Raleigh Radio: WPTF's Tom Kearney Signs-Off

Tom Kearney

For almost 40 years at WPTF, Tom Kearney spoke in a gentle but confident voice starting weeknights at 9 p.m., leading his listeners down a folksy discussion of how long a drought might last to why astronomers had demoted Pluto as a planet.

On his first show as a full-time host in 1988, he hit the airwaves on the day after Christmas and had no guest for his two-hour slot. So he invited listeners to call in and discuss their family’s Christmas decorations, noting that newlyweds might potentially clash over tradition.

The NewsObserver reports WPTF aired its last broadcast of the “Tom Kearney Show” on Friday ending one of its longest-running programs. Kearney, who joined the station in 1982, told listeners Thursday that he no longer gets around as well after nearly four decades.

Kearney started full-time shortly after Rush Limbaugh got national syndication, and he decided right off to veer away from politics and vitriol.

He chose a folksier path: garden chats, computer repair tips, stamp collecting, Friday night trivia. He picked guests who could pass on something useful: the astronomer who explained Pluto’s non-planetary status, or the assistant attorney general who offered advice on fighting elder fraud.

“Those people who call you up and try to sell you stuff and it isn’t what you want it to be,” he told listeners in his Thursday nostalgia show, “and those people used to call my mother, and of course my mother was the sweetest person on Earth and she thought everybody was honest, and I had to finally tell her, ‘No no no, you do not have to listen to those people. You don’t have to buy what they’re selling. You can buy it if you want to, but you don’t have to.”

Rick Martinez, vice president of content for WPTF, said Kearney’s secret is his curiosity.

“Whether he’s talking to a political leader or an auto mechanic,” Martinez said, “Tom always seems to know what questions the listeners want answered. Tom has always put the listener first.”