Often by the time I discover an obscure radio figure, they're already deceased. I either start or end that research with their obituary, often it's all that exists in terms of a biography. In this case, Earl published a cook book while at 950 WBKH-AM. The notes don't give a date but do state that his program had been on air for 21 years at that time. On the back is his old address "3019 Magnolia Place, Hattiesburg, MS 39401
Through an obituary I learned that Earl Hart was actually named Earl Bernhardt. He died in December of 2019 at the age of 80. This obit doesn't go deep into his time as a DJ, but does touch on it a little mysteriously.
"Earl was the owner of Tropical Isle Inc. and is known as the Co-inventor of the world-famous Hand Grenade. Prior to his career in New Orleans, Mr. Bernhardt was a country music radio personality known as ""Earl Hart"" in Hattiesburg for 27 years."
From context I gather that Tropical Isle is a bar or cafe, and I think the grenade is a cocktail and not munitions. I later learned that the "hand grenade" is a hugely popular cocktail in New Orleans. There is an enormous body of information on his frozen daiquiri drink, but very little about his radio career. Even in that first obituary the connection to radio is tenuous. It's only in one comment that John Holton confirmed that Hattiesburg station to be WBKH. He comments:
"I worked for Earl on the weekends at WBKH Radio Station in the 60s. Earl was a pleasure to work for. On the weekends the station played Rock & Roll music. Earl kicked things off on Saturday morning followed by a man named Don Purvis. Both were very popular personalities."
With the surname Bernhardt we can find more, including a second obituary on nola.com. They too were more interested in that cocktail "The lime-green 'hand grenade', served in a tall-necked, translucent plastic container with a smiling image of a grenade at its base, is nearly as ubiquitous along Bourbon Street as tourists wearing Carnival beads." But usefully sharing that Bernhardt's path to drink creator and French Quarter bar baron came after his time in radio.
In 1939 Bernhardt was born in Jackson, MS. He studied journalism at the University of Southern Mississippi. The campus station there is 88.5 WUSM. I have no proof that he was a college radio DJ. In fact he was already working on WFOR when WUSM signed on in 1973 so it seems very unlikely at the age of 34. He he was purportedly a well-known morning radio personality and country music DJ at WBKH by the early 1980s.
So if we assume Bernhardt was on air my even the mid-1980s, that would but that cookbook in the early 2000s and it looks older than that. But I can narrow down the timeline. The 1985 Broadcasting and Cable yearbook lists Earl Hart as the general manager of 950 WBKH-AM.So does the 1987 issue. But his name goes back earlier. In the 1972 yearbook he's listed as the program director at 1400 WFOR-AM. We know He's moved up to GM by the 1974 issue but WFOR is now on 1440. Earl certainly had a career as a DJ before going into management, possibly as long as 10 years a from the timeline. There is little information about that time. In the Country Roundup column of the July 1967 issue of Cashbox there is a single line about Earl:
"Earl Hart at WFOR cables that the station has just gone C&W and is in desperate need of records. Disks should be sent to him at 2414 W. 7th St., Hattiesburg, Miss..."
In 1967 Earl was about 28 years old, and probably still a DJ. His career in career as a manager and cocktail maven was still way ahead of him. Anyway, Bernhardt and a "college friend" got a concession booth at the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition in New Orleans. They served daiquiris and made bank. Bernhardt took that money to start Tropical Isle. Offbeat magazine bridged some gaps in the story [SOURCE] But it disagreed on the timeline. It has him as a morning personality in 1980, but still on WBKH which fits a bit better. Thought the article states he was on several stations and I only found two.
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