You are Not Going to Believe This

I swear the story is true. The world is really small and I found out exactly how small in recent years. In 1973 I started working in broadcasting through a high school program, afterwards proceeding to radio school. I received a First Class Radiotelephone license from the FCC at the 17, which was unheard of at that time. This started a career which was pretty darn good. I met many people, bonded with friends I will never forget and became a "local celebrity" in Sulphur Springs, Texas and in every town that I performed on the air. By the early 80's I was burned out with the "on air" part of broadcasting and started utilizing the electronics training I had pursued to become a broadcast engineer. For two years I worked under some very good techs and they taught me the ropes.

In late 1981 I began to seek my first break in radio management, that of being a chief engineer of a broadcast property. In January of 1982 I began working at KSEL in Lubbock, Texas. It was a fine facility, well-maintained. Moving up to a major market San Antonio was my next stop and I went to work for a fellow named Jack Roth at KONO/KITY. I then moved into the AM/FM combo market in Corpus Christi. The thing which jogged my memory of that wonderful town was a family vacation there this past weekend.

I was hired by a general manager named Don Sitton, one of the funniest nicest guys you will ever meet. I went to stations KEYS/KZMF. On arrival, I found that Don had left and Ken Burgess was the new General Manager. Two months later, Ken, gave his notice. In a period of three months the GM position had been vacated twice. Jim Sumpter from Houston, then stepped into the position. This time Jim Sumpter knew his cards and knew how to play them. With market researchers on the phones every night for three hours he got enough input to tell which direction to take the station.

All of this leads us to Glenn. Jim and I were pretty close during this time and he told me confidentially he was bringing in a new morning man and asked me to help him get everything he needed to make his show work. I asked about Glenn and he said, "He is 19 years old." Well, my jawbone hit the floor. Nineteen years old? And he is going to lead us to the Promised Land? Jim told me, "You have to trust me on this one. This guy is going places and he is going to be one of the greatest you have ever seen. He is 19 and already being announced as the next great thing."

Glenn finally showed up at the station and he was very polite, a kind young man. His fiancee moved down with him as they were to wed shortly and she needed to also find a job. Her name was Claire. She had a typical Catholic school girl look and was an absolute darling of a person. I must mention that she was beautiful as well. Glenn was just getting settled in his modest apartment and asked me if I knew anything about telephones because his were not yet wired. It was a brand new apartment complex. I went over and wired him up. Extremely nice guy and I never heard him say a bad word about anyone. I left the station about six months after Glenn got there because I could not handle the grind of eighteen hour days. Glenn loved the long hours. He had started working in radio at age thirteen and worked at two stations at the same time. He was amazing in his ability to light up that station. The station went from dead last in the market to overwhelmingly #1 in a single rating period. This natural talent working the morning show was named Glenn Beck. And Corpus Christi is where he started his push into the big time.

Jeff Cunningham