the wonderful diversity of life here among human beings
in America. Uncle Henry Shaw moving forward to here on
news Radio seventy ten WNTM. Let's see before instead of

(41:42):
playing a voicemail, let me see if there's another news
item I can share with you, or something that looks
like a news item but really ain't one. In fact,
this qualifies. This is being presented as news, but it's
really an ad. There's a group called Toy Insider or
I don't know if there're a website or something, but
they've come out with their list of twenty twenty five's

(42:03):
hot twenty toys. These are the toys that are supposed
to be the most popular for Christmas this coming Christmas.
And I'm not going to read you all twenty toys.
I will highlight though they've got some. Listen to this.
This is one of the top twenty toys of the year.
It's something called Gooy Gooey Scented Slime. This is slime.

(42:28):
It's a kit for a child to make slime and
it's scented and they get to decorate the slime with charms,
beads and sparkles. Now this is whoever invented this, I
have to say admire them. They've created God. I mean,

(42:49):
they've taken something that sounds like playing in trash and
turn it into a toy that parents will buy. Slime
that you put sparkles end. I mean, I'm gonna start
selling dirt. I'm gonna look around see if I can
just sell some. I'm gonna come up with a new
name for dirt and sell it as a toy. All right,

(43:11):
Hey back with more after the break. There's more Uncle
Henry Show coming up here on news radio seven ten WNTM.
Let's go ahead and please let us please take the
dad gum break. This is the Uncle Henry Show here

(43:44):
on news radio seven ten WNTM. News headlines coming up
in ten minutes. Before we get to the news headlines,
let me get to some voicemail. Voicemail number, by the way,
I love to hear from you, Allegedly, I say, theoretically,
maybe maybe I want to hear from you. I don't

(44:05):
really know. But if you'd like to tell me something,
feel free to do so. The voicemail numbers two five
one two one six nineteen seventy six. That's two five
one two one six, nineteen seventy six to leave a
message for the Uncle Henry Show. Now here's some uh,
here's a Buford message. This has to do with school choice.

(44:30):
This is a topic that I don't believe has been
brought up on the show maybe in years, or if
it has, it's only been brought up in passing. So
the idea of school choice. Beauford pontificating on this topic.
Let's listen together.

Speaker 8 (44:46):
He this here, hana Evy tough day state senators or
state legislators about this school choice. You know how they
give you a you know you're past money back so
you can pay for tuition to send your kid to
a private school.

Speaker 4 (45:06):
Right now. To answer your question before you go on
the entwers, know, I've not talked to any state senators
or state legislators. They prefer it this way. They prefer
that we not speak most of the time. So no,
I've not talked to them about this, and I thought
I had. The general basic premise is to make it
so that people who who want to be able to

(45:30):
send their kid to a private school can take some
of their tax dollar and actually do that so that
they are not forced to put the kid into public
school if they'd rather go to some private school that
they could. Am I understanding it correctly back to your voicemail,
There is.

Speaker 8 (45:51):
An unforeseen consequence, of course, everything that government touches goes.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
To absolute garbage.

Speaker 8 (45:57):
Yeah, but Henry, I was talking to a state legislator
today and come to find out, Henry, the uh private
schools are all planning on uh raising their tuition, doubling,
doubling it, in some cases tripling it.

Speaker 4 (46:19):
Really.

Speaker 8 (46:20):
So let's say I think the maximum seven thousand dollars, Well,
they're gonna raise their tuition an extra.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
Seven thousand dollars. So if you think you're.

Speaker 8 (46:32):
Gonna be able to take your child out of a
public school and put them into private school and have
the state pay the tuition, it seems.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
To be doing that right now.

Speaker 8 (46:43):
But it ain't gonna last long because in this state legislat.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Towards words, there's no way we're gonna let you have
that money.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
Now, what do you mean?

Speaker 5 (46:54):
So?

Speaker 3 (46:55):
Uh wait?

Speaker 4 (46:55):
Now what Dan Gumman did Ford, This is quite intriguing.
Whoever you're whoever is telling you this, tell them to
call me. I want to ask them about the Why
would they care? Why would they not let us have
that money? Why would they not let us have that what?

Speaker 2 (47:13):
What do you.

Speaker 4 (47:16):
I don't understand.

Speaker 8 (47:18):
Yeah, they're going to end up driving the price of
these private grade schools in high schools to where it
might just colleges, because once again government money has poisoned
the well.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
Well anyway, Henry, just just a tidbit I found.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
Out today day well Beatford to think. I appreciate it
when you bring tidbits forward to me. I appreciate you tidbit,
but I do need more explanation on your tidbit. I
don't quite understand the motive of the school at self
to raise the money I mean to raise the tuition

(48:04):
price unless they want. The only motive that would have
occurred to my basic small mind would be the motive
of trying to control who applies to the school and
make it as exclusive as possible, and thus raise the
price just to get the people that can only truly
afford an exorbitant amount of money to put their kids

(48:26):
in that school. But what are you saying there's another
motive to this, to make it to where most people
can't afford private school. I don't please Beifford more on
this voicemail number two five one two one six, nineteen
seventy six. That's two five one two one six, nineteen
seventy six. Beaufford. If the if the elite private schools

(48:48):
all raise their tuition because of school choice. Wouldn't that
leave an opening for other people that have not already
gotten into the private school business to come in and
create some type of middle class private school that has
some type of different, maybe behavioral or academic standards, and

(49:09):
then price those at where private schools used to be priced.

Speaker 5 (49:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
I need a smart person to help me learn about
life and help me understand things. You could be that
smart person two five one two one six nineteen seventy six.
That's two five one two one six nineteen seventy six,
to leave me a message and teach me things. Here
on News Radio seventy ten wntm's Uncle Henry Show. All right,

(49:35):
out of time for this edition of the show, but
there will be additional show tomorrow. If you want to
listen back to previous episodes, you can find previous Uncle
Henry shows as podcasts on the iHeartRadio app. Look for
Uncle Henry Show on the iHeartRadio app, or go to
NewsRadio seventy ten dot com and look under podcasts or

(49:57):
the Uncle Henry Show. So thank you, I pre you
shape very much. You listening to the Uncle Henry show,
as they say in Sarahland, have a good one, and
as they say in Theodore, take it eavesy

Speaker 2 (50:13):
All right later