Senator and DJ

I wrote a post about disgraced politicians moving into broadcasting. There have also been those who have made that transition in the other direction. There a good number that have tried and failed. Syndicated host Jerry Doyle lost a run for the House of representatives, and more notably in 1994 when Howard Stern ran for Governor of New York. Of course with any on-air talent the question remains if it's a run for office or a publicity stunt. Just to prove it's possible. Here are three radio people that became senators with success and without disgrace.

1. Senator Nancy Kassebaum [R] Kansas was VP of KFH Co in Wichita. In 1978 she beat out 8 candidates and took the Republican senatorial nomination and won the election over Bill Roy [D]. Her husband J. Phillip Kassebaum owns KFH-AM and KBRA-FM. Her father Alf Landon owned at the time KEDD-AM, KSCB-AM, amd KIIX-AM, KTCL-FM, and WREN-AM. After serving 19 years in the Senate she opted not to seek reelection in 1996.

2. Senator Walter D. Huddleston [D] was once the manager of WIEL-AM in Elizabethtown KY, and co-owner of WLBN-AM. In 1964 he ran for a seat on the Kentucky State senate and won. In 1972 he made a move for a vacated seat in the U.S. Senate defeating Republican Louie B. Nunn. He lost the seat in 1984 by less then 1 percentage point.

3. Senator Al Franken [D] In 2004 Al Franken because a genuine radio show host. His program on Air America ran 3 hours a day, Monday thru Friday for 3 years. When he left the network in 2007, he anounced his intent to run for Senate on his final show. He won that election by a small margin of about 215 votes but has yet to be seated due to Republican stalling tactics. I wont let that exclude him here.

*Senator Jesse Helms [R] was formerly executive VP of WRAL-TV but that's TV. That doesn't count on this blog.
* Image from Scecon

Stupid DJ Tricks Part 2

It was a lovely summer day on July 9 in the year 2003. But then a naked, fat DJ ruined it and was subsequently arrested for public exposure. This was not a simple, juvenile streaking incident or a simple skinny dip among friends. This was something special. http://www.989therock.com/
A classy gentleman going by the moniker "Tard" aka T-Bone ( real name Dennis Jordan) from KQRC 98.9  "The Rock", in Kansas City, (syndicated on KFH-AM in Wichita) taped 100 Powerball lottery tickets to his naked body. Then he went out to the intersection of Shawnee Mission Parkway and I-35, and stood in the median strip. He timed this at 7:30 AM local rush hour! On air co-conspirator Johnny Dare, encouraged listeners to pull over their cars and take tickets off him. He was arrested for public nudity and disorderly conduct.
Tard was in communication with the in-studio cast via cell phone and his exploits were being described to the listeners over the air. According to the Kansas City Star, Tard was arrested at 7:40 a.m. with only about 15 tickets remaining taped to his body. In their defense the Powerball jackpot was almost a quarter of a billion dollars that week.

In 2004 a different DJ on the same station KQRC caused another ruckus over a little public nudity. Johnny Dare, host of the "Dare and Murphy Show" featured a session of "Naked Twister" with local strippers and graphic interviews with porn stars. The FCC proposed a $220,000 fine for owner Entercom Communications. More here. It's sometimes difficult to make these fines stick. As one Howard Stern fan once quipped "How does one 'sound' naked?" Welcome to radioland.