November 20, 2024 • 24 mins
Angels Helping Angels is a Salvation Army program dedicated to providing Christmas presents for children in need throughout the Roanoke Valley. Former iHeartRadio Roanoke employee and local radio legend, Slam Duncan, is spearheading this effort through his Children’s Charity group.
On December 15th, area Girl Scouts will participate by selecting an Angel and purchasing the items on their list. However, we need to fund this initiative before the shopping day, and that’s where you come in! You can donate at the link to sponsor an Angel. Just $60 will fully cover a child in need.
This program not only helps children receive gifts but also teaches the Girl Scouts the value of giving and budgeting as they shop for the Salvation Army Angel Tree. Be a part of this wonderful event by donating at the link below.
Additionally, listen to the interview where two old-time radio personalities catch up and reminisce about the golden days of radio! Click the play (>) button below to listen.Merry Christmas from Slam Duncan and the entire team at iHeartRadio Roanoke/Lynchburg, including WYYD FM, WJJS FM, WROV FM, and Steve FM.
https://www.slamskids.org/
On December 15th, area Girl Scouts will participate by selecting an Angel and purchasing the items on their list. However, we need to fund this initiative before the shopping day, and that’s where you come in! You can donate at the link to sponsor an Angel. Just $60 will fully cover a child in need.
This program not only helps children receive gifts but also teaches the Girl Scouts the value of giving and budgeting as they shop for the Salvation Army Angel Tree. Be a part of this wonderful event by donating at the link below.
Additionally, listen to the interview where two old-time radio personalities catch up and reminisce about the golden days of radio! Click the play (>) button below to listen.Merry Christmas from Slam Duncan and the entire team at iHeartRadio Roanoke/Lynchburg, including WYYD FM, WJJS FM, WROV FM, and Steve FM.
https://www.slamskids.org/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Well, hello there, and welcome to backstage with Scott Stevens.
I am Scott Stevens from My Heart Radio and WYYD
and we love talking to folks here on this program
all the time about upcoming events, concerts, shows, and yeah,
we like to relive history just a little bit, and
we're going to be doing some of that today. I've
shared many times on the radio about how some of
(00:29):
the local radio folks in the Rowan Oak, Lynchburg and
New River Valley area were my inspiration to be in radio.
I obviously loved radio when I was younger. I followed it,
I listened to it. I love to play along. I
would get on the phone and I was part of
a cast of characters of many people before I ever
went to work for a radio station. And one of
(00:50):
the influences for me was Slam Duncan. And you might
remember Slam from his time on K ninety two J
ninety three WYY, but I think you certainly remember Slam
from his time with Bikes or Bust. He was the
guy that you might remember was hanging in a camper
(01:12):
suspended high up in the air, just for the cause
of getting bikes for kids. And it was an incredible,
incredible event. It inspired me to do my own bike drives, bikes,
coats and shoes that I've done through the years. And
it is my pleasure, in my honor to talk to
one of my mentors, whether he knew it was a
mentor or not. Mister slam Duncan how you doing, buddy man?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I tell you what, that was such a nice intro.
I'd just like to add one more thing. Chances are
a lot of people remember me because I borrowed money
from them and still have yet to pay them back.
So I'm still working on it. Don't give up on me.
It might have been twenty years, but hopefully we can
catch up and I can pay you back that money,
(01:54):
of course without interest, as we agreed upon when I
took the original debt.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Well, I tell you what, that's a pretty good deal
all those years in interest free. But the slam I
met what I said. You know, I got to listen
to you early on when you first came to the
area and you were on K ninety two, and I thought,
and of course before you, when I was referring to
calling in on shows, I used to be one of
the cast of characters as a teenager. Of course, back
(02:19):
then I had to pull up to a payphone because
I was running around in the morning delivering newspapers like
I delivered the Roanoak Times that I had a motor route,
and Larry Dowdy would say something on the air and
he would invite callers to call in, and I would
call in as some character. I loved doing that. But
then when Larry moved on to different things at one point,
(02:39):
I think he went to TV for a while. The
next thing you knew, Slam Duncan was on K ninety
two and I remember listening going, this is a different
kind of show that's on K ninety two now at.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
The time, Well, bless your heart for that description. I
tell you. One of the scariest parts of my radio
career was when I got the call from Russ Brown saying, hey, listen,
Larry Dowdy is going to Channel seven and we need
a replacement for Larry. And I was like, oh, dear Lord.
(03:10):
I mean, Larry was such a foundation at that radio station,
one of the original members, and he and Sally had
done mornings forever, and I thought, oh my gosh, his
ratings were fantastic, and I thought whow So I guess
I was just too dumb to know that it was
going to be really tough to follow Larry Dowdy. But
(03:31):
had so much respect for K ninety two back in
that day that they had. The one thing I said
about K ninety two is they always came in with
Russ Brown when they developed that radio station, and David Lee,
Michaels and Kat and Vince the Prince. I always felt
that they did radio better. And I don't mean this disrespectfully,
but you know, in a small market, you don't have
(03:52):
to do a major market sound if you don't want to.
But K ninety two came in and acted like this
radio station was in New York City and it was
just a fantastic station. And I was proud to be
a part of that crew along with Sally Subbaride for
a few years.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Absolutely it was And I remember as a kid in
high school or maybe middle school at that point when
K ninety two launched, I remember everybody in my neighborhood.
They were at my house because I had the best stereo.
My mom had one of those big, gigantic cabinet stereo systems,
and we all knew this was coming because prior to that,
(04:29):
in my area of the New River Valley, the only
pop station we had was the old seven Q seven
ten am, which was a daytime AM radio station. That
was the only way that we got popular music at
the time, you know, rock music, pop music. It's the
only way we could get it. And I can remember
everybody was so excited about this new radio station launching,
and we were all listening, and all those characters you
(04:50):
just mentioned, I knew. I felt like they were all
my friends. And of course I was the radio nerd.
I loved radio, but listening to those guys, but I
felt like you and Sally were a great combination and
I really liked what you were doing on the air there.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Well, again, thank you for the compliment. It was interesting because,
you know, like you said a few minutes ago, it
was a different show. It wasn't quite as conservative. It
was a little more risk taking, and you know Sally,
you know, I had to kind of win Sally over.
I remember, gosh, I think it was Christian Laightner who
(05:29):
played for Duke that I guess it was in the
ACC tournament finals when he hit that shot from half
court after he had stolen the ball I'm foggy on
the details, but anyway, he sunk the long shot at
the last end of the game and Duke won, and
they went on to the NC Double Air or whatever
(05:50):
it was. Well, we got on the air that was
a Sunday, We got on their Monday, and I came
on with this fake news story that you know, that
they had gone back and looked at the tape and
that he did foul and that the whole shot doesn't count.
Blah blah blah blah blah. Well for rowing O, Duke
was a big, big deal, and so all started. You know,
(06:11):
where are you getting this information? So we just went
on and on and on, and Sally, being the newsgirl,
didn't really subscribe to what I was doing, but she
played along. Anyway, ended up being a news story on
Channel seven, Channel ten. You know, I was the guy
(06:32):
that did this fake story and blah blah blah blah blah.
So we did stuff like that often to gain attention.
And I would say, by the end of the thing,
Sally and I were just we were in the zone
and we had a real good time.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, and I tell you it was enjoyable. Now, sometime later,
when you left K ninety two, you went into country radio,
and I got to tell you, as a listener, I
felt like that's where you belong. I remember listen and
hearing you play Garth Brooks on K ninety two, and
of course you are parodies of a Garth Brooks song
(07:07):
as well. But I remember thinking this guy would be
great on country radio, and sure enough, that's where you landed.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Well, that's interesting you say that, because I want to
say his last name was Taylor. But toward the end
of my career at K ninety two, there was a
PD by the name of Chris Taylor. And you know,
anytime you get a new boss, they're either going to
like you or they're not. And I don't think this
guy really preferred what I was doing. I don't think
(07:35):
it was anything personal. It was just he had his
own ideas and I wasn't a part of it. And
he had made a statement one time, he said, you know,
the way I hear you come across in the air,
I think you'd do a much better job if you
were in a country format. And you know, obviously I
kind of took offense to that and thought, well, gosh, man,
you know, okay, But when I ended up getting fired
(07:58):
from K ninety two because of my infamous car show.
Then I went from k ninty two radio station to
easy In food Mark gas station literally the next day
and was working just down the road from k ninty
two doing the overnight shift they're at easy In food Mark.
I mean I made some great muffins overnight and fixed
(08:21):
up some fantastic sandwiches if you don't believe me, just
as some of the Ronoke cops that used to come
by and I would treat them. But anyway, went from
the gas station after a couple of months and Lloyd
Gokinaur and John Gocinaur John Russell gave me a chance
to come over to J ninety three and that's how
(08:42):
the country thing started.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
That's awesome. That that's awesome, And of course you had
some time at Wyyd as well. But the main thing
we wanted to talk about was your charity, slam Duncan's
Children Charities. I guess was born in bikes or bust?
Does that really to where you've got your your your
charity going? Was that your first big children charity event?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah? Well it was so so the slam Duncan's children's
charities became an off off spring of After we finished
the Bikes or Bust in nineteen ninety five, again, Lloyd Gokinauer,
who owned J ninety three, was kind enough to say,
you know, I came in with this idea of hey,
I'm gonna get a crane and I'm gonna go to
(09:25):
the mall and I'm going to hang myself from this
crane and I'm going to broadcast, you know. And I
could see his head just spinning, and again, to his credit,
I had remembered that. The only thing he said after
I came out with this grandiose idea, the same idea
that I had presented to K ninety two a couple
of years before. But unfortunately they just didn't see. There
(09:48):
could have been insurance problems and just all these different
things that they just didn't see it happening. So Lloyd,
being just mom and pop owned, said well, Slam, all
I can say is can't cost me any money? And
I said yes, sir, And so yeah, we started Bikes
or Busted in nineteen ninety five. You know, J ninety
(10:09):
three was ninety three point five. So I thought, you know,
what if the Lord will bless us and we could
raise ninety three bikes in a period of four days.
What a blessing. Ninety three children will get a brand
new bike for Christmas. And so we're able to get
the crane donated by IMF Crane Company, which was the
(10:31):
real straw that not broke the camel's back but built
the camels back to Okay, we got the crane. Now
we're full steam ahead. And so Scott I was proud
to say that after about the first three or four
hours on the air, we already had one hundred bikes.
So the crane company was there, everybody was there, Berglan, Scott, Cooper, Walmart,
(10:52):
all of the people that were helping us, and they said, hey,
let's just stay till Monday. We started on a Friday,
we were going to end on Monday, thank you, And well,
we'd have ninety three bikes and we'd already got one hundred,
so let's keep rocking. So at the end of the
first event in nineteen ninety five, we raised six hundred
and twenty bicycles. So a real true blessing, and just
(11:15):
it just got bigger and better each year thereafter.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, it did. And I remember hearing about it and
knowing what a good job you did, I tried to
do my own. You inspired me to do my own
New River Valley bike drive. Now I was not suspended
by a crane. I did a couple of broadcasts, you know,
like twenty four hour marathon broadcasts at Walmart, and you know,
we raised several hundred bikes for the Montgomery County Christmas
(11:40):
Store and that kind of thing, so definitely inspiring, and
it grew and it grew, and out of that was
born Slam Duncan's Children's Charity. Well, first of all, for
folks who might be listening to this, where'd you go
when you left the area? They don't know where you've
been as far as your radio career the last decade
or so.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Well, once I got into and started having a little
bit of success there in Rowan Oak, you know, I
started thinking especially after bikes or bussed as we were
winding that down after you know, in nineteen ninety eight
when we did our last event, and we did that
because at the end of ninety eight we had raised
six thousand, five hundred and twenty four bikes. And let
(12:21):
me just stop myself there and say, you know what, Scott,
I didn't give one bicycle to this event. So when
I say we raised six thousand, five hundred and twenty four,
what I should say is that the people, the kind
hearted people in southwestern and central Virginia, all over the community,
from Lynchburg to Christiansburg and all towns in between, really
(12:47):
for whatever we were doing, it was a call of
action to them to either come out and bring a bicycle,
or if they couldn't afford a whole bike, to bring
five or ten dollars to put toward a bike. So
it was those people that raised the six five hundred
and twenty four bikes. And I still can't thank them
hard enough. And I know that there's six five hundred
and twenty four kids that got a true Christmas blessing.
(13:10):
But anyway, at the end of that in ninety eight,
we thought, okay, our mission statements, we believe that every
child should have the experience of getting a bicycle at
least once in their life for Christmas. And after six thousand,
five hundred and twenty four, we just didn't want to
get into a repetition thing where maybe the same child
or family was getting a bike. That just wasn't our
(13:30):
mission statement. So we thought, what the heck, let's start
a children's charity. So we started that in two thousand
and did all kinds of events and you know, now
here we are in twenty twenty four with just just
a lot of cool stuff that we've been able to
(13:52):
do to help a child well.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
And so that's why we wanted to talk today as well.
There's still charity going on us about Angels Helping Angels
with Slam Duncan's Children's Charity, and has it been going
on the last several years and it's going to be
going on this year.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Absolutely. So when we first started back in two thousand,
we had fairly deep pockets with money I was there
in the market. We did fundraisers, different people supported, so
we did all kinds of stuff. We did take a
kid fishing, We did Halloween parties at the Turning Point
(14:31):
shelter where the kids can't come out in Halloween trick
or treat because you know, they're still in fear of
their father that might you know, come get them or whatever,
so they're in the shelter with their mom. And we
did scholarships. We did a Dale Earned Heart Memorial Scholarship
when Dale passed and things like that. But the Christmas
event was the biggest. And I had just noticed that
(14:54):
the police departments across the country we're doing take a
kid shopping where it was like they would go into
some of these inner cities that that you know, these
kids were kind of raised not to trust a police officer.
So this was a community building thing where they would
take these uh you know, underprivileged kids and they would
(15:16):
take them out and they would shop with them and
they get Christmas presents. Well, I thought that was cool,
but I thought I would like to maybe put a
different twist on this. Maybe instead of bringing kids out
and buying them gifts, let's team up with children and
take them out and let them experience the other side
of Christmas, which is the better give, better give than
(15:40):
receive angle. Yep, So we started that and uh we
uh we would go out and and we team up
with the Salvation Army. Because through all my charity stuff,
even with the bikes, we didn't distribute the bikes. We
we went with people that did this for a living,
that knew how to qull of five people and do
(16:01):
all the stuff. We just raised things and turned them over.
So we had a long standing relationship with the Salvation
Army through the bikes or bust and so they would
provide the angels. And I thought, this is great, because
if we can take some of these kids between the
ages of say eight and fifteen, who have never taken
an angel off the tree, if we can bring them
(16:24):
out to our event, let them take an angel, go
shop for the angel, and then we pay for all
the gifts and distribute them to the Salvation Army. Maybe
in a few of the cases it might plan a
seed where these kids may when they start working, they
may think, you know, I did that thing with Slam
Duncan's Children's Charities, and I saw an angel tree over
at the mall, I'm going to go get an angel
(16:46):
because that was kind of cool. And that's how we
kind of started that event. So we've done thousands of
gifts over the gosh, I guess the first Angels Helping
Angels was in two thousand and two. In the two
twenty plus years, we've really been able to provide quite
a few gifts to the angels of the Salvation Army.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
That is awesome, And so what we're gonna do is
right now on our website, New Country One O seven
nine dot com as well as our other radio stations
of Iheartrono Gunchberg. There's gonna be a button where you
can make a donation. And then the shopping, the actual
event is going on. We're going to be a part
of it as well at Walmart and Salem on December fifteenth.
(17:29):
That's a Sunday afternoon, and is that when all the
shopping's going to be taking place.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yes, sir, everybody comes out. In the past, our President
Monica Moses has teamed up the quite a few Girl
Scout organizations and they come out and I think the
girls come out and they can earn some type of
forgive my ignorance. Back when I was in Boy Scouts,
they called them merit badges. I don't know if that's
still the case in Girl Scouts, but anyway, the Girl
(17:56):
Scouts come out as groups and they picked the Angels
and we do it. It takes about two or three hours.
They're really cool about, you know, shopping and not just
blowing through and grabbing a few gifts and rolling out
of there. I mean, these kids really do a good
job of hand selecting all these Angel gifts and we
(18:18):
pay for everything at Walmart and then the Salvation Army
is nice enough to come pick them up, and then
they'll be distributing starting on December the eighteenth. I believe
it is, so this will be a true blessing for
them and for the children that are going to receive
these gifts.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I like this angle a lot better. This is a
little different. You know, a lot of times we talk
about angel trees. We're telling people, hey, go pick off
an angel, pick up an angel, look at the items
on that list, and buy those items. But in this case,
we're asking people, instead of doing that, make a donation
of money so that these girls, these girl Scouts, can
experience what it's like to go and shop for someone
(18:56):
else to make sure that they have a good Christmas.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Well, and that's exactly right. And our angle is, you know,
I'm trying to think, Okay, if I'm riding along listening
to Scott on the radio and he's talking about this event,
why am I really going to donate? What's going to
encourage me inspire to donate? And you know one thing,
especially these days, Scott, is it it's all about time management.
(19:22):
And we're doing this, you know, ten days away from Christmas,
So I'm hoping there's some listeners out there that'll think,
you know what, I would love to go and pick
an angel off the tree wherever it may be out at,
you know, any of the malls or the walmarts across
the community, but I just don't have the time. I
(19:43):
really would like to, but I don't have the time. Well,
I can donate the Slam Duncan's Children's Charities knowing that
he's going to take that money and you know, shop
for the angels and get the job done, which i'd
like to do myself. I just don't have the time.
So that's what I'm hoping will encourage the people. And
I can tell you this along with Slam Duncan's Children's Charities,
(20:05):
if you're new to this premise, we don't have we
don't have a staff, we don't have administrative costs, we
don't have expenses. If you give us a dollar, we
are going to spend a dollar on a child, and
that you have my word on.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
That is awesome and I know we can trust your word.
And I like that too. I relate to that a
little bit. When my girls were little, we used to
go pick up the angel. My two daughters and I
and we would do exactly what you're describing. We would
go shopping. Well, now my kids are grown twenty one
and eighteen, right, so now I'm in a situation. I'm
in a different place in my career. I want to
(20:40):
give I want to do something special for Christmas. But
it would save me a lot of time if I
could just say, Okay, this is the amount of money
I can donate this year. I'm going to donate it,
and I'm going to let these girl Scouts go and
shop for other kids in need. That is a great concept, Slam.
So listen, if you're listening to this and you want
to donate again, and if you'll go to any of
(21:01):
iHeartRadio Rona Clinchberg's website, We've got a story We've got
just click on that slide there. It's going to tell
you how you can make your donation ahead of the event,
and you're gonna be hearing Slam on the radio reminding
you of it when it gets closer. And of course
day of I'm going to be out there our sister
station WJJS and our guy Ryan O'Brien is going to
(21:22):
be out there the day of the event. We wouldn't
miss this. It's only ten days away from Christmas. And
I'll tell you what if you're if you're a scrooge
or you're a grumpy old grinch, get involved in something
like this and your heart will soften up. I know
it's put me in the Christmas spirit doing charity work
like this through the years many times, and I'm sure
it has for you as well.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Slam absolutely, man. I mean, I'll tell you this, Scott,
And you know, radio has provided both you and me
a lot of great memories. But when it's all said
and done, for me, these are the things that I'll
go back on and remember. You know, it's cool to say, hey,
we we had Garth Brooks on the radio, we talked
(22:03):
to him, or hey we went to Luke Bryan's show
and that was so cool, or hey we played this
brand new song from whatever. But what I will remember
is the opportunities to use a little bit of what
I did on the radio to help others. You know,
because back when I was growing up in Salem, there
were some adults that helped me as a kid. So
(22:24):
the chance to do this is really this is what
I'm gonna remember from my career.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And for me and you both, that's what we want
people to remember about us, you know, not our goofiness
on the radio, our little stunts that we did that
were fun or funny. You know. I want people to
remember the charitable work that I've done as well, you know,
with Saint Jude obviously through the years. Now my work
with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is a big
(22:52):
part of this, and always Christmas time working with Toys
for Tots and now Slam Dunkin's Children's charities, And of
course there's other moments where we're member in our career.
I always know where I was on September eleventh, two
thousand and one. I was on the air for eighteen
hours straight reporting what was going on that day. I
know where I was on the day of the tragic
(23:14):
shootings at Virginia Tech. I was on the air trying
to communicate exactly what was going on. But I think
for me and you both, the highlight of what we
do is trying to be a small part of helping others.
And like you said, it's not us writing the checks.
All we can do is open up the microphone and
say will you please help? And then all of these hundreds,
(23:35):
even yes, thousands of people who give a little, it
adds up to a lot, my man.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Absolutely absolutely, And and you hit the nail on the head.
It's the people that hear the call to action that
they give us the opportunity to help others.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
All right, well, Slam, I appreciate your time. I know
this long form interview allowed us to spend a few
yarns And like I said, we'll be reminding everybody on
the air the date, the magic date of the shopping
is December fifteenth, ten days away from Christmas, at the
Walmart in Salem. That's going to be the final day
(24:13):
to come out and be a part of this, and
of course the Girl Scouts are going to be doing
the shopping for the others in need. But you don't
have to wait till then to donate. We're going to
get this link up on our websites right away so
that you'll be able to give ahead of the event. Slam,
A real pleasure catching up with you today.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Well, thank you, Scott, And I would just say that
the folks out there, if you donate with us, God
bless you and thank you. If for whatever reason you don't,
I just hope that you'll find some way up say,
I get a little choked up when I think about this,
but I hope sincerely that you'll find some way to
help a child at Christmas and marry Christmas everybody, all.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Right, thank you, Slam. This is backstage with Scott Stevens.
Awesome job, man, good good.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I'm gonna hit the stop button here and save real quick.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You know I didn't shut the door.
Well, hello there, and welcome to backstage with Scott Stevens.
I am Scott Stevens from My Heart Radio and WYYD
and we love talking to folks here on this program
all the time about upcoming events, concerts, shows, and yeah,
we like to relive history just a little bit, and
we're going to be doing some of that today. I've
shared many times on the radio about how some of
(00:29):
the local radio folks in the Rowan Oak, Lynchburg and
New River Valley area were my inspiration to be in radio.
I obviously loved radio when I was younger. I followed it,
I listened to it. I love to play along. I
would get on the phone and I was part of
a cast of characters of many people before I ever
went to work for a radio station. And one of
(00:50):
the influences for me was Slam Duncan. And you might
remember Slam from his time on K ninety two J
ninety three WYY, but I think you certainly remember Slam
from his time with Bikes or Bust. He was the
guy that you might remember was hanging in a camper
(01:12):
suspended high up in the air, just for the cause
of getting bikes for kids. And it was an incredible,
incredible event. It inspired me to do my own bike drives, bikes,
coats and shoes that I've done through the years. And
it is my pleasure, in my honor to talk to
one of my mentors, whether he knew it was a
mentor or not. Mister slam Duncan how you doing, buddy man?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I tell you what, that was such a nice intro.
I'd just like to add one more thing. Chances are
a lot of people remember me because I borrowed money
from them and still have yet to pay them back.
So I'm still working on it. Don't give up on me.
It might have been twenty years, but hopefully we can
catch up and I can pay you back that money,
(01:54):
of course without interest, as we agreed upon when I
took the original debt.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Well, I tell you what, that's a pretty good deal
all those years in interest free. But the slam I
met what I said. You know, I got to listen
to you early on when you first came to the
area and you were on K ninety two, and I thought,
and of course before you, when I was referring to
calling in on shows, I used to be one of
the cast of characters as a teenager. Of course, back
(02:19):
then I had to pull up to a payphone because
I was running around in the morning delivering newspapers like
I delivered the Roanoak Times that I had a motor route,
and Larry Dowdy would say something on the air and
he would invite callers to call in, and I would
call in as some character. I loved doing that. But
then when Larry moved on to different things at one point,
(02:39):
I think he went to TV for a while. The
next thing you knew, Slam Duncan was on K ninety
two and I remember listening going, this is a different
kind of show that's on K ninety two now at.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
The time, Well, bless your heart for that description. I
tell you. One of the scariest parts of my radio
career was when I got the call from Russ Brown saying, hey, listen,
Larry Dowdy is going to Channel seven and we need
a replacement for Larry. And I was like, oh, dear Lord.
(03:10):
I mean, Larry was such a foundation at that radio station,
one of the original members, and he and Sally had
done mornings forever, and I thought, oh my gosh, his
ratings were fantastic, and I thought whow So I guess
I was just too dumb to know that it was
going to be really tough to follow Larry Dowdy. But
(03:31):
had so much respect for K ninety two back in
that day that they had. The one thing I said
about K ninety two is they always came in with
Russ Brown when they developed that radio station, and David Lee,
Michaels and Kat and Vince the Prince. I always felt
that they did radio better. And I don't mean this disrespectfully,
but you know, in a small market, you don't have
(03:52):
to do a major market sound if you don't want to.
But K ninety two came in and acted like this
radio station was in New York City and it was
just a fantastic station. And I was proud to be
a part of that crew along with Sally Subbaride for
a few years.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Absolutely it was And I remember as a kid in
high school or maybe middle school at that point when
K ninety two launched, I remember everybody in my neighborhood.
They were at my house because I had the best stereo.
My mom had one of those big, gigantic cabinet stereo systems,
and we all knew this was coming because prior to that,
(04:29):
in my area of the New River Valley, the only
pop station we had was the old seven Q seven
ten am, which was a daytime AM radio station. That
was the only way that we got popular music at
the time, you know, rock music, pop music. It's the
only way we could get it. And I can remember
everybody was so excited about this new radio station launching,
and we were all listening, and all those characters you
(04:50):
just mentioned, I knew. I felt like they were all
my friends. And of course I was the radio nerd.
I loved radio, but listening to those guys, but I
felt like you and Sally were a great combination and
I really liked what you were doing on the air there.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Well, again, thank you for the compliment. It was interesting because,
you know, like you said a few minutes ago, it
was a different show. It wasn't quite as conservative. It
was a little more risk taking, and you know Sally,
you know, I had to kind of win Sally over.
I remember, gosh, I think it was Christian Laightner who
(05:29):
played for Duke that I guess it was in the
ACC tournament finals when he hit that shot from half
court after he had stolen the ball I'm foggy on
the details, but anyway, he sunk the long shot at
the last end of the game and Duke won, and
they went on to the NC Double Air or whatever
(05:50):
it was. Well, we got on the air that was
a Sunday, We got on their Monday, and I came
on with this fake news story that you know, that
they had gone back and looked at the tape and
that he did foul and that the whole shot doesn't count.
Blah blah blah blah blah. Well for rowing O, Duke
was a big, big deal, and so all started. You know,
(06:11):
where are you getting this information? So we just went
on and on and on, and Sally, being the newsgirl,
didn't really subscribe to what I was doing, but she
played along. Anyway, ended up being a news story on
Channel seven, Channel ten. You know, I was the guy
(06:32):
that did this fake story and blah blah blah blah blah.
So we did stuff like that often to gain attention.
And I would say, by the end of the thing,
Sally and I were just we were in the zone
and we had a real good time.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, and I tell you it was enjoyable. Now, sometime later,
when you left K ninety two, you went into country radio,
and I got to tell you, as a listener, I
felt like that's where you belong. I remember listen and
hearing you play Garth Brooks on K ninety two, and
of course you are parodies of a Garth Brooks song
(07:07):
as well. But I remember thinking this guy would be
great on country radio, and sure enough, that's where you landed.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Well, that's interesting you say that, because I want to
say his last name was Taylor. But toward the end
of my career at K ninety two, there was a
PD by the name of Chris Taylor. And you know,
anytime you get a new boss, they're either going to
like you or they're not. And I don't think this
guy really preferred what I was doing. I don't think
(07:35):
it was anything personal. It was just he had his
own ideas and I wasn't a part of it. And
he had made a statement one time, he said, you know,
the way I hear you come across in the air,
I think you'd do a much better job if you
were in a country format. And you know, obviously I
kind of took offense to that and thought, well, gosh, man,
you know, okay, But when I ended up getting fired
(07:58):
from K ninety two because of my infamous car show.
Then I went from k ninty two radio station to
easy In food Mark gas station literally the next day
and was working just down the road from k ninty
two doing the overnight shift they're at easy In food Mark.
I mean I made some great muffins overnight and fixed
(08:21):
up some fantastic sandwiches if you don't believe me, just
as some of the Ronoke cops that used to come
by and I would treat them. But anyway, went from
the gas station after a couple of months and Lloyd
Gokinaur and John Gocinaur John Russell gave me a chance
to come over to J ninety three and that's how
(08:42):
the country thing started.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
That's awesome. That that's awesome, And of course you had
some time at Wyyd as well. But the main thing
we wanted to talk about was your charity, slam Duncan's
Children Charities. I guess was born in bikes or bust?
Does that really to where you've got your your your
charity going? Was that your first big children charity event?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah? Well it was so so the slam Duncan's children's
charities became an off off spring of After we finished
the Bikes or Bust in nineteen ninety five, again, Lloyd Gokinauer,
who owned J ninety three, was kind enough to say,
you know, I came in with this idea of hey,
I'm gonna get a crane and I'm gonna go to
(09:25):
the mall and I'm going to hang myself from this
crane and I'm going to broadcast, you know. And I
could see his head just spinning, and again, to his credit,
I had remembered that. The only thing he said after
I came out with this grandiose idea, the same idea
that I had presented to K ninety two a couple
of years before. But unfortunately they just didn't see. There
(09:48):
could have been insurance problems and just all these different
things that they just didn't see it happening. So Lloyd,
being just mom and pop owned, said well, Slam, all
I can say is can't cost me any money? And
I said yes, sir, And so yeah, we started Bikes
or Busted in nineteen ninety five. You know, J ninety
(10:09):
three was ninety three point five. So I thought, you know,
what if the Lord will bless us and we could
raise ninety three bikes in a period of four days.
What a blessing. Ninety three children will get a brand
new bike for Christmas. And so we're able to get
the crane donated by IMF Crane Company, which was the
(10:31):
real straw that not broke the camel's back but built
the camels back to Okay, we got the crane. Now
we're full steam ahead. And so Scott I was proud
to say that after about the first three or four
hours on the air, we already had one hundred bikes.
So the crane company was there, everybody was there, Berglan, Scott, Cooper, Walmart,
(10:52):
all of the people that were helping us, and they said, hey,
let's just stay till Monday. We started on a Friday,
we were going to end on Monday, thank you, And well,
we'd have ninety three bikes and we'd already got one hundred,
so let's keep rocking. So at the end of the
first event in nineteen ninety five, we raised six hundred
and twenty bicycles. So a real true blessing, and just
(11:15):
it just got bigger and better each year thereafter.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, it did. And I remember hearing about it and
knowing what a good job you did, I tried to
do my own. You inspired me to do my own
New River Valley bike drive. Now I was not suspended
by a crane. I did a couple of broadcasts, you know,
like twenty four hour marathon broadcasts at Walmart, and you know,
we raised several hundred bikes for the Montgomery County Christmas
(11:40):
Store and that kind of thing, so definitely inspiring, and
it grew and it grew, and out of that was
born Slam Duncan's Children's Charity. Well, first of all, for
folks who might be listening to this, where'd you go
when you left the area? They don't know where you've
been as far as your radio career the last decade
or so.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Well, once I got into and started having a little
bit of success there in Rowan Oak, you know, I
started thinking especially after bikes or bussed as we were
winding that down after you know, in nineteen ninety eight
when we did our last event, and we did that
because at the end of ninety eight we had raised
six thousand, five hundred and twenty four bikes. And let
(12:21):
me just stop myself there and say, you know what, Scott,
I didn't give one bicycle to this event. So when
I say we raised six thousand, five hundred and twenty four,
what I should say is that the people, the kind
hearted people in southwestern and central Virginia, all over the community,
from Lynchburg to Christiansburg and all towns in between, really
(12:47):
for whatever we were doing, it was a call of
action to them to either come out and bring a bicycle,
or if they couldn't afford a whole bike, to bring
five or ten dollars to put toward a bike. So
it was those people that raised the six five hundred
and twenty four bikes. And I still can't thank them
hard enough. And I know that there's six five hundred
and twenty four kids that got a true Christmas blessing.
(13:10):
But anyway, at the end of that in ninety eight,
we thought, okay, our mission statements, we believe that every
child should have the experience of getting a bicycle at
least once in their life for Christmas. And after six thousand,
five hundred and twenty four, we just didn't want to
get into a repetition thing where maybe the same child
or family was getting a bike. That just wasn't our
(13:30):
mission statement. So we thought, what the heck, let's start
a children's charity. So we started that in two thousand
and did all kinds of events and you know, now
here we are in twenty twenty four with just just
a lot of cool stuff that we've been able to
(13:52):
do to help a child well.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
And so that's why we wanted to talk today as well.
There's still charity going on us about Angels Helping Angels
with Slam Duncan's Children's Charity, and has it been going
on the last several years and it's going to be
going on this year.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Absolutely. So when we first started back in two thousand,
we had fairly deep pockets with money I was there
in the market. We did fundraisers, different people supported, so
we did all kinds of stuff. We did take a
kid fishing, We did Halloween parties at the Turning Point
(14:31):
shelter where the kids can't come out in Halloween trick
or treat because you know, they're still in fear of
their father that might you know, come get them or whatever,
so they're in the shelter with their mom. And we
did scholarships. We did a Dale Earned Heart Memorial Scholarship
when Dale passed and things like that. But the Christmas
event was the biggest. And I had just noticed that
(14:54):
the police departments across the country we're doing take a
kid shopping where it was like they would go into
some of these inner cities that that you know, these
kids were kind of raised not to trust a police officer.
So this was a community building thing where they would
take these uh you know, underprivileged kids and they would
(15:16):
take them out and they would shop with them and
they get Christmas presents. Well, I thought that was cool,
but I thought I would like to maybe put a
different twist on this. Maybe instead of bringing kids out
and buying them gifts, let's team up with children and
take them out and let them experience the other side
of Christmas, which is the better give, better give than
(15:40):
receive angle. Yep, So we started that and uh we
uh we would go out and and we team up
with the Salvation Army. Because through all my charity stuff,
even with the bikes, we didn't distribute the bikes. We
we went with people that did this for a living,
that knew how to qull of five people and do
(16:01):
all the stuff. We just raised things and turned them over.
So we had a long standing relationship with the Salvation
Army through the bikes or bust and so they would
provide the angels. And I thought, this is great, because
if we can take some of these kids between the
ages of say eight and fifteen, who have never taken
an angel off the tree, if we can bring them
(16:24):
out to our event, let them take an angel, go
shop for the angel, and then we pay for all
the gifts and distribute them to the Salvation Army. Maybe
in a few of the cases it might plan a
seed where these kids may when they start working, they
may think, you know, I did that thing with Slam
Duncan's Children's Charities, and I saw an angel tree over
at the mall, I'm going to go get an angel
(16:46):
because that was kind of cool. And that's how we
kind of started that event. So we've done thousands of
gifts over the gosh, I guess the first Angels Helping
Angels was in two thousand and two. In the two
twenty plus years, we've really been able to provide quite
a few gifts to the angels of the Salvation Army.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
That is awesome, And so what we're gonna do is
right now on our website, New Country One O seven
nine dot com as well as our other radio stations
of Iheartrono Gunchberg. There's gonna be a button where you
can make a donation. And then the shopping, the actual
event is going on. We're going to be a part
of it as well at Walmart and Salem on December fifteenth.
(17:29):
That's a Sunday afternoon, and is that when all the
shopping's going to be taking place.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yes, sir, everybody comes out. In the past, our President
Monica Moses has teamed up the quite a few Girl
Scout organizations and they come out and I think the
girls come out and they can earn some type of
forgive my ignorance. Back when I was in Boy Scouts,
they called them merit badges. I don't know if that's
still the case in Girl Scouts, but anyway, the Girl
(17:56):
Scouts come out as groups and they picked the Angels
and we do it. It takes about two or three hours.
They're really cool about, you know, shopping and not just
blowing through and grabbing a few gifts and rolling out
of there. I mean, these kids really do a good
job of hand selecting all these Angel gifts and we
(18:18):
pay for everything at Walmart and then the Salvation Army
is nice enough to come pick them up, and then
they'll be distributing starting on December the eighteenth. I believe
it is, so this will be a true blessing for
them and for the children that are going to receive
these gifts.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I like this angle a lot better. This is a
little different. You know, a lot of times we talk
about angel trees. We're telling people, hey, go pick off
an angel, pick up an angel, look at the items
on that list, and buy those items. But in this case,
we're asking people, instead of doing that, make a donation
of money so that these girls, these girl Scouts, can
experience what it's like to go and shop for someone
(18:56):
else to make sure that they have a good Christmas.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Well, and that's exactly right. And our angle is, you know,
I'm trying to think, Okay, if I'm riding along listening
to Scott on the radio and he's talking about this event,
why am I really going to donate? What's going to
encourage me inspire to donate? And you know one thing,
especially these days, Scott, is it it's all about time management.
(19:22):
And we're doing this, you know, ten days away from Christmas,
So I'm hoping there's some listeners out there that'll think,
you know what, I would love to go and pick
an angel off the tree wherever it may be out at,
you know, any of the malls or the walmarts across
the community, but I just don't have the time. I
(19:43):
really would like to, but I don't have the time. Well,
I can donate the Slam Duncan's Children's Charities knowing that
he's going to take that money and you know, shop
for the angels and get the job done, which i'd
like to do myself. I just don't have the time.
So that's what I'm hoping will encourage the people. And
I can tell you this along with Slam Duncan's Children's Charities,
(20:05):
if you're new to this premise, we don't have we
don't have a staff, we don't have administrative costs, we
don't have expenses. If you give us a dollar, we
are going to spend a dollar on a child, and
that you have my word on.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
That is awesome and I know we can trust your word.
And I like that too. I relate to that a
little bit. When my girls were little, we used to
go pick up the angel. My two daughters and I
and we would do exactly what you're describing. We would
go shopping. Well, now my kids are grown twenty one
and eighteen, right, so now I'm in a situation. I'm
in a different place in my career. I want to
(20:40):
give I want to do something special for Christmas. But
it would save me a lot of time if I
could just say, Okay, this is the amount of money
I can donate this year. I'm going to donate it,
and I'm going to let these girl Scouts go and
shop for other kids in need. That is a great concept, Slam.
So listen, if you're listening to this and you want
to donate again, and if you'll go to any of
(21:01):
iHeartRadio Rona Clinchberg's website, We've got a story We've got
just click on that slide there. It's going to tell
you how you can make your donation ahead of the event,
and you're gonna be hearing Slam on the radio reminding
you of it when it gets closer. And of course
day of I'm going to be out there our sister
station WJJS and our guy Ryan O'Brien is going to
(21:22):
be out there the day of the event. We wouldn't
miss this. It's only ten days away from Christmas. And
I'll tell you what if you're if you're a scrooge
or you're a grumpy old grinch, get involved in something
like this and your heart will soften up. I know
it's put me in the Christmas spirit doing charity work
like this through the years many times, and I'm sure
it has for you as well.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Slam absolutely, man. I mean, I'll tell you this, Scott,
And you know, radio has provided both you and me
a lot of great memories. But when it's all said
and done, for me, these are the things that I'll
go back on and remember. You know, it's cool to say, hey,
we we had Garth Brooks on the radio, we talked
(22:03):
to him, or hey we went to Luke Bryan's show
and that was so cool, or hey we played this
brand new song from whatever. But what I will remember
is the opportunities to use a little bit of what
I did on the radio to help others. You know,
because back when I was growing up in Salem, there
were some adults that helped me as a kid. So
(22:24):
the chance to do this is really this is what
I'm gonna remember from my career.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And for me and you both, that's what we want
people to remember about us, you know, not our goofiness
on the radio, our little stunts that we did that
were fun or funny. You know. I want people to
remember the charitable work that I've done as well, you know,
with Saint Jude obviously through the years. Now my work
with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is a big
(22:52):
part of this, and always Christmas time working with Toys
for Tots and now Slam Dunkin's Children's charities, And of
course there's other moments where we're member in our career.
I always know where I was on September eleventh, two
thousand and one. I was on the air for eighteen
hours straight reporting what was going on that day. I
know where I was on the day of the tragic
(23:14):
shootings at Virginia Tech. I was on the air trying
to communicate exactly what was going on. But I think
for me and you both, the highlight of what we
do is trying to be a small part of helping others.
And like you said, it's not us writing the checks.
All we can do is open up the microphone and
say will you please help? And then all of these hundreds,
(23:35):
even yes, thousands of people who give a little, it
adds up to a lot, my man.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Absolutely absolutely, And and you hit the nail on the head.
It's the people that hear the call to action that
they give us the opportunity to help others.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
All right, well, Slam, I appreciate your time. I know
this long form interview allowed us to spend a few
yarns And like I said, we'll be reminding everybody on
the air the date, the magic date of the shopping
is December fifteenth, ten days away from Christmas, at the
Walmart in Salem. That's going to be the final day
(24:13):
to come out and be a part of this, and
of course the Girl Scouts are going to be doing
the shopping for the others in need. But you don't
have to wait till then to donate. We're going to
get this link up on our websites right away so
that you'll be able to give ahead of the event. Slam,
A real pleasure catching up with you today.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Well, thank you, Scott, And I would just say that
the folks out there, if you donate with us, God
bless you and thank you. If for whatever reason you don't,
I just hope that you'll find some way up say,
I get a little choked up when I think about this,
but I hope sincerely that you'll find some way to
help a child at Christmas and marry Christmas everybody, all.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Right, thank you, Slam. This is backstage with Scott Stevens.
Awesome job, man, good good.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I'm gonna hit the stop button here and save real quick.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You know I didn't shut the door.
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