Ron Jacober has been broadcasting for 38 years. He has called games for the St. Louis Cardinals, the St. Louis Blues, the St. Louis Storm and Ambush soccer teams, University of Missouri football as well as S.L.U. and Mizzou basketball teams. Most of his work has been with KMOX Radio in St. Louis–a station that, esssentially, invented talk radio. Ron has done the nearly impossible, maintaining the decades-long tradition of the station\u2019s \u201cSports on a Sunday morning.\u201d Filling the shoes of the late Bob Burnes was difficult, but Jacober has \u00a0combined Burnes\u2019 civility and decency with a very inquisitive mind and resourcefulness to bring on the air the figures in sports who fans most want to hear.\u00a0 Jacober [R] shared memories and opinions with me [A] in a recent interview.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>A: Can you talk about the changes that have happened at KMOX since Mr. [Robert] Hyland [former KMOX general manager] passed away?<\/p>\n

R: Dramatic, obviously, but the industry has changed so much. When Hyland was running that place, and he was a genius in his own way, I mean he created \u201ctalk radio\u201d a lot of people don\u2019t realize that, and it\u2019s all over the world, now. He gave away the music library. He had thousands of records there, because he used to play a lot of music. He gave them away and said \u201cwe\u2019re going to involve the audience in our conversations on the telephone.\u201d People told him you are out of your mind. I remember Arthur Godfrey came in. I wasn\u2019t there then, but I\u2019m told the story. Godfrey said, \u201cAre you kidding me? Hearing the people call in?\u201d It started off kind of low key, just a few hours a day.<\/p>\n

So he was in his own way a genius, but he was a classic, he was an absolute classic workaholic. People said \u201coh… he came in, in the middle of the night!\u201d No, he came in late in life. I was working afternoons and evenings in those days. He would be coming in at 11:00 at night. I would meet him in the elevator many nights as I\u2019m going home, he\u2019s coming in. His hair is still wet from the shower, and he didn\u2019t like for me to see him that way. He would be there all night long. We suspected he napped, but there\u2019s classic stories told about him overnight. I recall that if I needed his total undivided attention early in my time as Sports Director, I would set the alarm, get up at 3:00 in the morning and call him. He would be like \u201cyes\u201d it would be like the middle of the day.<\/p>\n

Bob Costas tells a classic story, and I realize that I\u2019m rambling here, but Costas tells a classic story when he was doing Missouri basketball. He wanted a day off and Hyland didn\u2019t like when people would take days off, but he had something that he had to do. So he did the game in Columbia, drove back to the station, fell asleep in the sports office and he woke up about 3:30 in the morning and was going to go in and knock on his door, and ask him for a day off. The way that he tells it is just incredible. He said he turned the corner and this shaft of light is coming out from underneath the inner sanctum, underneath his door. He said, \u201cI knocked on the door, and opened it slightly, and he\u2019s on the phone at 3:30 in the morning.\u201d and he said, \u201cMr. Hyland, can I speak to you a minute?\u201d and he said, \u201cCan\u2019t you see I\u2019m busy? Talk to me tomorrow!\u201d at 3:30 in the morning; but, having said that, he had no competition really. In terms of the great ratings.<\/p>\n

I saw an Arbitron recently as I was cleaning out stuff when I halfway retired. I saw on an Arbitron where we had thirty shares on Sports Open Line at night. I mean thirty shares! It\u2019s inconceivable. Now, if you get an eight or a ten you\u2019re doing well. He had very little competition. There was no ESPN; there was no satellite; no cable. It was and KMOX had everything in those days, had all of the sports, had all the talk, and FM was not necessarily was in its infancy, but it wasn\u2019t very popular. Now, with all of the great sound systems in cars and things, I mean FM is\u2026 KMOX is kind of a novelty because in most major markets FM dominates totally. This is one of the rare markets where still an AM station is pretty dominant. So it\u2019s changing dramatically, and I think more because of what\u2019s happened in the industry than what\u2019s happened at the station.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been through four or five different General Managers. I know that. Each one is different. Each one has their own style.<\/p>\n

A: Along that vein, it was after Mr. Hyland passed away that Rush Limbaugh came onboard or invited him on. As an outsider it struck me that this was something that Mr. Hyland wouldn\u2019t want to do. Whether it was Rush Limbaugh, or whether it was anybody who was syndicated, because he took so much pride in having such a fine staff.<\/p>\n

R: I don\u2019t think there is any question about that. I don\u2019t think he would have done it. You’re right. He did not want any kind of syndicated program. He wanted all local, and he would not have done that. An interesting sidebar, Rush Limbaugh applied for a job at KMOX.<\/p>\n

A: Oh, is that right? Okay.<\/p>\n

R: His letter of application is still in framed in the conference room. He was just a young guy at that time, obviously he was in California, but he had been working in the PR Department for Kansas City Royals, and then he got a job in talk radio. So he applied for a job, and they turned him down.<\/p>\n

A: The era of Bob Hardy and Jim White, they struck me as people who really tried to play it down the middle, you know, who tried to be fair, didn\u2019t have a political ax to grind, which strikes me as obviously quite different from Rush, and perhaps even Brennan or Reardon.<\/p>\n

R: Without question! Especially Reardon wears it on his sleeve. Sometimes Brennan tries to play it down the middle, and you\u2019re not really sure. With Reardon, there\u2019s no question.<\/p>\n

A: Yeah, and so, again it would strike me that is somewhat of a loss to the community. Especially for young people who don\u2019t have that experience of hearing people who really try to be objective.<\/p>\n

R: Right. I think it\u2019s more a sign of the industry than it is because talk shows are so prevalent now, that you have to have your stick, got to have an angle. You have to have a bet. If you try to play it nice, safe, simple down the middle you\u2019re not going to have the audience that you have if you go, one way or the other. I think it\u2019s more a sign of the times. I mean back in Hardy\u2019s days, there was one station in St. Louis that had talk and that was KMOX. Now you\u2019ve got several. You have it on the FM side. You have several on the AM side because AM radio these days, you better have talk and you better have sports, and you can\u2019t play music. So but you\u2019re right, especially Hardy. I don\u2019t know about Jim. Jim sometimes confused me but I think he leaned, one way or the other, pretty much. Hardy is the reason why I\u2019m here. Hardy is the reason why I\u2019m in the business. It\u2019s very, very\u2026 I\u2019ll tell you a very, very quick story.<\/p>\n

I was working for the Auto Club of Missouri in P.R. when I got out of college, and out of the Army. I was calling on a radio station in Bellville, WIBV, with a school safety patrol campaign, school is open, that kind of a thing. The program director there knew me a little bit. He said, \u201cYou\u2019ve done some radio, haven\u2019t you?\u201d I said, \u201cI took one class in college, and worked a little bit in the station in Herrin, Illinois in graduate school.\u201d He said, \u201cHow would you like a part-time job?\u201d I said, \u201cgeez like when?\u201d He said, \u201cHow about tonight?\u201d They had let somebody go. I didn\u2019t do it at night, but I wound up working over there for two years, on weekends. WIBV, and Bob Hardy lives in Belleville. I was about ready to say yes, been a blast; but I\u2019m working seven days a week, got two little kids all night, got to probably knock this off. Hardy, called me and said, \u201cWe\u2019re looking for a part-time weekend guy at KMOX.\u201d Which you have to understand it was like God calling me. So I went down and auditioned, and they hired me to work weekends.<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019m working weekends there, and still in the Auto Club. At that time, I was Assistant to the President, and I\u2019ll never forget, they started to talk to me about becoming full-time, and Sam Priest. H. Sam Priest was the President of the Auto Club, and he had a high squeaky voice. He called me and said (very high) \u201cYou know it doesn\u2019t look very good for the Assistant to the President being caught on the radio moonlighting on the weekends?\u201d I said, \u201cYou\u2019re right Sam, I quit!\u201d He said, \u201cWhat?!\u201d So that\u2019s how it all started, and Hardy had called me. I had no idea what I would be doing, but I wouldn\u2019t be doing this.<\/p>\n

A: It seems like, you know, whether it was Hardy or Hyland, they had a real eye for talent, they got you, they got Costas. That leads me to another question, which it strikes me that people such as yourself, Jack Buck, Joe Buck, Bob Costas, in the sports department seem to have knowledge and curiosity in areas outside of sports. Do you think that exists with the younger generation of those who are involved in sports?<\/p>\n

R: No. I mean you have to count Dierdorf in that too. And Bob Starr who was outstanding; who died too young; and Dan Kelly. You were right there were some great names run through there. The kids, I call them kids because they are to me, they\u2019re probably\u2026. Kevin Wheeler, I like him very much. He is a very smart kid, but he\u2019s a geek. He\u2019s a sports geek, and he laughs. He said, \u201cyou\u2019re right I am.\u201d He lives it, and breathes it, that\u2019s all he does. He doesn\u2019t want to do anything else, doesn\u2019t want to talk about anything else. You talk politics or religion? No chance! I think most of them are not very well rounded if that\u2019s what you\u2019re asking me?<\/p>\n

A: That\u2019s it exactly.<\/p>\n

R: They\u2019re just not, and I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s what they have to be to make it these days, I don\u2019t know. They\u2019re just not. I mean Kevin lives, breathes. I mean he plays all of these fantasy games. He goes home after he gets off of the air and watches West Coast baseball games. I have never done that, and I can\u2019t do it. There\u2019s too many other things that I like to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ron Jacober has been broadcasting for 38 years. He has called games for the St. Louis Cardinals, the St. Louis Blues, the St. Louis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,77],"tags":[1076,1075,1074],"yoast_head":"\n