| "I REMEMBER PAUL KALLINGER" By Dugg Collins KFDI Radio Wichita, Ks. DUGG COLLINS KFDI RADIO WRITES: May 31, 2001 The first E-Mail I read this morning at 04:45 came from Chuck Chellman to let me know my friend and yours, Paul Kallinger, passed away Wednesday evening at his home in Del Rio, Texas. Paul's voice was one of the first I can remember hearing on radio when I was a kid growing up in the West Texas town of Memphis, Texas. He broadcast his show from the powerful 250,000 watt AM, XERF. This was a Mexican border station that covered 43 states with it's powerful signal. Paul sold everything from baby chicks to tablecloth's to gospel song books. He got me interested in radio at the age of seven. I wanted to grow up, have a radio show and be able to talk like Paul Kallinger. I got the show, but "nobody" can be Paul Kallinger, with that great, deliberate delivery he had. "This is Paul Kallinger, your good neighbor along the way, coming to you from XERF...Delllll Riiiii-oooo, Texas." [Del Rio] He'd drag out the name of the city. I thought he was the greatest....still do. Paul was inducted into the prestigious Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in 1979, one of the first 13 people so honored. As I made my way to the podium the morning Chuck Chellman announced my name as the winner for 1996, all I could think of was, "My God, I'm gonna be on the same wall with Paul Kallinger." Paul was also the voice of "Lifeline," the program sponsored by HLH Products and H.L. Hunt, a show carried on 160 radio stations at it's peak of popularity in the 60's. It was such a thrill to spend two days with him in Carthage, Texas in 1999, when we both were inducted into the Texas Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame. I had the opportunity to let him know first hand, of my admiration for his work. Being the crusty old radio guy he was, he just said, "Sure, kid." That meant he didn't believe a damn thing I was telling him. Well, I remembered all those commercials he used to do and, I started spouting those back to him. I completed about three and he broke out in that famous grin and said, "Well, I'll be damned...you did listen, didn't you?" From that point on, it was continuos conversation. I had him recreate some of his famous commercials for folks around us. The old man loved it. He did make one thing perfectly clear to me. Though Paul got blamed for it, "he never sold autographed pictures of Jesus Christ." He was aware of those stories about him and, he would be quick to tell you how it really was. There was another announcer on the station who did that...but let it be known far and wide, it was not Paul Kallinger. A super nice event happened when he, Tom Perryman and I took over the local radio station in Carthage that Friday afternoon. I got him started with stories from days gone by and it was a once in a lifetime event for me. Sharing the same studio with this giant of radio broadcasting was something I never considered could happen, but it did. I thank the Lord for that. I even got him to sing a song. Paul was a great announcer....a singer..... he was not. That didn't stop him. He just plowed right into the song, full speed ahead. That's the way he did radio. Perryman was funny as hell too. Tom didn't try to sing, thank the Lord. I have lost a friend, a person I admired and, a true pioneer in the business. For the past five to six years, he batted emphysema and had to take oxygen constantly. That "Good Neighbor Along The Way," will be missed by a lot of people, but the impression he made on me, will last forever. God Bless you, Paul Kallinger. Dugg Collins dugg@kscable.com ....30.... |