He’s a little tired, though, of waking at 3:30 a.m. After today, he won’t do that anymore.
Peter Cooper at the tennessean.com writes, House is ending his 22-year string as host of WSIX-FM’s Gerry House & The House Foundation morning show, closing the door on a radio career that has earned him four Country Music Association awards, seven Academy of Country Music awards and a place as the only country music disc jockey in the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
The four-hour House Foundation is something of an anomaly in contemporary radio. Its leisurely pace and conversational tone contrast with louder, more music-heavy programs, and House admits, “We talk too much for the current paradigm.” The show’s enduring popularity — it has been the top-rated morning show in the market for more than 20 years, and House just notched his fourth CMA for large-market personality of the year — is owed to quick-witted but gently volumed banter with guests and with Foundation members Mike Bohan, Richard Falklen and Katie Bright.
“I’m just goofing around, not doing anything special,” he said. “But some of the notes and letters I’ve gotten since announcing I’m leaving have just flattened me.”
House, 62, began his broadcasting career in 1975, 14 years before the birth of current country sales queen Taylor Swift. Aside from a two-year stint in Los Angeles in the late 1980s, he’s been on Nashville airwaves and seen (and commented on) it all, from the Urban Cowboy craze to the line dance craze to the recent Swift-mania, in addition to surviving three craniotomies (he had a cerebral aneurysm in 2004).
Along the way, he’s penned songs recorded by George Strait, Reba McEntire (“I also do her high parts in the studio,” House joked) and others, written jokes for country awards shows, and won the respect and friendship of an A-list of country music stars, many of whom have been dropping by the WSIX studios of late to bid on-air adieus.
House, who plans to remain active in songwriting, publishing and most other aspects of his career that don’t involve early rising, spoke with The Tennessean about his life in radio.
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