Listeners of Seattle’s KJR during the transistor radio era often heard their favorite deejays using “character” voices on the air. In the sixties, Lan Roberts regularly featured “Your Hollywood Reporter” and “Phil Dirt.” Pat O’Day treated the audience to the eccentricities of “Granny Peters,” and during the seventies, “Clydie” was a regular troublemaker on Charlie Brown’s morning show.
In the nineties, Los Angeles talk show host Phil Hendrie took this approach to a whole new extreme by using it to satirize talk radio. Each evening, Phil acted as both a rational show host, and as a variety of outrageous, fictional guests on the phone. The show was syndicated nationally by Premiere Radio Networks from 1999 to 2006 and was carried locally in Seattle on 100.7FM, The Buzz.
Prior to that, Phil had a regular live, local talk show each night on KFI. The audio below is from that earlier time, where Phil’s “guest” this particular evening was KFI Program Director, David G. Hall. For the record, David was a good sport about it, and allowed Phil to portray him in this bizarre way.
Runtime: 37:21
Premiere Networks has recently announced Phil’s return to syndication, this time with “The World of Phil Hendrie” podcast, which can be found at: https://www.philhendrieshow.com
