Dave Letterman Has Indiana Radio Roots

Here's a 21-year-old Dave Laetterman broadcast from April Fool’s Day 1969 on WAGO, the closed-circuit radio station he helped to found at Ball State University.

Though only a five-minute clip, the recording showcases not just Letterman’s preternatual microphone presence, but his way with the near-psychedelic walls of sound effects, seemingly free-associative speech, and pure wackiness that so came into its own in the late sixties and early seventies.



Letterman began his commercial career as a radio talk show host on WNTS-AM, and on Indianapolis television station WLWI (now called WTHR) as an anchor, and weatherman. He received some attention for his unpredictable on-air behavior, which included congratulating a tropical storm for being upgraded to a hurricane and predicting hail stones "the size of canned hams."

Dave Letterman

He would also occasionally report the weather and the day's very high and low temps for fictitious cities ("Eight inches of snow in Bingree and surrounding areas") while on another occasion saying that a state border had been erased.  ("From space you can see the border between Indiana and Ohio has been erased. I'm not in favor of this.")

He also starred in a local kiddie show, made wisecracks as host of a late night TV show called "Freeze-Dried Movies" (he once acted out a scene from Godzilla using plastic dinosaurs), and hosted a talk show that aired early on Saturday mornings called Clover Power,[26] in which he interviewed 4-H members about their projects.

In 1971, Letterman appeared as a pit road reporter for ABC Sports' tape-delayed coverage of the Indianapolis 500. Letterman was initially introduced as Chris Economaki in his job as a corner reporter. Letterman interviewed Mario Andretti, who had just crashed out of the race.

Starting at 6:55 in...Listen for a Dave Letterman bit on Naptown's trail-blazing WNAP-FM (now Emmis N/T WIBC-FM...