2008 Woodie Awards
But will he still be playing the Beatles when he's 64?
By Felix Cerna
Issue date: 9/15/06 Section: Back Page
Originally published: 9/14/06 at 8:38 PM CSTLast update: 9/18/06 at 8:08 AM CST
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The ever-growing collection of 400 Beatles CDs in three bulky, molded-plastic cases makes its way between home and the KSYM studios at this college.
Like a ritual necessary for the show to go on, the laborious task has been repeated more than 1,000 times.
In fact, anyone who has ever tuned in to the Sunday morning show, "Best of the Beatles" on college radio station KSYM, has probably wondered about the voice behind the show.
That voice belongs to Richard Turner, 44, an admitted Beatle fanatic, who has been spinning Beatles discs on this station religiously for the past 20 years.
While taking an audio production course at this college in 1986, he began hosting a morning jazz show on KSYM. One morning he decided to indulge his passion and played cuts from John Lennon's "Walls and Bridges" from his collection.
With a positive response from listeners, he persuaded the program director to let him try an all-Beatles format for the show.
The rest, as they say, is history.
During his show in June, Turner discusses the faithful audience that has continued the long and winding road.
"It's a diverse listening audience," Turner says. "It's grandmothers listening with kids, businesses, the fire department, families cooking burgers on the grill on Sunday. There's homeless people gathered around a radio."
Turner sits in the KSYM broadcast booth at the master control preparing to run a commercial for the third annual presentation of "1964 - The Tribute," a concert of early Beatles music, which played the Majestic Theater in July.
The phone rings. It's 11:30 a.m., and a listener who called earlier wonders if her request stands a chance this late into the program. Coincidentally, Turner is about to play "In My Life," also requested by a visitor.
Turner spends a lot of time answering the phone. If he's not receiving song requests, people are calling in to say hello or just to stay in touch. He estimates 15 to 30 requests during the three-hour program, with as many as 45 calls on busier days.
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