20 years at #1 in the morning: Saluting US-101’s Ken Hicks

UPDATE: March 18, 2019

Ken Hicks was recognized by the Georgia State Senate for his career in radio and community service. Hicks, honored with “A Resolution of Recognition,” is the co-host of the award-winning morning show “Ken and Daniel” on US-101 in Chattanooga.

Georgia State Senator Jeff Mullis read “A Resolution of Recognition” honoring Hicks’ more than three-decade long radio career and community service efforts. Hicks joined U.S. 101 in 1984 and will celebrate his 35th anniversary with the station on April 1.

Ken Hicks is also celebrating his recent nomination (with Daniel Wyatt) as CMA Radio Personality of the Year. No one is more deserving of such good fortune.

ORIGINAL STORY FROM October 15, 2015:

In 1995, with the late “Bearman” (Benjamin Martin) as his morning partner, Ken quickly rose to the top of the ratings, and stayed there. Folks, that isn’t easy, but they sure made it sound that way.

Ken credits their success to their similar backgrounds and beliefs.  He’s a Georgia boy, and Bearman grew up in Alabama.  Bearman loved nothing more than meeting listeners, and hearing their stories, while Ken spends many weekends in churches, singing bass for his gospel quartet Testimony.  He has no idea how many listeners he’s met in person, but it’s way up into the thousands.  “It’s the best part of the job,” Ken says.

According to Ken, “Twenty years ago, station manager Sammy George, who is a radio genius, was making some changes,” Ken said. “I had been doing my Sunday morning show (The Gospel Road) on US-101 for 11 years, and Bear had worked at the station for 8 years.  One night Sammy told us to start doing mornings the next day, and that’s how it got started.”  Sammy George also remembers. “I’m certainly not a genius but I was keenly aware of the chemistry between two great guys, and how it could translate on the radio and to the audience.”

Ken said, “We were truly able to finish each other’s sentences.  You develop that relationship when you spend the first few hours of the day with the same person for 20 years.”

There were no infighting, no ego clashes.  “It wasn’t about us,” Ken said.  “We figured that out early on.  Our listeners are much more comical than we are.  We put ’em on the air, and they carry the show.  We just sat back and laughed.  How cool is that?”

Listeners also loved their “Rollin’ Radio Show,” which is what they called their remote broadcasts.  “We had so much fun out meeting people.  I mean, people would bring lawn chairs when we were out doing remotes.  Think about that.  People pulled up a chair to watch two guys talk on the radio!”

In 2009, the team welcomed a third member, Daniel Wyatt, who came from a station in Birmingham.  “He fit in from day one,” Ken said. “He added a lot to our show.”

In October 2014, Bearman passed away after a lengthy illness.  Ken said, “He was a big part of everybody’s morning, and we still miss him, just like the listeners do. We see things that remind us of him all the time.”

Ken, a graduate of East Ridge High School, was an unlikely candidate for radio stardom.  He was “a deejay-wanna-be” at WMOC when he was a teen, but soon decided he “ought to get a real job,” so he worked briefly as a boilermaker before settling into a long stint at Golden Flake Snack Foods as a district sales manager.  “I had a heart attack when I was 39, and figured I needed less stress in my life, so I got out of potato chips, and into radio full time,” he said with a laugh.

He still spends a couple of weekends a month singing with Testimony, which he calls a labor of love. “It enriches my spiritual life,” he said.  “We’ve been together sixteen years, with very few personnel changes. It’s the best way I know to interact with people.”

So to sum it up, what’s the recipe? How did Ken and his fellow “good old boys” (now including good-old-young-girl Kelley Bradshaw) manage to stay on top of the highly competitive morning radio battle for so long?  “It’s simple,” Ken said.  “We just do old-school radio.  It’s fun, not fake or phony.  We’re blessed with some good Christian raising, and we do a clean morning show that everybody can listen to. That’s been our goal since the beginning.”

He adds, “Radio has changed since I first got into it, but our show hasn’t.  It’s still all about the listeners.  They drive the show, and I’m just enjoying the ride.”

Happy 20th anniversary to one of the nicest people ever to grace Chattanooga’s airwaves.  Ken Hicks doesn’t blow his own horn, so it’s an honor for me to do so.  I have no idea if he’ll win that CMA award, but local listeners have long given him their seal of approval, and he loves them right back every single morning.

Here is the WRCB obituary story on Bearman, from October 17, 2014: