Good News for Larry Meiners

It’s amazing that Terry Meiners has managed to stick around for 25 years on WHAS Radio. He was celebrating the big anniversary yesterday with comedian Tim Wilson, a running gag on the show lately being that Wilson’s just been too busy to stop by the station and talk to Terry.

WHAS Radio's Terry Meiners - has he really been doing this 25 years?

I’ve been on the show a few times, and Terry’s always been the consummate interviewer — he allows guests to get their message across while giving his listeners something unexpected. That keeps you on your toes in the studio.

And even though he’s been caught up in a few minor controversies — maybe the most recent the public departing from Rick Pitino’s TV show, perhaps tied to Meiners’ coverage of the Karen Sypher mess — Meiners always seems to come out unscathed, and joking.

Just yesterday, he was one of the few local media types to catch Pitino’s comments in the post-St. John’s game press conference in which Pitino discussed the Sypher episode – without mentioning it by name – in saying that he’d had to learn to turn the other cheek and how hard that was for a proud Italian to do.

And if you’re tired of the old bit with Joe B. Hall, well, consider that it has continued long after Hall’s tenure as UK coach because parodying the UK fan base just never gets old. I just can’t wait for Richie Farmer’s campaign for Lt. Governor to get in full swing so that Meiners can have some fun with Richie.

When it comes time to do so, Meiners has in recent years adapted his show to somewhat serious interviews with politicians, with Mitch McConnell and John Yarmuth make regular visits. Meiners actually asks some tough questions when he gets the politicians on the air.

Meiners’ milestone wouldn’t be so amazing if there were other DJs around town doing the same thing — but in fact Meiners is one of the few afternoon DJs in a major market in the entire country who has survived the downsizing and syndicating and deteriorating of local radio. I remember a year or two back when Clear Channel was preparing for yet another cutback and many thought Meiners was the next to go — fortunately he was spared while the ax fell in other areas of the operation.